Why Richmond?

A shot I took from 2010 running along the James River.

Following the cancellation of the ING NYC Marathon, many runners immediately started searching for a race to capitalize on their training. On Twitter, I immediately made the push for Richmond.

This will be my third time running the Richmond Marathon. The first time — 5 years ago to the date of Saturday’s race — remains fresh in my mind.

Having my family there traveling around to the party zones and the finish area was special, as were the thoughts that went through my head in those 4+ hours.

The second Richmond Marathon from 2 years ago is also fresh on my mind. In hindsight, I know I shouldn’t have run it.

About the only time you won't see spectators - the Lee Bridge. Once you cross though, you'll be greeted by large crowds.

When I read my post from that experience, it’s almost surreal to know that I pushed myself through an injury to complete 26.2 miles. I won’t do that again.

So what has me back for my third Richmond Marathon? A year ago at this time I was riding a high off of Baltimore and had a lot of wild thoughts about 2012.

It was, perhaps, Twitter and dailymile that reminded me during last year’s race weekend of what truly makes Richmond special — the people. When I saw people talking about their race and the weekend experience and then signing up for the 2012 race, I caved.

This year has been wild in some ways, but the focus for much of the year has remained on Nov. 10 and making the third time a charm for Richmond.

The organizers — the Sportsbackers — put together a great race. The expo is easy to get in and out of. The staggered start times for an 8k and half marathon make for one of the most exciting start areas that I know of.

The beautiful course is lined with spectators (except for the Lee Bridge in the second half of the race) and several party zones for your family members. Even if you’re here solo, I think everyone watching the race will make you feel at home. I like to think of it as southern hospitality that doesn’t go over the top.

For those of you making your first visit to Virginia’s capital, I welcome you. I sure hope that your experience is as good as mine has been with this and other races in Richmond.

For others who live here or have done this race more than once, let me hear it! Why do you love the Richmond Marathon?

Spontaneous racing

View of the James River at Pony Pasture

Earlier this week I wrote that I would have my first July without a race in 3 years. Turns out, I was wrong.

A few days ago I discovered that there was a race about 10 minutes from me — the Pony Pasture 5k.

I almost signed up for it before online registration ended, but then I decided not to. I really didn’t want to move my long run to Sunday.

After staying up late last night to watch the opening of the Olympics, I did not feel like getting up really early to run 12 miles. I said that if I happened to wake up, I might do that race.

At 6 a.m., I was up. It was so strange how I seemed to pop out of bed — kind of like I was ready to race.

The race itself was nothing overly special — it was a great flat course alongside the James River, along a road that is part of the Richmond Marathon course.

I started way too fast hitting the first mile in exactly 7 minutes. With the humidity, I had to back off. It was like I could feel the heat hugging me.

All in all, though, it was a good race and an opportunity to get in some speed work. My official finishing time was 23:03 — the third time I have hit that mark in a 5k.

It was nice to fight through the humidity and run a little harder, but I know I have more in me. Part of it working on things I discussed in my last post, and part of it is the weather.

I’m in a good place though, and am eager to continue focusing on what’s ahead.

Why I …

This past month and a half has brought about a tremendous amount of change in my personal life. With a new job and a quick move to Richmond, I’m all shook up.

While the move has gone well, there’s no question that it’s taken a toll on my running. I’ve hinted a lot about things going well one day, not so great another. The swings with how I feel have not been normal.

I’ve neglected revealing my thoughts too much, mainly because I haven’t felt like writing about it, but I’m realizing more and more that if I don’t open up about why things are the way they are, I’m going to have an awful time training for the Richmond Marathon. So here are some things that have been going on, and how I plan to fix them as I prepare to flip the calendar to a new month.

Why I dropped my coach
Let me start with a shocker. I found myself not wanting to follow Coach Caleb’s plans for one reason or another. Some days I felt like I was pushing myself when I wanted to take it easy; other days I was taking it easy when I had more to give. These feelings would often come in the middle of a run.

Simply put, structured training is not for me.

While I am grateful for the few months of guidance and expertise he gave me, it started to feel like homework. I had too much extra thinking about it outside my daily routine. I know from my previous experience of feeling like that, training becomes dreadful and the fun disappears.

Why I turned around and had a good run
The day after that happened, I went for a run — a little short on time — and started to feel pretty good close to a mile in. When I hit that in a little more than 9 minutes, I thought it would be a good day for a progressive run.

My mile times were: 9:21, 8:54, 8:35, and 8:16. Instead of feeling guilty about not getting in my prescribed run or continuously thinking about what I “had” to do, I felt great about squeezing in a high quality run.

Why I’ve gained weight
This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen with a move, but with the various days of packing things, driving back and forth a couple of hours a few times, and having the kitchen be a mess, I got sloppy with eating. Late-night pizza or a trip through the drive-through seemed easier.

Of course it’s my own fault, but once a couple of meals go bad, it just spirals out of control.

I’ve gained about 4 pounds in the move despite actually running more, but I’m making some changes quickly to get back on track. It’s started with cutting out soft drinks. I’m close to 2 weeks in on that and have no desire to return.

Except for a sweet tea or a frozen caffeine drink occasionally, soft drinks are done for a while. I gotta figure something out about cookies too.

Why I stopped the “other” things
I was doing so well up until the Cleveland Half Marathon. That race and back-to-back weekends to Ohio is when it started. Then the move. Then the feeling like I had to learn new things with my coach. Then I started eating bad. You see where this is going. The excuses stop now.

It’s time to get back to going push-ups, planks, sit-ups, and more a few times a week. With that, the extra weight will come off; I’ll be stronger; I’ll get faster; I’ll stop having posts like this.

Why I’m faster
I don’t know the real answer to that. I’ve run more miles this year than ever before; I’ve run more than 1,100 miles in the past 12 months.

My runs have had so much more quality to them, and despite feeling bad with all these other things lately, I continue to see marked improvements in my running times. I’m happy with this and if I put all these other pieces together, I won’t need to analyze myself again any time soon.

Why I need to find a race
I alluded to this the other day, but I haven’t lined up for a race since the Cleveland Half. It’s maddening to not know what kind of race shape I’m in. With my move and various weekend plans that have happened, I just haven’t had time to do one. That will change soon, I promise.

Why I remain confident
This isn’t a post to beat myself up. It’s a post that gives me that coming-out-of-my-shell feeling since I’ve been so quiet for a while. I’ve always been honest to myself. Looking in the mirror to figure out what’s wrong makes the path to making it right so much clearer.

The rest of this summer doesn’t have to be a struggle; in fact I’m really looking forward to beating down some walls in the next several weeks.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Volcano heat

I saw this a couple of weeks ago when it had about 300 views. Now it has more than 1 million. It was timely then and is timely now in the middle of intense heat wave No. 2 of the season.

And for anyone who says, “It’s summer, it’s supposed to be hot,” you should read this.

2012 halftime report

I never imagined at the beginning of this year that my biggest highlight would be personal with my relocation to the Richmond area. While I haven’t been happy with my career in a while, moving to another part of Virginia wasn’t something I was looking to do.

Here on the last day of the first half of the year, I’m happy with how things are falling into place with the move. With that comes a return of satisfaction with my running.

This month has been weird — I feel like I’ve neglected running and haven’t been able to do many of the things Coach Caleb has lined up for me. Despite that, I closed out the month with a 10-mile run this morning and a little more than 90 miles for the month. My Relay for Life run at the beginning of the month certainly helped me hit that mark.

The gun show at Shamrock

Here are the main things that stand out for me for the first half of this year:

PRs
The Shamrock Half Marathon feels so long ago, but it still stands out as my top highlight of the year. Shattering my 10k PR in Carytown is a close second.

Humbled
The Cleveland Half Marathon experience was miserable. It was so bad that I almost signed up for next year’s race to get some redemption. I didn’t though. Instead I’ve used that race as a learning experience and feel much better prepared for changing weather conditions than I have before.

The “other” experiences
My first race of the year — a bloody Frozen Toe 10k — is probably my favorite racing experience so far. A close second is the Blue Ridge Half Marathon.

More miles
I haven’t focused on many specific numbers this year, but I’m closing off the first half of the year with more than 550 miles. I’m just 15 miles shy of 1,200 miles since July 1, 2011.

What’s ahead
I’ve been thinking a lot this month about getting beyond this month. I’m eager to get to “official” Richmond Marathon training with a coach outlining my plans. It’s a brand new experience training like this. I do need to find an in between race though, but I have to actually do some searching first.

12 things [the late edition]

With making the move back to the Richmond area, and my first day of working being on June 12, I completely forgot about my 2012 monthly “12 things” post.

I usually write these in advance and I usually have a ton of topic ideas going on … but let’s just say none of that happened this month.

I’m not going to just ignore my “12 things” post this month though. Here it is, 17 days late. I’ll keep with my moving theme I’ve been writing about lately …

1. I’m really going to miss seeing the mountains every day.

A fall view along the Parkway

2. Speaking of mountains, we did a lot of family picnics near the Peaks of Otter. Not that they’ll go away — in fact we’ll probably still go up there on many of my visits to Bedford — but I’ll miss the ease of just randomly doing that.

3. My commute to work is now half of what it was before in time, and more than half in terms of mileage.

4. I already love the new neighborhoods to run in. While I have a couple of busy streets I have to cross, I have several route options to keep things mixed up.

5. Since I’ve been back and forth to Richmond twice, people have asked me when I’ll move back to the Roanoke/Lynchburg area. I can’t do another move in another couple of years. But I’ve said that before. I’m extremely satisfied with the first few weeks of my job, and I haven’t been able to say that in more than 10 years when I first started my career.

6. I never got into details about my housing situation when I left Richmond, nor do I need to, but I’m excited about house-shopping again. I just have to be patient, though, and make sure this is the right thing.

7. While I’ll miss the mountains (see No. 2), I like the proximity to Virginia Beach. I really need to go there for a weekend soon.

8. One great thing about living in Richmond is easy access to parts of the Richmond Marathon course. When I lived here 5 years ago, that was appealing, but I never ran any of the course.

9. It’s nice to go on Twitter and see people using #rva to talk about things in Richmond. The social media scene was dead in Roanoke/Lynchburg, which never made sense to me.

10. There’s a great restaurant in Bedford called Clam Diggers. I think I ate there 3 times in the few years I was living there, which is about as many times as I ate there before I moved. Weird how things like that happen. I’m sure I’ll still eat there once a year.

11. My apartment is within walking distance to a do-it-yourself frozen yogurt place called Red Apple. That could get ugly this summer.

12. My dog Duke has really struggled with the move. Not having the family together all the time is stressing him out I think. He’s almost 7 years old and I really hate to put him through another move. Just a few more weeks Duke and everything will be like it always was.

Running …

… because I can … because it's fun … because it's healthy … just BECAUSE.

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