Blue Ridge 1/2 Marathon 4/21/2018

My 8th time running this race!  It has been my favorite ever since the first year.  I'll never understand how I decided to come back after that miserable experience in the rain, but I guess the course was just that awesome.  And it's even more awesome since they added extra hills a few years ago.

I wasn't really looking forward to the race this year, since my training has seemed like nothing more than one setback after another since November.  However, there is no way I was going to skip my favorite race, so I showed up hoping for the best.  I hoped to run a good race and hold my own out there, but knew that I couldn't push too hard for a fast time since I have the Pittsburgh Marathon coming up in 2 weeks.

As always, this was a superb event!  The Blue Ridge Marathon always does a top-notch job of putting on the race.  Packet pick-up was a bit confusing in the new location (Patrick Henry Hotel) this year, but I figured it out.  Everything went smoothly on race day, the volunteers were great, and there were plenty of aid stations with volunteers at the ready (though I personally did not take advantage of any of them).

It was around 40 degrees at the start of the race, I believe.  It did warm up to the high 50s or low 60s later in the day, but it was pretty chilly for most of the race.

I chose not to warm up, so that I would be forced to use the first mile or 2 as my warm-up.  I started out at a comfortable pace, not too slow, but not at all pushing the pace either.  I didn't concern myself with who was passing me or who I was passing.  The first mile marker comes at the beginning of Mill Mountain, (the first climb) and I let myself open up just a little bit on the hill, as uphills are where I am most comfortable.  I still didn't let myself push too hard, but I did let myself work a bit, and start to pass people one by one.  I passed Coby around mile 2.7 where the half marathon splits from the full, and he got some great photos of me as I passed by.  There was about one more mile of climbing left, and then I headed down the back side of Mill Mountain.  The road is pretty steep there, with several switchbacks.  I took it pretty easy, knowing I would get passed by quite a few people, but I know it's not worth the risk to my knees and hips to pound down the mountain.  When I reached the Greenway after the descent I picked the pace back up.  I didn't really gain on the 2 women I could see ahead of me, but I don't think they were growing the distance either.  When I reached the bottom of the next hill - a long, mostly gradual one, I started pushing harder.  I think this hill has become the place I generally pass most people.  It is the perfect hill for my strengths.  I passed two women on the long gradual part, and then as I went up the steep part of Peakwood, I gained on another woman, who was alternately walking and running.  I was unable to catch her, but I could tell I was much stronger on the hill, so I knew there was a still a chance I could catch her before the finish line.

My lungs were feeling pretty tight after Peakwood, so I used the downhill coast to use my inhaler.  And then I was headed up the last steep hill.  I continued to gain on the woman ahead of me, but still couldn't catch her.  I started to really push myself on the last long downhill, knowing there was less than 3 miles to go, and most of it downhill.  There were 2 bridges in the last 1.5 miles or so, and I dug into my reserves of strength to push them and to finally catch up to the woman in front of me.  By then, I knew that she was in 2nd place, and I could see 1st place in the distance, though she was too far to catch.

There was a time clock shortly after the 12th mile marker, and I was surprised to see that it read 1:33, which meant I actually had a chance to beat my time from last year, which I had thought would be impossible.  That plus the woman in front of me gave me the final edge I needed to dig deep, and I caught up to her.  We traded back and forth and ran side by side for a bit, and then on the final bridge I finally pulled ahead.  With a quarter mile to go, I pushed as hard as I could, sprinting to the finish and just hoping to come in 2nd place and under 1:39.  I held on to my 2nd place, and finished with an official time of 1:39:01.  (last year was 1:39:27).

I could not believe how well this race went, and that I was able to beat last year's time despite a much worse training cycle, and not actually trying to race until somewhere in the second half of the race. It is confirmation of something I have been picking up on for awhile now--I run best when I am not trying so hard.  It's hard not to try to train hard and race hard, but clearly it's not what my body wants right now.  As I'm getting older, I'm slowly learning to let go and just see what happens.  I'm still going to have races where I try too hard and crash and burn (because let's be honest, I'm a total control-freak...), but hopefully I'll manage to mostly just let the races run themselves...!

1st place : 1:38: 37

2nd place : 1:39:01

3rd place : 1:39:08

It was a close year for the top 3!

I couldn't believe how good I felt after this race!  I'm usually hurting pretty bad afterwards, and this time I wasn't hurting at all.  I didn't do a cool down like I normally do, and maybe it really was better for me to stop first.  I probably should have done a cool down after a brief rest instead of skipping it entirely, but oh well.  

Check out those splits!  Fastest two miles were the last two!  I usually don't have enough energy left to pull that off... I looked back at splits from the past 2 years and my last mile was around 7:20 for both of them.  

This is the Strava segment for the 1.5 mile Peakwood climb, the toughest part of the race. Nice improvement this year!

Hatfield McCoy Marathon 6/10/17

Hatfield McCoy Marathon

Friday evening : my "flat runner" is ready, I've picked up my bib, eaten a small but free pasta dinner, and am on my way to find a second dinner because I'm still hungry. 

Saturday morning : waiting around for the race to start.  Got our picture taken with McCoy(left) and Hatfield (right).  

I took 1st place around mile 10 or 11 and held it til the end.  I never had any idea how far behind me 2nd place was, and never let myself turn around to look.  Not knowing helped me keep pushing myself whenever I started to slow down.  I crossed the line with a watch time of 3:25:36 and chip time of 3:25:30, and in addition to my finisher's medal I received the Kentucky State marathon championship medal.  (This race just happened to be the Kentucky State championship this year)

Race Recap/Review 

Packet Pickup and the Race Expo were held at the Belfry, KY high school.  It was easy to find, and the packet pickup went very smoothly.  The expo had a selection of running clothes, shoes, and books about the Hatfield-McCoy feud.  I didn't pay too much attention to all the stuff because I didn't want to spend any money, but it looked like it had some good deals.  The expo let out into the cafeteria, where there was a free pasta dinner for the racers.  I appreciated the free meal, but I needed about 3 times that amount of pasta, and ended up having to stop at a Subway on the way back to the hotel to get a sandwich and chips because I was so hungry it felt like I hadn't had dinner at all. 

The hotel/motel situation around Williamson is not great. There were only a few choices right in Williamson, and none of them were affordable for me.  The fire departments do offer cots for anyone who wants to stay there, and next time I would probably try that instead.  As it was, we stayed in the Daniel Boone Motor Inn 30 minutes away.  Wasn't the nicest motel I've stayed in, but it was cheap and the beds weren't bad.  (also, they still use metal keys instead of plastic key cards!)

On Saturday morning, we got to Williamson around 5:15 and didn't have any trouble finding parking, although I didn't think the parking map was particularly clear, and think it would have been really nice if they had put up signs in the designated parking areas so that it would be more clear where we were allowed to park.  We ended up just parking in a lot and hoping it was ok.  After we parked, we wandered for a bit until a bus drove by and picked us up.  We weren't super clear on where exactly the bus stops were, but were thankful that the bus driver picked us up where we were standing when she drove by.  The bus took us to the starting line a few miles away at the Food City.  We still had about an hour to kill until the race start, and thankfully the Food City was open and we got to sit in the nice warm food court until it was closer to go time. 

The race started right around 7:00, and we headed up the road with our police escort, as well as several local cyclists.  I stayed with the 8:00 pacer for the first mile or so.  I believe that was the fastest pacer they had.  The course was beautiful, there was very little traffic, and any cars that did pass us gave plenty of room.  There were water/gatorade stops every mile with friendly volunteers.  This race is unique in that if you want to run a half marathon, you can choose to run either the first half of the marathon course, or the second half.  You can also choose to run a "double half" instead of the marathon if you are a 50 stater and want to get a medal for each state (WV and KY).  This means that when I crossed the finish line for the first half marathon I had the benefit of a nice crowd of cheering people telling me I was in first place for the marathon so far.  It was nice to have that little pick-me-up of a cheering crowd halfway through, and gave me a little boost of energy as I started on my second half.  Up until that point, the whole course had been on paved roads.  The second half started out on a vary narrow one lane back road that turned into gravel/dirt after awhile.  There were a few muddy spots, but not too deep thankfully.  The dirt road eventually spit us out onto a golf course, where we ran over a swinging bridge (not suggested for people who are afraid of heights...) and then back onto a road for the remainder of the run.  

The course was rolling for most of the race.  There was a long hill about halfway through the first half, and there were some mostly flat sections.  The second longest hill was in mile 24.  I was hurting by that point, but thanks to the ballcap I was wearing, I was able to use the brim to block my gaze, as I just put one foot in front of the other until I reached the top.  Coming back down the other side was probably the hardest part of the whole race for me.  My hips were hurting pretty bad by that point, and if you have ever had to run down a hill with hip pain...you know how bad it is.  I almost cried as I limped my way down the hill, but I made it to the bottom.  I struggled along for a bit longer, and then the pain dulled, I rallied, and made my final 1.5 mile strong push to the finish line.  

At the finish line, there were buckets filled with ice cold water and gatorade, as well as some snacks.  Each finisher received a mason jar in addition to their finisher medal.  

photo taken at a water stop around mile 24

I had Tailwind in my camelbak : about 5 scoops of powder in 50 ounces of water.  I started sucking air out of the pack around mile 21, so I got sips of cold water off the water tables at each mile after that, along with the little sips of tailwind I was still able to draw out of my pack.