Today, I ran the Monument Avenue 10K in Richmond. The weather was interesting – warm and damp. The race has grown to more than 30,000 participants (runners and walkers), which is both good and bad. The good is that the greater Richmond community has embraced the race to get people out of their chairs and moving. The bad is that there are too many stinkin’ people in the race to make it fun for anyone running. I guess you always get the bad with the good. Four of us left our normal parking area at 6:30 AM so we could access our good secret parking area where I have been parking for years.

The elite runners took off at 8:30, and we took off at 8:57. Lori, Sara, and Quina were running with me for a bit, although we all splintered off as the race wore on. Richmond is a very small town – not in population, but the fact that you can be anywhere and see people you know. My physical therapist (sports med doc assistant) was almost beside me at the beginning and the end. Lots of folks from church, work, etc. were all there. I even ran into and spoke to the one newscaster I know from WTVR who had just completed an interview when I arrived.

The race was okay – I had a new PR for a 10K, although it was not what I had hoped. 1:03:06. I brought my own Accelerade which worked well. The only water I took was one cup at mile 5 to pour directly over my head to cool me down. It rained on and off, but never hard. I didn’t walk other than at the one water stop and to regroup during the 6th mile. I made the mistake of taking off too fast, especial for mile 2, about 30 seconds per mile too fast. So, a slow mile six made up for it. I ran a 10:09 initial mile out of the crowd, then had a single negative split into mile 2 (9:37). I was warmed up and feeling good, but let my legs outrun my head. Towards the end, I was out of energy, another negative of eating at 6 AM for a 9 AM start. I’m not sure how to get around that in the future, other than to get a ride to the race closer to the start and not have to worry about parking!

This was the last race for a while. Details shortly.