The Richmond Half

If you couldn't tell from my lame attempt at haiku in yesterday's post, I ran the Richmond Half Marathon yesterday. I signed up for it on a whim (peer pressure, if you must know) and thought I'd have plenty of time to train, given that I had finished another half marathon two months before. But as is my wont, my motivation plummeted and I was lucky to eke out one or two six-mile days each week. This is what is know as "insufficient training".

I drove down to Richmond Friday evening and crashed with some friends I hadn't seen in almost 30 years. It was strange and wonderful on so many levels. We stayed up later than we should have and 5:00 a.m. came way too early on Saturday. After breakfasting on half of a bagel with wee bit of cream cheese and peanut butter, we were off. Rain was in the forecast and all of us were praying "Please don't rain, pleeeease don't rain." And of course it did rain and it rained hard. We were soaked before the race started!

Since I was insufficiently trained, I decided to run with one of my friends who recently started running and who said he'd be running slow. It was perfect! We had time to catch up, and discuss politics and public policy, which is just the way I like to run. (I hate running by myself). I bored regaled him with stories of my past races and passed on what little running wisdom I have. He told me of his running goals, both short term and long, and I was quite impressed.

I was keeping a close eye on the time, knowing what it would take for him to set a personal record (PR), and towards the end of the race, when he was tiring, I pushed him just a wee bit (I'm hesitant to push anyone too hard, mostly because I don't want to be responsible for any injuries.) We crossed the finish line together, and he did set a new PR!

I learned a lot this week, by reconnecting with people who played important parts in my life a long time ago. I'm still processing conversations and emotions and will eventually tease out some answers to questions I've had. But I can say, without doubt, that I know I can run a half marathon without much training, as long as I go slow. I had plenty of energy left at the end, and am only just a wee bit sore today.

My next running challenge? It just might be the Seneca Greenway 50K.

Eeep!