I feel ready for today after a nice 3-mile easy shakeout run the day before. The goal was to help Bianca Bubbles during the 1st mile or so, to a leisurely pace for her and then let her go and tackle the rest of the event in her journey to complete her 1st Marathon. The morning routine is as usual: hot cereal, coffee, water, and a high-electrolyte Gatorade about 35-45 minutes before the start of the event. We were staying very close to the start area, so the bathroom was not a problem, although there were plenty of them at the start area. Similar to City of Oaks, I want to include a warm-up jog of about 1 mile, given that I was going to start the event at a faster pace than I normally do. It was phenomenal to see many friends and runners who were ready to toe the line to tackle the marathon. After a few announcements and going over the plan for the event, we were ready to start.

Miles 1-4

The temperature at the start was nice in the mid-40s. The plan for today was to help Bianca during the 1st mile or so. Her A goal was to finish close to the 4:00 mark, which was an aggressive goal to begin with, then to finish with a smile, and finally just to finish to get a PR. Calvin was there at the start holding a sign and cheering for all the runniners specially for Bianca, with a special reminder that the worst .1 of a mile was over, now it was cruising to the finish line.

The 1st mile was 9:30 pace, which was a tad fast for me, but I wanted her to keep it slow for her pace until we warmed up. I was feeling ok and decided to keep running with her but increase the pace slightly to a 9:00 minute pace. Midway, she saw a friend on the sideline that she was not expecting to see. They both cheered each other, and I figured out she was doing great at this pace, so for the last mile, I wanted her to start settling at a pace that would get her close to her A goal. We pressed the pace (Well, I did, because to her, it looked like nothing) close to 8:45 pace. After we crossed the 3-mile marker, we talked a bit about the plan for the rest of the event and let her go as I settled back to a more comfortable pace that I could sustain.

Miles 5-8

I was already feeling warm, so I took the neck warmer off. Sugars were holding on good, but that initial burst of effort, took a toll and HR was creeping up, so I needed to slow down a bit more if I did not want it to suffer too much in the later parts of the event. Santosh and Vinod caught up with me and they were looking great and very relax. Around mile 7, I hear a larger group closing in to me, it was the 4:15 pacer’s group. That made me feel great, because for a few seconds I thought it was the 4:30 group, and would have meant that I needed to start pressing the pace again if I want it a chance to stay close to a 4:45 finish, which was my B goal for the event. I’m feeling ok but not great, and I continued to fuel every 3.5 miles, first with a baby food 100 calories pouch, then around mile 8, I had a Maurten Solid with 250 calories.

The pace was still a very conservative one, but doable to hit 4:45 target, my B goal. I am just running just a tad above the overall average to make sure I can pick it up in the later miles. I am also monitoring the heart rate as I do not want it to get out of control, so I keep it at around 150-160. But there were instance that was already creeping to the 170s.

Miles 9-19

I was pressing just enough to get my heart rate in the upper range of Zone 2, but it was hard to do. To be able to get it down enough, I decided to fast-walk a couple of the rolling hills. Even this early, it was more a conscious decision versus a necessity, and I was ok with it. I am still feeling ok; my left knee was holding up pretty well. Although the crows and spectators were few and far between; it never felt like there were no spectators around. There were a few bands providing music and entertainment. Around mile 11 or so, I turned on my music. It was getting warm for me at the moment so I decided to take my shirt off and let the breeze cooled me off a bit.

Around mile 13, a young runner saw the connection between my pump and infusion set and asked me if I was diabetic, to which I responded with an affirmative. I ask if she was diabetic, she mentioned no but her girlfriends was. She gave me a fist bump and proceeded to tell me that I was doing great. I was already feeling the temps now into the low 60s. There was minimal cloud coverage and it was mostly gone by now. My legs were feeling okay, but HR was still hovering upper Z4.

These miles were basically rolling hills, and then Kaleel caught up with Malini. They were both doing great; as we approached one long bridge, I continued pressing on a short uphill to get to the bridge. I was expective a little bit more of an incline there but it was mostly flat. The sun was hitting on the runners, but there was still a nice cool breeze that was helping getting the temps down.

Around mile 17, again, a larger group of runners were approaching, and my mind went to OH NO!!! The 4:45 pacers are already on my tail! To my surprise, it was the 4:30 pacers. This was great news for me; although I was still having issues getting my HR to stay in Z3 or low Z4, I was able to keep close with them for a bit and start doing some additional running math. I knew I was not going to be able to stay with them. Also, I knew that 4:45 was super doable, but I needed to make sure I kept pushing the pace to make it closer to the 4:30 mark. I pressed and kept them on sight for as long as I could.

Miles 20-25

After mile 20 I knew that there were going to be water stations at every mile. With that in mind, I put a plan in place, I would walk the water station and perhaps .1 of a mile after to let my HR come down, and then run at a steady pace to the next water station.

I continued making good progress, my heart rate now was Z4 at times when trying to keep the pace. I once again slowed down at the water station to recover my heart rate back to at least low Z3. Around mile 22, I received a call from Bianca, she was already past mile 24 but having some leg cramping issues. I encourage her to slow down, walk it off, and then start pressing on again. It is normal and part of running long distances. With a salt tablet taken and experimenting with pickle juice (Yuck!), she was able to start running, and by the time I was in mile 24, I got her text that she had crossed the finish line.

Miles 26 to Finish

My heart rate was in Z3, feeling the effort and a few final rolling hills, before the last 3/4 of a mile where there is a very nice downhill all the way to the finish were I was able to press the pace all the way to the end. It was phenomenal to see Bianca, Calvin and my wife at the finish line cheering.

At the finish area, Kaleel, Vinod and Santhosh had already finished all of them with great performances and were waiting for the few of the other InsaneRunners to arrive. Bianca finished with an amazing 4:03:48 for their 1st marathon; that is a phenomenal time. I am super proud of her. We walked for a bit at the runner’s village and grabbed a blanket and cap. Then, there was some celebration pizza, just before a few pictures with the InsaneRunning group. For me, finishing pretty close to the 4:30 target, missing just by ~4 minutes, I will take it!

Later in the day, we went for a walk and visited the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond. You could see from the pictures, the one that was cheering on the sidelines this time, the new marathoner and the one that pushed the 1st few files to keep up. During the 2-mile walk with them, it was so great to hear about her experience, how she troubleshooted and addressed every situation she encountered, and how she finished with a huge smile.

Highlights:

Course: Lots of runners, ample roads all the way. Even with the number of runners doing this event, it did not feel like we had to zig-zag much at all. No really too hard of hills, mostly rolling hills, with a couple of nice downhills and a fast finish 1/2 mile downhill.

Venue: At the finish, it was good, simple, but effective. Some music, water.

Expo: Small Expo for such a big event. The race track Expo location did not feel like making the running community come together to celebrate and make it fun. But that is just a minor thing.

Weather: Mid 40sº and sunny for the most part and a nice cool breeze on occasion. By the end, we were hovering high in the 60s and full sun.

T1D: Sugars were very in range but on the high side for most of the event.

Fueling:

Pre-Race: 1 serving of Hot Cereal and Latte. Gatorade before the start of the event.

Race: Tailwind, Beet and Magnesium mix, mostly water at the aid stations, one baby food pouch, one Maurten bar and later a caffeinated gel.

Post: vitamin, pizza and lots of water.

Learning Points:

• Running fast the 1st miles is always a recipe for disaster, but running with your daughter on her marathon debut, PRICELESS!!!

Month/Year	Event	Location	Type	Time
Nov-24	Richmond Marathon	VA	Full	4:34:19