nTelos 8K

Saturday morning Sean and I ran the nTelos 8K in Richmond. Our race began at 7 am, therefore we had to get up a little after 4 am to be there on time. Sean always makes fun of the fact that I have no problem waking up at 4 am if I have a race to run, but then struggle to get up at 7 on a work morning. I definitely love my racing.
After finally convincing Sean that he couldn't continue to sleep and that he too had to get out of bed and shower and come with me things went a little smoother. The weather radar didn't look good. 90-100% chance of rain and thunderstorms and the fact that it was already almost 70 degrees (still 4-4:30) in the morning, mind you we are in the middle of November.

Sean continued to tell me that he wasn't racing in the rain, and I accepted it at this point, but told him to bring his stuff just in case. Our good friend Jami was racing the half marathon and was kind enough to drive. She picked us up around 5 am and we drove up to Richmond.

We were a little more than half way to Richmond and the rain slowed up and by the time we got to Richmond it had stopped. We parked, and tried to figure out what to wear. Preparing to run a race in November I had decided on much warmer clothes, but ended up in a tank top and shorts, I still can't believe how warm it was. With no rain Sean had no excuse and had to run.

Sean, me and Jami before the race

The race was fairly flat, with one small hill, and then an end that was all down hill, which made for a strong finish.

I ended up with a time I was proud of even though there is a small time discrepancy with my time and my "official" time. I know it doesn't really matter, but it still bugs me, 4 seconds is 4 seconds. Either way I am happy, because I was under my goal time of 38:30, a 7:45 pace. I placed 8th in my age group out of 377 and 59th for all females out of 2027. Sean did really well too, and finished strong. We all loved the last 1/4 mile downhill!

After our race, we changed into dry clothes and then waited for our friend Jami to finish. Her race started at 7:30 and she was trying to get under 1:38:00. We had some time to kill, so we walked around ate and then found a good spot to watch the winners come in. The first male came in at 1:06:54 and then the first female came in at 1:18:34.

We saw a few local runners and snapped a few shots. We saw Jami and looked at the time and saw she was much faster than she thought she was going to be with an official time of 1:32:16! She ended up getting 2nd in her age group out of 357 and 13th overall for females 2038. Go Jami!

The winner of the the men's half

Sean and I watching from the 2nd level of a parking lot

Rick Platt, the president of Colonial Road Runners

Jami, less than a minute behind Rick

(sorry it's blurry...she was going way too fast)

The three of us showing off our medals with Ronald
(McDonald's was the sponsor of the half marathon)

The winner of the marathon

Greg Dawson, a fellow Colonial Road Runner

We stuck around for a little longer watching the winners of the full marathon and then headed home to enjoy the rest of the day. I checked the weather when we got home and stated the temperature was up to 80 degrees!

Overall it was a fun morning and although it's been a lazy Sunday I'm glad we raced. I signed up today to run the Richmond Half Marathon next year. I of course wanted to save money, and by signing up by midnight I got a good deal.

I have my final Colonial Road Runner 5k on Saturday and so I need a good week of training so I can hopefully break 23 minutes.

Wish me luck!