On December 4, 2022, I finished my eighth Blue Gray Half-Marathon. I was 27 seconds faster than last year. I was happy with the race I ran.
This race is the 22nd Fredericksburg Blue & Gray Half-Marathon. Other Civil War Battlefield locations have unassociated Blue & Gray Half-Marathons, most notably, Gettysburg.
I finished the race from 2002 to 2006. In 2007, Race Timing Unlimited and I started timing the race. Until 2019, I was the race director for the event, and I don’t run in races; I supervise.
Since my retirement in 2020, Arsenal Events have been the race manager, and I again started running the race. Yes, we held a race during the COVID panic of 2020.
Over the years, the race has had many start-and-finish venues and courses varied from pancake flat to net downhill to hilly. In 2017, I moved the start/finish venue to Old Mill Park and designed the current route.
This year, I planned to run at a relaxed pace and run up Fall Hill the best I could. I planned to walk for a minute at each water stop. I’d be happy running consistent mile splits and breaking 2:15.
Parking in Old Mill Park is tight for this race. So, I arrived by 6:30 am for the 7:30 am start. I roamed around until just before 7 am, when I headed out for a 16-minute warm-up walk.
After stopping at the restroom, I got back to my car with 10 minutes until the start. I removed my outer layers and donned my race singlet.
The weather at the start was 37 degrees with a 28-degree dew point, no wind, and partly cloudy skies. At my projected race finish time, the temperature was to rise to 43 degrees with a very slight breeze.
With that forecast, I wore shorts over compression shorts, a singlet over a long sleeve shirt, neck gaiter, gloves, a ball cap, and my Saucony Triumph 19. I pulled the neck gaiter up over my ears to keep them warm.
We all started in one wave, and I was allowed about 70% in front of me. Even with my declining hearing, I heard the ready command followed by the starter’s pistol.
The first 5.25 miles are a loop and a quarter of the Heritage Trail and Canal Path with a side loop on the roads below the college. There are a few sneaky hills on the circuit. But, at this point in the race, I didn’t feel the significance. The first 5 miles were 10:28, 10:02, 10:11, 9:43, and 10:12. My time through 5 miles was 40 seconds faster than last year. I took walk breaks during miles 3 and 5 past the water stops. My walk breaks were for 30 to 60 seconds.
Then the course takes a spur up Fall Hill.
Fall Hill goes up 233 feet in just under a mile. The average gradient is 4.5%, with a maximum rise of 12.5%.
The May Historic Half uses the parallel Hospitalization Hill, shorter with a slightly higher average gradient but only a 10.5% max.
In Blue Gray, the significant hill is in the sixth mile, and the Historic Half comes in the eleventh. Though longer and steeper, the sixth-mile hill gives runners time to recover before finishing.
I grind out the sixth mile with a little higher cadence and shorter stride in 10:56, two seconds slower than in 2021.
The course flattens and turns onto Gordon Shelton Blvd, mostly downhill to the slave memorial turnaround. I run mile 7 in 10:09.
Another sneaky uphill comes after the turnaround with the next 1.5 miles, mile 8 in 9:47 and mile 9 in 10:31.
Just past mile 9, I’m running down Fall Hill, and my tenth mile is a 9:35. By mile 10, I was 10 seconds slower than in 2021.
You never make up while going down what is lost on the way up. My average pace was 10:06. So I lost 50 seconds on the way up and gained only 41 seconds going down.
Once at the bottom, the course completes the last three-quarters of the Heritage Trail and Canal Path loop with a side loop on the roads of Normandy Village. There is an extra down and tough little up in the Village, and I suffered with a 10:16 eleventh mile.
Back on the Canal Path, I’m still not pushing my pace. Going off the curb at the Fall Hill Avenue crossing was more painful than jumping up the curb on the other side. Mile 12 was 10:01.
Knowing it would only hurt for another 10 minutes, I ran the last 1.10938 miles as hard as possible.
I was surprised by my 9:29 mile-13 split.
I kicked a little on the home stretch and finished in 2:12:18 (gun and 2:12:07 net), placing 121st overall, 74th male, and 6th of 14 in the 60 to 69 age group. As typical of our current races, 28 of the 198 finishers were at least 60 years or about 14%.
With my even-mile pace and negative splits, I’m happy with how I ran. I have two more races for 2022, and then I have time to prepare for 2023. My cardiologist reviewed my race plan for the upcoming year. His advice on chest pain is, “if it hurts bad enough that you need to sit down, call 911.”
My advice for racing is never to do something you have not tried on a practice run. I’m flying to an upcoming marathon and need to buy restaurant food. On Saturday night, I ate the food I planned to eat the night before the marathon and had no digestive issues. I did something new today in preparation for tomorrow.