Today was the 26th time I had finished this Fourth of July race in Fredericksburg, Virginia. From 1980 to 2019, the local Lions Club was responsible for managing this race. In 2020, the Fredericksburg Fallen Heroes took over the event.
Since 1978, the Visitor Center on Caroline Street has been the start location for this race. Last fall, the city sold the visitor center building and the adjacent parking lot. The new tenant surrounded the parking lot with a stockade fence. The race organizers were unable to arrange an alternate finish location downtown with the Heritage Festival organizers. The venue was subsequently changed to James Monroe High School. Does this mean this is a new race?
I worked with the organizers to design a new course. The requirements were that we could not close a road for a start or finish, we needed to avoid Old Mill and Hurkamp Parks, and we could not cross Princess Anne Street or Emancipation Highway. It would be nice to run past the Fallen Heroes Memorial on George Street.
A start and finish on the James Monroe track provided a distance of 600 to 700 meters. The course had a keyhole configuration, defined as an out, loop, and back. The first and final 1.2 miles covered the same roadways.
I would have liked to finish running counterclockwise to the end of he backstretch. That way, the clubhouse turn would have been available for runners to gather for the start. After measuring the guts of the course, more than 800 meters on the track were required. I was able to add some extra distance to the guts by going east of the island, at the intersection of Mary Ball and Washington, and running to the George Street tip near the memorial. Using these tricks, only 740 meters were needed on the track.
Not wanting to finish on a curve, a clockwise direction was used heading to the finish. This layout provided 35 meters of track for staging at the start. With 470 runners, I was concerned about the available space.
We experienced a heat wave over the last couple of weeks, with temperatures in the high 90s and dew points reaching 75 degrees. A cool front came through a day before the race. Today, the temperature was 71 degrees with a 62-degree dew point and sunny skies for the 7:30 am start.
My alarm went off at 4:45 am. Between monitoring, taking prescriptions, eating, and other things, it takes me 90 minutes to get out of the house.
The old course started a mile from my house, allowing me to use that mile to warm up. Being 3 miles from my home, I needed to drive to JM. I left at 6:15 am and arrived before 6:30 am. I met with the race director in early June about their site layout. When I arrived, it was nothing like what we had discussed. They had tents in the shortest possible route, and the post-race refreshments would put finishers gathering in the middle of the course, impacting later finishers.
Overnight, I was concerned that the start crowd would not clear the entrance gate to the track before the race leaders finished a lap, necessitating the use of that gate to exit the track. I set a row of hurdles to direct the people waiting to start to the right four lanes.
Before 7 am, I started a warmup, running 30 paces every 3 minutes. Outbound, I did four intervals. I ran the entire seventh segment. My route took me past the water location on Madison Street. A couple of days ago, the race director sent me an unusual email regarding the location of the table. I wanted to ensure they implemented our post-email discussion. They had.
I was not confident I could run the entire 5 miles. I used an interval pattern for this race of walking 120 paces every 6 minutes. I had no heart rate restriction. However, I set my high-rate alarm at 150 bpm.
I bought a new pair of American flag running shorts. My existing pair was 24 years old, and the waist elastic was becoming an issue. I wore compression shorts underneath. I also wore my white singlet with stars and stripes highlights, a ball cap, and my Saucony Triumph 22 shoes.
A few minutes before the start, they made some announcements and played the national anthem. There was still a large pack of people near the tents rather than on the track. I walked behind the pack as it made its way through the gate. I didn’t hear the gun go off. I thought the group was pressing together toward the start.
I looked to the far turn and saw the leaders, so I started my Timex Ironman, roughly 40 seconds late. By the time the leaders circled the track, all starters were inside the corral. I walked behind them, then started my Garmin and 6-minute timer when I crossed the line.
I ran the first 6 minutes. I needed to weave through some people on the track. By the time I reached the gate, it was not congested. I took my first walk break on Washington Avenue. The pack was on the unexpected side of the road. The route went to the left of the island at the intersection of Mary Ball Street. So, I expected people on the left. When I reached the island, the course marshal had not directed runners to the left, which had shortened the course.
I was not laboring during the run portions as we continued on Mary Ball, Kenmore, and Grove. There was a car parked close to the intersection with Littlepage. This same car was parked there when I measured in May. And as with May, someone was sleeping in the driver’s seat.
After turning onto Littlepage, I saw the one-mile sign. It was short of the lines I had painted for the mile location. I clicked my watch at my paint mark. My first mile was 10:47. The first water table was a tenth of a mile past the mile location. I didn’t take anything.
This course did not contain any significant uphills. However, there are long sections with less than one percent upgrades and drops. Kenmore Avenue was built over a filled-in canal ditch. Anytime we crossed that road was a low point in the route.,
The two-mile sign was within a couple of feet of my mark, and my second mile was an 11:46.
Mile three is a long, gradual up-slope on Littlepage, followed by an equal down-slope on Charlotte and Jackson, crossing Kenmore. As you go up George Street, there was a water table near the monument. I measured to the end of the point. The course marshals and water personnel directed us into the cut-through, shortening the course. Also, the water table blocked photographic images of runners passing the memorial.
I had instructed the organizers to place the water table on Winchester near the three-mile sign. When I reached that sign, it was short of my mark on the ground. I clicked my watch on my mark with an 11:27 third mile.
Turning onto Lewis, we passed Kenmore and, with a slight run on Washington, turned for a steep descent on Cornell to Kenmore. We were supposed to turn on Kenmore, then Monroe. The course marshals had us cross Kenmore, turn onto Littlepage, and then onto Monroe. Littlepage and Kenmore are parallel, as are Cornell and Monroe. Probably, this issue did not change the course distance.
Races rarely use the next section on Franklin. Upon reaching Madison, we finished the loop portion of the course. I took advantage of the water table. I clicked my watch on my mark and ran an 11:33 fourth mile.
Returning to the intersection of Mary Ball and Washington, we were correctly directed around the traffic island. Returning on Washington Avenue, we were on the expected side of the street.
Returning to James Monroe, I decided to run through any designated walking breaks. Finishers were milling around, some on the course. I did not have to go around anyone.
I ran hard on the track. My heart rate alarm went off, just as it had on a few of the uphills. I completed the final mile in 10:43. I reached a maximum heart rate of 161 bpm in the final section.
With all the shortening, my Garmin recorded 5.03 miles. Others reported a 4.97 distance. Not all GPS watches are equally accurate. Upon reviewing my download, I noticed that the recorded route deviated from my actual running in several places. I’ll take the 4.97 as the distance of the course as set up.
With a finish time of 56:17, I was 290th overall, 163rd among males, and 24th of 36 males in the 60—to—69—year—old age group. I was 7 minutes faster than last year.
My average heart rate during the run was 145 bpm, with a maximum of 161 bpm. Hopefully, my doctor will take me off beta blockers at my next appointment in August. They have been reducing my possible maximum heart rate and the amount of oxygen getting to my muscles. I have not had any AFIB occurrences since January.
Looking back at my 26 runs in this race, my fastest time was 33:40 in 1996. That year, I was 60th overall and 57th male. In the 35 to 39-year-old age group, I was 15th. If I had put that time into today’s race, I would have finished 29th overall. There were 405 finishers in 1996 and 432 today.
I now have a 64-race active finish streak in the Coldwell Banker Elite Grand Prix. Up next is the Devil’s Den 10 Mile on August 17.
The Fredericksburg Fallen Heroes organization managed this race exceptionally well, except for a few minor issues. They covered every intersection with one or more course marshals. A big thumbs up! The course had more shade than expected. The shortest possible routes were on the east side of most streets, with trees and houses blocking direct sunlight.
Post-race, I drove home. I didn’t depend on Wawa for hot dogs, and had some of my own in the frig—baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, July 4. yea. Toward dark, I enjoyed the nearby fireworks while rocking on my front deck.