I met one of two goals. I finished. I didn’t keep my heart rate under 133 bpm.
Today was the 27th time I had finished this Fourth of July race in Fredericksburg, Virginia. From 1980 to 2019, the local Lions Club managed 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. In 2024, 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 all the way to the end of the 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 500 runners, I was concerned about the available space. So, we added 30 feet for staging and made up for it by moving the turnaround point on George Street 30 feet farther. A couple of weeks ago, I toured the course with the race director, and we marked the location of that extra 30 feet with a painted X and arrow.
We experienced a heat wave over the last couple of days, with temperatures over 100 and dew points reaching 75 degrees. Today, the temperature was 83 degrees, with a dew point of 75, and sunny skies for the 7:30 am start. To my recollection, these were the hottest conditions for this race. The previous high was 79 degrees.
My alarm went off at 4:30 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 6:00 am. I drove past the turnaround location on George Street, no cone yet. I drove down Cornell Street. They mismarked the turns at the bottom again this year. With parallel roads, this would not make a difference in distance. Lastly, I drove past the intersection of Mary Ball and Washington. There was no arrow directing runners to go around the island. I assumed they would handle that with a course marshal.
I arrived before 6:30 am. I roamed over to see if the timers found our streamer at the finish line. They had. I set a row of hurdles to direct the people waiting to start to the right four lanes and walked the track to make sure it was clear.
Around 7:15 am, I was at the designated spot for the FARC picture. Of course, they moved the spot again. A little delayed, but they took the picture by 7:20. I walked and jogged back to my car.
My plan for the day was to run 50 paces every 4 minutes and walk the remainder of the time. I set my heart rate alarm at 133 bpm. If my alarm went off while running, I would start walking and reduce my pace from 50 to 30 or 40.
I wore compression shorts under my American flag shorts, my white FARC singlet, a ball cap, and my Saucony Triumph 23 shoes. Worried about race management, I wore a sign bottle belt carrying UCAN Hydrate.
A few minutes before the start, they made some announcements and played the national anthem. I stayed in the shade outside the track. The race started 2 minutes late.
I walked behind the pack onto the track and crossed the start line 75 seconds after the gun. I ran a 50 pace segment. My heart rate was in the 120s.
After a run segment on Washington Avenue, my heart rate alarm went off while I was walking. I had to slow my walk, and it took a while for my heart rate to drop below 133. 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 asked the course marshal which side of the island the runners were to be on while returning. Clueless, I told him they are to go around the island.
I would have liked my walk breaks to bring my heart rate under 110. It never did.
I went through mile one in 16:17. I passed the first water stop. They had no cups and were handing out half-liter bottles. I expected they would have no water when I passed them 3 miles later.
I struggled to keep my heart rate under 133 bpm, and my run segments had been reduced to 30 paces. The good news is that I was not DFL.
Approaching the two-mile mark, I realized that a 5-mile PR was faster than my time. My second mile was 16:17.
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 is a water table near the monument. I had them top my bottle. They had plenty of cups and water.
The cones were not in place. We did go around the end point rather than the cone location, reducing the route by 60 feet,
Still struggling to get my heart rate below 120 while walking, my third mile was 16:50.
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. Passing the water table, they were still out of cups. They did have water. My fourth mile was 16:10.
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. A rescue squad blocked the entrance to the James Monroe track, but not by runners. Once on the track, I decided to run to the finish line from about 150 meters out. My heart rate maxed at 159 bpm. I hope I didn’t impact my recovery.
I completed the final mile in 15:21.
Even with all the shortening, my Garmin recorded 5.06 miles.
My finish time was 80:55, 24 minutes slower than last year. I was 420th overall, 214th among males, and 21st of 23 males in the 60—to—69—year—old age group.
My average heart rate during the run was 125 bpm, with a maximum of 159 bpm. I have not had any AFIB occurrences since my ablation in March. I hope one will not crop up after this run.
I now have a 77-race active finish streak in the Coldwell Banker Elite Grand Prix. Up next is the Devil’s Den 10 Mile on August 16.
The Fredericksburg Fallen Heroes organization managed this race well, except for a few minor issues. There were rumors that some people went off course, and others did not complete the entire course. Some intersections were not covered with a course marshal. All the major road crossings were safe. Running on the east side of the streets provided some shade. Being almost a half hour slower put me in the sun on the finish stretch.
Post-race, I drove home. I had hot dogs for dinner—baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, July 4. yea. Toward dark, I enjoyed the nearby fireworks while rocking on my front deck. I need to get up at 3:30 am tomorrow to do some course measurements.