Today was my seventeenth finish of the Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon in Fredericksburg, Virginia. I’m one of 68 who has finished all 17 years and am part of the Iron Mile Club.
Two strange things happened leading up to the race: On Wednesday, my left hand was puffy when I woke up, and my blood pressure was 85/65. Then, on Saturday night, when I went to take my meds with dinner, they were already gone from my pill container, meaning I took them earlier with either lunch or an afternoon snack. I don’t remember taking them with either. Did I?
If it’s not one thing, it’s another,
My running in the weeks before the race advanced to 3 minutes per mile, and my mile pace was just over 15 minutes per mile. To finish in the 4-hour time limit, I needed to keep all the miles under 18 minutes.
I measured the course and knew all the ups and downs and mile locations. I planned to run 3 minutes during each mile and visualized the location of those three-minute sections before the race to take advantage of downs and flats. My doctor and I wanted to keep my heart rate under 85% of max, 140 bpm. I set my alert for 70% or 126.
For the second year, the race started at 6 am in the block between Gordon Shelton Boulevard and Fall Hill Avenue.
I woke up at 3:15 am and checked the weather. There were no rain cells on the radar map. With the 100% humidity, there was fog and drizzle. The temperature was 61 degrees with a 61-degree dew point. By the 6 am race start, the temperature would drop to 59 degrees.
I left my house by 4:45. I planned to use Fall Hill Avenue, which was supposed to close at 5:30 am, to get to parking behind Fleet Feet. However, when I got to Mary Washington Boulevard, it was already closed (45 minutes earlier than posted), so I detoured up Sam Perry to Cowan. I arrived in the parking lot and parked overlooking Fall Hill Avenue at 5 am.
Knowing the porta pots were lined up on grass fields, still wet from Saturday’s rain, I took care of business before leaving home.
I hung out in my car until 5:40. By then, the drizzle had stopped. I walked across Fall Hill through the Navy Federal parking lot, arriving at the security gate just before the national anthem. Afterward, I walked to the start line and positioned between the 3-hour and 3:10 pace signs.
The wheelchairs had a 2-minute head start, which gave me time to put my gloves in my shorts and wrap my overshirt around my waist. I wanted to be prepared for any eventuality. I started my Timex Ironman when the howitzer went off; so much for noise ordinances. I started my Garmin 4:08 later when I crossed the start line.
I wore shorts over compression shorts, a singlet, a ball cap, and my Saucony Triumph 22 shoes. Wanting to drink every 15 minutes, I wore a single-bottle belt with an initial fill of UCAN energy.
The race was held in overcast conditions. During the first four miles, I jockeyed with the 3-hour and 3:10 pace sign carriers. Both were using a walk-run pattern. However, none of the segments were more than 30 seconds long. I felt they were wearing devices to tell them when they were going too fast or too slow to moderate between walking and running. This pattern had them walking downhill.
The first miles went well in 14:01, 13:54, and 13:31. The first three miles were more down than up. My legs felt good during my run sections.
I tried to hit as many tangents as possible. This year was the first time I wore a Garmin GPS while running this race. The organizers made a mistake on the course set-up, and runners used the wrong side of Cowan Boulevard for about 200 meters. The fire engine used to fly a large flag over the road was blocking the correct course. The workaround reduced the course distance. I used the correct course.
Miles 4 through 6 are either down or flat. My mile times were 13:54, 14:21, and 13:39. I paused in the fifth mile to retie my right shoe. I did not exceed my 70% limit until my run segment in mile 5.
The next four miles were 14:21, 13:39, 13:51, and 14:19. I stopped in the seventh mile to fill my bottle. The field was spread out, and a Marine holding a gallon jug made filling easy. During the run sections, my heart rate maxed out at 147. That’s 90%, though I was not breathing hard. The sun started coming through the clouds in my ninth mile.
In mile 11, we started the climbs back to Celebrate Virginia. My split was 14:01, which got me halfway up Hospitalization Hill. This section included another bottle fill. I walked the entire hill, keeping my heart rate under 138.
Mile 12 is the remainder of Hospitalization Hill and ends at the base of the climb on Cowan over I-95. I ran the downhill portion to Smith’s Run. That mile was 14:00, and my heart rate went up to 151 during the run.
I walked to the top of the final hill over I-95 with my heart rate below 140. I ran the downhill, and my heart rate topped out at 153. Based on my age, that rate is supposed to be the maximum, though I did not feel it. My 13th-mile split was 13:36. I ran from the mile sign to the finish.
My finish time was 3:01:54, 50 minutes slower than last year. The unofficial results for 2024 are 3275 of 3712 overall, 1980 of 2127 males, and 43 of 45 males 65 to 69. I felt good about consistent splits and finished better than planned.
I headed to the beer tent and chatted with friends. Because of medication, I could not drink alcohol, so I had water instead. I had to wait until 10 am to leave the parking lot, which was closed in with finishing runners.