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That time I ran the Shamrock Half Marathon, Cried & Set a PR
I spent the last four minutes of the Shamrock Half Marathon telling myself not to cry. I’d done the math. I knew I’d made it, knew I was about to set a new personal record and so, when we turned right at the Atlantic Ocean, hit the boardwalk and pushed toward the finish line, my chest tightened, my eyes watered and I felt a lot of things. “Not yet,” I said to my tears. “Breathe first, run fast, cry later.”
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5 Friday Favorites: The Den of Fur, Solo Adventures & a Return
1. THIS FUREMOVER BROOM. I live in a den of fur. There’s my hair, the cat hair and then the piles of fluff expressed by the two husky mutts and so really, there’s never not fur on my floors, on my shirt or in my food. And now that it’s spring, it’s gotten worse. It is a constant and real struggle. The vacuum does good work on the rugs, but this house is mostly hardwoods, so I bought this FURemover Broom and it is so good. It doesn’t get all full of static and fling dog fur around like a regular broom, but it does actually collect the fur piles…
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Running Richmond’s Frostbite 15K
FIVE. That’s how many times I’ve run the Frostbite 15K, and I know I say it about every race, but this one really is my most favorite Richmond race. It’s the only one I’ve never missed due to injury, deployment or any other life-type obstacle and it’s one I’m quick to recommend to nearly everyone, new and old runners alike. I love this race for a lot of reasons, mostly because it’s in January, which means I have a near-term run goal to keep me running through the holidays and the cold weather. I love it because it’s a 15K, which is 9.3 miles. It’s a long run, but not…
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Running the Fredericksburg Blue & Gray Half Marathon
When I ran the Patrick Henry Half Marathon back in August, it prompted me to investigate other small, local half marathons. Before that, I’d only run big half marathons, with tens of thousands of runners. But I really liked the smaller race. When a coworker mentioned how much fun he’d had running Fredericksburg’s Blue & Gray Half Marathon, I signed up. I’d already looked at the race, already contemplated it, and his positive review was the last thing I needed to fill out the registration form. Fredericksburg is only about an hour north of Richmond, so I woke up early on race day – Dec. 3 – and made it to…
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Running Richmond’s Turkey Trot 10K
Richmond’s Turkey Trot 10K is one of my most favorite Richmond races. This year, I ran it for the fourth time in five years, missing it last year only because I was in Texas. I ran Houston’s Turkey Trot 10K instead, which was fine, but mostly it just made me miss Richmond’s trot. Recently, turkey trots became America’s most popular race, with almost one million runners participating in more than 1,000 turkey trots nationwide. It’s a tradition that apparently dates back to 1896. Maybe that’s the thing that makes it so popular, the whole tradition thing. That, and it’s always nice to knock out some fitness before spending an entire day…
