The Richmond Half Marathon was a great intro to autumn racing on the east coast. The temps at the start were brisk, in the upper 30’s, and I found my hands to be frozen for about the first two miles. Nothing I have not experienced before, it’s just been awhile. Once my hands defrosted, I was eager to snap a few pics to share as the race course was scattered with beautiful fall colors.

Logistically, the race is easy to get to, however having to pay $10 for a parking garage was a little annoying. It’s a quick walk to the start area and there were plenty of portapotties.

This race begins in downtown Richmond and runs the first few miles in the city before transitioning to the surrounding neighborhoods. Even though they utilized a corral wave start, the first mile was very congested.

The transition point from city to the suburbs is a loop through Bryan Park, which takes you out of the hustle and into nature for a while. The course is mostly flat, with some small rolling hills throughout. The course is designed to finish on a downhill for the last ~1/2 mile of the race. This downhill is absolutely appreciated, but is steep at times, so I found myself having to pull back a little to make sure I didn’t lose my footing.

This race was named “America’s Friendliest Marathon” and I can definitely see why, there was crowd support along the entire half marathon course. There was rarely a gap where there was not someone cheering us on, which was really cool and much appreciated.

After crossing the finish line, we were greeted with a beautiful medal and bottle of water before heading to gear check. I usually take awhile to cool down after a run, however the lines for gear check were massive and took about 20 minutes to get through. By the end of that, I was starting to get really chilled, which is something I try to avoid as it’s really hard for me to warm up after that. I’ve never had to wait more than a couple minutes for my bag, so that was unexpected. In overhearing other runners who have ran this race before, it sounds like this year was an anomaly, so hopefully they figure it out for next year!

After throwing in my jacket, I headed over to the finish festival on Brown’s Island. The half and full finishers were gifted a blanket and hat, which I thought was unique and cool! We were given a slice of pizza, banana and some yummy trail mix along with the option of either a beer or Tito’s vodka drink. Kudos to the race for offering a non-beer option! The finish area was not large enough to comfortably host all of the finishers and their supporters, it was very crowded!

Overall, I’d definitely recommend this race for someone looking for a PR or to check Virginia off their list.