Every now and then I like to get away from a big race, and go for a medium one. I also like to run somewhere new. I picked Richmond because some of my family members had recently moved there. and runners world gave it a great review.
Richmond has a great price, and I beautiful course. It goes thru downtown Richmond, as well as a colorful little street filled with fun little coffee shops, cup cakes places and candy stores.
The aid stations are wonderful. One had apple juice and grapes, another had doughnut holes and cola.
The course entertainment is also great. There were cheer leaders, choirs, and a cheese board of people.
Another thing they had was designated cheer stations, where they encouraged family and friends to be at so you knew where to look for them.
There were some hills on the course, I ran Chicago about a month before and I didn't think it was a hilly course. I also really loved the scenic miles along the James river.
I am not into race t-shirts at all, so I never even picked mine up. The medal was great. and the after party was also a great time. The last two miles did have some bigger hills then earlier in the course, but there was also danish and lots of people cheering you on.
One thing that did throw me off slightly. I was use to bigger races where the start is set up in advance. They don't line up the marathon till after the half marathon starts.
So when I got to the start area 40 min before the race. There was not a Marathon start set up yet.
However everyone during the race and at the expo was super friendly. I ended up running 12 miles with two women I had just met, and then ran up to mile 19 with one of the two.