(copied from my blog review here: https://fiveleveninety.blogspot.com/2018/11/race-review-anthem-richmond-marathon.html)

Over the weekend I flew down to Virginia for my eighth marathon: the Anthem Richmond Marathon! (Also known as America's Friendliest Marathon!) I was super nervous to run this race because my training for a fall marathon was pretty bad, but it actually turned out to be a really excellent race and experience! I would highly recommend Richmond for anyone who is looking for a Virginia race because I had a great time!

I left for Richmond early in the morning on Friday. My flight out out of Boston was at 7AM so I was on the road by 4 to make my trek to Logan. I'm glad I left as early as I did because the security lines were insane and TSA seemed to be holding up folks for every possible reason. I did make it through security with about an hour before I boarded, though, which was great because time is always a huge stress factor for me! I waited in a mile-long Dunkies line for a bagel and a coffee and settled in for my long journey south.

I did have about a 2 hour layover at Laguardia on the way down, which I honestly don't mind. I really enjoy the process of traveling most of the time and I often see layovers as forced chill time XD. I spent time reading my book and relaxing a bit before grabbing my next flight to Richmond. The plane down to VA was SO TINY that we had to walk out onto the tarmac and climb up some stairs into the plan itself. I did get the exit row, though, so I was pretty pumped about my extra leg room!

I arrived in Richmond around noon and caught a Lyft to the marathon expo! My Lyft driver was super friendly and we had a great chat. He had apparently been driving a lot of runners around and we had a good chat about running as we made our way to the expo. Such a great welcome to Richmond! When I got to the expo I picked up my bib and wandered around a bit. I picked up the gels and the blocks I would be using for the race from one of the vendors, my t-shirt from the expo volunteers, and a cowbell for Erin and Estee who would be cheering me on during the race!

I was fairly hungry at that point so I walked to a restaurant called Lunch and Supper (ha!) for lunch. It was a cute little place that had a lot of sandwich options. I could tell I was in the South because EVERYTHING had bacon on it. XD I opted for a sandwich called the Jimmy K which was basically a turkey club sandwich with avocado, which I had with no bacon. It was really yummy and hit the spot!

After lunch I ventured to a nearby grocery story to pick up some snacks (even though it was POURING out) and then I took a Lyft to my AirBNB to finally relax. I took a nice hot shower which was so needed after being completely soaked through in the rain, made my flat runner, and relaxed on the couch with some Friends on Netflix. It was fairly relaxing for the rest of the day. I ordered in a pasta dinner with steamed broccoli, and accidentally passed out on the couch and stranded poor Erin outside for a couple minutes (sorry, girl!). She arrived around 10:15pm and chatted for a bit before PASSING OUT. It was a long day and we had things to do in the morning. ;)

After a fitful night's sleep for both of us, we got up to get ready for the big race! I shoved a peanut butter bagel and a ton of water down my throat for breakfast and we made our way to the starting line. We were supposed to meet up with Estee at the start, but as the entire city was shut down for the race, it was really hard for her to make her way to us, so Erin and I just decided to park and then make our way to the start!

The morning seemed to be flying by and before I knew it the race had begun! Erin walked with me for a bit in the corral as we made our way to the starting line. Unfortunately I couldn't convince her to run with me :P but it was so great to have a friendly face there with me to calm the nerves! I was underway around 7:55am and was excited to get moving because it was COLD!

For this race, I was doing the run/walk interval method. I would run for 5 minutes and walk for 1. I had my Garmin set to alert me of every interval so I really didn't have to think about it that much which was nice! A lot of folks around me in my corral were doing the same thing so I felt comforted that I wasn't the only runner taking this route. It was my first race using this method so i was little nervous about how I'd feel, but it honestly helped my race so much!

The course itself was so great. There were a few rolling hills but it was fairly flat for the most part but the hills here and there really kept things interesting. There was a lot of different scenery to take in, including the James River (above), a stretch of wooded back road along the river, city portions, neighborhoods - pretty much everything! I will say that I definitely wasn't bored while running this race because there was just so much to look at.

The crowds on this course were so great! There were a few stretches where there weren't a lot of folks around, but when there were people cheering on the course they were SO INTO IT! I saw people dressed up as T-Rexes, flamingos, and event Santa Claus was there cheering the runners on. So many folks from the community (beyond the race volunteers) came out to hand out water, snacks, candy, and even booze to the runners. I know that running + booze doesn't tend to mix well for me, but there was a house that had a mimosa station and ya girl was TEMPTED. XD I also really loved the party zones and the junk food stops along the course. The crowd's energy really helped me through the tough miles and kept a smile plastered on my face!

One of my absolute favorite things about this races were the "coaches" they had out on the course. There was a whole slew of runners in bright orange singlets whose sole purpose it seemed was to keep runners amped up and excited to be running the race. So many of them were wearing silly hats and costumes, were cheering the whole 26.2 miles, were giving high fives, and running with people to keep them motivated through the tough miles. I honestly think this is the reason the race has earned the title of "America's Friendliest Marathon". It seemed like their main priorities was to see you smile and to see you cross the finish line and I absolutely love that. I wish they were at every marathon! :D

The only issue that I had this race is a big bout of nausea that hit me from mile 16 to mile 21. The above photo is right before it really hit me. That was not fun. Running on a wonky stomach is never fun because you can't really do anything about it except hope for it to pass. Luckily it did around mile 21 so I cranked up my tunes and kept pushing! Originally Erin and Estee were going to try to meet me at mile 17 but I ended up seeing their text too late too let them know where I was at in the race, but I was ultimately happy that they missed me then because I felt AWFUL! D:

We did manage to arrange to meet at mile 24, though, and it was so great to see them! They were hanging out with a large group of people who were blasting music and dancing and it was just such a fun corner to finally see them and especially at that point of the race, that boost of energy was exactly what I wanted to push through the final two miles! I saw them again at mile 26 which was also so great! I'm honestly so impressed that they were able to get there so quickly XD but it was great to see them at the very end of the race.

Mile 26 to the finish is 100% DOWN HILL and the hill is honestly no joke. I honestly think I probably would have slipped and fallen if it had been raining XD But it was a welcome end to the race. I'm pretty sure I just let my body go as fast as it wanted all the way across the finish line. You know, solid running technique. XD

After snagging my medal, finisher's hat, and finisher's blanket (this race has SWAGSWAGSWAG), Erin and Estee were able to find me in the crowd. We found a place for me to sit and take my sneakers off (order of business #1 for post-marathon Riley!) and we just hung out in the finisher's area which was so nice. It's always nice to have friendly faces to greet you at the end of a race and to have two pals that came all the way down to Richmond just to cheer me on honestly meant so much.

I was honestly so surprised that I did not have any leg pain this entire race. Usually my legs cramp up in the later miles or my hips or ankles give me serious grief. That wasn't the case this time around, which I really attribute to the run/walk method. I was super happy with how good my body felt through the whole race (minus the nausea) and I will definitely continue doing the run/walk method for future races! It wasn't until I stopped running and was walking to our grassy area to sit that all the pain and cramping came crashing down on me. XD

The only downfall of a downhill finish is that you have to walk all the way back up the hill to get back to your cars! D: So after about 15-20 minutes of hanging out on the grass/getting food from the finishers tent (pizzaaaaa) we made our way (verrrryyyy slowly) up the hill to head to Secret Sandwich Society for lunch! My stomach was still feeling kind of blah so I just ordered the butternut squash soup and some french fries and honestly it hit the spot! It's always good to have a nice warm meal after spending the majority of the day in some cool, breezy weather.

We headed back to our AirBNB to relax for a couple hours post-marathon before venturing out for ice cream and to meet up with Estee's sister. We also made a stop at a local brewery for Erin to pick up a couple bottles for Cullen (she's such a great wife!). We were all so pooped by the end of the day, though, and had to be out the door by 4AM to catch flights and head home, so we decided to call it a night fairly early. It was honestly so much fun wandering around Richmond with them, even if it was only for a little while!

Overall I had a really wonderful experience running Richmond for my Virginia Marathon. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I was really nervous about toeing the line at another 26.2 but I think this was the perfect marathon to take on this goal once again. I felt so welcomed and encouraged by the community and the runners of this race and I loved that I was able to run with a smile on my face for the majority of the race! I would highly recommend choosing this race if you're looking to run in Virginia. The event was incredible, the people of Richmond were amazing to the runners, the weather was gorgeous, and I honestly have no complaints! :)

(copied from my blog review here: https://fiveleveninety.blogspot.com/2018/11/catching-back-up.html)

Despite the 12° degree weather, I dragged myself out of bed early Thursday morning for the Holliston Turkey Trot. Brett was a trooper and drove me to the high school where the 5K was happening. We froze a bit before the race but I think that worked to my advantage - I ran FAST to get out of the cold and I managed to run a sub-30 5K which is something I haven't done in YEARS!!! I realized around mile 2 that I could run under 30 minutes so I really pushed my pace to the finish line and came across at 29:43!!! SO PUMPED!!! They had bananas, donuts, and water (albiet some of the cups of water were frozen solid 😂) at the finish which was so nice to reward myself with, and on top of that, Brett and I made a stop at Muffin House, one of our favorite local bakeries, on the way home after the race.

Youngstown Marathon Race Weekend Vlog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3R32JGouc4&feature=youtu.be Featuring the race and a visit to our friends in Pittsburgh. I also accidentally placed third in my age group for this race and didn't find out until a plaque came in the mail 3 months later... woops :)

I ran the Wineglass Marathon in 2017 and managed to snag a few video clips for a race weekend vlog: http://fiveleveninety.blogspot.com/2017/11/vlog-miscellaneous-vlog-september.html

Really enjoyed this race - Corning, NY in the fall is absolutely gorgeous and the race takes such great care of its runners. Plus the glass medal is gorgeous. Would totally recommend!

(copied from my blog review here: http://fiveleveninety.blogspot.com/2017/05/race-review-pittsburgh-marathon.html)

Over the weekend I traveled down to Pittsburgh to run the Pittsburgh Marathon which had the best perk to any race I've ever experienced: I got to reunite with Erin and Cullen! It was so good to see them after nearly a year and to have them around for my fifth marathon experience. Yay for friendship reunions! I flew in early Saturday morning and our first stop was the Pub Chip Shop where we all grabbed buttermilk biscuits for breakfast. Seriously - so freaking good. Highly recommend you all to make a stop there if you're ever in the area!

Afterward we wandered over to the Convention Center for the marathon expo! The expo was so legit - there were tons of vendors and photo ops available to runners and their loved ones. I'm not really into shopping around at expos (large crowds in a confined space usually isn't my thing) but I loved all the other cool things that they had at the expo, including a photo op with giant distance numbers, the wall of the nearly 30,000 runners' names, and the opportunity to sign your name to make your mark on the marathon!

After the expo we went home to Cullen and Erin's house to just chill. I really didn't want to do anything else besides hang out with my buds and rest up for the race. We did a lot of Netflixing, snacking, and planning out the transportation strategy for Sunday. We had a lot of fun taking arbitrary bets on Kentucky Derby Horses (I had McCracken and Fast & Accurate, Cullen had Thunder Snow and Irish War Cry, Erin had Gromley and Untrapped, and we all had our favorite - GIRVIN. Spoiler alert, none of them won) and later went out to dinner to ~carbo load~ (I ordered amazing spinach and cheese ravioli).

We spent the rest of the night playing an awesome board game called Pandemic - highly recommend! My nerves were going pretty crazy at this point anticipating the race and we had to wake up by 4:45/5AM, so we all headed to bed pretty soon after that. Not before I snapped a quick flat runner photo, though! It's basically a pre-marathon requirement. :P

I woke up before my alarm (probably due to nerves) so I decided to get ready for the race. I packed up my backpack, ate my traditional pre-marathon breakfast (PB bagel, banana, a Clif Bar, and some Gatorade) and got into my race attire. We were on the road by 5:30AM and got to the race site right after 6:15! We walked around a bit before I had to get into the starting corral just to check out the area, take a few pre-race potty breaks, and to dance to the music they were blasting at the starting line. We managed to snap some pre-race pictures as well!

All runners had to get into their corrals by 6:55AM so Erin and Cullen and I wished me luck and I headed into the corral with everyone else. It was so crazy to see everyone lined up and the pre-race energy was insane! What I wasn't expecting was how long it took for the later corrals to get moving. The race started at 7AM, but they sent each corral out in multiple waves (which makes sense because 30,000 people) but, even though I was in the last corral, I was not expecting that I wouldn't cross the starting line until 7:48AM! It was long enough where I could have definitely taken several more pre-race potty breaks (because we know those are real) and there wasn't anywhere to go. D: Definitely would have appreciated more access to bathrooms in the corrals if we have to be locked in there for close to an hour!

The first mile was so much fun and completely lined with fans and multiple live bands playing awesome covers to keep the runners entertained. I did have to pull over right after mile 1 for one quick potty break which meant standing in line for about 5 minutes, but I felt better about it when I saw that literally every restroom area had lines throughout the entire race. (That being said, don't feel nervous about waiting in line at one bathroom stop or try to take your potty break down the course, because you'll likely have to wait in line no matter where you are on the marathon course, especially when you're still combined with the half marathon!)

I managed to swoop through the next few miles and catch up on my time by the time I hit mile 4 and saw Erin & Cullen for the first time! They were there cheering me on and holding a sign that (SURPRISE) a bunch of my coworkers and students at MHC signed and wrote amazing encouraging messages on! My amazingly sneaky friends coordinated the signing and sending of the sign down to Pittsburgh just to wish me luck! So amazing to be a part of a community of people that makes me feel so loved and appreciated! I said a quick hello to my cheer squad and kept trucking along the course - I'd be meeting up with them again at mile 9!

We ran past PNC Park (which I didn't realize until I had basically already run by it) and Heinz Field in the intermittent miles and while I'm definitely not a Pittsburgh sports fan, I think it's always cool to run by professional sports complexes. That's where sports history is made! Of course, I had to snap a few photos. Right after, we headed over one of the many bridges of Pittsburgh where part of the Steeler's drum line was located as well as a really cool view of the Pittsburgh skyline as well.

I ran into Cullen and Erin again at mile 9 and they had another amazing sign ready for me that read "Tacos and Margs at the Finish Line" - a GREAT incentive to run fast! :P The weather had warmed right up at this point so I ditched by hoodie with them and Erin took some pretty amazing "candid" photos of me "running". :P This would be the last time I saw them until the finish line so we said some good-byes and good-lucks as I entered into the more difficult miles of the race.

The half marathon and full marathon split off around mile 11 and there was a significant drop in runners around me once this happened. While this was nice as I had more room to run, it's always a bit easier and more fun to run a tough race with a crowd around you. That being said, I was never completely by myself on the course which was really nice. My fellow distance racers will relate - you kind of mentally bond with the runners that are around you throughout the race, especially the folks that are running a similar pace to you and especially when you're in the later, more painful miles of the race!

With mile 12 came "the hill". I've been hearing about this crazy hill that you need to tackle during the Pittsburgh Marathon that comes right after mile 12. Every race review I read called it brutal and the elevation map made it seem like I was about to go up a 90° angle. Not gonna lie, I was pretty nervous about this hill. When I actually saw it? I was pretty unimpressed. I mean, it's definitely a hill and it lasts a little while, but it's gradual enough that if you have done any sort of hill work during your training that you could pretty easily run up it. I got to the top and felt pretty awesome!

After "the hill" we entered the University of Pittsburgh campus which, as a Higher Ed Nerd, was awesome because I got to check another campus off my Campus Bingo Card! :P Had to snap a quick selfie with the Cathedral of Learning, aka "Cathy", while I was running by.

The half marathon and full marathon split off around mile 11 and there was a significant drop in runners around me once this happened. While this was nice as I had more room to run, it's always a bit easier and more fun to run a tough race with a crowd around you. That being said, I was never completely by myself on the course which was really nice. My fellow distance racers will relate - you kind of mentally bond with the runners that are around you throughout the race, especially the folks that are running a similar pace to you and especially when you're in the later, more painful miles of the race!

With mile 12 came "the hill". I've been hearing about this crazy hill that you need to tackle during the Pittsburgh Marathon that comes right after mile 12. Every race review I read called it brutal and the elevation map made it seem like I was about to go up a 90° angle. Not gonna lie, I was pretty nervous about this hill. When I actually saw it? I was pretty unimpressed. I mean, it's definitely a hill and it lasts a little while, but it's gradual enough that if you have done any sort of hill work during your training that you could pretty easily run up it. I got to the top and felt pretty awesome!

After "the hill" we entered the University of Pittsburgh campus which, as a Higher Ed Nerd, was awesome because I got to check another campus off my Campus Bingo Card! :P Had to snap a quick selfie with the Cathedral of Learning, aka "Cathy", while I was running by.

Mile 19 the pain in my calves shot down to my ankles and really started giving me a hard time. It lasted from mile 19 to mile 24 and at times felt fairly unbearable. All I wanted to do was sit down and stick my feet into an ice bucket. But again, it was the crowds that kept me chugging along. The town of Friendship being oh so welcoming and handing out popsicles to the runners at mile 22, the HUGE crowd at the top of the downhill mile 23 pushing the runners through the last 5K, folks handing out free beer at mile 24…. I couldn't believe how much of a help and distraction it was from the pain. PGH has some amazing cheer squads through the entire city and I would recommend this race PURELY to experience the crowds!

Mile 24 is when the pain in my ankles made me so frustrated that I decided that it was finally time to break down and throw my headphones into my ears. With all the bands and DJs lining the course, I figured I wouldn't have to listen to any music, but as soon as I popped my headphones in and threw on my angsty pop punk playlist, my splits went from a painful 13:00-14:00/mile as they were miles 19-24, to roughly 10:40/mile for the rest of the race. My ankles were still killing for sure, but with just two miles to go and my favorite band New Found Glory blasting through my ears, I felt like nothing could stop me from crossing that finish line!

When I turned the corner and saw the big inflatable yellow finish line, I paused my music to hear the excitement of the crowd and the music, scanned the crowd for Erin's pink Virginia Tech hat (which I couldn't find) and whipped out my camera to film the crossing of the finish line. It felt SO GOOD to finish that race. It honestly never gets old. The sense of accomplishment I feel when I cross the finish line of a marathon is incomparable to anything else I've felt in my life. It's what keeps me returning to the 26.2 distance, despite how difficult it can be. After months of training and thinking about nothing but this race and sacrificing free time and weekends and sleep for long runs, crossing the finish line on race day is like nothing else.

The team of volunteers at the finish line handed me a medal, a water, and a heat sheet, and I began the pretty grueling walk down to the finish line festival. I swear they made us walk an additional half mile to get there… not something I was a fan of at all. There was fencing that made it impossible to go anywhere else and there was no where to sit and rest for a moment. Luckily I found an opening in the fencing and was able to sit on the curb for a bit before getting up the strength to walk the rest of the way down to the park, but it would have been nice to either not have had to walk as far to meet up with your cheer squad OR provide some sort of rest area for the runners within the finish line area. Just some sort of seating area would have been AMAZING.

Once I did make it down to the finish line festival I reunited with Cullen and Erin and we immediately found a space on the grass to sit for a while. I showed them my medal and we chatted about the race. It was so good having friends waiting to see my at the finish! I changed out of my running shoes and socks and into my flipflops and fuzzy socks (Which... oh my goodness... made SUCH a difference! Cannot recommend this post-race strategy enough!) and felt good enough to walk down to the fountain to take some post-race photos with my medal, my signs, and my cheer squad!