Monument Aveune 10K

Saturday, March 27

We interrupt this half marathon training report to bring you the Monument Avenue 10k.

When I woke up on Saturday mornig, there was frost on the ground. And it was 31 degrees. If it had been a regular training day, I would have gone back to bed and ran those 6 miles later in the day or would have gone to the gym and pounded the treadmill. But it was the day of the Ukrops Monument Avenue 10K and my dear friend Becky was so excited that she could barely contain herself. First-timers are irritating like that.

I went back and forth for atleast 20 minutes about what to wear and finally settled on tights, l/s shirt, my hot pink ReeseStrong shirt and gloves. An impatient John was glaring at me, so I just shoved all of my race gear in a bag and went to get in the truck.

We picked up Becky and headed to VCU. Thank goodness John drove us. We would have never found a parking place and made it to wave in time. Cary Street was a parking lot itself and finally John turned down Harvie Street to get us there in time. But as it turns out, we didn’t make it to our wave in time. We stood in line for over 35 minutes in the VCU Bookstore to use the bathroom. We met a few characters along the way, such as the middle school teacher who it turns out is as grumpy as I am! 9:31 came and went, we missed our wave. 9:34 came and went, we missed another wave. We finally got started in wave UC, 5 waves after ours. But Becky was so excited to finally be at the start line.

And off we went! We zigged and zagged for the first miles and finally gave up trying to run and just settled in for a stroll and took in the sights. And boy, were there sights to behold! The Monument 10K definitely brings out the best and the worst of Richmond. But the weather was perfect and the crowds were great. A fabulous day to be outside in the River City.

We finished in Becky’s goal time of under 90 minutes. I was so proud of my girl! She’s never done anything like this before and she was a trooper through learning how to dress, how to consume liquid without spilling it at a water stop and how to get ready for that all important race photo. There will be other races for me to set a PR but there will never be another first race for Becky.

And now, back to half marathon training.