2015 Richmond Half Marathon Weekend

This past weekend I ran the Richmond Half Marathon. This race was a Saturday race with no race day packet pickup so I took a half day from work on Friday and made my way down to Richmond with my boyfriend in tow.

Originally I had planned on going alone and stay overnight Friday and leaving promptly after the race on Saturday but after my boyfriend expressed interest in going we extended our stay an extra day.

We stayed at the Clarion Hotel on Boulevard…it was cheap and about a quarter mile from the expo so I thought why not…in the past I had stayed at cheap hotels like this one with no problems at all…this time not so much. It wasn’t that my stay was terrible but several little things just made me not want to recommend staying here to anyone. Two big factors were the rooms keys never seemed to work! The two nights we were there we both had to change our room keys at least five times and several of those times there was no one at the front desk to assist us so we had to wait around several minutes…the longest wait was after my boyfriend went out for a run (he didn’t race) his room key didn’t work and he had to wait about 20 minutes with other guests in the lobby for someone to show up to assist. The second thing was that this hotel allows you to bring dogs…this wasn’t so much the hotel’s fault as the irresponsible pet owner’s but our second night (thankfully not the night before race day) a dog in a room near our barked nonstop from midnight to 3AM. It would quiet down for a few minutes then start again we finally called the front desk and the dog finally quieted down but then around 8AM the door slamming began as people began to get up and get going with their days…so bottom line you can hear EVERYTHING at this hotel so if you need quiet to sleep don’t stay here.

Back to the race…the packet pickup was quick and easy. The expo was pretty small but did have a good number of vendors. We didn’t stick around too long since we were both pretty hungry so we headed downtown to look for some dinner.

Long Sleeve Race Shirt. I got the unisex kind since I don't like form fitting shirts.

 We decided to check out the Roosevelt for dinner after we had done some research and found that it was consistently voted the best place to eat and we were not disappointed.  Our dinner was delicious! I got the sword fish and he got the steak. If you are in town I would recommend checking it out but make sure to make a reservation if you are going during normal dinner hours…we went right when they opened at 5PM and got seated right away but the place filled up soon after. We also stopped by briefly at Saison which is a speakeasy type bar where we had a really awesome dessert and a few craft cocktails. I really enjoyed the atmosphere at Saison and would highly recommend you check it out.

S'mores Dessert at Saison

The half marathon began downtown at 730AM. I had Spencer drop me off at the start about 20 minutes before. The lines for the porta-potties seemed long at first but they turned out to move pretty quickly. After using the restroom I made my way to my corral. At many races corral entry is not very well monitored and you see a lot of slower runners make their way to the front but not at Richmond…there was a security guard and a race organizer present checking corral assignments and sending back those who did not belong…I think this is great and should be done more often to prevent bottlenecks…it might not always work 100% since people to lie about their projected finish times which was evident in the first few miles where I saw people already starting to walk after only about 2 or 3 miles but it does help at least reduce the inconvenience.

The race course took us through downtown Richmond then into more residential areas before making its way back to downtown ….the terrain was predominantly flat with a few hills as we crossed bridges and entered/exited a park.  There was a good presence of spectators cheering us on throughout the race. The final half mile was a steep downhill which was very welcome as I was starting to fatigue and my muscles tightened up. Once you crossed the finish line volunteers handed you your medal…which I thought was very pretty…and you also received a bottle of water and a fleece blanket which was wonderful since it was pretty cold out and I had discarded my layers along the course.

The finish line/finisher village was located several blocks away from the half marathon start next to the river and had several vendors as well as food for the runners. I didn’t stay too long since my boyfriend was having trouble finding parking/getting to the finisher area. Luckily the race provided a shuttle to take us back to the starting area which was easier to get to by car.

Richmond 2015 Half Marathon Finisher Medal

My dog under the finisher fleece blanket once I got back home

Once I was able to find my boyfriend we headed back to the hotel so I could shower and warm up before heading to brunch at Lulu’s downtown. We once again had made a reservation which I recommend you do since the restaurant was packed. The food here was decent but a bit greasy for my taste.

After brunch we headed out to meet some local friends and check out the local breweries. We went to three breweries…Triple Crossing, Hardywood, and Ardent Craft Ales. All three were pretty good but Ardent was definitely our favorite. We called it an early night after getting dinner at a Mexican restaurant called En Su Boca located near Ardent. Their tacos and chips and salsa were great! My boyfriend is very picky about tacos and he really enjoyed these so check them out if you like tacos.

As previously mentioned our second night at the hotel was disturbed by a barking dog and then slamming doors. We got up around 8AM since we couldn’t fall back asleep so we decided to just head home early. After packing and checking out we stopped at Lamplighter Roasting for some coffee and breakfast. I got a cappuccino and a ham and swiss croissant both which were excellent!

I just love cappuccinos and the ham and swiss croissant was great!

To sum up I think I would do the Richmond Half again and I would recommend it to others but I would recommend not staying at the Clarion Hotel.