Cleveland Rocks!
Today was the Cleveland marathon. This was to be my "redemption" marathon from the failed BQ attempt at Glass City 3 weeks ago. At first I thought maybe it was too soon, but as the 21 days passed I felt rested and pretty well prepared for this race. I ran 2 long runs of 13.1 in between the 2 events and some other runs between 3 - 6 miles on the other days. All signed pointed to YES for running this race because 1) Alan's friend (the race director!) got us free entry to the race and 2) I used hotel bonus points for a free hotel room. There was nothing holding me back. I knew I would regret not giving it another try more than I would trying and failing again.
I set some realistic goals for this race... A. goal) get my BQ B. goal) get a PR and C. goal) have a respectable race that I was proud of. At Glass City I was filled with self doubt and lack of self worth. I was saying terrible things to myself, like "I'm a loser. I can't do this". I read somewhere that I should never say things to myself that I would never say to a friend. Good point! I was totally heart broken after Glass City at the disappointment and I wanted to redeem myself.
Race day morning started at 5:00am, and I was actually up before my alarm went off at 4:58. Breakfast, getting dressed, and lots of Body Glide and we were out the door at 5:45. The temperature was already 64 degrees by the time we got to Cleveland. It was only 15 mins away from our hotel, but I parked quite a bit away from the start, due to my panic that the traffic congestion would stop us from getting there before the 6am road closures. We walked probably a mile to the stadium where the Cleveland Browns play. The start area was really nice because the whole stadium was open and there were clean, easily accessible toilets for everyone to use.
We got in line and the race started. There were so many people that it took us 2:18 seconds to cross the start line. The weather was in the 60's and partially cloudy for the 1st half of the race. The first half of the race went pretty well. We had a target pace of 8:51 and we hit that for the first 13 miles. Alan was a wonderful pacer. I see him doing that officially in a future race! However, I was already overheating and I took off my tank top around mile 6. Wearing a sports bra is going to make for some lovely race photos!! Luckily I had my sunglasses on so I wouldn't have the double whammy of a flabby gut and terrible face expressions. With the tank top removed I felt a surge of new energy.
We made our way back into town where the people running the half were to break off. Right at that time the 3:55 pace group caught up with us. They had been running behind us the whole way, so that was a bummer. I was a little concerned about really bombing the last half because on my last training run, I ran a fast 13.1 miles which felt great, but when I got near the end of my run I felt like I couldn't run another mile. As the 3:55 pace group passed, Alan commented that we needed to keep up with them. Ok, a good (and obvious) plan. Unfortunately it seemed like the pacer dude was sprinting!! I know he wasn't, but he was steadily creating a gap between us. After about a mile I let the reality set in... goal A was not going to happen. No problem, I still have other goals.
At that point the goal was to at least get a PR. No problem because those goals were 5 mins apart and I had time banked for that. By this point the sun came out and it was baking me. We had a long, long stretch of road with very little shade. I kept up with goal B until around mile 17. That was when that little voice in my head said... just walk.
I couldn't hang on any longer. I had to walk. It was really just pure exhaustion and the hot temps that were stopping me. We decided that we were not going to worry about a time and just have fun. After we got off that long stretch of road we went into a very pretty park setting. We took numerous walk breaks and had the shade of trees to help us along. At the water stops we enjoyed lots of water and Powerade. The water stop people were spraying us down with their garden hoses and we started dumping water on our heads. Ahhhhhhh
Alan and I had lots of laughs about the way our race was turning out. I felt like part of the group because everyone around us was doing the same walk/run plan. We were actually having a really good time now that the pressure of a time constraint was gone. I ran as much as I could, but the walk breaks were plenty. At one point I thought I saw a photographer, so I picked up the pace and put on a good show, only to find out he wasn't an official photographer. When we did see the real photographer we put on quite a good show, breaking into a quick run.
Around mile 20 we hit another long straight road and we saw two runners laying by the side of road being treated for what looked like heat exhaustion! By mile 22 we notice there was another runner who was on the same run/walk schedule as us and we had a conversation with her. She also was making it a fun run, and had run the last 3 Boston marathons like Alan. We had some laughs with her and eventually she left us around mile 25. The temperatures were in the lower 80s at this point and I would have given $20 for an ice cube!
Alan suggested I put my shirt back on for the finish line and I did. We began our final mile to the finish line. That was stopped again when I had to walk at 25.5, but I did manage to run the very final part where all the crowds were waiting. For about the last 5 miles I had very sore glutes and it was painful to run.
We "sprinted" into the finish line with big smiles on our faces. We did it!! 4:16. Not surprising, they were not handing out any space blankets at the end to warm the runners, but they did have popsicles and ice cold chocolate milk. Delish!!!! We made our way to the beer garden and sucked down a Miller Lite. Who would have known, it tasted good too.
Whoa... I wish I would have applied some self tanner before the race. I look like ghost!!!!
After making our death march back to the car, we were happy to have run together and shared the experience. Would I run this race again? Maybe. It was a very well organized race and for the most part it was pretty scenic.
Here are my splits.... can you tell when I started to fade, I mean, burn up in flames?? :)
| 9:20 | |
| 2 | 8:31 |
| 3 | 8:51 |
| 4 | 8:45 |
| 5 | 8:44 |
| 6 | 8:59 |
| 7 | 8:46 |
| 8 | 8:50 |
| 9 | 8:48 |
| 10 | 8:52 |
| 11 | 9:06 |
| 12 | 8:56 |
| 13 | 8:25 |
| 14 | 9:17 |
| 15 | 9:13 |
| 16 | 9:24 |
| 17 | 9:18 |
| 18 | 10:37 |
| 19 | 9:45 |
| 20 | 10:06 |
| 21 | 12:05 |
| 22 | 11:43 |
| 23 | 11:33 |
| 24 | 11:25 |
| 25 | 11:30 |
| 26 | 11:42 |
| 27 | 9:20 |
