Columbus 1/2 Marathon

Columbus...what can I say? It is a city that as an Architect I have had a love/hate relationship with for years. There are some examples of amazing architecture, incredible historical neighborhoods and parks but Columbus is also a city that has expanded with reckless growth and is the epitome of Urban Sprawl. No need to conserve as long as there's another corn field or forest to destroy. My personal feelings aside, this past weekend might have been one of my greatest experiences in our State's capital (w/ the exception of being married there).


My wife's family lives in the city and typically we stay with them on weekend trips in. This time, we decided to get a hotel room downtown. Not knowing what to expect in terms of available parking and traffic in, I wanted to minimize any anxiety and sleeping a few blocks from the start line seemed like the best way to do it. This also gave us the opportunity to leave the kids with my in-laws which really made both of their days. The hotel was awesome, with our room being on the 19th floor it really gave me a greater perspective of the city which I can now come to appreciate more. The hotel was also connected to the new convention center downtown which made getting to the expo and my race packet a lot easier. That also gave us the opportunity to see all the other events happening there like some big cheer leading competition. Before you go crazy thinking thoughts about hot college chicks or high school girls, it seemed like this was cheer leading for the pre-tween girls. I swear that I even saw girls there younger than Nicholas who is only 5 years old. With all the criticism the Ramsey's received about how they exploited their daughter JonBenet, it seems like some parents just haven't learned the lesson yet...but once again I digress.

Saturday night was spent hooking up with my family who came into town to watch the race and heading out to dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse. After being disowned by my parents, it was nice to have the support of my grandparents, Aunt and Uncle and of course my wife's family. They weren't there just to see me but my cousin Tim and brother-in-law Brian was also running with me. Tim's an experienced runner and is currently the boys' cross-country coach for Ashland High School. If I have a question about running, he's one of the two people I go to. The other is a friend named James Miller who was also there this weekend taking a stab at a Boston Qualifying time.

The Sunday morning wake up came early but fortunately with the short distance to the start line, I was able to sneak in a few extra minutes of sleep. Heading out to the start line at 6:30 I immediately noticed that it was cold. The temperature was mid-30's...ouch that's cold. Coming back from dinner the previous night I rethought my clothing strategy and decided to go with a long sleeve shirt, gloves and shorts. I also had on a sleeveless Under Armor on which made for a nice base layer. I'm really glad I made the switch to long sleeves because during my warm up/stretching and staging for the start, I couldn't keep myself from shivering. I could only imagine how much worse it might have been in short sleeves. There is nothing worse than having chattering teeth on the start line.

My strategy going into the race was to just have fun and to try to hold an 8'/mile pace. I haven't run longer than 9 miles in over 3 months so I wasn't sure how my body was going to react. Going out of the start we hooked up with the 8'/mile pace group. Within the first mile, Tim and I decided to pick it up a bit to get in front of them and if necessary, we could ease up and rejoin them if we weren't feeling great. Mile after mile, we pulled further and further away from them to the point that if they caught us, it was because we would be running backwards to rejoin them. It was obvious that Tim and I were both feeling good and that we would average much better than an 8'/mile tempo over the 13.1 miles. A new thing for me was to try to drink while running. Normally I carry a water bottle so it's not a big issue but drinking out of a cup is a bit more difficult. I was able to get a few sips down but that always came with Gatorade shots up my nose. I need to perfect drinking I guess.

I lost contact with Tim around the 9 mile mark. We caught up to the 3:20 pace group which had a lot of runners and Tim made it through but I didn't. Here's where I might have taken it too conservative. I was still feeling good but being in uncharted territory here, I played it conservative. I decided to hang with this new pace group and then if still feeling good, pick it up by mile 11 and finish as quick as I could. That's what I did but in hindsight I wish I would have made the effort to try to regroup with Tim and finish even faster. As it turns out, I beat the secret goal that I had set for myself. I was hoping to come in around 1:40. I finished the race in 1:38:56. That gives me an average pace of 7'34"/mile pace.

A lot of people have asked me about how the race went. My response is this...in all of the competitive events that I've ever participated in, this by far ranks as one of the best experiences, if not the best. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's being a part of nearly 12,000 runners trying to accomplish the same goal which is to finish. Maybe it was miles and miles of spectators along the sides of the road cheering you on. I don't think there was ever a stretch of road where there wasn't at least one person watching. Normally when I run I notice every mile that goes by. This event I remember hitting the 10 mile mark and being surprised that I had already gotten that far. The effort just seemed that easy.

Here are some stats from the race:

Mile 1 – 7:59
Mile 2 – 7:41
Mile 3 – 7:26
Mile 4 – 7:37
Mile 5 – 7:25
Mile 6 – 7:22
Mile 7 – 7:29
Mile 8 – 7:34
Mile 9 – 7:25
Mile 10 – 7:17
Mile 11 – 7:28
Mile 12 – 7:39
Mile 13 – 7:20
.1 – 1:07
Total – 1:38.56

bib number: 3034
age: 35
gender:M
location: Cuyahoga Falls, OH
overall place: 354 out of 5290
division place: 3 out of 160
gender place: 279 out of 2230
time: 1:38:56
pace: 7:34
10k: 47:09

brian

Akron Roadrunner Marathon

Last Saturday was the Akron Road Runner Marathon. This is the sixth year of existence for the race and the 4th time that I've had the opportunity to run a relay portion of it. I have to say that each and every year it just gets better and better. Earlier in the year the strategy for this event was to fun the final 12k leg with some kick. I had delusions of running 6' mile pace. Obviously that all changed a few months back. With me on the right road to recovery, I opted to run the shorter 10k. In hindsight, this was a great move because I am now only able to run a slow 6 miles without any discomfort in my femur. This year was the first year that I was also able to run the opening leg of the event. This was important for me for two reasons. Firstly, it was great practice for Columbus to get started in a big mass so I could see how I needed to maneuver around people to hit my goal pace. Secondly, it allowed me to finish in plenty of time to see Nicholas and Will run in the Kids Fun Run later in the morning. My strategy for today was to finish somewhere close to 45'. My normal 10k pace is 43' but with recovery, I knew I would have to sacrifice some time so I didn't injure myself anymore. The plan for the day was to hook up with a friend of mine named James who is an avid runner and seasoned marathoner. He was running the 1/2 marathon (in preparation for Columbus) and was hoping to run a 7'10" pace, a touch faster than what I thought I could do but idealistically right about where I wanted to finish up. Running that morning felt great. There's something about the adrenaline and the excitement of the day that really gets you going. It was probably that quicker than goal pace that helped tire me but just after 5k of running, I began to lose touch with James as I just couldn't hang at that pace. Seems like I've lost a bit of that high end speed. As I was beginning to suffer more and more , I noticed that we were running right by the Summit Lake neighborhood that we delivered to last winter with Elves & More. The thoughts of that day pulled me away from the pain and the doubts that I was beginning to suffer. I have to imagine that running which is really a solitary sport is probably a lot like Time Trialing on a bicycle. When you're by yourself, I'm not sure if the bigger battle is between you and the road or you and your mind. Ultimately I won because I didn't stop, but I wonder if I slowed down at all because of the mental debates that I was holding with myself.

I'm happy to say that I finished the 10k if 45'24". That's where I realistically figured I would end up being, but deep down inside, I was hoping that I could have pulled out a much faster time. This was a good test for me for Columbus. From this experience I learned that the marathon is for sure out of the question. I realistic goal will be now to complete the half-marathon in Columbus. Not sure what my goals other than completing relatively pain free will be yet but I'll let you know.

b

Running Pains

Ouch. I really forgot how hard running is. I've been running 4-5 days a week now, fairly consistently for the past month, mostly consisting of smaller runs around 3 miles long in the first few weeks and then progressing to 5 mile runs the past few weeks. I'm finally starting to feel good (if that's even possible while running) when I'm running so I don't feel completely thrashed by the end of my workout until I started doing big miles. For me, a big run used to be anything longer than running from my living room to my kitchen for some more snacks. Now, I've had to redefine it a bit to say anything in miles that was two digits long. Two weeks ago I did my first big run of 10 miles. This wasn't my first attempt at running big distances. I've done big miles while in the army and a few years ago, I was routinely running 15 milers for the fun of it. For some reason, who knows, maybe its the age but this 10 miler affected me big time. While running, I felt awesome. The kind of feeling that I knew I still had a lot more left in the tank and I could definitely keep going. Fortunately I was sensible and wrapped it up. It wasn't until I got back in the house and cleaned up that I noticed a pain in the ball of my left foot. Ouch, hurts to walk on it. A few days go by and I'm able to do some of my 5 mile runs through the week without issue but on yesterdays 11 mile run I'm feeling it now worse than ever. Funny because I was pretty conscious about it during the run and I never had any issues with pain. I'm hoping this is one of those things that I just have to get through and that there are no serious issues. To be safe, I'm going to head down to the local running store tonight and have them take a look at my running shoes. Better to get this solved now. I can't have anything compromising Columbus.

Sorry, no data but I am trying to convince my wife that I need to Purchase the Garmin 405 watch. Man, if there's one thing that I've learned, it's that I'm addicted to data.

b

Gorge Metro Park to Cascade Metro Park Run

Two blog entries in one day....I must be going crazy or something. A coworker of mine passed this website along to me www.mapmyrun.com . It's been a good site for my running because being a data junkie, I can go home and map my routes to see how far I've run. Today I wanted to do a little exploration so I decided to run down to Gorge Metro Park and see where it took me. I ended up running all the way down into the Valley to another Metro Park called Cascade Valley. I'd ridden my bikes by all of these places before but never ventured in. Absolutely beautiful. It's a shame that the parks are closed to bikes because I kept thinking how great it would be to take the cross bike down there and ride around. There are a lot more trails down there but I was just trying to find the quickest way out since daylight was quickly fading and I was starting to get cold. Anyway, an hour after leaving the house I returned, a little tired but happy I completed my route.

brian

Here's the route: