2023 Brunswick Marathon Race Report

2023 marks the sixth running of the Brunswick Marathon. For the first time, there is a new course; the race now begins and ends at Plum Creek County Park, and takes place mostly on county and city all-purpose trails. Runners begin in the park and then use the new Brunswick Greenway Trail to head up towards Brunswick Lake. The trail isn't complete yet, so runners use some city streets to make it all the way to the lake. There, they circumnavigate the lake and return to Plum Creek. This makes about 6.5 miles: a quarter-marathon.

Only four loops - should be a piece of cake. 35F and light rain - couldn't be better weather. Horvath is going into the race with an attitude: he's going to finish the thing no matter what. Fifteen or so of his best friends line up for the early-morning start at Plum Creek.

He runs the first loop with Debbie Hicks and a few others. It's way too fast.

He's all alone on the second loop when he encounters a cul-de-sac. That's significant because Horvath is not only the race director, but he's also the course architect, and he shouldn't be here. He realizes that he missed a turn. Sometimes it's good to pay attention. It's just a little bonus quarter-mile or so.

He starts loop three. Finally, someone to run with. It's Michelle Wolff, who accompanies him for a mile or so. Then, as they see some of other friends going the other way Michelle also turns, he's alone again. Frank Dwyer is up ahead. He probably won't be able to catch FD (like he used to, a long time ago), but he can try. The rain and drizzle comes and goes. That part's getting old.

For lap four, Horvath is still trying to catch Mr. Dwyer. But it's not getting any easier. Many of the others are done running for the day. The good thing is that although he's slowed down a little, he's still keeping nearly all his miles under ten minutes. A steady pace is a good thing. The best part is that the off-and-on rain has changed to off-and-on snow. It's a pretty sight, especially while in the woods. At the very end, the sun comes out for a brief few minutes - even whilst the snow continues. That's pretty as well. Is Horvath experiencing a "runner's high?" Who knows?

Horvath finishes in 4:13. The course is a wee bit short, but he won't tell anyone. Frank finished a good 11 minutes in front of him, so Horvath is technically dead last.

Okay, he could also call himself second. That sounds better. The BM was a good way to end this year of running. 

And launch into 2024.

2023

2023 was a pretty good running year in several ways. Here are a few of them.

Overall miles: 3,152 miles for the year. That's an average of 60 miles per week and 8.6 per day. Compared with other years, it's a fair amount. My average pace was (a very pedestrian) 5.2 miles per hour which is 11.5 minutes per mile. It's the same as last year. When added to my previous total, it yields a total life-to-date amount of 114,344 miles.

Non-Marathon Races: The best was probably the Hofbrauhaus Half Marathon where I ran 1:52. I ran one half-marathon in 2022 that was slightly faster. I also did a smattering of shorter races, none of which were outstanding. I've said it before, but I'll repeat it here: I need to do more races of the shorter variety.

Trail Runs: No, I'm not joking, and don't call me Shirley. Run with Scissors was a complete disaster. So much so, that I wrote a separate ditty about thick mud and trails. The Buckeye Woods 25K was better, if you can call that a trail run. It is to me.

Marathons: Tallahassee and Drake Well both went about as well as I could have expected, and the times were identical: 3:55. Cleveland's time of 4:12 was not so good, but also not unexpected. Brunswick was Similarly slow (4:13) but also not out of line with expectations.

Unique Experiences: One was my run with Jenny Hoffman during her record-breaking run across America. It was quite an honor to accompany her. Another was my run at the Grafton Correctional Institution. That was not only an honor, but also an experience that I'll never forget.

Most Memorable of All: My best and probably most lasting memory of 2023 was the near-daily running with my friends throughout the Spring, Summer, and Fall. Those runs were as gratifying and enjoyable as runs can be. Best of all was having all my friends achieve their goals at top race events.

My Goal for 2024: Run a lot.

Yule own the roads today

There have been times in Horvath's running career when he felt the need to run 25 miles on the 25th of December. It's a special day, of course, but Dan also enjoys having the roads - even the main ones - almost entirely to himself, since traffic volume is as low as it gets on Christmas morning. Some of these long Christmas Day runs were quite memorable. Today would not be one of them.

Yesterday's race was only a five-miler, but even shorter races take their toll on Horvath these days. Add to this the overall mileage and dearth of days off, To top that off, Horvath has the Brunswick Marathon on the horizon. The only-five-day-away horizon. Now, you have a recipe for a not-so-great run. 

Horvath is out of bed early like usual, but the coffee doesn't do its job as well as he'd like. He'd been thinking of doing some kind of special run on this special day, but now he is starting later and is also running slower than he'd hoped. There is a time constraint: the Grandkids will be opening their presents around 7:30. The run will have to be completed by 7.

As expected, the roads are indeed deserted. It's nice to have everything so quiet. Horvath doesn't get very far. He understands that he's just not going to have any kind of speed today. He calls it quits at 7:00 straight-up, and his watch informs him that he ran 4.99 miles.

Irony of ironies, the kids had awoken and opened their presents already by this time. Maybe Horvath should just go back to bed.

Frosty Five-Mile Race Report

This 5-mile race takes place in Hudson, Ohio, and it's huge. I suppose that's because, unlike Thanksgiving Day races, it's the only game in town. I expected to see lots of friends at the start, but hardly any could be found in the pre-start throng of people.

The crowd at the start and the hills certainly slowed many of us down for that first mile. That was a good thing. The second mile was downhill almost the whole way. So that was a fast one for me. I hit reality again during the third mile, and I tried hard to pick the pace back up for the final two.

During mile four, I still wasn't running as fast as I thought I ought. But the magic happened for mile five. Really - it was my fastest of the day.

My time was 40:14, an 8:03 pace. That's pretty good for me these days. It helped that the weather cooperated.

Afterward, I found a bunch of my friends, and it was fun to talk and compare notes. 

I learned that I was second in my ancient age group.

At the finish with Garrett Wright and his friend. We all won major awards.

They can't kill us all

"You can take them off my cold, dead legs." That's what I say to those who insist on poking fun at my fashionable pink pants. You know: the ones from the 1980s... with the stirrups. 

This photo is from 2013, but 10 years later (not to mention 25 years prior) I'm still wearing the same outfit. For some reason, my old friends as well as some of the new ones still ridicule my sense of style. Some were even laughing (out loud, mind you) at my tiny little red blinking light, the one otherwise known as my "blinkie."

Why, you may ask, am I so festive? Well, it's the holidays, and some of us just like to celebrate. 

Celebrate we did at the Annual MCRR Holiday Lights Run. Chadwick Sunday did a marvelous job of arranging our meet-up at the Corkscrew for the run through the Medina Fairgrounds' Holiday Lights display. 

"They can't kill us all!" It was just a short jog over to the Fairgrounds but the ice and snow forced us to run on the road, in the dark, at rush hour. There was more than one close encounter with a motor vehicle. At some point, Chadwick made his declaration. Thank goodness. I felt safer as a result. 

Somehow, we all made it there and back again. Not only did we not get runned over, we all even stayed vertical. The other intrepid participants included Tim Pepe, Catherine Kinsey, Alexis Mayer, Ladd Clifford, Julie Boggs, and Shannon Barnes.

Meatier!

It's that time of year: The Geminid Meteor Shower is upon us. I saw two during yesterday's long run on Lester. The funny thing was that my companions didn't catch any. I suppose that's because they weren't very bright. I managed to get 18 miles in, with the help of said running buddies.

Thursday's solo run was different. On my way up to North Park, I spotted a bright one. So bright, it was startling. You might even refer to it as a meatier meteor. By the way, I don't run up to North Park very much anymore because I'm running most of my mid-distance runs with friends. And this may be my last run that way for another long while - the city will be draining and dredging the lake, and closing the entire park for the year of 2024.

To Do Two Too Bad Runs

Cool Runnings. 28F didn't sound too bad. But as soon as I stepped out of the car, the wind hit me, and I knew it really was too bad. To do two of these too-bad runs, back to back, was a bit too much.

Shannon Barnes was the only other brave runner to show up at the track today, so it was just the two of us. I suppose everyone else caught a case of wisdom. That never happens to me. We actually managed to run something of substance (a 1600/1200/800/400 ladder), and then it was time to cool down and for Shannon to stretch. 

I did some stretching in sympathy, but mostly so we could talk a little more. Not to mention that we were temporarily sheltered from the wind. The trouble was, when this was over and it was time for Shannon to leave, I still had four-ish cold miles to go. So I started my run number two with some measure of trepidation.

There are times when I am able to pick the pace back up after everyone else leaves. This was not one of those times. I did get the mileage in, but there was nothing of substance.

Looking to Literally Lope Long on Lester

It's Friday, so of course, it's Lester. Lester Rail Trail, that is. This three-mile stretch has been traversed many times by Mr. Horvath. How many would there be today?

Horvath starts out with the 4:30 A.M. crowd. They don't get too far before having to return to meet with the 5:00 A.M. bunch. This group stays together for another half-hour before some of the early bunch needs to leave. They will be driving to Salt Fork State Park today for a Saturday trail run. But Horvath and the others soldier on.

Finally, an entire six-mile loop is completed, and one other person plus his doggie, Ella join. Unfortunately it's also time for everyone else to leave. It seems that work is an issue for some of them. Not Horvath; he's retired.

After one more six, the boy and his dog need to leave, and Horvath finds himself alone. He's got nearly 15 miles in, but needs more to be able to consider this a long run. And a long run is something he desperately wants.

Horvath slows down for these final miles. But thankfully, not too much. He finishes at around 8:15 A.M. with twenty for the day. Not too shabby. But where does he go from here?

Friends are gone, time for a little fartlek

When Dan put the word out about the Tuesday Track run, a few of his friends showed up. But the speedwork didn't quite happen. It seems that running around in circles at any kind of fast pace in 34F weather wasn't their cup of tea today. Running around in circles at an average pace was just fine, thank you.

It's when everyone else left the track that Dan began to fartlek. It was pretty good, satisfying fartlek at that.

Run the straightaways at a decent speed, and take it easy on the turns. That's the way.

Details about today's BM

There was a serious attempt on the part of the Race Director to cease and desist from calling the Brunswick Marathon the BM. There would be no more jokes about having a satisfying and complete BM, bragging about the first BM of the year (since it used to be on New Year's Day), or about the overall size of the BM (like, 'it was massive!').

Having stated that, your author decided to research the start of it all. Here it is, the 2019 post about the very first BM of that, or any year. And now it appears that there was an attempt to maintain high standards even at that point in time. Evidently, the attempt failed. The thing is, even as the RD now tries his darndest to refrain from BM jokes, the other runners seem to insist on it.

Today's run would not be a complete BM. It was only going to be a BM training exercise. But BM training is certainly important, and your RD takes it quite seriously. The new Brunswick Marathon course is much improved; it starts and ends at Sleepy Hollow County Park, and takes place mostly on asphalt trails to, around, and back from Brunswick Lake for about 6.5 miles. Four circuits make a complete BM, but partials are allowed. Today would see some runners accomplish as much as 3/4 of a complete BM.

The 5:00 AM loop consisted of just RD and Frank Dwyer. It wasn't raining; the wet stuff in the air was not real. The few hills on the course weren't either. They make it back just in time for the 6:10 group to join the fun. This group consisted of Harold Dravenstott, Debbie Hicks, Michelle Wolff, Andy Wolff, Julie Boggs, Shannon Barnes, and Jeannine Nicholson. There may have been others, but RD's brain was already rattled by this time, so he may not remember them. Still others joined during the 7:20 loop: Mebelit Melendez and Jamie Carr. 

Everyone ran great. RD thought it was all much more fun than it had any right to be. It was a wonderful and memorable BM.