Cleveland Marathon Race Report

They can't all be gems. I am finding myself saying that more and more these days. Especially today.

After 13.1 miles (in ~1:56), I was already doing the marathon shuffle.

After 18 miles (about 2:41), I was in death-march mode.

At about 20 miles (around 3:03), I was starting to re-examine my life choices.

It would have been a good day to have someone suggest going to breakfast after the Half. I'd been running much of the first 12 miles with Eileen Meisler, and that part hadn't gone too poorly. I was jealous, however, when she and the other Half-Marathoners peeled off to finish, whilst we Marathoners had to soldier on. That's when it began to get hotter and hotter. Although there were some nice, shady sections, the heat just kept building.

Despite all the Gatorade, gels, and salt-sticks, that heat got to me. The entire second half was awful, especially the last 10K. I suppose it could have been worse, as it has been for a few of the past Cleveland Marathons, but it was pretty bad today.

I finished in 4:13. I'd been hoping for sub-4. It wasn't in the cards today. Although they interviewed me at the finish line ("You may have won your age group. You are an inspiration to us all!"), I later learned that I was second, not first, in my ancient age group.

To add insult to injury, I became the proud recipient of a parking ticket when I got back to my car in the 81F heat.

Thanks to Larry Orwin for coming downtown to witness my exciting finish!

Photo credit: Larry Orwin

More on Plan B

Temperatures be like, 55, 55, 55, <<all month long>>, then suddenly 85 on the day of the race. Weather can have a profound impact on marathon performance, and this Sunday, I'm afraid, will be no exception. Most of us don't get to run too many marathons throughout the year, and we need to train for months to run one. Thus, it's particularly concerning to see a forecast such as the one we have for this weekend.

By the way, there's a typo in the post title. It should read, Moron Plan B. There. That's better.

Dan, what do you mean by Plan B, you ask? Excellent question. As I mentioned in a previous post, Plan B is for times when your Plan A Marathon doesn't go quite as well as planned, and you want a second chance to run a decent marathon whilst you're still in marathon shape. This is not to say that I'm in the very best marathon shape possible right now. But since everything's relative, I believe I can say that I just might be the best I've been in a while.

Here are a couple of my candidates for a Plan B. They come shortly after the Cleveland Marathon.

MISH Waterfront Marathon, June 6 in Gladstone, Michigan.

The Maratime Marathon, June 7 in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. 

They both sound nice, but they're a fur piece. I guess I'll wait until after Sunday's Cleveland Marathon to decide what to do.

Peek and Peak

Five days out from the Cleveland Marathon, I peeked at the weekend forecast. The weather is important to me, because I am peaking for this race and I want it to be a good one.

Alas, it does not look so good: the high for the day is now forecasted to be a toasty 81. This wouldn't be quite so bad if it came along in the summer, when we're used to training in warm weather, but not when it's been well below average for weeks and weeks. Those cool morning temperatures have felt pretty good. 81 will not.

I should have had a Plan B. Oftentimes, I do. For example, last fall, I ran the Columbus Marathon, where the weather was bad, and as a result, my time was slow. My Plan B race came two weeks later at the Veterans Marathon. I ran a little better at that one. But this time, there is no Plan B; it's do or die in Cleveland, probably the latter. 

There's been a whole lot of yin and yang this season. After Sunday's decent race, yesterday was a slow and easy day. Today's track workout wasn't bad, though. After a cold start, my friends and I ran the 10 x 400 5K workout, and I was reasonably happy with my run. After they all left, I was alone on the track once again. 

But not totally alone. My shadow joined me, and I was happy to have the company. He needs to get into better shape, though.

Dan and his shadow

Moms Rock 5K

A wardrobe malfunction can have many possible causes. 

One possible cause is this: you put on some tights that you haven't warn for three years and you wouldn't be normally wearing tights when it's fifty degrees but since you will be walking around the zoo all day after the race, you figure you should wear something that works for both running and walking around but you learn that the waistband elastic of the tights is shot but you can keep them up by tying the drawstring, so of course the knot comes undone and your tights are falling down at about the two-mile mark, causing you to stop and re-tie it, just when you ought to be running at your fastest because it's downhill here.

Other than that, the race was okay. As usual, I was slow and slower on the uphill sections, which included most of the first half of the race. Coming back down, I wanted to unleash the beast (after all, we were running at the zoo), but that wardrobe thing slowed me down. 

I finished in 25:58. That's not too bad, but the course was a bit short. Better that than long, I always say. After a while, I checked in at the results tent and learned that I won a miniature daisy planter for being first in my ancient age group. But when I got home, my name isn't showing up in the results. I'm working on this...

DNS

over·​train: transitive + intransitive: : to train (a person or animal) to excess or beyond advantage : to harm (a person or animal) by too much training.

I'm on the mill today. Is that because the weather's bad, you ask? Nope. I just couldn't get myself out the door. And last night, I couldn't get myself over to Medina for the Run 4 Fun 5K. It was raining, but that only reinforced my decision to stay at home. I think I've ventured into the overtraining arena.

My first clue was Tuesday's speedwork. That wound up being a failure to launch, just like last week's session. Then came the Thursday night Ladd 5K. That was almost an all-time personal worst. And it's not for lack of trying.

Tomorrow it will be the Moms Rock 5K at the zoo. It will be Mother's Day, and Debbie will come with me. More importantly, we're only a week away from the Cleveland Marathon. Uh oh.

Well that was tough

I did my long run today, the day after the Run for Tacos. Two Hinckley loops with training partner Julie Boggs, plus a couple more miles to make twenty altogether. It wasn't easy. It's the last long one before Cleveland. Glad it's done. Now, I'm done.

Will Run for Tacos Cinco de Mile 5-Mile Race Report

It was a nice, clear, beautiful Spring morning for the Will Run for Tacos Cinco de Mile 5-Mile race. The good weather brought out a good turnout of runners and lots of good competition. I ran fast, and I’m quite proud of my performance. Afterward, the tacos were extremely tasty.

Not one of those previous statements is even remotely true. Here’s the real story.

I’m officially on fire. Not in terms of running. It’s the post-race taco. Not totally aware or even coherent, I had waited in line after the race, and received a lukewarm soft taco wrapped in foil. I had unwrapped the foil and opened the taco to discover a thin smear of meat, sauce, perhaps melted cheese, and maybe some other stuff. I wasn’t concerned about anything unhealthy therein, because there was so little of it. At the next station, I had squirted on some hot sauce and added lettuce. Then I’d found a warm corner inside where I could stand up and enjoy my meal. It's hot! It is three-alarm-fire hot; I’d added too much of the much-too-hot sauce. Of course, I consume it anyway. It’s been that kind of morning.

The Will Run for Tacos event takes place in the Tremont Neighborhood of Cleveland. The weather is awful – 37F with cold, drizzly rain. I don’t want to get out of my car, but I eventually do go for a short warmup run. Then I line up with the 5K runners as well as 94 other 5-Mile runners. The race is simply out and back on the Towpath Trail. I think this part is fairly new; it certainly is for me. It runs more or less along the West Bank of the Cuyahoga River. 

Even though I hadn’t warmed up properly due to the cold, damp weather, the first mile goes well. Of course, that’s because it’s downhill. I am gonna pay coming back. At 2 ½ miles, we turn around, and I eventually start going back up. Yes, I do pay, big time. My last mile turns out to be my slowest. It’s the opposite of last week’s race.

My time is 42:24, good for first in my ancient age group. That 8:29 pace is slower than last week’s pace for double the distance. I have some work to do.