Cleveland Marathon

I ran ok for a while, but then I got tired and slowed down.

Many of you recognize my standard race report, which applies to about 60% of my races and 80% of my marathons. It did last Sunday. But what did you expect? Let's consider the excuses:

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10) I have zero race experience for the year.
9) Cleveland was windy as usual, although it has been worse other years.
8) Temperatures were in the low 60s. Not bad, but I still would've liked 10 degrees less.
7) With all the traveling this year, training in general has not been where it should be.
6) With all the traveling this year, I haven't been able to do as many quality long runs as I wanted.
5) Since my last race (Columbus, last October), I've had several illnesses and at least one major injury.
4) I got home from Portugal only about 36 hours before the start.
3) With all the traveling this year, I have managed to put on a few pounds.
2) They've been more than a few pounds.
1) I'm old, bald, fat and ugly.

They had big numbers for this year's race: over 9,000 for the marathon, half and 10K. I think there were something like 2,800 marathoners. The start of the combined full and half didn't seem very crowded however. I didn't have any real plan, other than I wanted to run smoothly. To do under 8 minute pace would be nice. Negative split would be grand. So when I figured out that my first couple miles were at 7:30 pace, continuing at that pace seemed as good an idea as any.

It was nice talking with TJ Hawk and his buddies, as well as Mike George and his brother a good part of the first 11 miles or so. TJ mentioned that after the race he would clean up as much as possible and change in his car in order to get to church on time. I told him that God wouldn't mind the smell. TJ replied that he didn't think so either, but some of the people may mind. Paul Lane, running on TJ's other side, said that TJ may wind up with a pew all to himself.

The half marathoners peeled off, and things got lonelier as I headed east on Chester toward University Circle. The half-way point was 1:38 and change: still 7:30 pace. It was probably somewhere about the circle itself where I began to slow down. I wasn't watching each and every mile split like usual, but I figure those 7:30s slowly became 7:45s or so.

Even while slowing, I was still passing folks who were slowing more. I went by and talked a bit with Nancy Schubring, an old running acquaintance from Michigan. By the time I was heading back towards downtown on North Marginal (miles 19-24), I began slowing even more. Going up the short hill on West 3 was difficult for me - it felt like a mountain at that point.

So the wheels never came off completely, but there was a general slowing. The last mile was decent, and I finished in 3:22 and change.

This had been the 30th edition, and I'd been there for the 1st, 10th, 25th, and about seven others. This may have been my slowest. But now that I've got my 1st race of the year out of the way, they can only get better now. Right?