I signed up for this race back in May. I have wanted to do Columbus for quite awhile. I have been training with two girls who were running the full. This was the first race, that I really didn't have too many jitters regarding training. I felt I had trained strong and I felt good with very minimal aches and pains.
Friday after work we went down to the Race Expo. I thought it was well organized. Lots to offer. I got a new race/fuel belt. I was pretty excited as I have never found one I really liked.
Sunday morning I woke up at 4:00. I went down and took some ibuprofen and made a coffee. I ate a chobani with oats (my new favorite thing). I went upstairs and put on my race clothes. I wore a pink adidas long sleeved shirt, nike shorts, CRX compression socks, Moving Comfort Bra.
I made the decision to wear my new fuel belt/race belt combo. Normally you aren't supposed to wear/do anything new for race day, but I had bought a new belt as, I have always hated the one I had. Plus it wasn't big enough, so I had to wear a spibelt. They drove me crazy. Anywho.
Jeff and I left to go pick up running pals - Stephanie and Maritsa. Then we headed Downtown. Parking was no problem. We confirmed that Jeff was going to be at about Mile 7.5, then at the finish.
We all walked over to the MIT group. Steph and Mari are part of MIT. We use the potties and headed to the rooms. There was music playing and runners prepping for their races. If being here didn't get you excited about running you are most definitely not a runner.
Steph left to go stay with her training group. She was doing the full.
Maritsa stayed behind and we all walked over to the start line together.
It was a long walk, or so it seemed. There was the race energy in the air. We got to the race and I initially lined up with Mari and her group in Corral D. Then they went to the potty and I stayed back, I figured we wouldn't meet back up so maybe I should go to the Corral C and try to find the pacer for a 4:15 marathon. I found my assigned corral but never did see a 4:15 marathon. Hmm. Oh well.
The first group went off and then we waited, finally it was our turn. The gun went off and away we went, well sort of. It was very crowded. I was having a hard time running.
My plan for this race was to finish. To do my 2:00/:30 the entire race. To fuel properly at miles 3, 6, 9 and 12 and most importantly to have fun. I was running odd numbers for Tommy's 40th birthday and even numbers for my cousin Liz. I wore my grey ribbon for them (Grey is for Brain tumors)
So, I finally was able to do the intervals. I was running good and feeling good. There were tons of people. there was tons of crowd support. Each mile of the race had a child champion. They were on site to high five. Seeing these kids was AMAZING.
This race was very good as far as races go. The Expo was great, the start line was fin (minus the fact I couldn't find a pacer) The course was good, although there were places that were crowded and it was very hard to pass people. The finish line. Well I didn't have any issues...BUT I was disappointed that my medal was in a plastic bag (which the race director sent out a letter to explain why - good move) It seemed that we had to walk quite a bit to get food/ drink/meet family members/get gear check. I wanted to go get a finishers shirt but the crowd was crazy. There were people waiting and waiting to claim their bags. I had REALLY wanted to meet Steph and run her in but the crowds were just too much. We couldn't move and my muscles were beginning to tighten up.
Mile 1 - 10:50
Mile 2 - 10:56
Mile 3 - 10:42
Mile 4 - 10:45
Mile 5 - 10:25
Mile 6 - 10:29
Mile 7 - 11:03
Mile 8 - 10:25
Mile 9 - 10:24
Mile 10 - 11:04
Mile 11 - 11:03
Mile 12 - 11:14
Mile 13 - 10:39
all in all, I cut 3 minutes off my half time. I had a great run. Each time I began to get discouraged, I thought of Liz and Tommy and I got through. I wish I could have gone faster, but the goal was to finish. I will do this race again!
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