Saturday morning came early. 3:30 AM early! Akron has a 7:00 start and you need to arrive early enough to find a decent place to park, so we were up proportionately early. The weather people had been calling for rain that morning, but to our surprise it held off for most of the race. What we ended up with was cloudy skies, a gusty wind out of the south, and temps in the upper 50's to low 60's. Just great to run in!
I was not planning on doing either event this year as I'm training for Columbus, but I was able to run in Joe's place as he messed up his knee this last week during a training run. My training schedule called for a 10 mile pace run on Saturday so that's what I wanted to do during the race: a 3 mile warm-up and a 10 mile pace run.
I started out with Frank, as we lost the rest of the group in the crowd before the start. We caught up to them within the first mile and a half and had a nice little group within the larger mass of people. Ladd and Rachel were pacing Jeannine in her first marathon and Frank was running the first three miles before heading out to his relay position later in the race. It was a tight bunch of people as we made our way through the northern loop and back across the Y-bridge. I prepared to shift gears as the 3 mile mark approached coming back through downtown Akron. I also twinged a muscle in my lower back as I got tripped up on a traffic cone in the road that I didn't see coming.
The MCRR gang before the start.
Having said my good-byes and wished everyone luck, it was time to speed up. We had been averaging 9:15 miles and I needed 7:26 or below. The crowd was still very thick and I needed to carefully make my way forward, dodging around people left and right. As luck would have it, I would miss the mile 4 marker, so I had no idea what my pace was. Mile 5 brought me a 14:40 split, but I didn't know if the miles were evenly paced or one was faster than the other. I wouldn't have a good idea of my pace until mile 6, which turned out to be a 7:20. Turns out, that's where I wanted to be.
Miles 7 and 8 were both around 7:30 but mile 9 went sub-7:00 at 6:59. It was nice to turn out a quicker mile and not get too tired. Of course, we were heading downhill, but that's the best time to try to make up some time. Mile 10 was 7:09 but mile 11 was back under 7:00. And I felt really good running that too. I could feel a tugging behind my kneecap, but it wasn't hurting so I kept up the pace. Mile 11 was the steep downhill into the valley. I held back and descended carefully but could have gone much faster on that stretch had it been race day.
I was now approaching unfamiliar territory. The end of the half marathon course had been changed from previous years and I didn't know what to expect other than an uphill section. But what an uphill it was! I'd say it was a 1/2 to 3/4 mile climb back out to the top along the crushed surface of the Towpath. I thought it was tough but enjoyed the workout as well. My split for mile 12 was 7:41, which isn't far off of my pace considering the difficulty of the hill. I was actually pleased when I got the split at the top. For the final mile, I don't remember picking up the pace too much, but my split for mile 13 was 6:23. Pretty darn fast for the end of a half marathon.
My final time was 1:40:30. Not a PR, but not a PW (personal worst) either. And I wasn't racing it anyway, just sticking to my plan to use it as a training run. I felt good after finishing and shortly left to go back out and look for Mrs. P. I found her about 3/4 mile from the finish, and she wasn't in good shape either. Her hamstring was cramped and she was trying to power through it to a new half marathon PR. She was WAY ahead of her pace from Rite Aid in May but quickly slowing due to the cramp. I ran with her and tried to get her mind in a better place: focussing on finishing and not on the pain. She was hurting but kept moving. She ended up finishing with a two minute PR. Not an easy thing to do on that course.
After the last of our half marathon troop finished, we headed for home. But it wasn't until that afternoon and evening that we began discovering how many people we knew were sick. Vomiting sick. Either during the race or afterward. Mrs. P. began feeling really bad later in the evening. I felt fine, but about half of the people in the group photo above came down with some type of gastro-intestinal issues. Somehow I was not one of them. We discussed possible sources and the only thing we could come up with was the water on the course. I drank at every aid station, but I had Power Aid at every one except for two: The aid station just after mile 8 and the very next one. They use water from fire hydrants for this race and are supposed to flush them in advance. I don't know if that was it, but it seems like the only common link involved. I'll update as more information becomes available.
A few of the MCRR club members at Legends Saturday night for a celebratory dinner and a drink or two!
Congratulations to all those who finished, particularly first time marathoners Roseanne, Janet, Jeannine, and Debbie! And to those who started but ran into enough troubles to cause their days to be shorter than hoped for. It happens.
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