2008 Nationwide Better Health Columbus Marathon

I'm not exactly sure where to start writing about this race. There was so much that went into it and went right. The training was the foremost ingredient, to be sure. I've been increasing my long runs since the end of summer, reaching distances of 20 and 23 miles. I've been doing speed work at the track since June, and can see how adding that alone has helped me get faster at every distance. I began carbo loading on Friday night, and included Saturday morning in that as well. I didn't get much sleep Saturday night, but that hasn't affected me in a race before. The weather for a marathon was perfect. It really could not have been any better. As I had not anticipated the mid 30's at the start, I was a little less than prepared clothing-wise, and had to pull a MacGruder at the last second to save my wardrobe issue. I chose to wear a dry fit sleeveless as a base layer, followed by my long sleeve Akron dry fit shirt, followed by a long sleeve cotton race shirt (I was desperate), all topped off with a trash bag. This information will be revisited later and will be on the exam.

I suppose I will just get right to the race itself. We arrived at the start a little later than we should have. I was only able to make my way forward to the 4:30 starting vicinity. There were so many people there, it was impossible to squeeze up any further. And as I was to find out, many of those people were queued up too far ahead. I was literally weaving my way through the crowd for the entire first half of the race. When the half marathon split off from the full, it took over half the field with it, finally giving me some breathing room.


It took about four minutes for me to get to the starting line. We just shuffled along, stepping over the discarded trash bags and sweatshirts from the people ahead of us. Miles one and two were horribly congested. I couldn't believe that I was passing walkers who had started so far up. And the groups running together three or more abreast. That's just ridiculous. I usually will toss my trash bag before the start, but decided to keep mine this time. Somewhere during mile 1, I popped my arms out through the sides and ended up running in it till after the first fluid station, where I discarded it. It did it's job keeping me warm, but I could feel the sweat forming with nowhere to go.


As we turned north in Bexley around mile three, I removed the cotton shirt, tying it around my waist for the rest of the race. The course also narrowed here, causing us to bunch up tight again and therefore slowing down. That was actually my slowest mile, going up and around the Governor's mansion. Mr. and Mrs. Strickland were out on the corner this year, the same place I high-fived Bob Taft two years ago, but I didn't see them soon enough and just waved. We wound south towards Capital University, around Franklin Park, and back up to Broad St. This was one of the course changes and I liked it. There's a lot of atmosphere along Bryden, but I have never felt comfortable running over there. I don't mind that they changed that section. The house with the porch full of "happy" men on the corner of Drexel and Main was pretty funny though. This whole time I'm only thinking about a couple things: trying to stay on my pace, trying to work my way through the field safely, and making sure to take fluids at every station as I had planned: Gatorade, Gatorade, water and PowerGel. That was my plan and I had to stay focused to remember where I was at in my order. They were serving Gatorade Endurance, which I train with exclusively, that has extra sodium. I need that because I am a heavy sweater. The gels have more concentrated calories and caffeine. The combination seems to work just fine for me.


Making our way into German Village, I high-fived someone in a full jack-o-lantern costume, and waved at the photographer on the platform suspended over the road. As we turned onto High St., It was good to see downtown ahead, but I knew it was still a couple miles away and that even when I reached it I was only going to be half done. I felt great though. I didn't need to play any of those old mental games this time. No need to try to motivate me just a little further. I felt so good running this time, I was just doing it. As I passed the 13.1 mile marker, I simply asked myself if I would like to go for a 13.1 mile run. No matter that I had just run that distance already. I answered myself, "sure, why not" and kept going.


The new route down through "Fraternity Row" was interesting, but there weren't too many people out and about. One guy on the corner of High and Chittenden was eating a quart of Ben and Jerry's at 9:30 in the morning. It sure looked better than Gatorade and PowerGels!


As we were running around the Horseshoe, I met up with a large group, a few of whom were talking about the Akron Marathon. I chimed in that I liked Akron and got into a conversation with one of the guys. It turns out that I had caught the 3:40 pace group. I decided to hang with the group and Darren, the guy I was talking with. We ended up running together the rest of the race. It was also really nice running with a pace group. I didn't need to worry about my times, just keeping up with the group. We ran through Upper Arlington (where I removed my other long sleeve shirt, hat, and gloves), down through Grandview Hts., and back toward Victorian Village and ultimately the finish. Through all this, I just kept running and conversing with Darren and others in the group, more than a few were down from the Cleveland area. The mile markers and fluid stations seemed to be coming faster than expected. That's a good thing that late in a marathon. I was starting to get tired and I had a couple leg cramps that I was able to quickly run through, but nothing debilitating. My knee was tightening on me and was sore, but nothing like it was last year. And no wall! My fluid and gel strategy must have worked because I had no wall issues. Hitting the wall was in the back of my mind up until mile 25. And if I hit it then, I could mentally push through it. Actually, my finish was very strong. I was able to pick up my pace with half a mile to go and pushed pretty hard down Nationwide to the finish line.


After crossing the finish line, and stopping for the first time in over three and a half hours, I started to feel a little not-so-good. I was starting to get lightheaded and my fingers were tingling. I tried to keep walking, thinking that my blood was pooling too much in my legs. After about 15 minutes and a bag of potato chips I felt better. My finish time was 3:34:08, 41 minutes faster than Akron last year. I finished 903rd of 3869 overall, 115th of 348 in my AG, and 776th of 2426 men. My splits were: 8:17 / 8:14 / 7:51 (finally got some room to run) / 8:55 (bottle-necked in Bexley) / 7:52 / 7:45 / 8:21 / 8:21 / 7:39 / 7:57 / 7:50 / 7:51 / 8:40 (13.1) / 7:01 (0.9 mile) / 7:59 / 7:52 / 8:15 (joined the pace group) / 8:22 / 8:37 / 8:18 / 8:19 / 8:20 / 8:17 / 8:54 (nearly missed this mile marker) / 8:28 / 8:18 / 1:23 (final 0.1 mile).


Today I'm just a little sore. My quads mostly. My knee is what's really bothering me. I'm having trouble negotiating stairs and keeping up with anyone I might be walking with. I'm supposed to head to the track tomorrow, but I'm going to decide on that tomorrow. Otherwise I'm doing relatively well. I've gone through more water than I normally do, but haven't snacked as much. I could go for a nap right now though.


Only one more officially scheduled race this year on Thanksgiving. I may work some others in however. Next marathon? That will be next spring. Probably Rite Aid but possibly another. Seven months out, time to start training for a sub 3:30! But for right now, I'm going to be happy with my performance yesterday and not worry too much about next year just yet.


Mr. P