And already it is over. Already it is the week after and I am wondering where the time went. All of the training for this one is in the bag… The hard work is done (for this one) and now it is time to sit back and reflect.
My first thought (because I just read a Women’s Running magazine article on oooo look at me, I ran my half marathon despite having the flu… isn’t that admirable… look at how awesome I am despite spewing germs over 13 miles and an expo!!!) has been… thank goodness I didn’t get sick through the last few days. Autoimmune disorder chick doesn’t appreciate the INCREDIBLE ADMIRATION OOOOOOO people get for deliberately spreading germs to 50,000 of the people they contact… If you wouldn’t go to work and slobber all over your co-workers, don’t slobber all over the race event…
Bear isn’t incredibly thrilled with my reflections… but… it is what it is. A lot of it is that I’m proud of myself (he’s good with that) a lot of it is that I’m beating myself up (not so good with that). Now I know, basically, where I stand, and where I need to improve.
My takeaways on the race…
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- even when the weather apps say it isn’t raining and that rain is pretty far away, don’t believe them. While it wasn’t exactly rain rain… it was heavy enough foggy drizzle to make the day very chilly and humid. For not rain… there were a lot of puddles and a LOT of people standing inside for the half hour leading up to race time. Personally, I thought this was hilarious. You are going to be out on the course… running… walking… run-walk-running… woggling… whatever you do…. for well over an hour and you are worried about getting wet before the race started.
- ‘walkers keep to the right and runners to the left’ gets you run over and knocked sailing if you are stupid enough to be doing intervals and are walking on the right. WORSE, if you are at mile 12+ you have marathoners RUNNING inches from you despite the fact that you are all the way to the right of the right side of the street and they have FOUR FREAKING LANES to run in… nope, have to run close enough to you that they fling sweat as they pass. YAY.
- Flat course is relative. There are some kind of big hills. One is down which was great one is up which I handled better than I thought I would when I saw it… but there ARE hills of varying sizes.
- Every other race I’ve done has done a better job of cleaning up after the runners who discard shirts/sleeves/pants/shoes/whatever along the route than Cleveland did. It’s Tuesday and there are still clothes laying in brightly colored puddles along the sidewalks. Not cool and it makes Cleveland look very sloppy.
- Mario (at the end of the Detroit street bridge was the best cheering section I passed on Sunday.
It was nice to see people out in the rain cheering everyone on
That is a LOT of cups
Yeah, yeah, I have a thing for boats and reflections… Didn’t actually realize what pictures I did end up getting but this wasn’t bad with Tower City in the background.
It was very cool running across the lift bridges and seeing the G-Tugs hanging out in the fog…
It was kind of neat running where I walk every day anyway. It was much more comfortable on the street running than I think it would have been on the sidewalk.
I kept up with the “3 hour half” pacer for about three miles… but then I lost him along below Tower City. Shame, too because at that point I really had my heart set on making a 3 hour half. I wasn’t FAR off… but I wasn’t quite where I would have loved to have been .
See… this is totally a hill. Not quite as long as the one in Austin, but a hill none the less. I loved the signs you pass going up, though… cheering you on…
This is most true!!!
I loved passing the interesting artwork.
and the cool photo ops.
I had never had Honey Stingers before. It is my new go-to race food.
This is an interesting house. Architecture is kind of interesting in Cleveland.
Next to the artwork… the people were awesome to pass
I loved this shirt at the point I caught up to her. It made me smile because it’s very true.
This was… interesting… it was kind of annoying when the marathon pacer decided that it was imperative that he cut off the people in the half marathon side of the road so he could high five the people on the stationary bikes because… you know… I was kind of busy running my own race that probably wasn’t as exciting or important as the high fives or the full marathon race… but hey… it was interesting…
I have to kind of pat myself on the back a little, though… I PRed both my races. I have NEVER EVER run as fast as I did for the 8k and even my Half Marathon time was better than I ever dreamed it would be. I was hoping to make it (before I set off in the race) in under 3 hours and 25 minutes. I did.
Now, all I have to do is better my time so I can better my corral in the Princess challenge and I will be set!
Now… onward and upward…
Rock and roll 10k in August
amish 10k September
towpath 10k October (maybe the half??? )
princess challenge 2019
and… next year’s Cleveland challenge series.
I’m trying to not hold out too much hope of being a race ambassador… but I think it would be wicked awesome cool to prove that someone with RA and who is more than a little overweight can ambassador a race and raise awareness!!!
Love and Light
April
5/22/2018
A Figment Of Fitness 