The Expo was at the Hyatt Regency at the Arcade. It was a cool looking building.
The expo was in the basement and was very small but that’s fine, we were out of
there in less than 15 minutes.
Pre-Race
We woke up to thunder, lightning and heavy rain. It was not
looking to be a great start to this race. I’m not sure where the storm came
from because the night before just looked to be hot. We got ready and went to
the hotel lobby and realized that walking a mile in this crap was not an ideal
thing. It is only a mile walk to the starting line, but I really didn’t want to
show up drenched with wet shoes. I hate running in wet shoes. It was already
going to be a miserable race. So Uber came to the rescue. Best $15 I spent on
the trip, I got to the start line dry. By the time we got to the Rock Hall the
heavy rain was done, just a little sprinkle but the lightning display was still
going. They delayed the start 15 minutes. We ran into the Rock Hall to use the
bathroom and stay dry from the lingering rain drops. 5 minutes before the start
we wandered over to the starting line and another big crack of thunder and
another lightning strike and I thought
for sure we were going to be delayed again but nope, we started. Thankfully the
rain stopped and my shoes were mostly dry. :)
Start
There were only about 900
people running the half, less than I thought. My training leading up to the
race was not great. My longest run since Hatfield & McCoy was 8 miles. With
all the traveling, I didn’t have much time for running. But that is ok, I got
to see Dylan a lot in July and that was more important! I decided to start
running 1 minute and walking 30 seconds. I was going to take it slow. I usually
run out to fast and then crash and burn. Today I was going to take it slow. I
did good for the first couple miles. I stayed on my 60:30 and had to 13:30
miles. During mile 3 I started running with Melody. I veered of the 60:30 and
started doing more of 60:60. When I started running with Melody, I got trapped
in my mind game that I need to run fast for the 60 seconds and then I couldn’t
recover in the usually 30 seconds. I don’t really care because honestly my goal
with this race was to finish before the cut off of 3:45.
Now my slowest half ever was
3:30 and that was when I was suffering from strep throat, bronchitis and
stuffed up nose. Other than my lack of training, I was perfectly fine for this
race. The only thing that could drag me down was heat and thankfully it wasn’t
horrible for most of the race. The sun was tucked behind a cloud. When it would
peek out it got hot fast but shortly after that it would go back behind the
clouds. I’m surprised I did as well as I did for the first 5 miles. I was
keeping a consistent pace and didn’t get over heated. In addition to Melody, we also met Sparks from
Philly. He was speed walking, I walked with him for a bit and man he was fast.
We decided to stick around him for a while because he made the comment that he
always has chest pains for the first 4 miles of every race!!! What????
Miles 4 and 5 were through
some “interesting” parts to town. We also ran through the Cleveland Clinic
campus during mile 6. So if I need medical assistance, this would have been the
best mile. Haha!
Middle
Mile 7, 8 and 9 were very
beautiful. We ran down Martin Luther King Jr Dr. and the Cleveland Culture
Gardens. There was lots of shade and
gorgeous gardens. They had gardens representing various countries. The Syrian
was the best with the arches, it looked like the perfect place for a wedding. This is the area we lost Sparks. He beat us
by 5 minutes. Haha!
Finish
Beginning of mile 10 was
along the lake. We didn’t get to see much of the lake because there was an
airport in the way. And it wasn’t an exciting airport with big planes…that
would have kept my interest. I had a funny thought on the road when I realized
that several years ago, when Eric and I visited Cleveland, we were stuck on
this road because we didn’t know there was an airshow going on…it took us
forever to get through that traffic jam. I never would have thought then that
one day I’d be running a half marathon on this road. And here I am! We could
see the Browns stadium for the entire time and it never got any bigger so it
never felt like I was getting closer to the finish. By this time, Melody and I
were speed walking. I mentioned we could run again and we both cracked up
laughing and said nope! When we got close to finish, Melody said we had to
sprint so she yelled at me to run faster and we crossed the finish line at
3:17:43. It seems that is my “lack of training” time. Someday I will train and get
back under 3. I did it last year at Grandma’s full marathon.
Overall this wasn’t a bad
race. I did way better than I expected…I thought it would be another 3:30 time.
There wasn’t much at the finish line. I got my huge medal and bottle of water.
Eventually found a banana and Eric. We didn’t waste any time at the finish
line…we got an Uber back to the hotel where we crashed.
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