So since I wasn't sure I'd be committed to this challenge, I waited to begin blogging until I had already completed at least 2 half marathons! Well this past Sunday completed number 2 in state number 2 and so here we are. This post will serve to update you on my first race which happened to be in CLEVELAND, OHIO (my hometown). Post two will be about WISCONSIN DELLS, WISCONSIN.
Let me begin by saying, Cleveland ROCKS! Sorry, had to do it. So this was the start of my half marathon adventures. This is the one that got me hooked, though! This race had all the makings of an enjoyable first half marathon. I was following a training schedule religiously for several months and was planning on figuring out exactly what to eat the night before and how much sleep I would need. I even scheduled a trip to Colorado to follow and figured this was a large enough even that crowd support would blast me to an amazing finish. I set an unrealistic goal (for me) of a 2 hour marathon and was pumped...
Here's how it actually went down:
The Preparation I ran this race after a week of working. I work as an emergency veterinarian, and so I work the graveyard shift. I actually missed about 2 weeks of training before race day (so the longest run I ever finished was 11 miles), got a whopping 4 hours of sleep the night before the race and really had not been eating healthy. To make a long story short I almost backed out of running altogether the day before the race. My friend Matt (who is perhaps the world's best race day friend, more on this later) had picked up my packet for me at the expo Saturday so I could sleep a little, and he also happened to provide a 5 AM wake up call. Seriously if it weren't for him I would have overslept because my alarm didn't go off (or I subconsciously turned it off which is more likely). So I threw on some running clothes, opened up some young coconuts (sometimes I like to drink coconut water instead of water on my runs), tied up my laces, and figured I was already up so I might as well run 13.1 miles! We hopped in the car and headed downtown.
On the way I checked out my race packet... let's see here... awesome tech shirt, score! Bib number and pins, check. What's this.... a prevacid sample and a rice krispy treat? Interesting. I hadn't really had breakfast (still not sure how I do with food before the race), so I figured the treat would do. Overall the race packet was pretty good, mostly because of the shirt, and anyone who knows me well knows I'm really just in this for the goods.
Breakfast of Champions!
The Arrival We arrived downtown in plenty of time. I was a little in awe of how big the event was! So many people. So many very svelte, fit, more runner-ish looking people than me. I took little mental notes of what the serious runners seemed to be doing to prepare (jog, stretch, water, bathroom, bananas seemed to be the trend) and as you can probably imagine given how well my preparation had gone up to this point I didn't do any of those things. Why bother trying to do things right at this point? ;)
Because the event is so big, you line up based on your pace time. Now given my 4 hours of sleep I had given up on my dream of a 2 hour run and figured I'd run about a 12 minute pace, but I was feeling a little optimistic so I joined the 11 minute group. I was still basically in the back of the herd. On my way to what I like to call the land of "bringin' up the rear"s, I passed some of the top runners, many of whom were from Kenya, and immediately felt out of place. However once I got to the rear of the line with the rest of the 11 minute pacers I felt more at home :).
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| This will not be me. |
The Race Once I was in line I actually started to feel pretty pumped and excited. Nearly 20,000 runners (half and full marathon plus 10Kers) will do that to you (even when you are behind what felt like 19,000 of them). I didn't have to wait very long until I heard the faint sound of the national anthem followed shortly by the start of the race. It took nearly 20 minutes before I finally crossed the start line but before you knew it I was off!
The race was fun for me, being from Cleveland and all. It takes you by a lot of my favorite parts of Cleveland and there is decent spectator support which REALLY helps. Some of my favorite signs read "I don't know who you are but I am so proud of you", "Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, it's RUNNING time!", and "Chuck Norris never ran a marathon". There was also an awkward sign that read something like "That's not sweat, it's liquid awesome!"
I felt surprisingly well for almost the entire race. I was even running faster than I thought - my first mile was 10:33 and I ended up pacing an average of 11:13. We started at the Browns' Stadium, ran by the lake, through several neighborhoods, up Murray Hill, by the Westside Market, across the Lorain Road bridge, through downtown past the Indians' Stadium and finally back to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I really enjoyed running through my home town and sites I've visited many times throughout my life. It was so invigorating to look ahead of you and see thousands of runners, and exciting to actually see a fair number behind me as well ;).
The Lorain Road Bridge which incidentally is
where I got a speeding ticket a few months ago.
(But I fought the ticket and won!)
I really felt great until about mile 11 when I started to get pretty bad side stitches and was just worn out overall. I happened to hear a photographer yell out "smile, smile!" I had no idea who he was and was so focused on finishing I just ignored him and forged ahead (add this to my list of mistakes made, see below). I just kept telling myself "you're going to do this! you're going to finish a half marathon!" and, most importantly "you're going to get a medal!" When I saw the finish line ahead it was all downhill from there (literally there was a little hill on the way to the end) so I started just sprinting like crazy... only to find out that it wasn't the end. What I thought was the end was actually the markers for mile 13! The race took a sharp turn at the last minute and I still had 0.1 miles to go (which brought me back to a shirt I saw someone wearing that said "it's the last 0.1 miles that's the killer!")!! That doesn't sound like much, but I had just sprinted to what I thought was the end only to find out my legs had to work a little bit longer... But it wasn't too much longer and I FINISHED! I finished in 2:27 which I was happy with (especially since my goal was to just finish!)
The guitar spins, how cool is that?
The Aftermath: After finishing, I relished in the fact that I had an amazing medal as I hogged one of those giant fans that blows water on you. I grabbed a banana and chose not to have ice cream, chips, or chocolate milk which were all things being offered to the runners (I can't imagine eating any of those things after running so far!). I tried to find my friend Matt who I will now explain why he is the ultimate person to have around on race day. Matt got up early, drove me downtown, attempted to get a picture of me crossing the start line and managed to get a video of me crossing the finish line (mostly). How many people would do that for you!? I enjoyed a little bit of the after race festivities but not too much because I had to get home to pack to go to Colorado for the week! All in all it was a great experience, so much so that once I was at the airport I found more races to run in June and signed up for 2 more. And so it begins...
Photos from the race: So I'm going to post an embarrassing photo, but just one, and only because it is hilarious. When the guy with the camera tells you to smile it's because those are going to be your official race photos. I happen to look like I am dying in every single one of my photos. I'll try to get ahold of Matt's video of me finishing although just as I cross the finish line he lost me and so the video actually shows someone else crossing the line... but you see me just before and after. And I got a medal so clearly that proves that I finished ;-) This is actually the one where I look least like I'm dying so you can imagine how awful the other pictures are.
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Megan Vessalo #8560
Overall: Awesome! I really recommend this race to anyone interested because it is pretty flat, there is great entertainment, it is well organized, lots of spectator support, awesome medals/shirts, and music throughout. It really was a fun race to run and I'm so glad I started with this race. I'm sure I will do this race yearly from now on. It made me proud to be from Cleveland!!
For more information on this marathon check it out HERE.
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