Today was my first run following last Sunday's Columbus Marathon. Even though it's only been a week since the race, I couldn't pass up a day like this for a run... sunny, mid 50s, and a lot of leaves had changed color. So I went over and parked at the Happy Days Visitor Center and ran the Boston Run Trail which is about 3 miles total. It seemed like everywhere I looked today was beautiful, so it wasn't hard to capture these nice photos...
I must have felt good on the run because as I got to about 2.5 miles into the run I somehow got turned around and started heading back the way I came without really noticing. I thought this pretty funny and I kind of laughed at myself. Today was not a day to worry about directions though... I was just out there by myself having fun in the woods. I reached about 4 miles as I got back to my car and could tell that that was enough for my first run back. My calves were starting to get a little sore (a reminder of my 26.2 miles of pavement last weekend) so I decided to call it a day...
Later on today I picked up my brother and we headed over to the Cedar Lee Theatre in Cleveland Heights to watch the movie "Into the Wild". This was the 2nd time that I've seen this movie in about a month so you know that it must be good. I definitely recommend checking it out...
So, we headed over to the convention center where we picked up our race shirts and bib numbers. I thought the Asics race shirts that we received were really nice (as they should be with the entry fee as high as it is). This was my brother and sister's first marathon attempt and they were both trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon by running under 3:10 and 3:40 respectively. My goal for the race was to try to help pace my sister to a sub 3:40 finish. While at the expo we ran into John Davis, who is a local runner from Kinsman, OH. His wife was with him and he usually does this race each year. After chatting for a bit we looked around at all the booths that were set up.
It was now Tribe Time and we headed back to the hotel to watch the Indians hopefully beat the Red Sox in game 6 of the ALCS. Unfortunately we all know the outcome of this game, as well as Game 7. This was even more disappointing since I had tickets to go to Game 1 and 7 of the World Series if the Indians had made it. Oh well... Cleveland has a young team so hopefully they will be dominant for years to come. The only positive thing about the Indians getting blown out in Game 6 was that I could head to bed and get some sleep for the marathon without having to worry about the outcome of the game.
I could tell by the amount of people at the start that they had a good turnout for the race this year. Eventually the announcer said over the loud speaker that this was a record setting year with 4,700 registered marathon runners and a total of 10,000 people participating in all of the races. I always enjoy the atmosphere before the start of a big road marathon. People scurrying to get to their spots... Music blaring over the speakers... You can feel the excitement in the air! After the national anthem and the start of the wheelchair race, marathoners were presented with a helicopter flyover by the Army. We were now on our way...
The weather for the race was nice and cool and hardly any wind, which is unusual for the Columbus Marathon. At the start it was mostly sunny and in the 50's. By the finish it only got into the 60's, but the sun made it feel a little warmer than it was. At the beginning of the race I just wanted to stick with the 3:40 pace leader and keep somewhat close to our 8:15 planned pace, which would give Jamie and I around a 3:36 finish. By looking at my GPS watch though I could tell that the pace leader was going a little bit too fast and I tried to keep reassuring my sister that we were fine and that we should just keep running our own pace. However, as we neared closer to mile 6 we were getting closer and closer to the pace group and by mile 8 we already had a minute or two in the bank. At this point I told Jamie that we should just try to stay a little bit ahead of the pace group but not get too crazy.
We eventually got locked into our pace and cruised through the miles at this point. As we neared the turn onto High St. which takes you from mile 12 to mile 17 through downtown the amount of spectators really picked up. (
After grabbing more Gatorade to drink, an orange (which tasted good but doesn't sit well in my stomach), and a bagel from Panera Bread I looked around for my wife and family. In the alley next to the race aid I heard my dad yell my name and I walked over and talked to him. He told me that my brother and sister both qualified for Boston and I was very happy to hear that. Jeff finished with a time of 3:09.32 (181st overall and 171st out of all males) and Jamie finished in 3:34.24 (698th overall and 77th out of 1,533 females).
As we walked back to our hotel we decided to stop and take a swim in the hotel water fountain (which we had planned the day before) I thought this might help to take away some of the post-race soreness. The water felt extremely cold... probably because we were in the shade and dehydated from the race. But it felt good and refreshing! 
Once we were all showered up we ate at Max and Erma's next to our hotel before driving back home. My brother and sister both ordered their famous Garbage Burger and I got a bowl of French Onion soup, half a turkey sandwich, and fries. The soup tasted really good with all the salt in it.
