Cleveland Marathon '10

Me and wife after race, notice the medal.

Right before race.

Jenny, Me and Michelle at picnice
Riley with Cleveland Browns stadium in background.

The short story: Ran Cleveland Marathon in 4:47:12 chip time.

Now for the rest of the story.

Saturday morning I went up to the Cleveland marathon expo with the wife and my grandaughter Riley. Got there before it opened and we went for a nice walk around block and got little sight seeing, awesome view of Browns stadium. Got mine and Ricks bib and shirt/goodie bag. This was the first time I ever had to show my ID to get it, last 3 years just said who I was and my bib number. Not sure what prompted the change. Walked around a little bit and oddly enough didnt find anything that interested me enough to buy it. That was a first.

I Michelle at the expo from the Runnersworld and runango forums. I saw her and since I had never seen her before except pictures wasnt sure it was her. I was going to call earlier but had lost cell phone reception when I first went into convention center. Luckily, I was able to call her and we got to meet. We walked around a bit talking. She talked me into going to picnice. It was mostly RWOL people who I didnt know except for Jenny and Michelle. All seemed to be a great bunch.

Sunday morning, got up before the alarm went off. I got dressed, everything else was pretty much ready to go. Me and the wife left about 4:30. I got into what I thought was perfect deck to park, halfway to start and finish. I made quick trip to portajohn then finished getting ready. Applied the pacetat on my left arm. Need to work on positioning it properly seemed to be at wrong angle. I got to starting line, it was so crowded I didnt think I would be able to find Rick in the crowd but did shortly before start.

Cleveland was a sellout, up 60%this year, so it was more crowded then ever before. But I think overall fairly well organized. Race started started to the blaring sounds of "Cleveland Rocks!" What else would you expect at the Cleveland Rock and Roll marathon? Being in middle of pack it was slow start, over 5 minutes before I reached starting line. Ran with Rick for the first few miles we did all our long training runs together. I made a pit stop between mile 3 and 4 and never caught up to him.

After mile 9 when the course was headed east the wind seemed to pick up. Right in our faces, and we didn't change directions till mile 17. Of course shortly after mile 12 it got alot less crowded since thats where we split from the half marathoners.

The real fun started after mile 18, thats when my calf cramps started. I was able to keep running for most part for the next couple miles but last miles were mostly run couple minutes till calf cramped up then walk a few minutes to work it out. Took a few short stops to try and stretch it out but would only help for so long. I did finish in 4:47:12, Short of my 4:30 goal but I did finish, always my number one goal. Got a nice medal, new tech shirt and had a good weekend.

Summary 04:47:15 26.49 10:50

1 00:10:03 1.00
2 00:09:47 1.00
3 00:09:47 1.00
4 00:10:19 1.00
5 00:09:50 1.00
6 00:09:40 1.00
7 00:09:45 1.00
8 00:09:56 1.00
9 00:09:40 1.00
10 00:10:09 1.00
11 00:10:37 1.00
12 00:10:05 1.00
13 00:09:51 1.00
14 00:09:57 1.00
15 00:10:24 1.00
16 00:10:57 1.00
17 00:10:44 1.00
18 00:12:09 1.00
19 00:10:56 1.00
20 00:11:50 1.00
21 00:12:09 1.00
22 00:13:05 1.00
23 00:11:52 1.00
24 00:12:12 1.00
25 00:12:26 1.00
26 00:12:59 1.00
27 00:05:54 0.50