Cleveland Marathon

I really wasn’t sure what to wear for this race, the high was only going to be 60 but it was going to drizzle through out and slightly humid. So decided on a capri, short sleeve shirt with arm warmer, I was quite cold at the start but quickly warmup after the first mile.

Notice all the KT tape, those are the usual long run trouble spot so I just tape them before a race/run to minimize the damage to be done.
Added my long back sock and my life is good cap to complete the outfit.

I woke up at 4am, wash up, ate a bagel with peanut butter, made 2 cups of coffee and left the house by 4:40am even thou the race location is only about 40 mins from my house, most of the roads were going to be close by 6am and I didn’t want to park too far away.
I got to downtown and then it was a matter of finding a place to park, the first place I went to which was suppose to be a free city lot wanted $5 for parking and I just at this point DID not feel that was right so left that lot and went looking for another , final found one right behind the stadium that was free which funny enough when I was leaving the guy told me parking was $5, which I replied I guess I have decided not to park here then so am leaving and he wasn’t quite sure what to do so I left, this was suppose to be a free lot.
I got into the stadium was cold and really had to pee, it was nice to have real toilets and warmth in the inner stadium room, I was tired so I napped and people watch. Am not really a stretcher, do some joint mobility and that is all but I was amaze at what people were doing to their people before a race and kind of felt I must be missing something.
While waiting for the race to start I pee 4 time and this was going to be the theme of the race, as a kid I remember before going on long trip my mum with get us in the bathroom and turn the sink faucet to a trikle which eventally makes us pee, well with mother nature’s faucet open I had to pee just about every 6 miles, not just a little a waterfall.
There is something about Cleveland course that my body just doesn’t like, even thou it is a flat course, I just get injury from it, first race here ended up with PF and ITB issue and this time it was shin pain and ITB again, the normally pain I was expecting didn’t even come into play.
I felt strong but I knew there was problem at mile 3, if I was an elite runner being paid to run I would have pulled out so I can still be fresh for another race but since I am the sucker that paid them to run 26.2 miles in the rain, all I could do was access the situation and come up with a game plan. The plan was do not push the pace keep heart rate below 150bpm which means I will be keeping around base/recovery pace. This was hard, I had so much energy from Gu and caffeine also since I didn ‘t want to do Cleveland again, I needed to have a good finish so I can move on.
I noticed by mile 1, my Garmin was off by .21 but then how was I suppose to do the math to come in under my current PR, I decided to just finish strong and forgo a PR, so we had a plan all we had to do was rain in the energy.
This was  a long slow rainy run, probably cleaned my glasses close to 50x, normally with my cap the rain doesn’t bother me but the slight wind was enough to blow the drop unto the lenses, most of the times couldn’t see just followed the yellow center line.
The new course is much better, except for the fact that the road for the second half wasn’t close to traffic and most of them weren’t very happy having to stop to let us go by but the volunteer’s were great holding traffic.
Two of my favorite sign on the course
Teenage Boy “Better Run Fast, just Farted”
Young Lady “Men -Single and Supportive” she was on a bike and I saw her through out the whole race with different signs but that was my favorite.
 With the power of facebook I found my support crew Melissa, she was up and down the course biking and shouting inspiration. This picture is from her facebook page, such an awesome person.

When my Garmin got to 26 miles, I was so ready to be done and knew I wasn’t going to do that much damage since I only had less than a half mile to go so the last .49 was my fastest at a 8:55 pace, I was just so ready to be done, I was also cold and wet.
The finish in Cleveland just leaves you wanting more, got medal, banana, water,chip, chocolate milk ahh wait a minute where is my shiny blanket, they ran out. So after running 26.49 miles in the rain finishing by the lake with the wind blowing, teeth chattering I have an option of a cold beer or popsicle with no shiny space blanket. I did eat half a popsicle couldn't pass up and edy
I walked back to the stadium, got my gear, changed into dry clothes, drank my gatorade recovery drink, worked some of the kinks out and walked back to my car. Now you understand why I was in no mood to pay $5 for parking, I didn’t get my shiny blanket.
Got back home did a cold water soak, hot shower and for the first time wasn’t hungry, what a bummer burned 3000+ calorie and can’t think of a single cheat meal so made tea, popcorn and drank my 440 calorie chocolate milk (that’s a lot of calories better have some magical powers) watch a movie the Valentine I think with my legs up then eventually went for the evening church service.
With me finishing Cleveland with a good kick I can call it a success and move on, next on tap the Xterra trail series, also I think Cleveland does the half so well and struggle with the full so maybe it is tine to give the half a shot. There are some issues with my feet I need to address so I will be making an appointment with my Sport MD, what hurt the left shin, left arch, right ITB and right groin area in other of pain level apart from that no problem walking or going up and down stairs.

Nutrition was spot on, the bagel with peanut butter at 4:15am was fine, the Powerbar Harvest Energy bar at 6:45, Gatorade  2 and Perpetum in Nathan 4 speed bottle 2/2, use both Gatorade ad half of the first bottle of Perpetum @ mile 10, at first GU at 7 miles and then 4 miles after that with 1 Hammer gel espresso thrown for the 2x caffeine, did not take Powerade. I have missed all the above in training with no issue so wasn't willing to thrown in another brand.

Official time 4:40:06 Pace 10:41
Age Group 84/141
Overall 1887/2628
Female 598/1000

What does Garmin mean by moving time 3:44:30 expect for brief water stop and pee break I was moving the whole, none of that took an hour