Got up at 4:30am so as to be able to get ready and get to the race site on time before the road closings, normally I g down with my next door neighbor but since she was running the half this time and had to leave right after teh race we decided to drive separately. She text me when she was parked and I finally saw her about mile 4, ran together for a while then I went on my merry way.
I really wasn't 100% for this race, left butt chin was still inflammed and sending out shooting pain, also my left shin for some reason was hurting badly, I had done all I could all week with icing and massaging so I could only keep my fingers crossed that all will go well.
My intention was to go with the 4:25 pace group which I saw at the expo but at the race there was only the 4:20 and 4:30 so that threw mw off quite a bit so ended up running bewteen them. Not sure why but for some reason during this race I had to pee almost everytime I saw a porta potty, I was able to forgot one or two but still ending up going 4x which cost quite a bit of time and the first time I stopped I realized I had my pant string in a tight knot and couldn't get it undone so had to wiggle to get them down and then spent the next mile and half trying to undo the knot.
I felt good throughout the race but for some reason this year I hated the towpath section just seems long and boring, was so looking forward to the hill just to change things up, felt great going up sand run but it aggrevated my shin, realy wish I had some Biofreeze, access situation and decided to just back off on pace which helped with the pain even though the butt cheek was also acting up I have dealth with that for 2 years and knew how to manage it in a race.
Mile 23 had to pee again but didn't feel like stopping so stopped taking fluid and just suck on a Gu vanilla which actually worked out great, saw Julie and some other friends along the way and was so glad when i got back downtown and ran into the stadium.
Love the change to the finish, got a change to walk around and stretch out the legs before having to climb the steps, the massage section was also downstairs but after waiting for about 15mins decided to pass since I was beginning to cramp up. The modified wave start also helped reduce some of the first 3 miles congestion.
Got my gear bag and change into dry clothes right there on the street and felt so much better after consuming Gatorade 3, went over to cheer some runners in before heading to my car and back home.
Because I didn't really race as hard as I trained and I had so much caffeine and sugar in me, I had so much energy when I got home and apart from the hurting shin and butt cheek i actually felt great, so shower and ate then cleaned the house and did laundry.
Akron does a very good job putting on a marathon really wish Cleveland will learn from them, no complain what so ever I didn't carry my own fluid and had no problem since water/gatorade were plentiful and well spaced out. Everything was just so well done.
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