As I have mentioned in ye olde blog over the last few months, I have been training for a marathon to run with my friend and training partner Jason. The goal is to help Jason qualify for the Boston Marathon, which means we need to run the marathon in 3:20:59 or faster, which is fast but not impossible. Anyway, the marathon is next week (October 10th), so over the last few weeks I have been making my Saturday “long runs” shorter. I also wanted a good run with a known distance so I could work on the steady pace of 7:40/mile that Jason and I will need to run. To this end, I decided to enter the Akron Roadrunner Half-marathon (13.1 miles) which was last Saturday (the 25th).

I told Mer to sleep in last Saturday since there was no need for her to come and cheer me on in a training run. She needed the sleep, and I was please to let her get some rest. I drove down to Akron by myself, getting there about 5:30 am to avoid the rush of traffic. The race did not start until 7:00, so I had some time on my hands. I made frequent use of the restrooms, and sat on the curb to conserve energy. My friend and boss, Jim Gaul, was running the race as well, so I met up with him around 6:00. Jim had hooked up with three other friends of his, so we had a merry little group. We were all planning on running roughly 7:40/mile, which is a half-marathon time of 1:40 or so. It was a perfect day for running, with temperatures in the low 50’s and clear skies. We lined up in the starting chute with a lot of other people (there were 14,000 people running last Saturday). The race officials said a prayer and sang the national anthem, and we cheered on the wheelchair racers who started one minute ahead of the rest of us. Our race started with the Akron tradition of ringing a bell, and we walked and then trotted to the starting line (it took about 25 seconds for me to get to the starting line). Once I got to the line, I took off running and started weaving around lots of people. The start of the race is fast, with most of the first mile being down hill. I got to the first mile marker with a time of 7:44-7:48, and I got worried that I was going slow. I had hit a comfortable pace, and I kept at it and kept passing people. I had left Jim and his friends behind in the rush of the start, but I pushed on by myself. I got to mile two quicker than I thought, but I wrote that off to trying to make up time.

Anyway, I finally realized around mile six (out of thirteen) that I was running pretty fast. I did some quick math and realized I might have a shot at a personal record (a “PR” in running-lingo). I figured that since I had already run at a fast pace over some hilly parts of the course that my legs were going to be shot anyway, so I might as well try to keep my fast pace.

My legs started to hurt some around mile nine, but that is just as the race enters the University of Akron campus, which is a high point on the course, so the uphills were done for two miles so my legs could rest some, plus the crowds of people came back to cheer us on for over a mile along the course. The race ran down into the valley, and the half-marathon course split off from the marathon course at that point. We then had to climb a long hill that was a five-percent grade, and that made my legs burn, but I had done a fair amount of hill training this summer, so I held on to my pace. Just past the top of the long hill was the twelve-mile mark, so that was a boost to a tired body. I was able to keep the pace and finished well. I had a great run, and was pretty wiped out. I had finished in 1:33:07, or 7:07/mile, which was a personal record by over two minutes. I had failed to run a good training run, but I was pretty happy with my results. So, my results were:

1:33:07
7:07/mile
125th finisher out of 3,212 finishers (top 4%)
115th finisher out of 1,578 men (top 8%)
13th finisher out 262 men in my age group (35-39) (top 5%)

I got home and showered, and got dressed just as Mer was waking up. She was sad to have missed me having a good race, but I’m still happy she got a good sleep. I went back to bed for a couple of hours while Mer puttered online and did her exercise on the treadmill. We had a quick lunch, and then I took Mer up to Brecksville to the Towpath Trail. Brecksville is near the northern turn-around point of the Towpath Marathon, and it has some cool bridges to see and is a pretty walk, which I wanted to take Mer on.

We walked to a side trail, called the Carriage Trail, which is supposed to be a three-mile loop trail that I wanted to investigate. Shortly after we got on the trail, it warned the bridge on the trail was shut to foot traffic, and there was no way around. I scoffed at the idea and figured that someone had figured a way around, so we kept going. It was a fairly long walk up a hill, but then the trail leveled out. We walked about a mile into the woods, and came up on the bridge. The bridge was indeed shut up with a locked gate, and it was easy to see why since the supports were badly rusted. It was a very cool bridge, but there was no way across or down. We turned around and made our way back along the trail. We later read that the loop trail had three such bridges that were all shut down, so I was happy there was no way across.

It was a very pretty day for a walk, with lots of sun and temperatures around 60. We walked back to the car, and were treated to seeing a huge wedding party get off a bus for pictures. I think we counted twelve bridesmaids. Still, it was festive.

We got back in the car, and I drove back to downtown Akron. Along the way, we kept seeing people pulled over alongside the road. I finally got curious, so we stopped and asked. It turns out all these people we waiting for the once/day running of the Cuyahoga Scenic Railroad’s steam engine train. We decided to hang out to see that, and it was fun. It was surprising to see how many people turned out at every road to see the train go by.

Once in Akron, we went to the Barley House restaurant, and sat on the patio. That turned out to be pretty cool, so I had to run back to the car for my jacket for Meredith, and I took her long-sleeved over-shirt (which is my shirt anyway). We had a very good meal, but did not mind when it was over because it was warmer in the car.

I then took Mer dress shopping. I had asked Mer out to CVCA’s Homecoming dinner which was the following Saturday, and she wanted a new dress. I was excited because I had not gone shopping for Mer in three years because of the double-mortgage issue. I like shopping for dresses for Mer because I find her easy to shop for. I just imagine what she would look good in, and that seems to work. As an aside, to ask her out to Homecoming, I went into her 8th period English class with my guitar, and I sang for her two poems that I had set to music. The poems were “She Walks In Beauty” by Lord Byron and “Because She Would Ask Me Why I Loved Her” by Christopher Brennan. It worked well, and Mer said yes, so it was a great success.

Anyway, we had to try a couple of stores, but I found a fun and pretty blue dress that Mer liked at a Macy’s at Chapel Hill Mall. She bought it, and then she found a pair of cheap but nice shoes and a purse to match at a Payless, and then I bought us frosted chocolate chip cookies from a cookie place in the mall. We went home and ate them, and I was very pleased with a very good day.