Whew, I should probably wait another day to write this recap but since I’m too busy working and traveling tomorrow today with have to do.

We (Stef and I) kicked off race weekend by volunteering at the Hy-5 in Westlake. We worked the registration check in table and then got recruited at the last minute to call out times at the 2 mile mark. It was a fun morning. Mike ran the race and pushed Miles. Heather and Jay were there as well as Chelsea, Raymond and lots of other local friends!

From there we headed over to the IX Center to pick up our race packets. Seriously, $8 to park? C’mon CLE marathon. Subsidize that shit.

We didn’t hang around the expo long and high tailed it back to Vermilion. We did a little afternoon uptown shopping, a boat ride and lots of carb loading.

We started race day by waking up at 4:26 am to ensure we would get downtown before any of the 6 am road closings. We had enough time to use the bathrooms a few times and check our gear and get to the start line with about 15 minutes to spare… perfect.

We started the race shortly after 7 am and I was sweating by approximately 7:10 am. Seriously, it was warm. And HUMID. The sun was already beating down and I knew we were in for a scorcher. Seriously, Stef is a trooper but I knew after a few miles the humidity was doing work on her. You see, in Utah they don’t have this horrible thing called humidity. Stef kept trucking but after trying to pump her up I realized I was probably doing more harm than good and probably stressing her out. I didn’t want to leave my awesome friend who came all the way from Utah, but I also didn’t want to stress her out for another 8 miles. We parted ways around mile 5.5.

I kicked it up for a few miles because my legs felt so great. However around mile 9 the heat really started to work on me. And there is a HORRENDOUS hill at the end of mile 9 that just killed me. I didn’t see a single person around me running up it, everyone was walking it. It was so steep and long. A total defeat.

By the top of the hill we had just a 5K to go but it was the longest 5K of my life. I walked at least .25 of each remaining mile just to keep my heart rate in check. I was so hot and started seeing runners dropping every little bit and receiving medical attention.

Finally the last mile I just tried to give it all I had. Luckily most of the last .5 is downhill but I was still beat. I finally crossed the finish line and was so relieved momentarily. I grabbed some chocolate milk and sat and waited for Stef. I know she is a stud but I was so worried the humidity would have been too much. Luckily just a few minutes after I finished my chocolate milk she was there! I was so happy to see her! What a trooper.

Then we hobbled to gear check and walked a mile (longest mile ever) back to our car.

I felt so great during the race and even after except for the damn heat. Eh, what can you do?

Mile 1 – 10:57

Mile 2 – 10:13

Mile 3 – 10:11

Mile 4 – 10:21

Mile 5 – 12:26 – slight walk break

Mile 6 – 15:56 – bathroom stop

Mile 7 – 9:41

Mile 8 – 10:09

Mile 9 – 10:49

Mile 10 – 11:42 – walk breaks start

Mile 11 – 11:49 – and continue

Mile 12 – 11:59 – and continue

Mile 13 – 10:39

last .37 – 8:46 pace

Official time: 2:29:56

What’s next? More on that later. (And don’t get your hopes up for any exciting news.)