Northern Ohio Half

The before and after selfies for the Northern Ohio Half are as entertaining as ever ~ The after shows the two with the PR's smiling...the one who didn't look at his watch in time & was 30 seconds from a PR, not so much.  Kidding aside, a great race for all.   Dodd was determined to run with the 1:45 (8:01 min/mile) pace group ~ especially when I told him I'm not much of a talker at an 8:00 minute pace.  And I kinda just stuck with them.  I did start out a tad faster, but by the 1 mile marker I was in the group.  Felt ok, so I kinda just hung there.  At mile 4, my favorite nemesis passed me & I did surge ahead trying to keep up.  Dodd told me to slow my role & I kinda did ~ and by mile 8ish (I think) we had reeled her in.  On the dirt trail past the Lagoons the pace group (Dodd & the pacer) pulled away from me, but I clocked a 7:57 minute mile at the time, so they had sped up slightly.  I never did catch them, but they were in site.  Miles 11 and 12 were a little slower for me, but mile 13 was 7:46.  Finished with a clock time of 1:44:42 ~ a PR by 16 seconds!  The best part was Dodd finishing strong ahead of me.  Our 'coach' was right behind us at 1:48:04

Leslie (my favorite nemesis) and I both placed second in our age groups (she moved out of my age group last year...I have three more before we complete head to head again)

and check it out ~ in the top 10!

I won socks and a $15 second sole gift card!  Love it when I win cash money to my favorite running store!

My favorite runners!  A great race!.

And, what I'm always adding to my race recaps ~ 1. If it's a Brooks woman's shirt ~ get the LARGE.  2. The food here was excellent.  The pancakes were very yummy.  There was pizza & subs that Mike LOVED.  & apples and bananas & granola bars.  I'm not a big after race eater, but I like the variety & Mike wanted to mention the food.  3.  It was 50*ish at the start.  Not much wind. Could have worn a skirt, but the capris were comfortable.  Wished I'd worn a short sleeve shirt by mile 3.  The long sleeve one I wore was light & I could unzip & push up the sleeves, so it wasn't bad.  But I would have been more comfortable in short sleeves.