Hill, Yeah

Don, some girl, me, Dodd, Mike are ready to run

I knew I wasn't ready for this race.  The last time I ran this distance was the Chardon Half {and I've been "Chardon Sore" ever since} and I really don't like this race.  It's hard.  It's hilly.  It's mentally tough.  But Mike convinced us to sign up for it, way back when.  Since we paid, we ran.  

Representing Team Beef

A day {maybe two} before the race, a fellow NERC member posted on the Facebook that he wanted to do push-ups and burpees at each water stop, as well as the start and finish.  He was asking if anyone wanted to join him.  Mike was intrigued.  He's still "CLE Sore" and thought this would be a fun way to get through a tough race.  He convince Dodd to join him ~ and that's what they did.  At the start they dropped & did 20 push-ups and 10 burpees.  I ran with them to the first water stop, about a mile and a half in and left them to do their thing.  There are quite a few postings on the Facebook of their craziness.  Verdi, who ran the first leg in a relay, ran back to them after his exchange and ran the rest of the way in with them, joining the challenge.  I enjoyed watching them stop just before the finish line to do their last set.  With their stops & extra workout ~ they finished in 2:05:59.  Ran faster and stronger than I did and did more work.  Impressive.

one armed push-up at the finish

I need to start by saying I hate this race.  I've run it three times now & the only time I've felt ok about it was the time I actually trained hills.  You would think I would train hills to run this race, but I'm not that smart.  My first Hill, Yeah, I did it as a challenge to myself.  I trained on my 12-14 mile course that takes South River Road to County Line over the crazy bridge.  That's a hill.  And when I trained on that course, I was strong enough to run this race.  Last year Mike wanted to run it because we had trained for the Cleveland Marathon & this was just a half.  And that sucked.  This year I've been "Chardon Sore" and couldn't risk injury training hills.  I've been running like crap and this was not a race I was looking forward to. I decided I was just going to run & try and have fun.  I did handle it better than last year {when the heat got to me & I thought I would have a marathon repeat}  It was raining.  But it was a light rain and 68ish degrees.  It wasn't bad.  I was just wet.  I made it to Chapin Forest & up up up those hills in good mental shape.  My legs were tired and sore, but my hamstrings were doing ok.  I could feel them, but they didn't ache.  My IT band started to get tight, but that too went away.  I was not fast.  I got to Penitentiary Glenn and knew the hills weren't as bad as Chapin.  I got through that and entered what I think is the hardest 5 miles of ANY half marathon.  Three miles on hilly roads back to the Farmpark.  Around this time Nick Tanko, who was the 2:00 pacer passed me.  He asked me how I was doing, and all I could reply was, "The 2 hour guy is passing me.  How do you think I'm doing?"  That was rather bitchy, but it was true.  I felt ok.  I was working hard.  My legs were tired.  I was mostly sad I was going to be over 2 hours.  I've never been over 2 hours.  I spent the next mile or so trying to figure out how I felt about over 2 hours.  I didn't like it.

At mile 10.5 you can see the mile 11 flag at the turn into the Farmpark.  You can HEAR Verdi on the microphone cheering people in.  It's evil.  I've still 20ish minutes from the finish & it's RIGHT THERE. And it all uphill to the Farmpark.  The whole time trying to psych myself up for the last two miles. "you can do this.  you will finish.  you know it's going to be hard.  you can do this.  you've done it before."  Up the Farmpark driveway.  Down to the back of the Farmpark.  Up Up Up to the mile 12 marker {really, just mile 12?}  Up up turn up up turn up up turn up up "where is that mile 13 flag?" up up turn up up "really! where is that flag?"  up turn "There it is!"  and Geoff Webber, "you can get under 2, but you have to go NOW."  1:59:35.  The last person to finish in under 2 hours.  Ugh that course SUCKS.  and I'm a BEAST for doing it 3 times.  Geoff said to me later when I thanked him for his encouragement, "you didn't look good, but I knew you could do it."  HA! 

I did have the best finish line photo I've ever taken.  You can see the joy in being DONE.  We had to hang out because even with this time I placed second in my age group (good for a glass milk bottle and $10 to Second Sole)  Next year it's the relay or nothing.  This race is HARD.

Mike telling John that the moving time on his watch was 1:57:00.