2015 Glass City Marathon Race Report

Yesterday I ran the Glass City Marathon in Toledo. This was my fourth full marathon and once again I am humbled by this distance. To push yourself as hard as you can for 26.2 miles is no easy feat - in fact it's one of the hardest things you can do in my opinion. It challenges you and it changes you. It is the ultimate test of physical fitness for runners and it is equally demanding mentally. It is easy to run well when you are feeling good. It's later in the race when you ache and feel sick to your stomach or extremely tired that you have to try like hell to keep it together! That is when the real race starts. When that little obnoxious voice in your head says "hey you, why don't you just walk a little?" Someday I will be strong enough to quiet that voice entirely...but for now I am working my hardest to ignore it as much as possible!

Prerace Smiles!

All in all I am happy with the whole experience in Toledo. We stayed in a Holiday Inn Express close to downtown in nearby Oregon. We met up with my friend Jillian (who also ran the full) the night before for dinner along with her husband and friend at Maumee Bay Brewing. The food, beer and atmosphere were outstanding.

Race morning I did a little warm up with my husband Steve then tried to stay warm in the convention center for as long as possible. I met up with Jillian at the start as we were both in the same Corral. There was a great crowd and a lot of excitement and it was nice to have Steve on the sidelines cheering! I was fortunate later in the race to have him pace me for some miles before the finish also.

Enjoying mile 3!

The course was flat, fast and scenic. The weather was ideal. The crowd support and volunteers were terrific. The post race food and beer were well above average. And I am happy with my performance. I pushed myself as hard as I could and came up a little short of my "A" goal, which was to BQ but I fought like hell on a tough second half to walk away with a personal best, which was my "B" goal. I am happy to walk away with a shiny new PR of 3:46:24, a five minute PR over my third marathon in Cleveland last spring. How can I whine or complain about forward momentum? I am truly fortunate and appreciative of my ability to love running and push myself to my own personal limits. At times I am smiling from ear to ear because I am excited and feel amazing and at other times I am fighting back tears of frustration and pain because that voice inside my head is telling me to back off the pace or to take a little break. I am getting better at telling that voice to let me be.

I love the marathon because it is you against yourself. I don't get caught up on where I land on the podium. Sure, I hope one day to place in my AG in a marathon, but for now I am excited to have cracked the top 25% of the women's field. It is a race that demands so much of you and a race where you must give everything you have to see results. I look forward to seeing how I will progress in this distance in the years to come.

post race celebrating with Jillian!

The race finish is pretty fast as there is some downhill heading to the stadium and then the actual finish is in the stadium so it's pretty cool. I managed to sprint some of the finish and I think it was just the excitement and energy of the moment. After the finish I quickly downed a water and then found Steve. I was excited to see how Jillian had done and she had PR'd as well as qualifying for Boston so she had a great race! We met up for a beer at the beer tent and I was happy that they had some craft beer at the finish so we celebrated with a Mission Pale Ale! I also ate some pizza, garlic bread and pasta as well as some cookies.

After changing into dry clothes, Steve and I made the short trek back to Mentor (about 2-1/2 hours) and stopped for snacks along the way. We went to dinner later at Winking Lizard to celebrate my new PR.

Since I'll be running the Cleveland Marathon in a few short weeks, I hope to celebrate again with another PR and maybe even that elusive BQ! For now I will be focused on recovery and cross training for tri season, which is just around the corner after Cleveland!

Special thanks to my husband Steve for the support all weekend and especially on race day! I also want to thank my family, friends and teammates for the encouragement and cheers leading up to the race. Finally thank you to my coach Chris and sponsors Challenge Family and Powerbar for everything they do to keep me going!

Prerace at the expo with my sweet husband Steve!