2019 Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon - 10K Race Report

Writing race reports again never gets old. I continue to feel lucky and blessed that I am healthy enough to be back to doing the things that I love. It's kind of appropriate that yesterday was also World IBD Day. I love that I was spending World IBD Day running a 10k instead of sick in my bed or in the hospital fighting a bad flare up of my Crohn's.

On Friday my sister in law and I headed downtown to pick up our packets for the 10k. The picture to the right was kind of funny. My SIL decided to take a picture of terminal tower to send to some of her friends on snapchat. I couldn't tell if she was taking a picture of terminal tower or if she was taking a selfie so I was just kind of standing there waiting for her. She then said, you can be in it; so I did a quick little silly pose. She sent it to her friends and everyone was commenting back with how good I looked. It definitely made me feel great and I decided it was a super cute pic!

Sunday morning we headed downtown around 5:30 AM and we were there in plenty of time. It's funny how things have changed over the years. The race information said you should be heading to your corral by 6 AM (for a 7 AM start). In the past we would have been standing in those corrals for that hour. Yesterday we got there right around 6, but we sat in the car for a little bit; then we went into Tower City to use a regular bathroom; eventually we were heading to our corral and it was probably about 6:45.

It was definitely crowded again. I have to say that the start was a little disappointing as compared to previous years. Usually they will do the National Anthem and even being in the last corral you can hear it. If they did it yesterday I did not hear it. In the past I could also usually hear the starting horn, but not this year. I did see some smoke up at the start line and then we gradually started moving, but it was very anti-climatic.

Last year I was able to get a new 10k PR, but the weather was significantly different and I wasn't really sure where that PR came from! I was surprised that I ran as fast as I did last year so I wasn't really sure if hoping for a PR yesterday was realistic. I told SIL my hopes of getting another PR and told her what time I needed to beat in order to get that PR. She was awesome in helping to push me to get that PR! The fact that I was able to run my fastest 10k in the heat yesterday is absolutely amazing to me. I can't even imagine what I might have been able to do if the weather was more similar to last year.

The heat definitely made it a tough race,  but I was able to push through way easier than I ever have before. I can still remember in 2012 when the weather was pretty similar to yesterday. I was doing the half marathon that year and probably weighed 30+ pounds more than I do now. That race ended up being my 2nd slowest half marathon and I was totally miserable the entire time. I would not describe myself as miserable at all yesterday. Hot? Yes. Tired? Sure. But not miserable.

Determined. Confident. Happy. Those are better words to describe how I was feeling yesterday.

I had my watch set for the 3/1 intervals I have been doing (outside, I've been running with no walk breaks on the treadmill). By the end of the race I think I only used that full minute walk break twice. The first walk break I decided to just run through because it was still very crowded and we were kind of forced to run at a slightly slower pace than I usually run. I decided that since the crowd was helping me to pace slower I could probably maintain that pace for a little longer before needing a walk break. The next walk break I walked and commented that 1 minute is really a long time. Margie and I decided at that point that I wouldn't necessarily use the entire minute walk break next time and I would just walk long enough to get my heart rate down a little and recover my breathing.

Cleveland 10k selfie comparison from 2018 to 2019. 

Throughout the race if we were running downhill and my watch beeped to walk I would ignore it. I would then try to keep running until my next walk break, which I did. There was even one time when we were approaching the horrible hill between miles 4 and 5 when I confused Margie because the incline had started but we were still running (more like shuffling, but not walking). I told her I was trying to run as long as I could because I knew the hill got worse a little farther up and I knew I'd have to walk that part of it. And when we were on that hill I did not see a single person running.

Our watches were obviously a little off from the mile markers so Margie's had already alerted her that we hit mile 5, but I wasn't even able to see the mile 5 marker yet. It was funny because she was pointing out that we had about 15 minutes to finish the last 1.2 in order to meet my goal, but I pointed out that we didn't really know how much farther since our watches were not in line with the official course. It didn't really matter though. I knew we were close and I knew that IF I got the PR it was going to be very close. I knew that I had basically no wiggle room. I couldn't be taking extra walk breaks and I needed to push it on my runs.

I did just that. I ran through several of my walk breaks during that last 1.2 miles. When I could see the finish line I was trying very hard to find that final push inside me. It took a while, but when we were in that very final stretch I was able to kick it in and push to the finish. I was pretty positive when I saw the clock that I had met my goal.

I continue to feel lucky to be healthy enough to do these races. When I read stories like the one about the 22 year old who collapsed yesterday and later died, that feeling of luck becomes even stronger. Yesterday's weather was no joke. The fact that I was not only able to just complete my race, but to do it in my fastest time yet is amazing to me. I don't take any of this for granted.

Not a PR for SIL, but I SO appreciate her pushing me to my PR! 

Official results = 6.2 miles in 1:14:57, that amounts to about a 12:03 m/m. You know what that means? My next 10k goal will be to complete the race with an average pace that's less than a 12 m/m! I do remember that last year I commented that one of the best things was that I felt like I could have kept going. That wasn't the case yesterday, but if we take away that heat who knows what I could have accomplished!