Cleveland Rite Aid Marathon 2008

Want to talk about lofty goals? Ethiopian long distance runner Retta Feyissa crossed the finish line at 2:33:34 to win the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon. Prior to the weekend, I kept telling myself- somewhat humorously- that I have to beat this guy- and I did, well kind of. A co-worker- and avid runner- told me about a week ago that one of the cool things about running the 1/2 marathon is that you can usually have a similar finish time to the world class athletes who run the whole 26 mile course. So after standing in the holding pen for about 20 minutes, I began my trek around the Rock n' Roll capital of the world along with 10,000 other runners- 1/2 of whom who were participating in the 13.1 run.

With my feeble minded goal still at hand, I took off with a group of runners who represented the 4 hour pace team for the entire run. I figured- stick with this one dude- who had a bunch of balloons strapped to his shorts- and I can't go wrong. I'd be sure to cross the finish line in under 2 hours, which was truly what I had all along hoped to accomplish ever since I began to train back in December.

The start line was right by the Galleria, and we then proceeded down by the lake to pass the Rock Hall, Science Center, and Cleveland Browns Stadium before crossing over one of the bridges towards the Flats. So far, so good, but for the first time I started to feel some fatigue in my efforts to keep pace with balloon guy. I realized that if I was going to be able to finish this thing, I had better slow down just a bit. So looking over at the "pace team"- none of whom looked as if they had even broken a sweat...ugh!- I discreetly "let" them take the lead, and for the next mile or so watched them disappear from sight as we headed out towards Edgewater Park- hoping that the seagulls would swoop down and pop those utterly annoying balloons that were flip-flopping in front of me.

By the time we got to some extremely glitzy lakeside neighborhood before making the infamous U-turn to head back towards the downtown area, I had somehow managed to hook up with the 4:15 pace team. I can honestly say that I got my first true energy boost after the turn as I was able to see the Cleveland skyline once again and knew that I was over 1/2 finished. I was still feeling pretty strong, until we got back to the Flats area and had to begin the assent to another bridge. Once back into the downtown area (mile 10), for the first time my legs were really aching and my left hand started to tingle a little bit. (not sure what that was about...) Knowing that I had just 3 miles to go, I had no intention of stopping for a break now. Not to mention, the streets were crowded with spectators cheering the racers on towards the finish line.

The only part of the course that I was utterly annoyed with was the last mile. I knew the finish line was the same as the start- the Galleria; but to make the course 13.1 miles, you actually had to run past the shopping center for 1/2 mile and then make another U-turn down a side road to complete the run. All I know, is that THAT was THE longest mile I had ever run in my life.

But, 2:09:27 seconds later, I crossed the finish line- 15 minutes before my Ethiopian friend finished his 26 mile trek. I didn't make my two hour goal, but I was emotionally and physically spent and was so looking forward to heading back to the Hyatt hotel for a little siesta.