Weight on Columbus 2010 Race Day: 253lbs.
Six days after the Chicago race I found myself in Columbus, Ohio. The date was October 16. I drove to Columbus from Toledo and arrived at my friend Shaun's apartment around two in the afternoon. Shaun lived in a prime spot for the race. He was a five minute walk from the convention center where I needed to check-in, a five minute drive from the start of the marathon, and a ten minute walk from the marathon finish area.
Shaun left me a key and I unloaded my stuff into his apartment. I took a walk down to the convention center to check in. It was a nice afternoon and the walk felt good. The convention center was not too crowded and I managed to get in and out fairly quickly. I walked back to Shaun's to relax a little bit before dinner.
Two of my high school friends were running the race that year and another was coming along to watch. We were all staying at Shaun's apartment that night. The two friends that were running the race, Kyle and Jonathan, are brothers that I wrestled with in high school. Kyle was a state champion and went on to wrestle for Central Michigan and Jonathan was a state qualifier who unfortunately had his wrestling career cut short by a bad back injury. Kyle and Jonathan always prided themselves on their phenomenal physical conditioning throughout high school. Nothing had really changed they both were still in great shape and ready for the race.
Our good friend, Jon, also came down to watch the race and give us a ride to the start. I hadn't seen any of three in a while so it was good to be back together. There was a big difference between the night before the Columbus race and the night before the Chicago race, seven days earlier. In Chicago I was with my cousin Mike. He is very regimented and follows a pretty strict routine the night before and the morning of the race. He is a little too strict for my taste, but it works for him and shows in his many successes including his career and running.
Kyle and Jon were about the exact opposite of my cousin Mike. They trained hard, but had no rituals or routines before athletic events. I think I fall somewhere in between the two, not super strict, but not completely relaxed either. In Chicago, we had dinner at a specific time, we did a short run in the hotel fitness room a specific time, we were in bed at a specific time, and we woke up at a specific time. In Columbus nothing was planned. We wandered around looking for a place to eat around 7 at night. We settled on a brewery. We ate some starchy foods and even had a couple beers. After dinner we were back at the apartment lounging. Around 11 PM someone decided they wanted some Gatorade so we walked down to the grocery store. I think we finally went to bed around one in the morning.
My friend Shaun was kind enough to let us have the apartment to ourselves. He works second shift and is usually up very late. He didn't want to keep us up so he stayed at a friends. Shaun always comes through when I need a place to crash before a race. I slept in Shaun's bed, Jon was on one couch, Jonathan was on the other couch, and Kyle was on the floor. We got up around 6:45 the next morning and got ready. We left the apartment a little after seven and Jon drove us toward the starting line. Jon got as close as possible with the traffic and we walked the last few blocks to the start.
The weather was perfect. It was in the low 40s and wasn't supposed to go above the low 50s all day.
It was a welcome change from the warm weather in Chicago the week prior. We squeezed in between the thousands of runners that were lined up and got ready to go. Within a few minutes a voice came over the PA and started to count down from 10. At zero there was a loud bang from some sort of pyrotechnic and the race had started. We started the marathon shuffle toward the starting line. It took about 11 minutes to get out of the starting chute and across the starting line. For those that don't know, most modern marathons use electronic timing chips that each runner wears to keep track of his or her time for the race. The exact moment the race begins is referred to as "Gun Time" and the time when a runner physically crosses the starting line is referred to as "Chip Time". So the 11 minutes didn't count against me.
Once we crossed the starting line Kyle and Jonathan took off. They planned to go as hard as they could for as long as they could. Kyle actually had to be at the Columbus airport by noon that day to catch a flight for work. So on top of him always wanting to go "all out" at whatever he does he also had making his flight to motivate him even more. I started the race off at a slower pace to conserve energy and wait for the crowds of runners to spread out a little bit. I had to stop and use the bathroom three miles into the race which I wasn't too happy about, but if you gotta go, you gotta go. After my potty break I settled into a nice pace. The other runners had spread out a little bit and I finally had some room to breathe.
The Columbus course is one of my favorite courses to run. There is always tons of spectators and they have countless musical acts along the entire course. There are rock bands, DJs, one man acoustic set ups, and a plethora of other acts. At the 10K mark there was a drum line from a local high school. The drummers were playing their butts off. I have always enjoyed drum lines and was happy to see them. The course winds through downtown Columbus, a few nice suburbs of Columbus, and the Ohio State University campus. Pretty much the whole course is lined with spectators cheering the runners on except for the college. That is a pretty quiet part of the race. Most of the students are still sleeping off whatever debauchery they got into the evening prior.
I held a pretty solid pace until about the 20 mile mark. I slowed a little after that, but not by much. For the last two or three miles I took a couple of walking breaks at the aid stations but tried to limit them as I knew I could attain a good finishing time. Almost every mile marker in the Columbus marathon has a digital clock that is in sync with the race "Gun Time". I am not sure if it is a good or bad thing having the clocks around every mile. I am not a runner who is constantly worried about or trying to calculate my pace. Sometimes I like not knowing my time. On the other hand it is a little bit of a motivator to try and get from one clock to the next at a certain pace or faster than a certain pace. At the mile 23 clock I knew I had a chance to break my personal record of 4:41:33.
I fought the urge to walk for most of the final three miles. I eventually passed two giant signs that said "1/2 mile to go". From there I continued to increase my pace. I was determined to break that record. I was eventually at a full out sprint for the last two tenths of a mile down the finishing chute. The finishing clock read 4:44:50 as I crossed the line. I subtracted the 11 minutes and 3 seconds that it took me to cross the starting line and realized I had just set a new personal record at 4:35:47. I was ecstatic. I could not believe I had run more than 40 minutes faster than seven days before in Chicago. I don't know if it was the weather, the fact that I didn't have a bathroom issue, or a less crowded course, but I was pumped.
As I walked down through the finishing area toward the food tables I heard my friend Jonathan yelling through the fence. He realized I had broken my record and congratulated me. I asked him how the race went for him. He said he ran a 3:45, but was disappointed with his performance. He really wanted to keep up with his brother Kyle and said his legs just kind of died on him around mile 16 or so. I congratulated him as I thought that he had a phenomenal time. I hope to someday break the four hour barrier myself. Jonathan has since completed multiple 50Ks and a 100 mile trail race. I asked him how his brother Kyle did and he said he didn't know. He hadn't seen Kyle since he went on ahead in the race.
As it turns out Kyle ended up finishing at 3 hours and 12 minutes even. Just 61 seconds slower than the Boston Marathon qualifying time for his age and gender. His time was impressive especially considering it was his first marathon and he hadn't exactly put in the best training effort for the race possible. He was in phenomenal shape but did tons of biking and shorter runs. He didn't do as many long distance runs as he could have. I think he could have broken three hours if he had trained better at distance running. After finishing Kyle was so concerned about his flight he grabbed our friend Jon and had him drive him straight to the airport. He didn't even shower. I am glad I didn't have to sit next to him that flight.
I was thrilled with my finishing time and ready for the next race in Indianapolis. I figured if I could improve by 40 minutes in a week I could probably improve some more by the next race. Indy was 20 days away and I needed to maintain a solid training schedule until then.
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