Race Recap: Medina Half Marathon

This is the fourth time I've run the Medina Half Marathon, and (spoiler alert!) it gets better every year.

I teach in Medina, so I like to use this race as a transition from my school year to summer, a sort of goodbye for a while. Usually I see lots of former students there, but this year the race was on the same day as Commencement, so there were fewer people around. I was a little bummed that I couldn't read names for Commencement, but sometimes the race needs to come first, Peeps.

This is EXACTLY how I look when I'm saying goodbye to the school year. . .in front of a gazebo. . .at 6 AM.

One of the reasons I like the Medina Half Marathon is the price. I sign up at the expo every year, so it costs me $30.  For a half marathon.  With beer. And pizza.  And a shirt. And a sweet medal. Whatta deal, right?

Here I am in front of that gazebo again, showing off that sweet medal.

A second reason why I like the Medina Half Marathon is the location, which is just 25 minutes away from my house. This means that I can get out of bed a little later than with some races. More importantly, the race starts at 6:45, but I can roll into town by 6:00 (or later if I weren't so nervous) and always find great parking (for free!) and use the bathroom as many times as I would like.

I also have time to take selfies with my friends in the corral. This is Jennifer, and she KILLED it.

The weather was a bit humid, moreso in the second half of the race. I ran with Jennifer for the first four miles because she claimed she wanted to run slowly and I needed to be gentle with myself after running the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon just six days ago.  By the way, she is a liar. We averaged a 9:20 pace for the first part. At mile four when the rolling hills started, I told her to leave me because I knew I needed to conserve my energy.

I decided to fuel at Lake Medina because it's nice to eat your GU when running around a beautiful lake.

Isn't it nice that I mustered up a smile here?

See the lake?

Coming off the lake, we entered into the residential areas. This is where in the past I have had serious fears. In the first few years, there were some people who completely ignored the fact that there was a race going on in their neighborhood, and they would weave in and out of runners with their cars and completely ignore course marshalls, even policemen. I know for a fact that the Race Director works very hard to integrate this race into the community, and her communication with people living in those neighborhoods is top-notch, so I used to get very angry when I saw how dangerous drivers were there. I am happy to say that there were ZERO PROBLEMS with drivers this year, even at the busy intersection at the finish. Bravo, Medina. You are showing us your best face, the one I often see year-round but other visitors to your city weren't seeing in the previous races.

It was getting muggier and muggier in the race, and I was very thankful for the hoses and sprinklers that friendly neighbors were using on the course. I also have to compliment the Race Director for having ample water on the course. There were water stops at least every two miles, and I stopped at just about every one of them to drink some water, swish some electrolyte drink in my mouth, and dump a cup of water over my head.

The finish was the same as in previous years, on bricks (which I don't like), but without the drivers busting through the intersection before the finish line.  I managed to kick it into high gear when I saw the finish line.

This is my favorite picture: Kicking it to the end! Photo Credit: Marta Pacur

After the race, Marta, Angie, and I took some pictures, drank some beer, and ate some pizza.

I'm modeling the Medina shirt here.

Then Marta and I had breakfast on the Square at PJ Marley's.

This was a great race. It meets every requirement I have of a race: ample parking, good bathrooms, post-race beer and pizza, and interesting and safe course. Oh, and did I mention FREE pictures??? I signed up for next year at this year's expo!

Thank you to all the volunteers and those who worked so hard behind the scenes to make this race happen. I really appreciate you, and I plan to see you next year!

A special thank you goes to Marta, who drove to Medina early in the morning to cheer on Angie and me. We are Trail Sisters, and we support each other, but Marta really goes above and beyond.

What are you training for? For me it's Leg 7/8 of Burning River. I hope that no matter what your running plans are, you run happy, Peeps!

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Outside Again!

     First of all, congratulations to Vera, who won the SLS3 Belt Giveaway.  For those of you who didn't get lucky in the drawing, check them out on Amazon while the price is still reduced!  

 Last week I did thirty miles, all on the treadmill.  All. On. The. Treadmill.  When the snowstorms started up again Monday night, I felt like I would never see the sun again, but then Saturday happened.

The sun DOES exist in Ohio!

     When I finished my cleaning, I put on a tee shirt and capris and ran part of Sand Run Park.  It was windy, hilly, muddy, and glorious.  Usually Saturday is my take-it-easy-day where I walk on the treadmill while watching Supernatural, but NO WAY was I going to let a 68 degree day go by without running in the Metroparks.  I told myself that I would run super-slowly, but I lied.  Going up and down those hills in the first 2.5 miles made me feel like I was flying, and I just let myself go.  Of course, what goes up must come down, so the next 2.5 miles after the turnaround were considerably slower, but WHO CARES????

This is EXACTLY how I look when I feel like I'm flying down Sand Run.

Do you see me?  

     As a bonus, I ran 10 miles today in the sunshine for part of the Medina Half Marathon route with my running buddy Kristin.  We had a great time running around Medina, mostly streets but a bit of trail by Lake Medina.

     While we were running, I told Kristin the following story about her daughter, to whom I taught AP Literature and Composition:

     We (AP Lit. students and I) were analyzing Carpe Diem poems, looking at how different poets use the same motifs to convey the theme of Seize the Day; then we talked about how we could embrace the moment.  I told the students that I had recently signed up to run a leg of the relay for the Akron Marathon, and that next year I could probably run the half marathon.  Mattie said, "Wait. Haven't you already run more than any of the legs of the relay?"
     
     I replied, "Well, yes, but I don't think I'm ready to take on the half marathon this year."

     And then Mattie said, "Then what the hell are we doing talking about Carpe Diem?"

     Huh.

     That day I went home and registered for the Akron Half Marathon, and the rest is history.

   

I teach some pretty smarty-pants kids.

     I remembered the lesson of Carpe Diem today as I ran with a fun group of people because I was thinking of how I'm seizing the day this year:

1st time running on Burning River relay team (Leg 7--holla!) with the Mother Runners
Ragnar Trail Appalachians WV ultra team relay (woot!  First time on an ultra team! 30 miles of trails!)
1st time running back-to-back races (8k and half marathon for Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon Series)
My first marathon (Akron Marathon)

     All of these goals scare the hell out of me, so I know they must be worthy.  Now I'm going to work my ass off to achieve those goals because-- CARPE DIEM, Peeps!

This is EXACTLY how I look when I say, "Carpe Diem, Peeps!"

How will you seize the day this year? This week?  Tomorrow?  Start by running happy, Peeps!

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Race Recap: Medina Half Marathon

Yesterday I ran the Medina Half Marathon.  I ran as a part of two different groups:  The Ohio Runners Network (TORN)

The Ohio Runners Network, Medina Half Marathon 2014

and as a member of the faculty/staff at Medina City Schools

These are my colleagues at Medina High School.  We are badass runners and teachers!

 I excitedly laid out my race clothes the night before:

Medina, I'm coming for you!

 And then I realized when I got to Medina that I didn't bring my Garmin.  Grrrrr.  I wasn't too troubled about it at the time because I had decided to run with the 2:10 pacers, so I figured I wouldn't have to track my time.  Renee and Carrie (my TORN peeps) wanted to run with the pacers, too, so we decided to stick together as long as we could.

You can tell this is pre-race because we are smiling and not swearing.

Let's get to it, shall we?

The Good:  I was so excited to run this race that I had paid for it a year earlier.  I also paid for next year's entry at the expo because it was only $35.  Psst. . . You may be able to get in on this if you click on this link for early bird registration for 2015.  What a deal!  I would say that I received more than I paid in this race.  The swag and the bling were amazing:

The medal has glitter on it!  The seeds were a nice touch, too.

 The race had lots of hills that I just don't remember from last year.  I happen to like hills, but I somehow had it in my head that there were only two hills of significance.  I was wrong.  When I talked (whined) to other runners about this, they said that the course had changed from last year.  To me, this is a plus.  If I had actually studied the course ahead of time, I would have been more prepared.  Now I know.

Aside from the hills, the race had a bit of every kind of surface:  trail, grass, gravel, road, bricks, pavement.  It was nice to mix things up.  Of course, the run around Lake Medina was again my favorite part.

Photo credit:  Christa Hammontree

The crowds were cute, as they mostly consisted of elementary school children in a contest to see who could support the race the most.  The winners of the cheering contest will receive a donation to the school.  They were all adorable, though.  We saw clever signs (Power Station:  Touch to power up), squirt guns, chalk art, bands, DJs, and a little boy handing out bottled water from a little red wagon.  The kids seemed to have fun, and they really made our day.  The donation must have been a good incentive.  I think this is a genius idea--way to go, Race Director!

The post-race food was plentiful and excellent:  Subway sandwiches, fruit, rice chips, cookies, and lots of water.

The Bad:  I came into this race determined to PR after my defeat in the Rite Aid Cleveland Half Marathon.  As you can read in this post,  I had decided that my downfall is going out too quickly and then crapping out around mile nine or so.  I had thought that the solution to my dilemma would be a pacer, so I chose to run with the 2:10 pacers.  This calculates to a ten-minute mile, a pace that I know I can sustain in 13.1 miles, and it is a two-minute PR for me.  When the gun went off, the pacers (who were pretty young) took off like rabbits, and my peeps and I started after them.  At one point Renee and Carrie (who had Garmins, unlike me) said that the pacers were running an 8:50 mile.  We knew we could not sustain this, so we dropped back within the second mile, but we were so focused on our previous goal (sticking with the pacers) that we kept creeping up to 9:15-9:45 miles.  I caught sight of the pacers around mile ten, so I knew they had to be running eleven-minute miles at that point.  It made me mad because I could have done that with my old strategy, which I still believe isn't a good one.  The pacers did come in at 2:10, but they were definitely not consistent in running a ten minute mile.  I asked some more experienced runners if maybe I didn't understand the concept of pacing.  Maybe none of it matters if they come in at their time?  Every runner I talked to said that a good pacer runs a consistent mile.  Anyone can mess around and pull it out in the end, but it takes an experienced pacer to maintain that time for each mile.  So much for my attempt to run with a pacer.  I guess I'll have to figure it out myself.

The Ugly:  The course runs through neighborhoods and along a highly-trafficked road (Route 18).  You would think that the most difficult place to control drivers would be the busy road. . .but it wasn't.  There were LOTS of cars in the small neighborhoods who were actually WEAVING AROUND RUNNERS.  I saw several cars go around race marshals and almost hit runners.  It was extremely dangerous.  I know for a fact that the Race Director communicated to the neighborhoods about road closures and the race, but there were many people who didn't care at all.  This is truly a problem, and I would suggest that Medina's Race Director have some talks with Medina Police and possibly with other Race Directors to see how to overcome this dangerous dilemma.  Some of my peeps told me that they won't be running this race next year because of the drivers.

Overall:  I'm happy to have run the Medina Half Marathon, and I have faith that the organizers can fix these problems.

The best part for me was seeing and hearing all of my Medina Peeps:  friends, colleagues, students and former students.  I loved hearing my name when I ran by a group of people, and I tried to always respond with fists raised and a Turtle call.

This is Ashley, a former student who flew in from Florida.  Her boyfriend proposed to her when she crossed the finish line!

I love the Medina community, and I'm glad they have this race.  I hope it continues to grow and generate money and publicity for Medina.

TORN: Alumni Turtles

Ok, I lied.  The best part for me was this:

PR, Baby!

A tiny step closer to the sub-2 half marathon!

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Medina Half Marathon

Saturday, May 25, I ran the Medina Half Marathon.  It was a practice for the inaugural Medina Half Marathon in 2014, so it was free.  FREE, People.  I can't pass that up!

I put a call out to my Medina peeps, begging them to acknowledge me some way, ANY way on the course.  This was only my second half marathon, and I haven't put in ten miles in a few weeks, so if you want to call that a taper, be my guest.

The Good:  There is so much to write here!  The course covered many different Medina neighborhoods plus some trail running around Lake Medina, which is gorgeous.

This is Lake Medina.  Photo Credit:  Christa Hammontree

This is me when I pretend to be happy on a trail.  This is David, who is probably wishing he could tape my mouth shut. Photo credit:  Dan DeRosha

I also especially liked the neighborhood supporters around mile 11.  There was lots of chalk art, cowbells, and little kids cheering, and believe me, at mile 11 it is VERY welcome.  Thank you, Medina people!

Runners is the craziest!  Photo credit:  Tracy Thomas

The Bad:  Because this is a free practice race, some of the  route was diverted to sidewalks, which I don't like.  Sidewalks make me very nervous; remember--seven years of orthodontia.  I am assuming that this won't be the case next year.  Also, the race finished on a brick road with an incline to the finish line.  I was worried about falling (David DID fall), and the hill demoralized me, so I couldn't kick it to the end.

The Ugly:  Ummmm. . .the hill was disheartening, but what REALLY demoralized me was when a runner PUSHING A STROLLER passed me on the bricks and left me in the dust.  He was having a conversation as he did it.  Stroller-Man, I hate you.  Also, while most of the Medinians were absolutely fantastic (the crowd at the finish was great, too!), there were some REALLY angry drivers who did not hesitate to express their opinions of us via the finger, horn blowing, scowls, etc.  When a runner next to me thanked a driver who was stopped in a queue as we passed, he responded, "OH WHATEVER."  Huh.

Overall, this was a great race, AND I PR'd by 3 and a half minutes!  I already signed up for next year's inaugural race (the medal is going to be suh-weet!) for only thirty dollars.  Pretty soon Medina Half Marathon will be offering entries starting at forty dollars.  I encourage you to take advantage of this rate.

The best thing of all about the race was running it with my peeps.  Thank you to everyone, especially The Ohio Runner's Network.

This is how I look BEFORE I run 13.1 miles.