Race Recap: Medina Half Marathon

The Medina Half Marathon is a tradition for me. I am a teacher at Medina High School, and this race takes place the Saturday after school lets out every year. It is my way of saying goodbye to the school year and to Medina for a brief vacation. It is my way of letting go of the stress and the tears and the sleeplessness of grading and worrying and juggling schedules.

This is part of Medina Square. The course begins and ends here.

Each year I sign up for next year's race at the expo because it is only $38, which is an amazing price for a half marathon with an awesome medal. So, when I signed up for the race for this year, I didn't realize at the time that I would decide to run the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon, since I have been running the half for a few years. This meant that I would run 26.2 one week and then 13.1 six days later.

I was committed to both races, so I figured I could walk as much of the Medina race as I needed to if I was still suffering from the marathon.  It turns out that I felt fine after the marathon, so I decided to run the half. Notice that I didn't say that I decided to RACE the half. I think that might have caused an injury, and I didn't want to do anything stupid. Well, more stupid than usual.

As a bonus, Marta from the Burning River Goddesses messaged me and asked if I wanted to run the race with her; she was also still recovering from the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon.  Su-weet!

We decided to just run how we felt. . . and we felt pretty good! We decided about halfway through that we could probably shoot for a 2:10 finish.

The course has changed each year, and this year brought fewer hills, which surprised me greatly. I had warned Marta that we would be feeling the hills, and then I kept wondering when we would find them!  One other change from previous years: the race course was much safer in the residential neighborhoods this year. I think that our Medina friends have finally realized that the race is here to stay, and they have learned to live with it. In previous years, I have seen cars weaving among runners, and it was super-dangerous. This year when there were drivers, they listened to the course directors. Kudos to the Race Director for working on this problem.

As we came to the end of the race, I heard my friends shouting my name (thanks, Ailene!), so I found the energy to kick it in gear and sprint. Marta and I finished in 2:10:01.  I'll take it!

It looks painful, right?

 Now for the worst photo finish EVER:

Hahahahaha! So dramatic.

After I walked off the feeling of wanting to throw up, Marta and I took some happy pictures by the Gazebo (which is a Medina-thing):

Then we went to the best after-party EVER: Pizza and beer and a great band sponsored by Stand up for Downs. I drank some Fat Tire (no crappy Michelob Ultra here) and ate some pizza and basked in the sunshine with Marta:

Before we were faking it. Now that we have beer, we are truly happy.

And check out the awesome medal:

There are little sparkles embedded in the medal.

All in all, I give the Medina Half Marathon a big stamp of approval. This race gets better every year. The race directors listen to our feedback and work really hard to make any necessary improvements for the next year, and honestly, there is a lot of bang for your buck. I will continue to make this half my traditional hello to summer.

How do you say hello to summer?  Whatever your tradition, whether it involves racing or not, I hope you run happy, Peeps!

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Recap: Race with Grace 5k

Sunday was the annual Race with Grace 5k in Medina. Last year I ran it with the Kabyle Chef, but I knew that with his crazy hours he wouldn't be getting up early to run or walk 3.1 miles with me on his only day off, so this year I asked my friend Katie if I could run with her.  It was Katie's first race, and well, that's always a special moment.

I got there early so I could put in a few extra miles.  I only had time for two miles because our team had to meet for pictures, but hey--two miles is better than nothing, right?  After all this is taper week.

Did I mention this is taper week?

This is EXACTLY how I look during taper week.

I guess some of my team members saw me running before the race, and somehow a rumor went around that I ran to the race.  From Akron.  Yeah.  I guess there are worse rumors.

This is EXACTLY how I look when I run 13 miles from my house to a race.

Our team consists of high school staff members and their families.  We are called Team Brenda because we run to support Brenda Hufford's fight against cancer.  The race is in honor of Mary Grace, who was an active Medina Community member.  You can read about her struggle with breast cancer and the race's mission here.

Team Brenda 

We had a good showing this year; team Brenda raised over $1,200 for the Mary Grace Foundation.  I am so proud of my colleagues.

The best part of the day was running with Katie for her first race.  I remember my first race; it was the Mother's Day 5k in Munroe Falls. I remember how nervous I was the night before, and I remember how keyed up I was during the race, so I asked Katie if she would like me to run it with her, and she said yes.

To seal the deal, I gave her a running tattoo.  I'm not a tattoo person, but I do believe in war paint, so my tradition is to wear temporary tattoos when I'm racing.

I got this tat from Bondi.  Order yours as well as some headbands (see mine below?).  Make sure to use my code (TroubleRun) for a 10% discount.

Another team member, Jess, joined us, and the three of us chatted while we ran in the sun.  Katie was tough, and she managed to save enough in the tank for a kick to the end, which is always exciting.  I am so proud of her; it's not easy to train for any race, and it's not always fun, but Katie did it with class.  I hope this is just the beginning of her running journey.

Look at this Badass!  She ran a 5k!

After the race, I got a FREE chili cheese dog with my former principal, Paul.

This is EXACTLY how I look when I'm standing in line for a free chili cheese dog in the morning.  I'm on the right, by the way.

All in all, I can say that this race is such a fun experience for me.  The course is nice with just enough incline to make it interesting.  The food and entertainment are amazing for a small-town 5k.  The opportunity to run with my colleagues is even better.  The best part was that Katie allowed me to share the experience of her first race.  Katie, you are amazing.  I hope you had fun, and I hope this is something we can do again in the future.

Next year I want to find someone else who has never run a race.  Who will it be, Peeps?  I'm betting on one of my kids.

This Saturday is the big day: The Akron Marathon.  I am in taper mode, and it is UGLY.  If you want to find me before the race, look in a dark corner where I'll be rocking in the fetal position and crying. Until then, run 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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