Glass City Half Marathon

     I mentioned to my husband that I have been lucky and had never ran a long distance race in the rain. Apparently, Mother Nature heard me and decided that it was my time to experience a race in the rain. It start to rain lightly as we left the house for the race and did not stop. Thankfully, the temperature was around 50.
     Right before the race, we had a minute of silence for those who died and were injured at Boston. When we looked up there was a plane flying over with the American flag and the date of the Boston Marathon. We were all given blue bands with gold writing on them that said "Runners Unite" When the race started it took me a little bit to get to the actual start line. I decided to run with the 2:20 pacers.
     There was a lot of bumping and congestion for about 3 miles. I changed my mind and decided to run ahead of the 2:20 pacers. I really wanted to see if I could hit a run goal of 2:15. I used the pacers as a push to keep myself a head of them. When I heard them (they were really funny) getting close, I knew that I needed to up my pace.
     The route went by some very beautiful and big houses. I had never seen this part of Toledo. Because of the rain, there was no entertainment along the route. However, there were some die hard spectators which I so appreciated. I wish I could tell them how much they help push me through when they cheer us on. Since my name was on my bib, some of them were calling me by name.  I saw Santa Claus. A runner next to me said that she did not realize that she ran to Christmas. There was a nun and priest, family in pajamas, a giant lobster, Flash, Superman and Batman. Oh, and a mermaid. One of my favorite signs was at 1/2 mile that said "You are almost there. Quit now, free beer"
     At mile 8 we separated from the marathoners. We ran into Wildwood Preserve Metropark which was beautiful. Nice asphalt paths winding its way through trees. About this time, the soft rain turned into a steady rain. The picture below is not today but I wanted to share with you what it looks like.

    Mile 9 I saw that there was a runner on the ground. I ran over to see if she was okay. There were about 5 other runners around her. She was talking. But looked pretty pale. One of the runners told me she was okay and was talking on her cell phone. So, I continued on. Again at mile 11, I saw other runner laying down but the squad was coming up the hill with a stretcher.
     As I was approaching mile 13, all the sudden there was honking behind me and was told to move over to the left.  The lead runner for the marathon was coming through. I have never seen this before. He had people on bikes in front of him and was being followed by a golf cart. He beat the Glass City Marathon record. I thought that was really cool and impressed as I was finishing 13.1, he doubled my distance to come in at the same time!!
   We ran .10 mile into the Toledo Rockets (UT's) football stadium which is the finish line. We all got a glass beer mug and bling. The medal is pretty with the red being stained glass.

 

Overall, this was a great race. Even though I did not met my goal of 2:15. I was 3 minutes off. I was satisfied. Especially since I did a half one week prior. My plan of repeating the week of my race twice in training worked.    This race was pretty flat with a few small hills. Nothing like last weekends. I will definitely do this one again.