I fly in every year to participate in the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon and this year was no exception. As an added perk, the past two years I’ve also been really honored to serve a race ambassador for the race and that’s been awesome. My Cleveland hometown pride pours out all over the place as I gear up to come to Cleveland, as I participate in the race, and as I blog about it afterward. To finish where I left off in my first post about the weekend so far (Part 1 HERE):
SATURDAY MAY 14: This is the day I was supposed to head over to Edgewater Park for the first part of my 5k/10k race challenge series. My grandson is just getting over a really bad cold but his cough remains. Between worrying about the unknown driving route I would be traveling in the morning, listening to my grandson cough, listening to my son snore (sorry Mike) and their sweet little pup, Roxy’s nails tapping on the laminate flooring upstairs all night, I know I barely slept until the sun was coming up in the early morning. When the alarm went off, I felt like I had been asleep for about an hour. I glanced out the window and saw the rain pouring down, and I made the immediate decision that I wasn’t leaving Mentor to trek over to the other side of town to places unknown. In other words, the 5K was a fail.
When Amy (my DIL) got off work in the afternoon, we packed up and headed down to the Hyatt Regency at the Arcade and checked in.
We had pizza and wings for dinner – not my usual pre-race dinner but we were in a pinch. I had completely forgotten about the spaghetti dinner right there in the hotel, but when we glanced down over the rail from our third floor room, we saw the dinner taking place and I made a mental note that next year, I’m going to be catching dinner there! Everything looked fabulous!
I jumped into bed pretty early and went to sleep watching Monster University with Dylan. Of course, I put out “flat Debi” before the race so I wouldn’t be rushing around in the morning trying to remember everything. (And I set a new record this year – the only thing I forgot was breakfast or any kind of energy gel, which is much better than past years!)
SUNDAY MAY 15: RACE DAY!!! I knew that I had not properly trained for any kind of hills, living in “flat and fast” Florida kind of spoils me like that. I also knew that with a problematic IT band on the left AND the ongoing plantar fasciitis and fallen arch on the right meant that I couldn’t have big expectations this year. And then there’s the weather! I mean I grew up in the Cleveland area and lived here until I was 40, and even I wouldn’t have ever expected it to be so cold in May! For a millisecond, I actually thought maybe I wouldn’t go meet up with the ambassadors for the 6:40am annual photo, but after hitting the snooze button way too many times, I jumped up at 6:10, powered through getting dressed and ready and headed over to the Quicken Loans Arena right on time. Of course, I got to the exit door on Euclid Avenue before I realized I had forgotten my bib in the hotel room, so I dashed back and grabbed it and still made it for the photo. Gotta love staying right downtown!
It was SO cold but it wasn’t raining. I was really, really, really hoping it wouldn’t rain because then it would feel even colder! I had expected 40° at the start, but I didn’t expect 35° with the wind blowing 25 mph! YIKES! This former Ohio girl turned Floridian was FREEZING! Thankfully I brought a long sleeved shirt, right?
The race was – AS ALWAYS – fantastic and fun! The first mile I ran a 13:15, which for me is great and I was very happy with that. Then I turned the corner and the rain and hail started, and it quickly turned into snow, rain, hail, sleet and mess. I slipped on something and lost my balance, but was able to not fall (thank God). I decided immediately that my well being was more important than a finish time, and I decided I would walk the race and try to enjoy myself despite the weather.
At the end of the race, I was very pleased with my walking finish time, and while I didn’t necessarily enjoy running in those horrible weather elements, I’m very proud of myself for not dropping out. I always say I don’t run in the rain, but I never imagined factoring in snow!!! EVER!! According to Facebook, I can officially call myself a Bad A$$ now!
So now all of the race festivities are finished. I’m onto the rest of my racecation now – visited my friend Haley Gunz in Northfield for a tattoo touch up on Monday. Today (Tuesday), I’ll be speaking at a Celebrate Recovery in Willoughby. On Wednesday, my cousin Linda and I will be heading down to the Carrie Underwood concert at the Quicken Loans Arena and then Thursday is Luchita’s (my favorite Mexican restaurant)! Friday morning I’ll be heading on a plane traveling back to Florida. I’ll be happy to get home but sad to leave my hometown pride, Cleveland, Ohio. I’ll also be sad to leave my son, daughter in law, and grandson, Dylan!
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