2009 Ohio City Run & Crawl 5K

Last night I did my only annual 5K run. It was the 4th annual Ohio City Run & Crawl 5K which I have run all four instances of. It starts just across from the West Side Market, in front of the Great Lakes Brewing Company, and loops around the Cleveland neighborhood of Ohio City before finishing up right where it started.

Yesterday, it was sunny with temperatures near 80 and humid, which were not ideal running conditions. The race started at 7pm, at which point it had not cooled down much from the heat of the day. The course is not the best, with a lots of twists and turns at the start followed, fortunately, by some longer stretches along city streets though many of the streets are kind of treacherous with potholes and the such. I hit the first 2 mile markers at right around a 6:45/mi pace, which is a little slower than I had hoped for, but my body was not up for taking it faster than that. I did manage to have a surge towards the finish, but a PR was not to be had this evening. I did manage to beat my time from last year, but not the PR I had set 2 years ago.

Afterward, the main sponsor, Bier Markt, had a $1 draft special for each runner's first drink. Kristy had a Brooklyn IPA and I settled for a Hoegaarden. We then went next door to Bar Cento and enjoyed a very tasty dinner and another round of beers. After we left, walking back to the car, the weather was perfect. Too bad we couldn't have run the race then.

Chip Time: 20:53.92
Overall Place: 29 / 444
Division Place (M30-39): 9 / 71
Pace: 7:36.6

2009 Cleveland Half-Marathon

Yes, I am in fact still running. After seemingly reaching a plateau over the past couple of years, I am finally starting to see a small bit of improvement. A few weeks back, on May 17th, I ran my first half-marathon in 2 years and beat my previous best time by just under a minute, finsihing in 1:39:47. Here are my full results:

Chip Time: 1:39:47
Overall Place: 286 / 4181
Gender Place: 226 / 1813
Division Place (M30-34): 38 / 307
Pace: 7:36.6
10K Split: 46:17

Not too bad. My goal was to get in under 1:40, which I did, barely. I was discouraged in the last mile when the 3:20 marathon pace group passed me, but I managed to have a good last mile and make it in just under.

As far as the course, I ran the full Cleveland Marathon back in 2008, and while I only did the half this time, I felt the course was better. The start area was much improved over last year when there were many turns through crowded areas. Also, the wind situation did seem to be better with running west away from the lake and east near the lake, though at times there was still a stiff headwind, especially near the end when approaching downtown on the Shoreway. The finish area was also improved. I think after last year's race I said I would not run it again, but now I would actually consider running the full marathon in Cleveland again.

My next plan is to likely run the Akron Marathon at the end of September. Depending on whether or not I take it easy and run with my wife (who is considering running this as her first marathon), I may then run either Detroit or Columbus three weeks after that.