GF and I celebrated a huge milestone last month as I ran my 50th half marathon! I couldn't have picked a better race for this accomplishment. The Akron Half Marathon was perfectly organized, the weather was gorgeous, the swag was terrific, and I had a great time! GF would like to add that this is a VERY spectator-friendly race. She was able to see me at four different points in the race and only had to walk a few blocks. She saw the start, the 6 mile mark, 11 mile mark, and the finish. GF rated this as one of the most enjoyable events she's attended with me. If you are looking for a race in NE Ohio, look no further.
Obviously, it has been quite some time since this race and I haven't updated the blog because I haven't entered a race in a long time. I'll add my basic thoughts to this one as it was more about finishing half #50 than anything else.
We had a bit of a snafu on the way to the race. GF asked me the day prior if I had ever missed a race for any reason. I said, "Of course not! I plan ahead and get to each race with time to spare". Until this race. I mistakenly kept thinking it started at 7:30 when it actually started at 7:00. We got to the parking garage, which is right at the start line, at about 6:40. I figured we had plenty of time, so we waited a few minutes before making our way to the start...just in time to see Corral C taking off. Whoops! I figured I had plenty of time since the race was chip timed, so I had GF snap a few pre-race pictures and then took off at the end of Corral C. What's amazing to me is that we were able to park right next to the start line 20 minutes before the race!
On to my report:
Miles 1-5: Well, my GPS would not start since I had no time to wait around. I ran this one without that benefit, but I actually enjoyed running by feel. The problem was I spent the first 4-5 miles dodging people due to my late start. We headed north on a nice, long straightaway. I believe we headed the opposite way when I ran the full back in 2013, so I enjoyed running a slightly different course. The crowd in Akron is surprisingly good and it makes a medium city race feel like a big city one. I believe I was right on pace at around 8:00 per mile after the first five.
Miles 6-10: We made our way back toward downtown with and headed east to the University of Akron campus. This portion was much more enjoyable than in '13 as it seemed we ran through more of the campus and a lot of students were out cheering. GF saw me early in this portion but I missed her as it was still very crowded. I still felt very good during this portion of the race and continued running 8:00 pace. We made our way south out of the campus and then headed back north towards downtown once again.
Miles 11-13.1: GF saw me once again at mile 11 and I actually saw her this time. I did my goofy fist-pump and high-fived her. We had a few rolling hills as we ran through downtown and made a short loop to the minor league baseball stadium for the finish. Again, I was really enjoying myself and basking in the glory of finishing my 50th half marathon. We finished in the stadium and I collected my medal and finishing gift, which was a great pair of running socks! My finishing time was 1:43:35, good enough for 356/4111 overall and 37/279 in my age group. Not a bad day!
I've already finished ten half marathons in 2015 and achieved my goal of getting to 50 overall. The last one for the year is in a little over a week. This has not been my usual October as I haven't raced at all. To remedy that, I'll be doing a 5k this weekend to prep for the half marathon.
Next race: FIT Fright Challenge 5k- Norwalk, OH
