Mid Ohio 13er

Wow.  I have never been almost two months behind on this blog.  We have had a lot of things come up in the last six weeks.  To say life is hectic is an understatement.  I've been down to about 5 miles per week over this period.  Seriously.  I'm thankful I can at least go out for a couple easy miles to clear my head every once in a while.

The Mid Ohio 13er is a local race here in Mansfield that I ran in 2016.  This year's came about a week before things got wild in our lives, so I was at least decently trained for it.  Race day was difficult.  It was pretty cool and rainy during the entire event.  I was plagued with GI issues throughout the last five miles or so.  It was a well run race but I didn't bring my A-game. 

Rather than refer back to my splits, I'll give you a quick breakdown of this race.

Miles 1-5:  We started out from downtown Mansfield and I immediately felt "off".  My splits were in the 7:45-8:00 range, which is fine, but I simply felt that I couldn't sustain it.  The course was the reverse of 2016 and so we started off with a long uphill on Marion Avenue.  It goes on for a long time before leveling off around mile 2 when we turned south on Cook Road.  The lead cyclist took a wrong turn somewhere in this area which led to a short course.  My watch showed it being short by about 1/3 of a mile.  The massive hill that we ran up in 2016 was replaced by a wicked downhill.  It was tough on the quads as we were only four miles into the race at this point.  My pace was great during this section.  I was nailing 7:00-7:15 for about 3 miles.  We headed north on the B&O Trail soon after the downhill and would remain on it for a long time.

Miles 6-10:  The trail portion was a great change of pace.  It heads in a semi-circle around Mansfield and we were heading toward its terminus in North Lake Park.  This is a long section of the path with little to no elevation change and good scenery.  We remained on it until the 10 mile marker.  Some light rain started coming down during this portion.  Unfortunately, my GI issues started here and remained for the rest of the race.  My time was still good, but I found myself trying to bank time rather than run consistent splits.  By the time we hit North Lake Park, I knew I was in trouble. 

Miles 11-13.1:  Just try to hang on.  This was my mantra during the last few miles.  My GI issues were getting worse than just about any race I've done.  And of course the race started going up and down to make it more uncomfortable.  I sprinkled in a few 20 second walk breaks to try and compose myself for the finish.  We weaved south through Middle and South Parks (nice scenery this late in a race) before turning east to the finish.  We finally got to Park Avenue for the LONG downhill finish into downtown.  The crowds during this section were out in full force.  This race is definitely getting some fans!  I tried to turn it on for the finish and got in with a very respectable 1:36:07 finishing time.  I was pretty shocked by the time considering the issues I was having during this race.  I still would have had a sub-1:38 had the course been on the mark.  My time was good enough for 10/93 overall and 3/14 in my age group.  Not bad at all!

I was hoping to get in one more half marathon this year but other things have prevented that from happening.  I have no idea when my next half will be.  Running 71 of them since 2009 is something I never thought would happen and I'm very proud of it.  In the meantime, I had a 5k last last month and am looking forward to a two mile (?) trail race tomorrow.

Next race: Mohican 5k- Loudonville, OH