Cleveland Marathon 10K Race Report! May 15, 2016

I know there's already a couple of Cleveland marathon race reports up, but misery loves company. Also, I ran the 10K instead of the half or full. I'm very impressed with myself so here, a race report!

Race information

• What? Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon 10K
• When? May 15, 2016
• How far? 10 km
• Website? http://www.clevelandmarathon.com/

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	< 1 hour	Yes
B	< 1 hour, 10 mins	Yes
C	Survive anxiety and poor planning	Yes

Training

Being my (and my boyfriend's) first race, I didn't have any serious training plan. I built up to a base of 30 mi/week and just kept doing that in the few weeks before the race.

Race strategy

My race strategy morphed a bit over time. I started with the usual "just finish" goal, which I knew would happen regardless of performance. I figured I could go easy in the first mile or so while still warming up, and then speed up a bit. I didn't want to blow myself out straight from the start and have to walk at any point. By the time I arrived at the race, my goal changed to "please finish this as quickly as possible" and my strategy became "look you can probably run super fast and still survive so just do that."

I have horrible anxiety so I also had an anxiety plan: I would be okay with my boyfriend (S) running ahead of me if we established a meeting place after the finish line, and I planned to wear my one pair of shorts with a big enough pocket for my phone. This strategy also changed to "maybe stay with me for the first mile until I feel comfortable alone" and then to "you know what, you can set the pace and I'll keep up because fuck this."

Pre-race

Most people probably wouldn't travel to Cleveland just to run a 10K, but S and I actually like hanging out there, so we made a weekend of it. The pre-race period began on Friday night, when we were hanging out in our hotel room and watching the local weather report for Sunday morning. We realized how stupid we were in only packing t-shirts and shorts, a decision that led to me drunk-shopping at Goodwill for long sleeved shirts on Saturday night. I found three new-old tech shirts. Congratulations, me.

We planned to take the train into town, so that involved getting up at 4:15 AM and forcing myself to consume a granola bar and a bit of coffee. I barely slept because I was so nervous. And of course the weather was even worse than expected by the time we left the hotel around 5:00. It was raining or snowing or something ???? My outfit of choice was t-shirt + long sleeved tech shirt and shorts. I already wanted to die while waiting for the train in the cold, but then we got on the train and there were tons of other runners and I felt a little less nervous about the race itself.

When we reached Tower City no one else seemed to be in a hurry despite all the "BE HERE BY 6:00!!!" warnings, so thankfully I was able to use a normal bathroom at the station. We found our corral by about 6:15 but absolutely no one was lining up yet, so we huddled behind a building with everyone else to escape the wind. I was envious of everyone wearing pants. I hated them. All I wanted was pants. But at least my core temperature was still normal. Anyway, we lined up around 6:45. And then, we ran!

Race

My plan to start out at a slower, conservative pace completely went out the window the second we started moving. I wanted to get warm and get blood back into my legs. Most of my anxiety dissipated at that point when I realized that running in a crowd of other people is actually not that bad! The first couple of miles went great; I was right on track to finish in my estimated corral time (which I keep forgetting but my goal pace was 9:30-9:40 mins/mi).

So yeah, that weather. Somewhere around mile 2 (for me) was when the hail started, or whatever that small stuff is that's not actually hail but people call it hail anyway. I was still in "just finish this fast" mode so it was almost funny. I wouldn't have hated the weather if I had been smart enough to pack pants, really. Unlike some, I had the privilege of only running 6.2 miles.

Maybe it's just the extreme fatigue clouding my memories, but the race itself was fairly uneventful considering what my anxiety/nervousness had me expecting. I just remember...running. I enjoyed the flatness of the course compared to my usual training runs in suburban Pittsburgh but I was happy to see a couple long, gradual inclines. I fucking love hills. I don't remember exactly what mile we ran up and over the Hope Memorial Bridge but it was in the latter half of the race and I was starting to lose a bit of steam. However, when I looked at my watch after mile 4 and realized I was on track to finish in an hour, I knew I couldn't let myself slow down or stop. I kept telling myself that over the next couple of miles.

By the time the finish line was in sight, I didn't have enough left in me for a good sprint. Bummer. I told S he could go on without me and I finished about a minute after him. 55:05 for my first 10K! I didn't find out my exact time until I checked the website later but I knew it was under an hour and I was so, so happy. I exceeded my goal and expectations.

Post-race

Post-race is where the weather really sucked for me. Long story short, it took us forever to get back to the appropriate train station and the weather just kept getting worse. We were still outside in the worsening wind and rain when I lost my post-exertion warmth and I started to get funky hungry (after being anti-hungry to the point of slight nausea right after the race). We grabbed some Dunkin Donuts coffee and breakfast (I'm from Massachusetts okay), took it back to the hotel, and ate it in bed. Best breakfast sandwich I have ever had. I think I stopped shivering by 1:00 PM.

What's next?

Well, I'm hooked now that I know what I'm capable of, and I know racing isn't the anxiety bomb I thought it would be. I have plans to do a 5K next month (just sounded like a fun race; I don't care much about a PR) and I'd like to choose a fall half marathon to train for. You guys, I feel like a real runner now. This is fun!

This report was generated using race reportr, a tool built by /u/BBQLays for making great looking and informative race reports.