Cleveland Marathon Weekend and Race Report

There are so many things that I love about the Cleveland Marathon! It's not just a race. It's a whole weekend of festivities with terrific people - the Marathon staff, my fellow ambassadors and tons of friends that are either running or fanning at the race. This means it's one of my favorite events of the year and I am always a little sad when it's over.

My husband Steve and I kicked off race weekend with a visit to the race expo on Friday late afternoon and got to see many of the staff, ambassadors and friends. The expo is always fun and there are some good deals to be had for us gear-loving runners! They also setup some pretty cool photo opps as well.

After that we headed over to the Hyatt Regency Arcade to get changed out of our casual clothes and grab a drink at the hotel bar until it was time for the annual Cleveland Marathon VIP dinner.

The VIP dinner is always a great time and I am glad that they include all of the ambassadors because it's a chance for us to chat about the race and our goals and to cut loose and have a good time together before the races begin. Here are some pics from this year's dinner. The one on top is of the race ambassadors. Can you pick me out? The one below is of my hubby and me.

Saturday was a relaxing day for us as we got all the housework and shopping done and picked out our race day outfits and made sure to carb load on some healthy, tasty food and maybe a beer or two.

Sunday morning we were up at 4am to get dressed, eat and get out of the house around 5. Because Steve was pacing the 3:35 group we had a parking pass for W. 3rd street right by the finish, which was nice! We ended up arriving around 6 with traffic and headed over to the start about 1/2 mile away for pre-race photos. Here I am below with the race ambassadors. Do we look excited?!

Unfortunately it was raining all morning and for much of the race but that didn't stop us from running and having some fun. I really felt great for the first 8-10 miles but I could feel the fatigue in my body and I was fighting a piriformis issue this week so I was forced to back off from running 7:50-8 min pace to 8:15-8:45 pace for the back half of the race. Steve finally passed me around mile 18 or 19 and I just tried to stay focused and keep on my pace. It was a hard fought finish of 3:38:10 for me (about 9 minutes slower than my HOF marathon time a few weeks back).  But this is still the best Cleveland marathon race I've run yet (course PR) and a second BQ for me in the last three weeks. I definitely am happy with that! Thanks to my friends out cheering on the course yesterday and taking these photos! The top one was taken by Elizabeth Miceli and the bottom was taken by Lesli Barni. I got a lot of great comments on my new Skirt Sports Lioness Skirt in holiday print!

After the race we headed over to the beer tent for our free Great Lakes Brewing beer! You can't beat a great race followed up with a good hoppy beer. We ran into many friends at the post race party including some Snakebite Racing teammates and CTC friends and my friend and fellow ambassador Stephanie below (bottom picture) who had a pretty big PR and our NERC friends Julio and Rosa (top photo) who also both had PR races! It was a great day to run for sure!

Finally Steve and I stopped on the way home at Winking Lizard for a late lunch and post race celebratory beer together.

It was a busy and fun Cleveland Marathon race week and I can't wait to do it all over again next year! Who's with me? Oh and check out this awesome medal below! I'm a little sore today but it was definitely worth it!