Columbus Marathon 2019 Race Report

On October 20, I ran the Columbus Marathon. This was my second full marathon for the year.

Training

I used the same training plan that I used for Glass City – the Pfitz 18/55 plan. Training did not go as well – many times I dealt with extreme heat. It seemed as if summer was hotter this year than last. I dealt with dehydration and heat exhaustion during parts of the summer, and hitting both of those issues to the extreme. Many of my quality sessions weren’t the best, as doing things like “18 with 14 at M pace” at 70F when I start running is just… harsh.

However, I did nearly all my training runs – I recall missing one because I had to fly to and from Chicago one day, and I made one adjustment to try to nail the Bulldog Blast 5k (narrator: “which he did not PR”).

Nutrition-wise, I felt like I was losing weight and the scale did not agree. A week before Glass City, my weight shot up about 4 or 5 pounds, and it hasn’t gone up or down significantly since then.

Pre-Race

I left Cincinnati around noon and headed towards Columbus, stopping in Grove City to grab some forgotten breakfast items and fuel up at Meijer. After driving around downtown Columbus, I found a parking spot near Elevator Brewing and walked to the expo. This was one of the longer times I’ve spent at an expo, not so much because of it’s size but because I wanted a discount voucher for the Flying Pig and spent some time talking to the ambassadors.

• 

• 

• 

I found a hotel room at the Sheraton near the Capitol Building. It was okay, there are some places where it shows it’s age, but otherwise decent. I went to OH Pizza and Brew expecting a good pizza and good beer. The pizza was great, the beers were great, although the selection was a fucking joke (there was ONE Columbus beer on tap – I drank a Rhinegeist Truth and an Elevator Dark Force – a dark lager).

• 

• 

• 

Part of the evening was me watching the Bearcats football game and working while sitting on the bed. Part was getting my post-race bag and morning clothes and stuff together.

• 

• 

• 

I turned on my alarm, cranked up the volume, and placed it on the desk next to the adjoining room because they didn’t seem to understand how to be quiet (and I think they even got a visit from the hotel staff telling them to STFU). Pro-Tip, don’t be an asshat to the room next to you in a hotel unless you want to find out what time THEY wake up. And don’t tempt them to leave Nick Jr on the TV loudly when they leave (I didn’t do that because they did get quiet, but I was tempted).

Race Morning

I got my gear bag together and headed to the start line around 6:15 AM. When I went to the lobby, they had a bunch of water bottles sitting out, so I took one and started the 1.2 mile walk to the start line. After making it to the start area, I located the bag check tent and went towards the corrals. Despite using the toilet before leaving my room, I kinda felt like I had to again… but the line was a mile long. Partly because it seemed like half the race was in the A corral. I’m not sure what their criteria was, nor do I remember what I predicted my time at, but I registered before Glass City, so maybe 3:45 or 3:40? Regardless, I found a place in the herd to hang out before the pacers made their way to the corral. Turns out, I started behind the 3:50 pacer 😡.

The weather was warm-ish at around 50F. I took a jacket I bought from Goodwill with me and threw it aside when the gun went off

The Race

I started conservatively. Part of it was because I nearly tripped over people that seemed to be very scared of the start mat. I was close enough to the start line that it should have taken me 30 seconds to cross the start line, and it took 90 seconds.

I ran the first five miles in 41 minutes, which is around 8:12 min/mile. All those miles were below 8:10 except the first, and I expected that. There’s some hills through there, but overall not bad.

The second five miles didn’t feel as good on the course, but was better. 40:37, so 8:07 min/mile. The terrain was a little flatter through here. Of the five miles: 8:02, 8:16, 8:04, 8:15, 7:59… there’s a bit of variation here.

The third five miles got through the southern part of the course (Downtown, Bexley, and German Village) and to the northern part of the course. Mostly flat according to the data, but I remember going uphill just past the split. 40:09 through the segment, and two sub-8 miles. The pace through the segment was 8:02 min/mile.

The fourth five was where the wheels started coming off. First off, there’s a hairpin turn in mile 17. I honestly hate those (they have one on the Flying Pig Half Marathon course that I loathe, but at least they close six lanes of traffic on a road with a median and give it all to us – this is a two-lane road with no median. Then there’s a two-mile long hill in miles 18-19. Then, because the marathon starts at 7:30 AM, we’re hitting this at 10:00 AM… when the heat kicks up. Time in this segment was 42:28, pace of 8:30 min/mile.

The fifth five wasn’t anything better. Gassed from the hill and dying from the heat, I trudged on as best I could. Parts of this (mile 20) was in full sun, parts had some shade from being in an older part of the town. However, as the miles dropped off, the area became more suburban and in full sun. Then, to cap it off, mile 25 began on old brick… normally I wouldn’t be bothered by this, but the unevenness of the brick didn’t feel good. At all. Then the 3:40 pacer passed me. I tried to keep in view, but the brick and the fatigue kept THAT from happening. This segment was 43:23, a slow pace of 8:41 min/mile. As I continued through this segment, I saw more and more runners slowing to a walk and some that were getting medical attention.

The last 1.2 saw me speeding up as two things came together. One was the fact that I was 1.2-ish miles away from the finish line. The other was the downhill slope into downtown. I made my way through the turns to Nationwide, High Street, and Long Street and into the finishing zone, passing at least one that needed a chair (and even my finisher’s video shows a medical volunteer taking a wheelchair back onto the course). Crossed the finish line in 3:39:23. Not a PR.

Post-Race

I immediately walked past the heat blankets and to a bottle of water and a misting fan. After a few rounds of that, I moved on through the finishers area. They handed us a bag and we basically trick-or-treated our way through several people handing out food. I kept a bagel in my hand to munch on, although I only made it halfway since it was tough and difficult to eat. I drank a cup of Gatorade and finished my water. Thinking there was beer outside in the post-race-party somewhere, I exited the runner’s post-race area and pushed through the crowd of people too stupid to give us room to actually leave the runner’s area, and made my way to gear check. I realized I messed up and forgot a second pair of compression socks, so I just sat down and ultimately put on my jacket.

I walked around the “party” area. I saw several tents, most seemed vacant or under-utilized except one for a running group. I saw nobody with beer except one that had a can (and it looked like they were trying to keep it ‘under wraps’). I went back towards the runner’s exit hoping to score another bottle of water, but no bueno. I then went to a booth that was handing out coconut water bottles. I got one that was pineapple flavored, and found it to be quite disgusting.

I threw it in the trash and found a Monster booth that was also handing out waters (some flavored energy hydration bullshit water). I asked the young lady there if they tasted better than the coconut water at the neighboring booth, to which she replied “Yes! Well, I think so, and this is sugar free…” I cut her off and asked about Splenda or Sucralose (which I cannot have), to which she replied “yes, but this other one doesn’t” and before handing me that other bottle, she double-checked the ingredients list 😊.

Since there seemed to be no shot in Hell in getting a beer, I slowly made my way back to the hotel to clean up and get checked out. Of course, they were rushing me (it amazes me that these hotels can’t figure out when someone says “I’m running the marathon this weekend” that they don’t automatically mark them for late checkout).

• 

• 

• 

After getting cleaned up, I refilled the Monster water bottle from the sink and took that with me for the drive home. Fortunately, I made it home as my car started missing during the trip, particularly when under high acceleration.

Post Race Analysis

What I found interesting was when I looked at this race in context to others and the other two marathons.

Overall, I was 634th out of 3,594 people. At Glass City, I was 349th out of 1,278. At the Flying Pig 2018, I was 704th out of 5,829. In terms of finishing percentile, the races order in reverse of time – Flying Pig then Columbus, then Glass City. Age group percentile is a little different – 80th percentile for the Pig (note: age group was 35-39), 55th percentile for Glass City, and 77th percentile for Columbus.

Looking at top fives and stuff is even more odd. Columbus’s top M40-44 ran 2:23:00 – blazingly fast compared to the same place at Glass City (2:46:48) and Flying Pig (2:50:39). Mind you, Flying Pig went into yellow-flag that year. Columbus had a faster field overall, though.

Endnotes

At this point, I don’t know what’s next. I still have time in this fall season to do something, although here it is nearly two weeks post-race and I haven’t registered for anything. This was a humbling experience, though.

Oh, and the car. I had reduced it’s use to only going around the corner to the park to run. After a recovery run or two it was getting really bad – to the point that I took the brand new van one morning. I had to move the car to get my mower out around that time, and had just had some spark plugs delivered (and the car was throwing a service engine light, so I scanned it and it told me Cylinder 4 was misfiring). I went to replace just that plug and found the wire loose. So I added some dielectric grease and plugged it back in, and that fixed it for the time being.