Glass City Marathon - RunMarathon

Like most races, the start was quite congested. It was made even worse by a woman running the wrong way because she forgot her keys. Didn't worry about a pace for the first mile or so, just tried to get into a rhythm without having to do too much weaving.

Thought if everything went perfect, I was capable of going around four hours, so once things spread out enough, focused on staying relaxed and maintaining a steady 9:10/mi pace. Held that pace four about six miles, but noticed my heart rate creeping up. Decided to play it safe and back off a bit. The course got really crowded at the half marathon turn around, as we were on a fairly narrow bike trail with people going both directions.

After the trail portion, you got on a fairly busy road, but they had us running with traffic. This made me quite nervous, because every time you wanted to pass someone you had to step out into the road with traffic going by. They needed to cone off an area for us to run in or at least let us run against traffic.

Around mile ten, the course turned directly into the wind. This was brutal, was forced to slow down again to keep my heart rate where I wanted it. Hit the halfway point in 2:04, was feeling decent so I thought somewhere around 4:10 might still be achievable.

My nutrition plan was to use the shot blocks and gels that I was carrying for the first 16 miles, and Gatorade for the last ten. Felt myself hitting the wall around mile 18, the next aid station I came to did not have Gatorade (they had gels but I decided not to take it because I did not know how that brand would sit in my stomach--big mistake). By mile 20, I was close to bonking I walked through this aid station taking in three cups of Gatorade.

Mile 20-24 was just a slog fest. Did my best to just keep moving and *tried* to limit walking to just 30 seconds at a time. Then a little after mile 24, I found my salvation--a college guy handing out beer in red Solo cups. Walked a bit while I savored that wonderful elixir and within thirty seconds I felt good again (probably means I have a problem that my body reacts so positively to beer ;-). Was able to run the last mile and half and still finish with 15 minute PR.

Given the conditions (cold, rainy, windy), probably should have started out a little slower. Did not take in enough calories in the early part of the race. When I did get behind, I should have taken in whatever I could get my hands on instead of waiting for something I knew my stomach could handle.

Downed a bottle of water. Walked to the food tent for some beer and a bagel and then headed on home.


The weather did not help things, but getting behind on my nutrition was the biggest killer. I thought my training was very good for this race.


The race was very organized and the volunteers were great. With the weather as nasty as it was there were actually quite a few people out cheering us on.

I just did not think the course itself was very safe though. On a narrow trail, they had two way traffic. Four about 8 miles of road (fairly busy) you were running on a narrow bike lane with traffic and in one half mile section we were in a construction zone, with cars WAY to close for comfort.