After a bit of back and forth I went ahead and signed up. It was out together by the folks that do the Columbus Marathon, and the race director was there. The deal was if you beat the director you got a free entry into the marathon. I had no hope of doing that but thought it would be fun race.
My goal was to run it in a sub 40 minute time.
So I pick up Bill and we drive down. It's pissing rain on January 1st. At least it wasn't freezing. We get there and I pick up my race pack while Bill goes for a warm up run. That dude is a runner through and through.
After hanging out and waiting for the race to start they call everyone to the gates. Bill heads to the front of the pack while I hang out in the middle rear of the pack.
At the start I knew I made a mistake. I had all sort of slow pokes in front of me. A dude with a stroller. A bunch of walkers. And slower runners. After about .75 miles I weave my way out of this mess and find a good pace and start to even my pace and cruise.
I felt really good. Better then expected. It was an out and back and some of the jack rabbits flew by on the return leg. After a few runners I saw Bill...flying.
I reached the half way point and was sub 15 minutes. That was quite the surprise. So I opted to push a bit and try to go sub 30.
I ended up crossing the line in 27 minutes. Not bad at all.
All and all a good race and I felt good running with these people.
I have some hope that I can do this.
