Man, I have to say, Columbus is an awesome city to run a marathon in. The crowds were great, the other runners were great, and the city is pretty darn flat. Conditions in Columbus today were perfect for running. Temperatures were in the upper 30s, low 40s, mostly sunny, and light breezes. The Columbus Marathon is a small- to mid-sized marathon, less than 4000 marathoners and even less half-marathoners, meaning no large crowds to fight through. My only complaint about the marathon was having the marathoners start at the same time as the half-marathoners. At some point on the course, the half-marathoners split off, then miles later they rejoined us. It caused a bit of confusion having different mile markers. One of my split times is off because of this. But man, I totally rocked this one. I tagged along with the 3:30 pace group most of the way. The pacer was going a bit faster than 8:00 per mile but I was keeping up. I made a pit stop later and fell behind, but still within sight of the pacer. I felt good the whole way through. Yeah, all 26 miles, no stopping, no walking, no cramping. I slowed down a bit the last few miles but I wasn’t going to settle for a sub-4:00 and just enjoy the run this time. I had a PR within reach and was racing this marathon, not just running it. And man, when I hit downtown, the crowd really pumped me up and helped me to a sprint for the last quarter mile. Final time: 3:35:50, I beat my previous PR by 1:18. Columbus was awesome!
Here are my split times.
Mile – Split
1 – 8:02
2 – 7:38
3 – 7:31
4 – 8:05
5 – 8:00
6 – 8:09
7 – 7:17
8 – 9:33
9 – 7:41
10 – 7:47
11 – 7:49
12 – 7:59
13 – 8:30
14 – 7:29
15 – 7:59
16 – 7:59
17 – 9:18
18 – 7:45
19 – 8:31
20 – 8:31
21 – 8:31
22 – 8:11
23 – 8:48
24 – 9:17
25 – 9:19
26 – 8:42
Finish – 3:35:50
Average heart rate – 170 bpm
Next week is the last one of these crazy marathons this month, Chicago.
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