The 2009 Akron Marathon

The weekend began Friday when Marsha, Janet, Jeannine and I went to the Spagetti Warehouse for lunch and then to the Expo to get our race packets. I was hoping to try and get a good nights sleep as it hasn't been happening lately, I closed my eyes at 10pm and was wide awake and up for good by 2:30 am. Out of bed and dressed before 3 and on Facebook posting a picture of my bib 4 hours before the start, what is wrong with that. Jeannine arrives by 5 and we pick Janet up and arrive nice and early and get a good parking spot. We were meeting at 6:30 for a group picture but had time on our hands so we got to visit the Polski building which is a nice little secret we know about thanks to the blue line training run, it is a building very close that has nice bathrooms and is open really early and none of us had to use those port-a-potties. We met at the Home of the Akron Marathon sign and had a nice group picture with 14 of us there and a few missing that didn't make it. 7:00 am the race begins, Rachel and I were pacing Jeannine for her 1st marathon. Frank and Dan ran with us til mile 3 where Frank turned off to hit the relay shuttle and Dan took off to run marathon pace for the last 10 miles off the half. It was pretty crowded so the first few miles were pretty slow but we were right on pace through the most of the first half. I think we had some bad water on the course as later we found out many people had issues including Marsha that ran the half in 1:55 but got very sick in the middle. Jeannine ended up getting a bad stomach ache and was in some pain for alot of the 2nd half but she toughed it out. As we approached Stan Hewitt we walked the hill and while in Stan Hewitt saw Janet and Roseann. As we were leaving the road right in front of Stan Hewitt I dug out a piece of the wall (it was the Niagara wall, a very thoughtful gift Jeannine gave me to help out at my next marathon)and gave it to Jeannine to leave as were we on our home stretch and some nice downhill on the way. We ran into Marsha about mile 24 and Cliff somewhere after mile 25. It was not where we expected to be but still an excellent 1st time marathon time of 4:22. Later that evening a bunch of us met up at Legends and had a nice evening, it was a great day overall and I hated to see it end. While eating dinner Dan D. tells me he is running 20 miles in the morning and the thoughts ran through my head." I could do that if we go easy, then no that's to many miles after a marathon, then wait that would be a good training run for next weekend" I went and we ran 20 miles in 2:48 at a 8:38 pace then I went home for a short time and then ran 2 more with Jeannine and Janet for a total of 22 today and 26.2 yesterday and somehow I'm feeling pretty good for a 48.2 mile two day total. It makes me think I may have a good first attempt at an ultra next weekend at the NorthCoast 24. Then what could be next, could be interesting