The Columbus Marathon 10/18/2009

Marsha, Janet, Jeannine and I left for Columbus Marathon on Saturday afternoon and went to the expo then out to Olive Garden for dinner but they had a 1.5 hour wait so we went to Bob Evans and had a nice dinner with no wait. Then we went back to our hotel room and rested up , watched a little TV, did our Facebooking and went to sleep. Sunday morning we got our wake up call at 4:30 instead of 5:30 but we were all able to go back to sleep. We got up and headed to the Marathon, it was cold, maybe mid 30's so we were bundled up and ready to run. At 7:30 the race was on, Marsha ran with Jeannine Janet and I til mile 3 then we were on our own. This was such a great course and we had a large showing from the Medina area seeing quite a few people we knew either at the expo or during the run itself. I was pacing Jeannine for her second Marathon and was lucky to be able to, one week ago I was thinking it would be a miracle if I would be able but some how I have been able to get through these injuries and run the runs I wanted to do. We had a great run with no problems unlike the things that happened at Akron. We hit the half way point in 1:57 and we both felt great, the course was one of my favorites of the runs I have run so far. We had almost even splits coming across the finish line in 3:55:01 and 3:55:02. I tried to make sure Jeannine finished just in front of me but I must have crossed the start matt just before her cause the final time put me 1 second in front of her again. I'm starting to like being a pacer, it's so much fun to help someone to a goal and not feel the pain of running a hard marathon which is what I may be feeling next weekend in Niagara Falls.I"m hoping to get the chance again to pace Jeannine to her Boston Qualifier time sometime next year if she can wait that long. I'm looking forward to a nice long get a way in Niagara but not looking forward to marathon pain but it will be worth it if every things comes together