Wish I Were, CLE

This is one of the weekends I REALLY wish I was back home in the CLE…

from clevelandmarathon.com

This race has a special spot in my cold little runner heart – not only is it my hometown jam, but it was my FIRST HALF and my FIRST FULL.

2009 – Half Marathon

First race ever. Fresh off the softball/graduation boat and SO GREEN to anything running. Yes I wore cotton (inc those gloves for all 13.1 miles), no I didn’t know about pacing or body glide or Yassos, and yes that was the best tasting beer ever.

It was painful and I couldn’t walk for days, but that didn’t stop me from registering for Half #2 the next day.  (didn’t wear cotton for that one) 

2010 – Marathon

I can’t admit to catching the 26.2 bug here (have I really caught it yet?) but this was the humbling race that opened my eyes to the big ol’ world of running I hadn’t tapped into yet.

I battled my first injury (overuse and poor form), deemed a favorite Gu flavor (chocolate), got in a properly fitting pair of shoes (Saucony Triumph 6), and realized JUST how physically & mentally hard the marathon is.

It’s funny to think of how far I’ve come since this race, and then think about how much I STILL have to learn about running and the marathon.  I guess that’s what keeps us coming back.  There’s always SOMETHING you can do better, different, or smarter.  Sweaty perfectionist crack.

(I wrote that intending to reference the addictive drug, but realize what “sweaty crack” y’all probably thought of first.  Leaving it.)

Anyway, other than a fun little trip down memory lane, I wanted to share this because

1) maybe you’re running CLE this weekend, and I want you to know how insanely jealous I am

and/or

2) maybe you’re running CLE this weekend and it’s your first race, and I want to forewarn you about the impending addiction waiting at the finish line

In a stroke of severely proud runfriend, I need to give a blatant KICK SO MUCH ASS AND HAVE SO MUCH FUN shout out to EB who’s running CLE as her first Half Marathon (and who item #2 is mostly 100% directly directed towards)

Best of luck to all of you running this weekend – whether in CLE or somewhere less cool – run strong and remember you put in __ weeks/hours/miles/gallons of sweat and hard work for this.

MAKE IT WORTH IT.

Sarah OUaL