But despite the biggest thing that could possibly go wrong on race day going wrong, I beat my Cleveland time by...
Wait for it...
Drumroll please...
19 MINUTES!!
I ran the Columbus Marathon in 4:13:12, an average pace of 9:40, beating my Cleveland time of 4:32:50 (average pace 10:24). I am shocked at my time. I can't believe I did that well.
So my morning went like this: Heard the alarm go off at 4 a.m. thought I hit snooze but I didn't! Next thing I knew it was 5:15.
Fortunately, I still had time to get there -- gun was at 7:30. Fortunately, Lizzie Dog peed right away. Fortunately, I had packed everything the night before so I was able to just grab my bag and go -- I'm out the door by 5:30. Fortunately, there were no cops on 161!
I get into Columbus by 6:15 but traffic was snarly. It takes me a half hour to get parked and by the time I get to the Hyatt, where MIT was meeting, it was time to head to the start. "Way to scare everyone by showing up late," says Bill B. as I hand him my bag to put on the truck. I grin.
We start the procession toward the start and I catch up to some of the 10:30s walking. "JESSICA!!!!!" Kim says, "You had us so worried!!"
We get to the start and I have to pee big time. The line for the regular port-a-johns is atrocious, so Meredith, also in our pace group start poking into local businesses looking for a ladies' room with no line. In Dunkin' Donuts, someone tells us where there is a port-a-potty with no line. Jackpot!! Actually it had a short line, far more bearable still. We make it to the start just in time.
There's no hope of finding the pace teams, it's too crowded, too many people!! That's right, I ran the whole thing without a pacer, and pretty consistently too!
