Better late than never. I raced The Columbus Marathon back in October. These were my postrace thoughts that I initially posted on Daily Mile:
This was the largest race that I have participated in thus far (18,000) and it went relatively smooth. Officialy chip time was 3:37:59, almost a 40 min improvement over my first marathon 4 months ago (Hatfield & McCoy). It helped that this time the temperature wasn't over 80 degrees and there were no mountains, trails, or swinging brideges (compared to my first 26.2). Held up well, until around mile 22, when I seemed to hit the wall and my right foot started to feel tender, forcing my pace to slow. After the race, my right knee felt tender as well. Maybe I ran too much near the sides of the roads? However, both seem to be recovering relatively quickly. Trained with 3:45 in mind and decided the at the last week to attempt 3:35, so I'll take 3:37 for my second attempt at the marathon.
Overall, I was impressed with this race. I thought it was the perfect size, in terms of numbers. It was large enough to feel like it was a big event with good crowd support and I specifically remember being amazed as I turned the last corner before the finish line and saw, as well as heard the spectators. It was also well organized, with everything seemingly running smoothly. However, if it were much larger, I'd guess that it would be a little more chaotic. During this race, I experienced running with a pace team for the first time, and even though I lost them near the end, they still helped me get though 26.2 miles with a pace that I was happy with. The course was relatively flat, helping with fast times, yet it wasn't boring. Columbus seemed like a nice college town, and despite living in Lexington and graduating from the University of Kentucky, I have to admit that it was fun to run through Ohio State's football stadium. Would I run it again? Yes.
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