Hotcha! That's my town!

Official time: 01:43.35

WTF? I took FOUR MINUTES OFF MY PERSONAL BEST?

Yay-oh-me, but I don't even believe that right now.

Recap: I wouldn't even be running this today, except three of my co-workers announced in January that they wanted to. Two were to run the Half, and one the 10K. However, as of yesterday one of the Half Marathon runners thought he had a recurrence of strep, and the other has been having knee problems - so they switched to the 10K when they picked up their stuff.

It's what my wife tells me - listen to your body. Good for them. But now I was running alone. Which is all right, I usually run alone.

I do hate the fact that the Cleveland Marathon has a very lame start. No warm place to hang out, absolutely no free stuff to eat or drink ($2 for a plain bagel before the race? Fuck you.) and who in the hell are the announcers? I have no idea who these people are. "CLEVELAND ROCKS!" Yeah, whatever, keep saying that over and over and maybe I will believe you weren't flown in here by Clear Channel.

And. I hate, hate, hate the remake of that song (I won't even mention the band, it doesn't exist) I mean, love you Drew, but Jesus it's awful - and they played that version at the start this time, too. AND THEN THEY PLAYED IT AGAIN.

But I am a big fan of this year's Half Marathon route. BIG fan. That was awesome. Obviously there are corporate reasons for running down East 9th (you know, to run past the Rock Hall) which necessitates a run up West Third. That's okay. I can do that. I've done that several times.

Taking the Lorain-Carnegie was a new thrill (only one remaining Cavaliers headband on the Guardians of Traffic, by the way, the rest must have been stolen/blown away/dissolved in a pool of tears) and so was our journey through TREMONT! A real neighborhood, with real people! Okay, not real people, urban hipsters, but still. And also through OHIO CITY where I saw the fabulous Miss Carrie W. who I stopped to give a hug. Thank you, Carrie!

Outside CPT, in front of the Gordon Square, right where Calvin's brick used to be, there was a fifty-gallon plastic drum brigade beating out an amazing rhythm. You know, the brick is no longer there (it is now in our yard) but we put so much love into that tiny space for eight years, it is impossible not to feel positive when I walk or run past it. I love the fact that there were musicians right there this morning.

And yes, the Edgewater neighborhood. Do you think if we ran through any black neighborhoods we might attract more black runners to this extremely white race? Just asking.

Moving onto the Shoreway, things became ... challenging. I had no idea how I was doing on time. I started with the 3:30 (1:45) team. You know, running with a pace group can be good, it can be a pain. There's a wall of people there, right where the guy with flag runs, and unless I am in right front of it I feel boxed in. I had to pee in Tremont (yes, I used a proper facility - didn't see many errant urinators today, probably a good side-effect of keeping us in residential areas) and lost that group, but caught up with and passed the 3:40 (1:50) team. But then I had no markers at all, and just tried not to worry about it. When I saw Karl before the race and asked what his goal was he said, "finishing." He has had some major issues with his legs this year, as I did the year before. I thought I just wanted to finish ... but I can't help myself, and I run faster than I should.

So at mile nine, we move onto the Shoreway. That part kind of sucked. I mean, it really sucked. Uphill, more or less, for roughly three miles. With the wind coming at you off Lake Erie. And my knee began to ache, my right knee.

Listen to your body.

Would I slow down, for the sake of my right knee? Or just press on? I manage inclines pretty all right, I kept passing people. Finally we headed down the offramp into the city. The rest is a blur. Two miles? I can keep this up. One mile? I can go a little faster. We rounded the turn onto Lakeside Drive and - did I mention I wasn't wearing headphones this time, either - I couldn't hear anything. I could see the finish line, the last quarter mile, and I began to sprint. And sprinting felt good. It felt very, very good. I was running.

And I finished in record time.