Mark Sundstrom

My first running marathon. Well, I did sort of run a marathon distance in high school once, but that's a different story. I have walked 5 of them, but I gave that up a while back because the training times are so long.

I've been following the Jeff Galloway for several months, planning on a time of 4:40. Some of my training suggested I could run a faster time, but I thought 4:40 was a good first goal. I planned to stick to the 10:40 per mile for about 20 miles and then see how things felt.

Ready for the start of the race.

Bob and I about to head for the starting line. We started together but Bob quickly went on ahead and would finish in a nice 4:02.

The event sold out again this year, 17,000 total, most of whom are running the half marathon. A very crowded starting line, but after the starting gun, we were across the starting line after only 8 minutes. They had fireworks for the start, too.

The starting line is way up there by the American flag.

The race was so crowded, especially for the first 3 miles or so that it was difficult to keep to my desired run/walk/run schedule of run 3 minutes, walk 1 minute, run 3 minutes, and so on. So I often ran a bit more than intended and would walk when I could get over to near the curb where I'm less likely to have someone run over me from behind. But I did keep pretty close to my desired pace, passing the 10K point in 1:06:04, a 10:39 pace.

After the tour through Bexley, it's back to downtown and then south to German Village. A good turnout everywhere, as it usually is for this race. I spotted a friend or two in both Bexley and near German Village and managed to wave hello.

Mile 11 starts a 4 mile straight stretch up High Street. The half marathoners turn off to finish just before mile 13. Once they leave, the course is not at all crowded and it's much easier to walk as needed. I ran for a bit with another 'Galloway run/walker' and I saw quite a few people using that.

I passed the half marathon in 2:18:04, which would put me on pace for a 4:36 marathon if nothing went wrong. At mile 15, I decided I would run a few miles at a pace closer to 10:00 per mile and I would back off from that if it didn't feel good. But this was fine and I kept this up through Mile 20 in 3:28:32, at 10:25 average pace.

Passing near Bob's house between Miles 20 and 21 was an encouraging sign. By this point I felt very good, much better than I had ever felt in training, especially at this distance. I was certain I could finish so I picked up the pace some more, averaging 9:25 per mile from Mile 20 on. I was still taking short walk breaks as needed; I found them essential.

I have mostly walked the Columbus half marathon in the past years but a while back I started walking the second half of the course a week later, just because it's such a nice course and also seemed like a fun way to complete a marathon, albeit over 8 days. I'm glad that I had walked the course a few times, because I was now familiar with how it went and knew what to expect.

After Mile 25, I was still feeling strong, so did the last 1.2 miles at 8:14 pace, still with short walk breaks. It was a relief to finish in 4:27:10. My second half of the race was in 2:09:06, which actually is my fastest half marathon to date.

I used the Tweet My Time service to post real-time updates to both my Twitter feed and my Facebook and it was fun to come home after the race and see all the online comments and encouragement. I sure do thank everyone who encouraged me online and on the course and I thank Krystin for all the yummy desserts she made for me, too.

Now I need a new marathon to shoot for...

I've saved the GPS track online at Garmin Connect.