2015 Akron Marathon Recap

Every race brings its own set of challenges.  For the 2015 Akron Marathon, it certainly wasn’t the weather.  A runner could not ask for a more perfect race day.  At 60 degrees at the starting line at 6:30am – it really was “no-excuses weather”, as Frank Shorter, a gold medal winner in the 1972 Olympic marathon told the runners over the loud speaker just before the race began.  The weather may have offered “no-excuses”, but I had plenty of them in the weeks leading up to the Akron Marathon. 

Phil doing a great job not looking Poop-His-Pants-Scared
at the starting line before his first race

My particular challenge for this race was trying to overcome a right knee injury that seriously hindered my training.  I was already on an accelerated training schedule, opting for 10-weeks of training instead of my usual 16-week schedule, so I was nervous.  About halfway into this training I had an unbearable pain on the outside of my right knee that prohibited me from walking normal, let alone run. 

I am a stubborn person, so I still had my sights on running this race 6 weeks out, no matter how bad my leg hurt.  I took two weeks off, and miraculously….the pain was gone.  I returned to training and got one more long run in of 11 miles on a Saturday two weeks before the race and then uh-oh…..Hobbling Old Man Ryan was back in full force.  I was rather disappointed, but still I was determined, come hell or high water that I was running this race.  This was going to be my brother in-law Phil’s first half marathon and I promised him I would be there.  And any promise made after sharing an entire bottle of bourbon late at night deserves to be carried through.

I went to the doctor the Tuesday of race week and was diagnosed with IT Band Syndrome.  It’s a common running injury that comes from overuse, but holy hell can it be bad.  After an x-ray and 2 hours in a waiting room, Dr. Shah, who happens to be the medical director for the Akron Marathon, shot my knee up with cortisone.  What a magical and wonderful drug.  Minutes after the shot, I was dancing around the office with nary the pain like Charlie Bucket’s Grandpa Joe after realizing he gets free chocolate.  My golden ticket was the chance to run the Blue Line with little to no pain.  I was ecstatic.

The race itself was the cherry on-top.  After mile 2, I quickly revised my race-day goal of finishing under two hours to just finishing the race without stopping to walk.  I’ve never ran all the way through, so that was a lofty goal in itself.  I just wanted to have fun out there – I went through enough pain just to get to race day – no need to push it to the limit. 

A few of the mile highlights:

Mile 2 – Made the awful decision to drink a free milkshake that Swenson’s was handing out in front of their North Akron restaurant.  It may have only been 4 ounces of goodness, but milkshake + 13 miles of running = potential horrible outcome.

Mile 4 – Up until this point Phil and I were running together.  I know the city like the back of my hand, so I let him know that a steady downhill stretch was around the corner.  He took this moment to run faster downhill to make up some time and left me in the dust for good.  With IT Band Syndrome, downhill running hurts more than anything due to the stress it puts on the knees, so this was no time to keep up with Phil.

Mile 7 – I saw Eileen and my mom waiting for me on the corner of Spicer and Exchange.  At last year’s Akron Marathon, Eileen was 8 months pregnant with Annie and came down to cheer me on.  It was one of the most emotional moments of my life….running my first half marathon, becoming a father for the first time, and seeing my proud wife cheering me on, I cried buckets for a good quarter mile.  A year later I have 3 half marathons under my belt and we just celebrated Annie’s first birthday yesterday.  So much changes in the course of a year.  It’s always great seeing your family cheer you on – they are my biggest fans.

Miles 8 – It was during mile 8 that my competitive spirit was thrown out the window.  I decided here that I was not going to push myself and cause further injury.  I just wanted to have fun, while not stopping until I cross the finish line.  Although the next 5 miles were not fun – I had a blast running them.  I know, doesn’t make sense right?  Only a runner can truly understand that statement.  One of my favorite running quotes is. “It hurts more to stop than it does to keep going”.  That was certainly the case here.

Mile 10 – My knee starts to tingle, then goes kinda numb.  Fun!

Proud guys with their medals and watered-down
beers at the finishing party in the outfield

Mile 12 - When you’re running a race, the crowd support is real.  It keeps you going when you feel like quitting and motivates you to be your best.  At this point of the race I saw a sign held by a young girl that said “Tap Here for Girl Power”.  Whewww, thank goodness, I was running low.  You bet your ass I tapped the sign – now, with a re-fueled and full supply of Girl Power, I was heading towards the finish line.

The last 0.1 – Always the best part of the race.  The home stretch, through the right field wall and down the first base line to the finish line.  The feeling is indescribable.  I crossed the finish line at 2:07:04, a full 8 minutes off my PR earlier this year in Cleveland, but better than my 2:28 finish in Akron last year.  Baby steps.

After everything I went through just to get to race day, I was proud of myself for finishing.  No, I did not break my 1:59:37 PR that I set back in May at the Cleveland Marathon.  Nor did I keep up with marathon-newbie Phil, who blazed to a sub-2 hour half!  But I did overcome an injury (with the help of Dr. Shah and that wonderful needle full of cortisone) and had an unbelievable time running though my favorite city on Earth, my hometown. See you next year Akron.