Canton City Marathon

  Today, I was the 3:25 pacer in the Canton City Marathon.  Last year was the first year for this event.  I wasn't a pacer for this marathon last year, but was glad to have the opportunity to pace it this year.  I wasn't completely sure what to expect, aside from a very small expo.  I've ran several marathons now with very small race expos, Beaver Island Marathon was probably the smallest and either Rochester or Harrisburg being a close second.

  I am quite happy to be running normally again as 4 weeks ago from today, I had my back injury.  When I first hurt it, one thought that continued to creep into my mind was how long would I have to take off from running and would I lose much fitness.  Luckily, I didn't end up losing much at all, if any, or if I did, it came back quick.

  At the expo, I worked the last shift, from 4pm-6pm and then went to the pacer dinner.  We weren't very busy at the booth I got to meet a couple other pacers and sure enjoyed the new faces along with the delicious meal.  We ended up not having a sponsor for this event, as I assumed we wouldn't since the event is so small.

  One of the things I am always looking forward to is checking out a new marathon, both new for me and new in general.  You never know how well it is going to be organized, if volunteers will be in position along the course, if they will have adequate aid stations, and if the mile markers are in the right spots.  This race totally surprised me!  It was a 2 loop course - 1 loop for the half marathoners and 2 loops for the full marathoners.  There were plenty of volunteers on the course with gatorade and water nearly every other mile.

  The course was well marked and the mile markers didn't seem to be off at all.  There were 2 spots of Gu on the course that you pass 2 times each, and at the finish line, there was chocolate milk, water and beer.  I think the only post-race food was bananas, apples and cookies but still better than others I've been to.

  This was one extremely underrated marathon, it had a very wonderful downhill finish that every marathoner enjoys.  A gentle downhill lasting over a half mile right down to the finish line.  The announcer was annoucing every runner approaching the finish line making it that more awesome!  There were 218 10k finishers, 268 half marathon finishers and 119 full marathon finishers.  All the events started together.

  I only had about 6-8 runners in the group and only one was running the full, the rest were running the half.  Each of the half marathoners ran ahead at different times, leaving the group but one fell behind a little.  I was happy to see her catch up and fly right past on the downhill towards the finish.  Since my goal was a 3:24:30 and I was right on pace, she was doing quite well.  The marathoner with me, ran ahead at mile 20, up one of the few hills in the race.  So, i had the last 10k or so do run alone but stay on pace still.  It wasn't all too hard to do but I found myself running a few seconds per mile faster a few times and slowed down a bit.  I ended up with a 3:24:38.  The last time I paced the 3:25 group was at Palm Beaches Marathon '12.  It's such a relaxing pace for me as I generally pace 3:05-3:15.
 
  After the race, I hung out with ther other pacers(Jessica and Lori) as we ran a 1.5 mile cool down, then i went to the room to shower.  I checked out and went back to the finish line to meet the others and we hung out for a bit and then went out for lunch.  Jessica, the 3:15 pacer, ended up finishing 1st overall female and I ended up placing 3rd in my age group.  As as pacer, we joked about her winning overall female since the race was so small but didn't think it would really happen.  So, if i don't run the Hallucination 100 miler next year, I will probably pace Canton City Marathon again.  I've decided to run a 100 miler next year, maybe more...