It was nice to meet you at the infamous cow/bull.    Bob and I ended up pretty much jogging the first couple miles of the 10K and running hard just the last 2 miles, and we were soaked with sweat just doing that.  The weather was gross for the second year in a row (although I think last year was actually worse because the sun was out the entire time last year versus breaking out later this year), and I wish they would consider moving the race back a couple of weeks.

It sounds like some pretty rough weather, but you made the best of it. I'm glad you had a good time.

 

The weather has been all over the place this spring.  One morning during the long weekend (Saturday I think?) it was in the high 30s I was running in gloves and longsleeves.  This morning it was 73 degrees when I woke up at 5 AM which is more like what we have in mid-summer.  All within a couple of days time.  I don't know if I remember a spring as crazy as this one has been.  It does not let you have any chance to acclimate or adjust.

 

But I think Cleveland is too close to being a summer marathon to have consistent good weather ... I might target the last weekend in April.  I know they probably don't want to try and compete with Flying Pig (although really do that many people run both...?) or conflict with Mother's Day, but even pushing it back a couple weeks would improve the odds of better weather.

Yes!  It's been exceedingly odd.  I think I had one day where I was shirtless and the next where I was in a winter hat.  The acclimation issue is definitely where the problems start.  I ended up choosing Toledo on 4/28 and it was perfect weather.  There was also a chance that it may have still been snowing at that date, but I'll take that over excessive heat for racing any day.  Races do seem to like to find a date and hold to it.  I guess it makes it easier from a city planning aspect, but I think they should consider the runners first.

Come do Towpath in October!    (At least one of the short races if you don't want to run the full.)

 

I think it is much easier, living in Ohio, to train and run a good fall marathon versus a spring marathon.  Spring marathon = training through the worst of winter- darkness, cold, snow - and then race day can come up hot.  Grrrr.

There's a situation in the works where Towpath may be something I end up doing (despite the fact that the crushed gravel scares me), even if I'm not really racing it.  I'll probably know that more clearly in the next week or two.  Outside of that, I'm looking at Columbus as my goal Marathon for the Fall.

I don't know if I agree with you on the spring/fall distinction.  I seem to do really well in the winter with training because of the temperatures, and my best mileage usually comes at the beginning of the year.  But yes, the race day crap shoot can throw that all out the window pretty fast.  There's probably a boost that comes from training through the heat and then having cooler temps for a Fall race too.  In the long run it's probably a toss up.

It's nice to see you on here talking and thinking about running