Athens Ohio Marathon 2000
by Charles Cohn
This event was run on a beautiful rail-trail, the Hockhocking Adena Bikeway. The walkers' marathon, which I entered, started at 10 am on April 2. It was entirely on the Bikeway, starting just across the street from the Ohio University stadium which was the staging area. The runners' marathon, which started an hour later, was on city streets for the first couple of miles, since the Bikeway was considered too narrow to start a larger crowd.The weather was cloudy and rainy in the 50's and 60's. I was prepared for the rain with my new Goretex rainsuit purchased at the Myrtle Beach Marathon expo and appropriately tried out on a few smaller races and training walks.
This is a small race, with just 350 total entrants. However, it is a quality event that really deserves more participation. For more info, look at their website. It's a logical event for me to enter, because Maggie has cousins in nearby Amesville that we could visit. There is no racewalk-type judging, but there are monitors who see to it that none of the walkers are running.
I got off to a fairly decent start, with the Hocking River on my left and a row of blooming cherry trees on my right. Since there were half-mile as well as mile markers (courtesy of the Bikeway builders) I could tell that I was doing a bit over 12 minutes per mile at the first half-mile marker. This, I thought, was somewhat fast for so early in the race, so I backed off (possibly a bit too much) and finished the first mile in 12:51. Mile 2 went in 13:39, mile 3 was even slower in 14:09, mile 4 went in 14:05 and mile 5 went in 14:04.
Mile 6 took a long 15:08 as I made the first of the many tree-watering stops that slowed me down. I thought I had read that the aid stations were to be every 3 miles, so I carried a Camelbak full of Gatorade. Indeed, the first couple of stations were not yet open for business when I came through. After that, though, the stations were just two miles apart. So, obviously, I was grossly overhydrated. (Unfortunately, since I was wearing long pants, urinating in motion was not an option.) I was also slowed down considerably by the process of taking each of my six GU packets.
(The trees were well worth watering, though. The Bikeway was lined with them. That, plus bordering the Hocking River for much of its length, makes the Bikeway extremely scenic. It will be resplendent when the trees are fully leafed out later in the season.)
I got through mile 7 a smidgen faster in 13:42, but then got slow again. Mile 8 went in 14:33, mile 9 in 14:38, mile 10 in 14:47, mile 11 in 13:44, mile 12 in 14:13 and mile 13 in 15:11. At this point I reached the turnaround and headed back. The Bikeway has a very slight upgrade toward the turnaround, so I was hoping for a bit more speed on the return, but no such luck. Mile 14 went in 14:04, mile 15 in 14:38, mile 16 in 14:18, mile 17 in 14:28, mile 18 in 14:45, mile 19 in 16:28, mile 20 in 14:21, mile 21 in 14:26, mile 22 in 14:17 and mile 23 in 14:14.
At this point, the Bikeway crossed a railroad track. It was past the time the railroad had promised not to run trains, but fortunately there was no train to hold me up further.
I continued on my slow pace. Nothing was wrong with me, nothing was hurting, but I just couldn't work up any more speed. Furthermore, by now my body was listing to the left. Still, I kept going, making mile 24 in 14:11 and mile 25 in 13:40. Again passing the row of flowering cherries, I made mile 26 in 14:25.
At this point, Maggie and her cousins came to cheer me the rest of the way. I went into the stadium, onto the track and across the finish line in 3:59, giving me a total time of 6:17:12 for my 20th marathon finish. This was one of my slowest marathons, but they handed me a check for $20 for being second overall male walker (out of 3). This was just equal to my registration fee, so there was no net profit. Even so, it was a real milestone for me, being my first money prize. At this speed, though, I couldn't expect an endorsement contract even from Geritol or Ex-Lax.
Since there was no post-race food, we all went over to Ponderosa where I could start redeeming the 2600-calorie overeating license that I had just taken out.
Concerning my body tilt, similar problems had been handled very
successfully in the past by my chiropractor, so on our return home I went
in for an adjustment. I hope this will get me going, as I have a 5K
planned for next weekend.
Charles Cohn
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