Dayton, OH
Life has been so busy, primary due to work, so I did not have much time for much of anything else.
For the race, we drove to Dayton two days before. Our New York friends we met at the Coast Guard Marathon pretty much sold us the race. They would have a place for us at a missionary’s house for a low cost stay. And we could have a late check out time after the race and we could shower before heading home. Plus, we would have some home cooked meal together.
And we would have dinner, lunch, breakfast with some of us be taking turn cooking.
We did the race with them at the Buffalo Marathon and Coast Guard, and it seemed to work out fine.
The drive to Ohio was what I like the best. Long drive is enjoyable and relaxing. Of course, I was tired from the drive, but it was one of those thing to suck it up for the reward after. Originally, we were going to wake up early (4 AM) and drive for 7 hours straight on Friday hoping to arrive around noon ish for the Bib pickup. The race is on a Saturday
I know my body and waking up that early is not fun/possible for me unless it was a race day.
So, after work on Thursday I convinced Caroline to get going. We decided to get on the road. Being from the Washington DC area, leaving during the rush hours is test of one’s patience.
We stuck in traffic the first hour. We made maybe 30 miles just enough to get outside the city passed Winchester. There we stopped for dinner at a diner at Marshall Diner, a place we’ve been before. We carb loaded. I was not ready to eat, I think around 6 pm, but there would not be any other place after this. I might have eaten a late lunch that day. Caroline and I shared a pork/beef liver. I was more into the cheese cake dessert. Forgot what we finally settled on, I think it was some cream bulee or Angel cake, something sweet, maybe lemon meringue.
So, after dinner, I was experencing food coma. I slept and Caroline took over the driving. We hope to get as much done before dark. I was betting to reach West Virginia before dark.
We got to Pawpaw by eight. Then wound through West Viriginia mountains, passing by Morgantown. I should have booked a hotel there because I was so tired by then. Still I think I took the third leg of the driving from West Virginia to PA. Our hotel is at West-Delphia somewhere where PA, West Virginia and Ohio meet. Originally I wanted to stay at a hotel in Wheeling, just on the Ohio side, but price was cheaper in the PA side.
We were within 30 miles away from our hotel by 10:00 pm. I could not keep my eyes open any more. So I woke up Caroline and asked her drive the rest of the way to the hotel.
Our hotel was good. It felt good finally got to sleep on a bed. The next day, we had the hotel breakfast. I had to work the first couple hours before getting on our way around 10 am. We have maybe 3 hours left of driving to get to Dayton.
Caroline drove the next day because she wanted to make the bib pickup fast near their opening time. I slept again. We went through rain and traffic. She woke me up to look up the place to the location (Nutter Center). It was at the Wright University. I did not make the connection to the Wright Brothers until during the race.
We arrived at the race convention. The GPS actually took us to the back side/front side, but I saw the huge parking lot and pointed to Caroline that is the place we had to go. They blocked up a lot of the surrounding roads for a later 5k that evening. So Caroline did her u-turns to get us into the parking lot where we were supposed to be.
My first order of business after getting out the car was food when I saw they had food trucks outside. However, maybe getting the Bib was probably more important. Then I also needed a bathroom break, so I ran to the bathroom first. They required us to go through security, by walking through a metal detector. It was quick, but I really needed to use the restroom made it seems an eternity.
The rest of the afternoon was walking around the convention hall and waiting on our NY friends. I got my bib and purchased a medallion. We stayed till around till 4 pm for the house/lodging checkin.
We then went to the Air Force Museum. The Museum was where we actually start and finish the race. We were there to kill time.
Mike, a new friend, who would be staying with us for the night had prepared spaghetti. He is a good cook. He cracked me up with his many jokes. I had still work left to do and was working remotely for the rest of the evening. So, I worked till bed time.
The next day, we woke up at dark zero 3:30 am. I could not sleep much because the room was too hot (house temperature was set at 75F) and we were in one of the upstair rooms. Anyway, I was ready to run.
We packed everything the night before, so it was more a grab and go. I had my own breakfast. By 4 am, we drove back to the Nutter Center for the bus ride to the start at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
We had ton of time to kill before the race start at 6:30. We went to the bathroom. Walked back and forth. The base and the start area was big, so that was plenty room for everyone to spread out.
The race starts unusually early at 6:30, but I did not mind. Finally, after all the waiting we got underway.
We chatted with people around. Some have done it 9-10 times. It was my first time doing it in Dayton. Caroline has done it like 20 years ago. I asked if she remember the course, nope. I did not have time to do a course study, though did look at it during the bib pickup. It like a figure 8 loops.
Slowly we made our way, mile 1 then on and 2 and 3. Miles came by. We cheered some returning runners and then the half marathoners. By mile 6, I had pretty much warmed up. Every time we hear cheering, we knew we were near an aid station. They had an aid station about every couple miles and so they came by frequently. I stopped at all of them.
By halfway we reached town. They had the halfway clock, I saw our time was 3:25 ish, I knew we were on pace. So there was no rush but a constant effort of forward progress.
Note, Caroline was struggling with some injury and I was thinking likely, we would drop at the halfway point. She kept going, so we continued. There is one cutoff that is we had to reach mile 21 by 1 pm (1:05 at gate 15A).
The day was getting hotter. By noon, the sun was beating down on us. We climbed up a bridge and there we were passing many other runners. Those who were chatty earlier no longer said hi back. We left them in their own struggle as we raced toward Gate 15. A file miles, we were confused because someone took down the mile markers (wind I think). A soldier told us we have only 15 minutes left. But I looked up, there was the mile marker just a tenth of mile away. We did it. Now, only 5 miles left. We trudged on. Keep on Trucking. We joined a bunch of other runners, slowly making our way back on the air base.
Then the finish line. The roads are familar to me, we have been there yesterday. We saw the airplanes far away and we wound our way around the course and to the finish line. We crossed it at 7:15. A good time, the race was officially over around 7:30, with about a dozen more runners behind us.
It was another race in the bag. It was my probably slowest marathon. I needed it. It was my first Ohio marathon for my 50 states goal.
The way home was pretty much the same as getting there but in a reverse direction. We left Ohio that night. Stayed somewhere in PA and then came back to DC the following day. It was a long drive and we probably won’t travel again soon.
