Well, I just returned home from a mini-trip down to Columbus for the Columbus Distance Classic, a half-marathon through downtown Columbus, OH. I'm happy to report that things went as well as I would have hoped, and I had a good time. Here are some numbers for you all:

- Time: 1:43:41
- Pace: 7:55/mi
- Overall Place: 387 out of 2,665
- Division Place (men 25-29): 59 out of 190

I can live with that. My target was to finish in under 1:45, which I obviously did. There were some challenges though, starting with the fact that I got there a bit later than I had wanted to and got stuck starting closer to the back than the front. So for the first two miles, I spent most of my time darting in and around people trying to keep up to my target pace, which I did not manage to do until mile 3.

I'm not used to running such a large race, so I was a little overwhelmed by all of the bodies, but fortunately it thinned out the further I got along, and at one point I had no one within 50 yards of me either in front or behind, which was really weird after being crammed elbow to elbow earlier.

In addition to the race, we also got to spend a lot of time with Kristy's aunt & uncle and their daughter which was fun. Her aunt also ran the race, so it was nice to have someone to share running stories with (because runners are big nerds when it comes to running, and talking about running is generally very boring to most non-runners).

I now hope to spend the rest of the weekend resting up my tired legs and not driving (doing about 6 hours of driving in under 2 days can make one very sick of driving). Also, I am very much looking forward to the official start of the baseball season tomorrow night, as I hope to watch my Indians win game #1 in Chicago.

This entry was posted by Brad, on Saturday, April 01, 2006. You can leave your response.