First, I must add a respectful note of sympathy for a friend of mine; in an act of kindness, he offered transport to this race. However, in an unexpected causatum occurring less than 30 seconds after leaving my house, a deranged snow plow on my street (which most likely was a robot transformer disguised as a diesel vehicle) lambasted his car indenting the entire left passenger side. He went on to finish the race in about 20 minutes so fortunately his body and concentration weren't damaged. His timing chip malfunctioned though (these D chips and/or race officials still have some kinks that need worked out), but am told all is on the mend.
So to the first point- the race t-shirts. This one is definitely a contender for worse shirt ever, it's right up there with the Towpath marathon t-shirts and last year's Cleveland TRI t-shirt. It was bright blue and probably inspired by Avatar.
Some people actually wore these shirts DURING the race. This
race offered chili at the end of the race, but I think these fashionistas must have been drinking something else before it. I however was slightly less enthusiastic about my shirt.I did enjoy the race very much to spite the poor stylistic representation offered by the fanatical chili peppers on the race shirt. It went through an area in which I've run many times while training and that is one of my favorite stretches of the Cleveland Marathon. It goes past the Brown's stadium, the Science Center, the Rock Hall and Burke Airport. It's a nice little tour of the Lakefront. It started and ended at Tower City, so we didn't have to stand in the cold too long. As usual, the Cleveland volunteers were enthusiastic and warm (well, they mostly got to stay in the heated inside), and the race participants were upbeat and bombed with excitement (and maybe bombed by the drink specials at Tower 231).
This was actually my first short race and I thought it was a lot of fun. Surely a well organized event. It was a little too early in the day for me to try the complimentary chili but it looked pretty good as well. No doubt I'll be doing more short races in the future to work on speed and a different kind of cardiovascular conditioning.
