This was my second year running the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon. I have been lucky enough to win an entry from a race ambassador two years in a row now and I love that the race does this with their ambassador program.
Race packets have to picked up at the expo, which is open Friday and Saturday, before race so on Friday my mom and I made the drive up to Cleveland to get my packet and check out the vendors. Plus my mom always has to sit and watch the lake for a few minutes. The check-in was a little different this year, it was down in the main hall as opposed to upstairs, plus it was at the back of the hall, so you had to make your way through vendors to get to check-in. But once there it went really smoothly, distances were at separate tables and the volunteers were all super friendly and helpful. Once I grabbed my bib and goodies and the bib I was picking up for a friend it was on to the t-shirts. Once again, super easy, the tables were labeled by distance, so it was just a matter of showing the bibs and getting the shirts and then it time to hit the expo itself.
I got to talk to the girls from Dona Jo fitness, Stephplusfour who was working at the Sparkly Soul booth and signed up for an entry to the Free People Marathon (spoiler - i didn't win)
After a brief time at the expo mom and I headed out and went to go check out the lake, mom loves her water, After that it time to go home until raceday, Sunday morning.

I had been watching the weather the whole day before and my race day outfit had changed several times. I packed my bag the night before and put it out in the car. I woke up in the middle of the night, lol, and got dressed. Since we had a long drive we got on the rode shortly after getting up, after a quick pit stop for drinks. About half an hour away I had to ask my mom if I was seeing snow hitting the windshield. I was beginning to freak out a little. We eventually made it to Cleveland and ended up parking in a garage really close to the starting line. I eventually messaged my friend who's bib I'd picked up and her hotel ended up only being a block from where we were parked so we walked over to her to use an indoor bathroom and give her her swag so she didn't have to do gear check. We eventually headed to the start line.
The weather was cold and the wind definitely there. We had my mom take final pics before we left her at the start and and we headed to our corrals. we made our way through the crowds and parted company about corral D. I'm slower so I kept heading back to corral F. I found my place in the corral and tried to stay warm. I saw a lot of people wearing garbage bags. I talked the middle schooler that was next to me - this was his first race. He was running as part of his school program, It was so cool to see all the kids on the course in their shirts. In these bigger races it always takes forever to get the start line and this race is no exception, but the start line announcer was major high energy.
The race had a new course this year, running through more of downtown, it was really cool. it would have been even nicer without the weather we ended up having. Before I even reached mile 1, it started hailing, so not something in the control of the race team, In spite of the weather. there were still people out on the streets cheering, holding signs. It was so awesome to see these people out! I think we saw every type of precipitation while on the course, sleet, hail, snow, after a while all we could do was laugh with each other. The volunteers were awesome! They were energetic, the were enthusiastic, fully staffed. I will say i never needed to stop because I ran with my handheld but they were awesome! The police were great as well.
The course was well marked and where the half and full marathoners split from the 10K was well marked and volunteers were directing runners, There was music on the course was very welcome even with my own ipod playing.
Coming in to the finish line was a great feeling! If you've ever watched a Cleveland Indians baseball game you know you John is, he plays the drum up in the bleachers. and there he was in that horrible weather pounding out that solid beat as I came onto Lakeshore Dr. it was awesome!! I saw my mom as I headed into the finish line. :) The volunteers in the finish chute were awesome! We all got heat sheets (totally necessary this day), then I had the coolest kid give me my medal and a huge congratulations, i was handed a bottle of water, then there were tables of bananas, pretzels, cheese puffs, chocolate and pink milk (I grabbed pink). I got my official finisher pic taken, then headed off to find my mom and head home, we were both frozen.

This really is an amazing race, great course, well put together, great volunteers, great shirt and medal, Weather was just completely out of their control and who on earth would expect this in the middle of May?! I will definitely be going back, next year is the 40th anniversary!

Went up to Cleveland Saturday morning to pick up my bib/shirt and check out the expo. Packet pick up was really easy, I knew my number and there weren't any lines for the bibs (yay!) I then headed headed downstairs to the expo to check out the vendors and get my shirt. Getting my race shirt was really easy, every distance, size and sex had a separate table. I got my shirt, pins, and a clear bag for bag check. The race did a virtual race bad which I really like because it cuts down on waste. Because I was distracted by my family i totally missed the picture op :-( I really could have spent more time there but I had 2 non-runners with me. I checked out the ONE MORE MILE and Sweatybands booths. I wanted everything so I bought nothing :-/ I talked to a Garmin rep about my troublesome watch. But was really tempted by the event merchandise. The womens tanks were awesome, and I kinda regret not getting one. After checking everything out we headed back home. I had an early dinner, took a quick shower, gathered everything for the morning and relaxed watching t.v. before calling it an early night.

I live about an hour away from Cleveland so I had to get up in the middle of the night to get downtown before the roads closed. I had prepped everything the night before so all I had to do was get up, go to the bathroom, get dressed and grab my bag. On the way out of town mom and I stopped for caffeine before beginning the long drive. The drive isn't bad it's just boring. When we got downtown I knew where I was supposed to be going to park but the street I needed was already closed. As I tried to get to where I wanted to go I took a wrong turn so we just decided to park where we were. Then because it was early we could sit and wait a while. I ate my pb/banana sandwich while waiting and drank more water. After a while I decided to start getting ready, I put on my sunscreen, hat, prepped my feet and put on my shoes and applied vaseline to all those areas vulnerable to chafing and then my mom and I headed to the Q to make that last bathroom stop. I really liked that the Q was open to runners. Everyone was stretching, warming up and using the indoor bathrooms. After the last bathroom stop it was time to head to the starting area. The weather felt cool but I knew that that was deceiving. The starting line to the race is on Ontario St. outside The Q and Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland. With about 10 min to go to the start I said goodbye to my mom and headed to my corral (F) right in front of the walkers. And then it started pouring :-) Those that were near cover went running for it. I did too only because my phone was on me. The rain didn't last long and we were able to head back out onto the street. I headed to the back of the corral I didn't want to slow anyone down and we waited. I met an adorable little 7 yr old boy running with his mom (he does tris). And then we slowly started moving forward. As we got closer the start line we could hear the announcer and the music. I was starting to feel the excitement! And finally there was the start line and we were off! or so we thought...apparently some of the walkers were confused about where they were supposed to start. I passed what felt like a million people and wasn't really clear of the walkers until almost the second mile. The course starts downtown before heading out into the neighborhoods. The bridge between downtown and the neighborhoods has very cool carving/sculpture on either side and the bridge is where the marathoners and half marathoners separated from the 10k runners. The people in the different neighborhoods were all out, some watching and some cheering. Some sections of the course weren't the prettiest more commercial than residential but the residential neighborhoods made up for it!! Great old buildings and great people! One of the first neighborhoods had oranges!

With the warm, humid conditions there were water stations about every 2 miles or so and the volunteers at all of the stops were awesome!! I was carrying my handheld bottle and the volunteers were always happy to refill it for me. (I swear i drank my weight in water while on the course). Some of the stops and people spraying the runners with hoses, that felt great, especially when the breezes picked up. I made sure to run through every one! The course directions were really well marked. Every distance was assigned a different color and the course markers for each distance matched the colors, plus there were great volunteers to direct runners as well. I missed a lot of the mile marker flags that were up, I was having too much fun! I think I went from 4 to 10K to 8.

The course really is "flatter" than I expected except for the last 5K or so. Not long after the marathoners and half marathoners went their separate ways the half course heads back towards downtown...on an expressway. Positive side - great views of the lake. Not a lot of crowd support out there and then somewhere around 11ish things start to go up. Just as you get to the top of one little hill you see that you get to go down only to go up again and again and again. I lost track of how many hills there were but there were quite a few. About a mile from the finish is the Great Lakes Brewing Company and they have a huge party there cheering on the runners which was much needed. And someone at this point had an ice pop!! So needed in the heat. It rained the last mile and a half or so which felt great and made downtown look really cool and mist covered. Because we were on an expressway we had signs telling us how far it was to our "exit". Coming off the exit ramp from the expressway was great. I was hearing the crowds cheering the marathoners finishing and started to see people on the sides of the road. Still good crowds at the finish line.

When I crossed the finish line I got my medal. It's really cool, the guitar in the middle spins! i got stopped for pics, I was handed a bottle of water and a banana. I didn't stick around for the after party. I found my mom and we made the long walk back to the car before the long ride home. But it was a great day!!