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WOWWWWAAAA!!!  What a morning!  I work up at 4:45am to get my day started.  You’d think it was just a normal day and I was heading out the door for my am run, NOT today!  Today I was heading down for the Cleveland Marathon.  Now you must be thinking well Jamie runs that thing every year, so that makes sense!  Well…. not this year my friends.  I knew awhile back that running this race at my very best wasn’t going to happen.  So I decided to sit this one out.  I am still VERY happy about this decision.

I love being an ambassador for this race and this year my post race blog is from the side of being a spectator.  First off just like anyone going downtown, you need to be sure of your route and where you think you’ll park.  I am lucky as my husband usually figures this out for me, but this year I was riding solo.  I left my house around 5:30, downtown by 6 and parked by about 6:15.  I should have left just a little earlier but I was all right (thankfully), oh and I snagged the last parking spot in the lot I was in!!!

I made my way to the starting line, which wasn’t hard to find!  Just follow all the people!  I loved to see the runners from this side of the race, as it was so obvious that everyone was riding that pre-race high and full of anxiety.   I am not going to lie, I didn’t miss my crazy pre-race jitters.  It was nice to be relaxed with my coffee on the sidelines.

First I met up with my amazing students!!!  I had 3 of them meet me and talk about their race day strategy.  I have been giving them little tips here and there as they trained (hope it helped).  We had a little pre-race chat and I KNEW they were set and ready to crush this thing. WHY DIDN’T WE GET A PICTURE?!?!?!??!

I was then able to connect with some of my race ambassadors.  I have MISSED those folks like crazy.  I have had a lot going on and haven’t been able to see them as much as I would have liked.  I did get some fantastic hugs and hellos!

At this point I decided to kick it into gear and head out to about mile 1(ish) this way I could see all those amazing runners as they were just getting out into the streets of Cleveland.  THIS WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE PARTS!  I got to see all my running friends, and for once I was on the sidelines encouraging them!!!  It was pretty darn cool!!  I did Facebook live some of it, so feel free to take a peek if you are one of my Facebook friends. Some awesome highlight did include a high from fellow ambassador Deb AND getting to run in my flip-flops along side Step and Susan….. AND cheering so loud for ambassador JILL!!!

I then thought it would be cool to head out into the course a bit.  I knew of this awesome spot around mile 17/20 where you get to see the marathon runners twice.  I headed out there in rocky river and camped out for some of the morning.  I got to see all my crazy running friends at the hardest miles, they sure looked strong.  I then started to text my friend Dan, as I knew my sole sister should be coming in with the 4 hour folks, but her tracker was all crazy.  He then said he too was having some issues which concerned him as he had planed to PROPOSE to her at the FINISH LINE!!!  Wellllppppp I told him I would stay put and text him when I saw here, so we could be sure of where she was at on the course….don’t you know she was right with those 4 hour pacers!

I stayed around the 17/20 mile area for most of the morning, but knew I wanted to get back downtown as HELLO there was an engagement about to happen.  I went back and forth on staying as I had two dear friends that I really wanted to see, but ummmm I’m a sap and this engagement….yea I needed to be there!  I got back up to the rocky river whole foods where I was parked and made my way back downtown.  At this point it was raining but nothing terrible.

I once again lucked out finding a parking spot, and knew I needed to book it as it was 10:50 and Steph would be coming in around 11!  It started to downpour and my dang flip-flops were a slipping!  Flip-flops=BAD in rain!!  I made it just in time!!!  I saw it all go down!!!  IT was AMAZING!!!!  I was able to give them both hugs and can’t wait to hear more about it when they both come back to reality.

So overall I think it was a pretty fantastic day.  The Cleveland 40th anniversary, one for the record books and as always some epic weather.  I enjoyed being on the sidelines and cheering for everyone.  At one point a lady asked me how I knew so many runners, it then really kind of hit me… I DO!!  I am kinda of a runner and kind of a runner that loves a Cleveland race =)

Cheering is pretty exhausting, I took a nap when I got home…..after drying off!  I am pretty sure this purple jacket of mine is a jinx as every time I wear it to a race, the weather has a mind of it’s own!!!!

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Thanks again Cleveland Marathon for another amazing race.  I hope to be back next year….but until then I am going to enjoy my journey, as I am slowly falling in love with running again AND IT’S GREAT!!!

 

XX,

Jamie