Lucky to be here. My '21-'22 season is basically the '88 Browns in a nutshell

My training block for the 2022 Columbus Marathon mirrors the up-and-down season of the 1988 Cleveland Browns. 

That year, the team had Super aspirations after losing in the AFC title game the prior two seasons to Denver. As things tend to happen in CLE, the team failed to make the Super Bowl, but it wasn't for trying: They lost 20-25 players at various times throughout the season, yet went 10-6 and still made the playoffs as a wildcard, losing to the Houston Oilers on Christmas Eve.

What does this flashback to a forgotten era of NFL football have to do with my running journey? It's a similar uneven path to success, fraught with failure and success, sometimes within the same week. It all began after I went out too fast in the 2021 Columbus Marathon, splitting a sparkling 1:33 on the front end, then dying at 22 with a bunch of 9:00 miles and finishing in 3:20:01, missing sub-3:20 by TWO seconds!

I tried to get smart that winter and got injured but somehow slogged through 23 miles of Warm Up Columbus, then promptly bonked due to tight shoes and 10'F weather and quit 3:15 into the race. I was on pace for 3:25 even had I ran it well (Closed the first 10 in 78, then the next 10 in 77 and was rocking hard!). The Fleet Feet/MIT people try to schedule Warm Up (formerly Last Chance for Boston) in mid-February, but this year's race was done on Feb. 6. C'est la vie.

 The Browns that year had a ton of talent: Bernie Kosar at QB, who made the '87 Pro Bowl and was almost as good as Joe Montana in the NFC, star running back Kevin Mack, a great #1 receiver in Webster Slaughter, and, of course, the Dawg Defense, a 3-4 defense with tons of talent and two All-Pro (even better than Pro Bowl) cornerbacks in Frank Minnifield and Hanford Dixon.

But things went wrong that '88 season early on, an omen of bad things to come. Kosar was blitzed in Game 1 and went down with a shoulder injury, thanks to a safety blitz from Chiefs DB Lloyd Burruss. Never get involved in a land war in Asia, to quote a movie that came out that year, and never trade your best lineman (C Mike Baab) to the Patriots RIGHT BEFORE OPENING DAY. It's believed that C Gregg Rackozy, a rookie, missed his assignment that caused the hit on Kosar. 

As a runner, it's a cardinal sin similar to going out too fast in your marathon and bonking...don't make that mistake! Oh wait...

Throughout the season players came and went, and the team was down to its 4th-string QB, an aging Don Strock, a veteran backup for the Miami Dolphins in the '70s. Yet, the team persevered, split with the soon-to-be AFC champion Bengals and swept the hated Piss and Black (aka the Steelers), the last time that happened as of 2022. They beat the Oilers in a Strock comeback on Dec. 18 at the Municipal Stadium, winds howling like a Hollywood thriller, and that set up a rematch a week later. The movie ended sadly, as the team lost, 24-23 (in an era before two-point conversions), on Christmas Eve.

But did it? The team battled injuries and should have lost 12 games. Yet Coach Marty Schottenheimer guided them to 10-6 and a playoff berth. In a way, it was his best work, even moreso than 1985-1987. A few days later, he resigned and the Browns started their downward slide into the franchise we know now.

You may be asking, "What does this have to do with running?"

Simply put: Racing each year is like the NFL each year. Nothing is promised or guaranteed. I'm not sure if I'll PR this year or break 3:20:01. At this point, it's been up and down since this spring.

After the WUC setback, I took time off, ran EZ running most of the time and went to PT to fix a sore tallus muscle. It started to work. I then went on my honeymoon. Ear infection 7/14. Came home and took time off.

On July 21, my life changed. I was out running on Summitview Road, a tight, narrow two-lane cut-through that everyone uses to get to Sawmill from Smoky Row, two parallel busy streets. I nearly died after being hit at 5:50 pm by a vehicle going 35 mph.

I was able to go home that evening and recovered a week later from a concussion. I started running a few days later and have just taken it easy. I logged 54 miles last week, including my first 20-miler (9:13 pace) and just kept everything slow.

(Oh, and on July 28, I lost my job!). So things happen in threes...

I don't know if I'll break 3:20 this year, but like the 1988 Browns making the wildcard playoff dance at 10-6, just getting to the Columbus Marathon starting line and competing is my big victory itself in 2022.