Third marathon in the books. Forget the time. It's a celebration of survival!
Grateful. Columbus usually has a single word as its annual marathon theme. For me, it's grateful. Forget the 4:03:05 time--the time is the least important part of my 2022 journey. Completing *this* marathon is why I fell in love with the sport with the first place! A big thank-you to Darris, Star, and the Cbus Marathon team for making this yet another great event. And a shout-out to OhioHealth for helping me in the medical tent overcome dehydration cramps. I didn't have the best training block due to a near-brush with death 7/21 but I made it to the starting line alive and grateful. I changed my fueling strategy to include 6 gels instead of going with 3. I wound up taking 8 (took the 2 the race provided me), and two bananas. I ran even splits early on, Gallowalked every 2 miles for 1-1:30 to be safe, but went too fast between miles 8-15 (8:20 pace). I should have stuck with the 4:00 pacer but I'll be smarter next time. That said, I ran an even race and only started to fal...