Sandy Runs

It's my birthday today, and I just received a great gift (well, a gift I need to pay for): I was selected in the Marine Corps Marathon  (MCM) lottery. Therefore, I'll be running my 3rd Marine Corps Marathon in October. I've never done any marathon more than twice, so this will be a record. Some people may wonder why I haven't run MCM more times, after living just a couple miles from the starting line for several years. In fact, I've run the MCM 10K more times than the marathon. Some years I had other race goals, or injuries, so I chose not to run the marathon. I ran MCM in 2006 and 2015. And 2017 will make three. I'll still need to run MCM two more times to qualify for the Runners Club, which will allow me early entry (no more lottery) for any future MCM. We'll see how that goes. For now, I'm just happy that I'm in for 2017. It will be my first MCM since moving to Columbus, so I'll need to book travel. Southwest usually has good deals, so I...

I did last week's laundry and noticed that almost everything in it was green. I did St. Patrick's Day runs with two different running clubs, a happy hour on the actual St. Patty's day, and a race the day after. On each occasion I wore one or more green garments. Because the weather was cold, I also had to layer on the green. Green Run #1 - Tuesday, 3/14/17 The Columbus Westside Running Club hosted its second annual St. Patrick's day run on our regular night. It was the season's first run in daylight, thanks to the time change. But even though it was light out, it was still freezing cold; temperatures were in the low 20s F, and windy. Club members came all decked out in their St. Patty's Day green, and if they didn't have any green, Tracy gave them some sort of green novelty to wear. After a group photo, we were off to do our usual laps around Westgate Park. It was a slow, easy recovery run for me, having just run a marathon three days prior. CWRC ...

I finished the 2017 Rock 'n' Roll DC Marathon on Saturday. It wasn't pretty, I wasn't fast, but I got it done. This was my first time running this full marathon. In past years I did the half marathon three times and the 5K once. I'm not normally a big fan of Rock 'n' Roll races; they're just too expensive and over-hyped. But when it's local and you can get an early-bird registration, why not? I registered for this one last year before I knew I was moving. Nice medal This was a quick weekend trip. I booked the travel before my move and was lucky enough to use Southwest points for my flight and to redeem a free Hotels.com night for my hotel, therefore only paying for one of the two nights I stayed. I needed to stay near a Metro station since I wasn't going to have a car. I chose the Ballston neighborhood. The night before the race I didn't sleep well. I kept waking up about every hour. I was not comfortable, and I was also nervous...

Posting a little late on this, but a couple weeks ago the Columbus Westside Running Club (CWRC) organized a trail clean-up day. Every 4th Saturday the club works on a different section of the Camp Chase Trail. The trail is fairly new, but it borders on railroad tracks and the backs of businesses that don't all keep their properties clean. Parts of the trail have been used by people who litter - a lot! The idea is to get this trail looking clean and beautiful in order to increase recreational usage of the trail. It's a great place for cycling, running, walking, etc. But it does need some help to beautify it. Group shot of participants after our two hours of trail clean-up The day I went out for my first trail clean-up was about the coldest one we had in February, which had gotten unseasonably warm weather. On this day we were quite bundled up and there were even snow flurries while we worked, so it was cold. CWRC has some partners for these clean-ups. Our club'...

I'm still running on Tuesday nights with the Columbus Westside Running Club and I'm happy to be part of that community. And now I've added Thursday night runs with Short North Running Club (SNRC). This club has a different vibe. It's a little bit of a younger crowd and they meet at a different bar and run a different route each week. Last week was my first run with the Short North Running Club. The Short North was my neighborhood before I moved to the DC area. I don't live there now, and the area has changed a LOT since I left Columbus. But I'm happy to return to my old 'hood for some runs and beers. The SNRC doesn't run exclusively in the Short North, but they stick to centrally located Columbus neighborhoods. The run last week set out from Brew-Stirs Clintonville Tavern. It was warm, but began raining before we started. Still, we headed south on High Street with a route that would take us along the Ohio State campus, then east to Indianola Ave, b...