Carmel Marathon Weekend 2021

 

Carmel Marathon Weekend is sort of a sore spot for me. Not this year so much, but my first attempt was a dumpster fire that would have fit well with 2020's year of the plague. Maybe substitute my great 2020 R'n'R Nola race weekend with this one. 

Still, this was set to be a better weekend. I packed what I needed, and I only signed up for the 5k this time. I should have signed up for the 10k, partly because I could probably push myself that far, and also because I forgot my wife was signed up for the full marathon. (To be fair, she had signed up for the 2020 Marathon, which got deferred to this year because 2020. I signed up a week before the shirt deadline.)

We got to the downtown outdoor expo, got things in place, and went to find the hotel. I would like to say this was less of an adventure than last time, but the hotel was on a roundabout and the GPS thought it was a different exit from the roundabout. We finally found the right entrance though and got checked in. 

It was still early, so we headed over to Meijer for food for the hotel room. As we were finishing, my wife got a message from the Cincinnati rep of Half Fanatics, and we met her at a Mexican restaurant nearby. It was really good and cost us a bit less than what we pay locally. For us, it is better than pasta before a race.

The 5k for me went decently enough, especially since I really haven't been running a lot recently. I had almost the same pace as a race I did last December. I am still staying sub 50, maybe one day I'll get back to sub 40 again. (My pace for this race was very similar to the first 5k of the Half course from 2018)

It took another three hours for my wife to finish her race, which was a large PR for her. We had the hotel for an extra night, so we didn't have to rush back. That was nice, other than the higher cost from it being Easter weekend. I don't know if I will return to that race, though. If I do, it will need to be for a race longer than a 5k. It did have nice medals...