My Recent Races & Times




Upcoming Races



Local Running Links



Notes

  1. The Laan van Pootloop race was run through the dunes at the beach near Den Haag. The steep hills made it impossible to see more than ten or twenty feet ahead, so we had no idea how far we had run or how much farther there was to go. The Dutch are a very spartan people, so there weren't the usual "extravagencies" like split times or mile markers. But where else can you run a race for only two Guilders, and they even air-mailed me the results!

  2. One of my favorite races, this 5 mile course starts at the Shaker Hts. high school and winds its way through the streets and around the Shaker Lakes. They serve a pancake breakfast inside the school afterwards and always have a raffle before giving out the awards. We usually do a lap around the school's track before finishing, but road construction forced them to cut it out of last year's race. (I wasn't paying attention while they were giving the instructions and expected to still do the final lap, so I held myself back during the last half mile. Next time I'll know better!)

  3. The IX Center is a former tank plant near the airport and the course is completely flat and ends inside the convention center. You also get free admission to the Ski Fair with your race entry. The flat course and cool weather let me get my best 5k time to date at this race.

  4. The Fleet Streak is another flat course through Cleveland's Slavik Village and it's been my first race of the season the last few years. It's usually quite chilly still and is a good indication of how ready I am for the race season. (I don't remember my exact time, but it was somewhere around twenty minutes.)


  5. Just a small neighborhood race that benefits the local elementary school, it's moderately hilly and is generally a good race. Rocco Sullo (one of the best runners in the area) was first in my age group, my friend Seamus was second and I was third. (Rocco and Seamus run at a level far beyond mine, so it was a rare honor to be included in their company!)


  6. The Revco is the largest race in Cleveland and draws runners from around the world. It's not often that you get the chance to run a 10k with 8,000 other people. Usually you hear the starting gun and then jog in place while the hordes in front of you slowly get started. (It thins out considerable once you get out of downtown.) As an added benefit, wearing a Revco t-shirt gains you the respect and admiration of your peers!


  7. Another of my favorite races, this 5.25 race is part of the village of Chagrin Falls' Memorial Day festivities. (Which also includes a hot-air balloon launch before the start of the race.) The last 2.5 miles is infested with dips and valleys in the road that seem determined to wear you out, but it gives you a real sense of accomplishment when you've finished. It always seems like the whole town turns out to cheer you on, too. I don't remember my exact time and they're pretty lackadaisical about putting out the results. (The results usually show up about five months after the race, so I should be getting them any day now! 10/19 - They just arrived yesterday, just a tad under five months.)

  8. This race starts right in my neighborhood and the course runs on the streets behind my apartment, so it's one that I always look forward to. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of working out the day before and paid the price during the race. Oh well, there's always next year!

  9. Thistledown is a very cool race - it's actually a horse race- track and the finish line is on the track in front of the grandstand. Unfortunately the track is sand and all you can do for the last quarter mile is follow in the footprints of the people in front of you. Because it's nearly impossible to sprint or even pass anyone my times are never that good here. But they always set up a live video camara and project the finishers on the jumbo screen on the far side of the track. Plus you can watch the horses and jockeys warm up while you're waiting for the results.

  10. I don't know how I ever broke twenty minutes at this race - the heat and humidity were scorching and the course went into and out of the Flats. Consequently, almost the entire last mile was completely uphill. I'll think long and hard before doing this one again!

  11. I don't usually run (or train for!) 10k's, but I've been wanting to do this race for a while and the weather that day was so cool and nice that I didn't have any excuse not to. I was able to keep a good consistent pace for the first five and a half miles, but I really fell apart at the end. It was a great course - two loops around the Horseshoe Lakes in Shaker Hts with much shade and only a few hills. I was also curious to see how I would do in a non-Revco 10k.


  12. Before the start they announced that over 4,000 runners and walkers were participating in the event! We were talking with one woman who had come from San Francisco for the big concert on Saturday, then found out about the race and went out and bought a pair of running shoes the next day. The course started in front of the Rock Hall, looped around the stadium, went up through some of the city streets, looped back around the stadium again and finished at the museum. Over all it was a pretty fun race and I even managed to put in a strong finsh.

  13. This was probably one of the most challenging courses I've done this year, and it was only a silly 5k race! Edgwater Park is just to the West of downtown and has a beach right on the Lake. There was a continuous strong wind blowing in off the Lake to contend with, as well as a quite steep hill and a few-hundred yard dash across the sand. (I overhead Rocco Sullo say afterwards that running across the beach reminded him of that nightmare everyone has had where you're trying to run away as fast as you can but your feet just won't move...) I finished about a minute and a half slower than my usual 5k time, but still finished first in my age group if that gives you an idea of how difficult it was. At least the trophies were pretty nice!

  14. I ran a 6.71 mile leg of the Tow-to-Toe marathon as part of a four-person co-ed relay team and had a lot of fun. Our last runner crossed the finish line at about 3 hours, 19 minutes, which was better than we expected. The course was along the towpath in the CVNRA, which is also one of my favorite biking locations. (You can find out more about the CVNRA from the link on my home page.) It was a little chilly in the morning, but just after I started my run the skies cleared up, the sun came out and it turned into a gorgeous morning. I was talking with a man from Painsville for the last part of my leg, so the last three miles went by so quickly that I don't really even remember them!

  15. They should have called this race the "Beer Run" - it started and ended at this bar called the Floodwater Cafe on Canal Rd, and the owner had a lot of insight to start the taps flowing while everyone was sitting around waiting for the results. It was pretty amusing to see the age group winners walking around with their medals in one hand and a 12-ounce mug of draft Samual Adams in the other!

  16. This four mile cross-country course was definitely "over the river and through the woods", which turned out to be a good thing since it was about 80 degrees in the fields outside the woods! They always warn you before- hand about the infamous log, which is a huge fallen tree blocking the path in woods. I usually just get off the trail and go around it, but the more gymnastically inclined hurdle or climb over it. I didn't bother to push myself due to the heat and the course difficulty, but I finished in virtually the same time I did two years ago and placed third in my age group anyway. I guess the other 25-29 year olds must have slept in that day! (Of course, Rocco Sullo was there, but it seems like he runs every race...)

  17. In the "Stupid Criminal Tricks" department, our race was started by a bell but some people also heard a gun shot immediately afterwards and just assumed that it was a starter's pistol. After the race we found out that the gun shot came from a robbery attempt that occurred just up the street, and that the suspect had fled and attempted to hide himself in with the runners! Unfortunately the one flaw in his plan was that he hadn't counted on the Cleveland police officers hanging around the race start and handling traffic at every intersection along the race course, not to mention that fact that the race director, Gary Easter, is a Lakewood cop. Evidently the police at the crime scene simply radioed the police at the race start and they quickly apprehended the suspect. The moral of the story is that you have to be sure to check the long distance running schedule BEFORE planning any criminal activities.

  18. This is the first race I've run since injuring my ankle at the end of June, and as you can see from my time I'm still not back in shape yet. (I'm not going to go into my injury, let's just say that it was completely my own stupidity and had nothing to do with any athletic activities.) I had run this race two years ago and the course then was just a straight simple race down the East bank of the Flats. However, this year's course went up out of the Flats, past the old municipal stadium and turned around at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Needless to say the scenery was great and it was a nice cool morning but the hills just killed me. I definitely need to start training harder again!

  19. I had been hoping for a good showing in this race since it's one of my favorite and is usually the last one I run before moving my workouts indoors for the winter. I had a personal record of 32 minutes flat that day, which was even more meaningful since this was my last race in the 25-29 age category. Now I don't have any more easy trophies to look forward to - the 30+ age groups are vicious, cut- throat and filled with much better runners than me!



Local Running Links