Last Ohio Marathon?

So, I thought I had run all of the organized marathons in Ohio.  In years past, I've run (1) Cleveland Rite-Aid; (2) Cleveland Inaugural - only lasted 1 year; (3) Akron; (4) Cincinnati Flying Pig; (5) Columbus; (6) Glass City - Toledo; (7) Towpath; (8) Athens; (9) Air Force - Dayton; (10) Inland Trail - Elyria; (11) Last Chance for Boston - Dublin; and (12) Ohio River Road Runners - Xenia.

As I was searching for a training run in April, I stumbled across a new one - the Earth Day Challenge marathon in Gambier, Ohio.  I quickly signed up for it as it fit perfectly into my running schedule.

The marathon was held on April 25th.  The course was advertised as flat.  The first 4 miles, however, wound around the town of Gambier and was a series of rolling hills.  After we got that out of the way, we headed out onto the Kokosing Gap Bike Trail, a well-maintained paved path - which was very flat.

It was held in conjunction with a half-marathon so there were a fair amount of people for the first half of the race.  The second half was a bit lonely as I think there were about 120 total marathoners in the race.  All of the aid station workers and road crossing volunteers were very friendly so I did have some company.  The drink choice was Heed and Hammer Gels were passed out too.  Perfect!!

Weather conditions at the start were ideal but things heated up a bit for the second-half.  There was some tree cover on the path but the sun poked through a bit and I got my first sun-burn of the season.  Right after the race, the sky opened up and poured.  Sadly, I think a lot of the runners got caught in it.

This was a very nice, low-key race.  Very well run.  And in keeping with the earth day theme, all of the goodie bags had compact fluorescent light bulbs - something I can actually use.  I will definitely keep this race in mind for next year.

So have I missed any other Ohio marathons?

Congrats to Teammate Amy Palmiero-Winters

Last week the ultrarunning community got some very exciting news.  The AAU Sullivan Committee announced that my 24-hour teammate, Amy Palmiero-Winters, was the recipient of the 2009 James E. Sullivan Award "for her outstanding athletic abilities and accomplishments in her sport as well as sportsmanship, leadership and character (on & off the field) in her lifestyle as a whole."  I am certain that this is the first time an ultrarunner has received the Sullivan award.

This is a huge honor.  Amy joins such other past recipients as Frank Shorter, Carol Lewis, Florence Joyner and Joan Bennoit- Samuelson.  Amy's story is truly inspiring.  Looking forward to finally meeting her in France.

Field Set for World Championship

It is very encouraging to see the 24-Hour Race has increased participation each year from when I started four years ago.  Last year, 28 countries participated and 14 women's teams competed (a team must include at least 3 runners from a country).

This year, runners from a total of 30 countries are set to participate in France on May 13th.  Additionally, we now have increased the number of women's teams - 16 total!  The women's teams are: Australia, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Russia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States.

While the French women are the heavy favorites (they took the Number 1 and 2 spots last year and the Gold Team medal), I have confidence in my teammates that the French will get a run for their money.  It should be exciting to watch!

Springtime in Paris

Ok, maybe not Paris, but the 2010 World 24-Hour Championship will be held this Spring in Brive, France.  The race is on May 13-14, a Thursday (Ascension Thursday - National Holiday) and Friday.  Brive is about 4 hours by train southwest of Paris. 

We have recently received some information about the course.  Much of the route goes through a city park.  The course is approximately 1200 meters and will be run in a clockwise direction.  About 1/3rd of the course is a fine crushed gravel, a short portion is a dirt path with the remaining part on asphalt. There is one small hill with about a one meter rise and around 100 meters in length followed by a descent of the same amount. There is also a number of both left and right hand turns within the loop.  Looks like the French will do a fabulous job and I am very excited to run the event.

This year, both the women's and men's US teams are very strong.  On the women's team, we have Jamie Donaldson (4th overall last year), Jill Perry (US National 24-hour champ); Suzanna Bon, Anna Piskorska, Amy Palmiero-Winters and me.  On the men's team, there is Phil McCarthy (US National 24-hour champ), John Geesler; Dan Rose, Serge Arbona, Scott Jurek and Michael Henze.

We are hoping to bring home some medals.  Let's keep our fingers' crossed!

U.S. Nationals - A 7th Place Finish

Laurel, Emilia, Courtney and me before a game.

We just returned yesterday from a very "cool" experience in Kalamazoo, Michigan. "Cool" because we had the opportunity to be on ice for nine 10-end curling games and also "cool" because we had the opportunity to curl against the best women's teams in the country.

A view from the Stadium stands.

We went in to the competition with low expectations. We were seeded 9th out of 10 teams. We had only been curling for a few years. Most of the teams (even the one Juniors team that played) had curled many more years than us, had tons more experience and even had coaches.

Contrasted to the ice we usually play on, the ice at Kalamazoo was meticulously maintained by the ever-vigilant ice crew. It was about 25 second ice and, while it started out straighter for the first few games, it developed a good 4-plus feet of curl as the week went on. It was a real treat to play on it. Now, if we could have only made all of our shots!

We ended up winning our games against the 6th, 7th and 8th seeded teams for a ending record of 3-6. Overall we finished in 7th place. While we all felt we could have played better and won more games, we were very happy with the result as it was much better than was predicted.

All of the teams were very friendly and supportive. While the level of talent varied, I think we all recognized that we need to keep improving the quality of play at the women's competitive level. We all benefited by participating and hopefully can build on the experience to step up the level of play a notch in years to come.

Thanks again to Drymax socks. They make some amazing hockey socks that worked very well for curling. The socks were warm but not bulky. Also thanks to SniperSkinz. We definitely had the best looking brooms!

Brooms wrapped in SniperSkinz.

Thanks to Sponsors Drymax and Sniperskinz

Only a few more days until U.S. Nationals in Kalamazoo. Our team has been extremely fortunate to have in our corner two sponsors. Drymax, who has also sponsored my ultrarunning, has stepped up to outfit our team with socks. We will be trying out their new line of hockey socks. When I first heard that Drymax just started making hockey socks, I though it would be a perfect fit to try them out on the curling ice. Drymax agreed and we now are well stocked. Our feet should be very happy during our upcoming games.

Another company geared to hockey, Sniperskinz, has also agreed to sponsor the team. Sniperskinz makes some very cool wraps for hockey sticks. They have never made wraps for curling brooms and had to make some adjustments in the sizing to fit the brooms versus a hockey stick. Our team is the first to try out the wraps on curling brooms. We got to customize the wraps with an individual design and colors. It only took minutes to apply the wraps and our brooms look very sharp now. We will definitely have most unique brooms at Nationals.

Last Tune-Up

The Team went on the road last weekend to Canada for a final tune-up before Nationals.  We went to the Sun Parlour Curling Club in Lemington, Ont., by Windsor.  They had a 4-sheet club.  The ice was fast but had a lot of runs and falls.  It was tough predicting the ice.  We played two games on Saturday and recorded wins.  We played in the final event on Sunday.  We had a close game and were tied going into the 8th end.  We didn't have hammer and had a chance for a steal but the other team's skip made a nice last shot for the win.

We got to watch a lot of curling on TV since the Olympics were in full swing.  Of course, the Canadians focused on the Canadian teams so really fun to watch.  Those Canadian Olympic teams were fantastic!