Columbus Marathon

I am so thankful to have been able to stay in the house well into the autumn. If we had sold the house immediately, we would have been out already, renting a place or living with friends. Instead, we get to enjoy life in our little village within a stone's throw of downtown Columbus and Ohio State University.
Because we are so close to downtown, the Columbus Marathon runs through the middle of our town. Most years, my friend Sheila and will go walking along the route before the race begins. She has as many deadlines as I do with her husband having back surgery on the same day we close on our house, so I didn't ask if she wanted to walk.
Instead, this morning, I decided to start at our house and run the route backward for about 4 miles.
It can be more challenging than you expect to figure out which way the route goes when not all the roads are closed yet.
Mostly, I relied on judging whether cars were parked along the road. No cars equals Marathon route. Even so, I got confused several times and started down roads before noticing that no banners waved or port-a-potties stood sentry, so I'd turn around and try a different road.
Since I had several false tries, I decided to run 4.5 miles to make sure I reached the total of 8 miles I hoped for. I'm so glad I kept running because I discovered that the marathon is running through a cornfield path.
It's weird in a city of nearly a million people to still have a cornfield in the center, but because Ohio State teaches agriculture, there are cows and cornfields within the city.
I had just run the path through the cornfield last week while waiting for Earl to finish his physical therapy. In the fog, alone, the path is a bit spooky.


But this morning, the sponsor had done a great job making it a highlight of the 26.2 mile race.
These "race car" banners showed runners where to turn.


Then a banner welcomed runners to the field.


Along the way, there were signs with pop culture icons or bad jokes, meant to encourage those reaching the high mileage of the marathon.






The marathon is sponsored by Children's Hospital, so many of the miles are dedicated to children receiving treatment. I started taking pictures of the mile markers and the kids, and got to meet two of the children who had already shown up to support the runners.
Mile 20 was dedicated to Andrew.
He got excited when he saw me and thought the marathoners were already on their way.




Then farther down the road, Amelia had already arrived to cheer for the runners on her dedicated mile.




I ended up running 9 miles, and I was pretty spent by the end, but I'm so happy that I had the opportunity.

Early Morning Bike Ride

Not being able to run in the morning leaves me a little antsy.
I go for walks. I've been to the gym to do weights, to swim, or to pedal on the stationary bike. My knee feels much better, but not quite ready to try running again.
On Tuesday morning, my husband was awake at 6:30 a.m. (an unusual occurrence) and we went for a bike ride.
I convinced him we could drive down the main road to the bike path. Even at that hour of the morning, we took our life in our hands to ride down that main road. Once on the bike path though, we had it to ourselves.
Along one side of the trail, I could hear the cars whirring past on the highway, but surrounding me were trees and bushes and rivers.
I paused briefly to watch a white egret fishing in a low-head dam.

We rode to downtown Columbus. We might have continued on to the Audubon Center south of town if not for road construction which redirected us onto morning rush hour roads.
So we turned around and rode home in a different direction to avoid the busiest roads.
Two great blue herons walked peacefully in the confluence here, and a third one buzzed past and they all three took flight.

We rode for about 45 minutes, returning home in time for Earl to get ready for work.
A lovely way to start the morning.