Race Review: The Cleveland Marathon

The Cleveland Rocks and Runs Marathon was the fourth of Hubs 5 marathons in 5 weeks series, and it was a blast! It was Victoria Day weekend for us Canadians, so it was the perfect opportunity for us to take a road trip to Cleveland.

Cleveland, Ohio is best known as a manufacturing center, and ofcourse the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Cleveland Marathon is a relatively flat course that runs through downtown Cleveland and along the shore of Lake Erie. Course map is depicted below:

Running the Cleveland Marathon was a huge thrill for Hubs. He is a musician and one of his favourite movies of all time is a parody of an imaginary aging rock band called "Spinal Tap." He has watched this movie over 50 times! Here is a video clip from the movie. The band, Spinal Tap is lost backstage in at their concert in Cleveland. This video clip gave Hubs a bit of inspiration for his Marathon and how he wanted to run it:

Hubs got the idea that he wanted to run across the finishing line of the Cleveland Marathon with his white Fendar Strat guitar(the same guitar that is on the Marathon medal). I handed him his guitar at mile 25 and quickly took his picture:

Well Hubs ran in the marathon (his fourth in four weeks) with his beloved white Fendar Strat over his head shouting "Hello Cleveland!". The crowd cheers were awesome! Here is a picture of him crossing the finishing line.

Did you notice his time? Hubs ran this race in 4 hours 12 minutes, his fastest of his four marathons in four weeks (still 14 minutes slower than his PR), but still, it begs the question, what is the human body capable of? Hubs also ran without a watch, he just went solely on feel. It was a great accomplishment!

After the marathon, we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and strolled around before driving home. It was a great weekend.

So the final verdict on the Cleveland Marathon:

City and attractions: 10/10
Expo: 8/10
Course entertainment: 5/10
Medal: 10/10
Race T-shirt: 8/10
Spectators:5/10 (full)
Course support: 8/10
Post race support: 7/10
Difficulty: 4/10 (10 being most difficult)

Well that just leaves Ottawa. I am running this one as well and I am looking forward to it. Thanks for reading!!