Pennsylvania: Crossing the Bridges
It was two years after Flying Pig that I made it to Pennsylvania to run the Dicks Sporting Goods Marathon in Pittsburgh. My buddy Chad and I were
looking for a spring race that we would be able to do together, as we had done
the Flying Pig together in 2013 and we were training for a 50k a few weeks later. He is a big Steelers fan and my wives family
lives just outside Pittsburgh so it worked out in for a few different reasons. I had some high hopes for the race due to great training over the winter, but another hilly route and a little bit of weather issues decided to make it more interesting.
Race: Dicks Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon
Race: Dicks Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Date: 05/04/2014
Finishing Time: 4:48:50
As we were planning
for the trip, a few things came up which made my schedule a little tighter than
I would have liked the weekend of a race. I had a senior portrait session scheduled the morning before the race and Kaela was on a work trip in Las
Vegas, and was flying in that night to Pittsburgh to be there
for me (so sweet I know). I got into Pittsburgh later than expected, so Chad
picked up our bibs from the expo and met me at the hotel. Around 10pm I had
gotten Kaela from the airport and spent the ride back to the hotel trying to
explain the plans for the morning; where we were parking, where she would see
me, and things she could do while we were running. Kaela is very visual person
however, so when we arrived to the room I pulled out the map and confirmed all
that we talked about. Now it was time to try and get some sleep to be downtown
by the 7am start.
Chad and I woke up
around 4:30am and met outside the room to try and grab some breakfast. We
quickly found out that the breakfast area in hotel wasn’t yet open but there
was a microwave in one of the "refreshment" rooms on the other end of
hotel. There we were, sitting on the floor eating oatmeal and cliff bars,
trying to make conversation to keep each other awake. Getting close to time to
leave, we headed back to our rooms to finish getting ready and hit the road.
Chad had just had a little girl and didn’t think it was a smart decision to
have her up for the start, so his wife stayed back to join Kaela later in the
day.
We ended up parking
at Station Square just over a mile walk to the start line. It was a
breezy morning but nothing that we weren't expecting. But then came the weather
that I again hoped would not happen, rain. It wasn’t much but it was enough to
make me nervous looking back at what happen during both years I ran the Flying
Pig Marathon. We made it to the start area and were surprised by the crowds. It
started to rain just slightly harder and that apparently caused a traffic jam with all
the runners trying to enter their starting corrals. We spent about 45 minutes
just standing in place waiting for the race to start and to be able to actually
enter the corral area. This was not the way that I wanted to start the race.
Standing on my legs for that long in the cool/wet weather made my legs heavy
and I knew that I was going to need to play it smart in the beginning of the
race if I wanted to finish this race standing up.
And we were off! The
course was broken down into a few different sections based on the sights and/or
neighborhoods you went through. The first few miles were used to spread us out
a little bit before getting to the bridges. Kaela was posted up before the
first bridge to capture the smiles on our faces early in the race.
After we left the Station Square
area, we headed to the Southside of Pittsburgh with a very "hipster"
vibe in the area. Here the crowd support was in full effect with the sidewalks
packed with people cheering us on. Around Mile 11 we split from the half
marathoners doing a small loop around a block to end up on the other side of
the same bridge the half marathoners were on. As we were crossing the bridge we
saw the "hill" that we had seen on the elevation chart.
Now Chad and I
reviewed the elevation chart and had just assumed that maybe there was
"not drawn to scale" that we missed because of the giant spike around
mile 12. We were wrong. As the half marathoners turned left to head back to the
finish, we went right, straight up an exit ramp from the freeway below. About a
quarter of the way up, we decided that better to power walk the hill as we were
going the same pace as we were attempting to run it. When we finally got the to
top, I was pretty winded but my legs still felt good knowing that was not even
half way completed. Next part of race went through by University of Pittsburgh
and through some nice old residential neighborhoods which made for some great viewing to keep my mind off of the rolling hills. Around the 17 mile marker
I started to feel some heaviness in my legs. I told Chad to just go ahead of me
while I tried to walk it out for few minutes.
I picked it up at
mile 18 but then again at miles 20 and 22 had to stop the run and just give all
I could to keep moving forward. I thought back to the beginning of the race,
having to just stand for so long and wait for the start. One of the biggest encouragements
at this point in time were the spectators. On both sides of the street there
were people sitting on their front porches or the sidewalks yelling and
cheering. Many playing music and also a few had set up their own
"aid" stations to help the runners. They were cheering for all of us,
no matter how bad we were looking.
(Bella just enjoying posing at the finish line)
Coming into the
final turn onto the Boulevard of the Allies, I could hear the crowd lining the
final stretch and cheering so loud. I wanted to keep an eye out for Kaela but I
knew that I needed to just focus ahead and make sure that I crossed that finish
line.
(Kaela captured one of my favorite running pictures)
After the race we
headed to the hotel got cleaned up and then headed to meet Kaela's mom and
sister for lunch before heading back to Ohio. We ate at the Jerome Bettis
restaurant just outside of Heinz Field. I wanted to bring this
up for two reasons. The first is because I had the BIGGEST piece of carrot cake I have ever seen (well attempted to eat it all) and second because they had the coolest bathrooms with one sided glass to make sure you didn't miss the action going on at the bar.
I went into
Pittsburgh with high hopes to run a better race but knew that the hills were
definitely going to challenge me. It was an amazing course with even better
crowd support. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a well organized
race in Pittsburgh. This was the first race of many that I had in 2014 and even
though I did not finish in the time that I hoped, it was an awesome experience.
Next stop VEGAS!!!