It Was a Rainy Day

Yes it was a very rainy day and certainly not hot in Cleveland for the Green Jewel 50k on Saturday March 5th. The previous week had seen some serious flooding in the Clevelnad area and we were a little concerned about the race actually being run. But apperently things had got a little better and the flood waters had receded, unfortunately a new wave of nasty weather was threatening to make the waters rise again. Theo Bosch and myself drove down on friday morning not knowing what to expect and by the time we got to Ohio the rain had started, at least the temperature wasn't too bad (up to 9C). We settled in to our hotel room and went for dinner and drove out to see where to catch the bus in the morning. Looks like a very nice area, Brecksville (where the finish is)is a beautiful small town and is surrounded by more of the the same. I think there's a bit of money in these parts. After finding the finsih/bus stop area we drove to see "the hill" but turned around before we got there, thinking that maybe it would be better not to see it before the race.
The next morning we were up at 4:30 and out the door by shortly after 5 to be at the bus pick up area before 5:30. To our surprise a nice comfy coach showed up to pick us up. After picking up our race bibs we got on the bus and waited for everyone else before setting off for Rocky River For the start. The course runs around the outskirts of Cleveland from Rocky River in the west to the south along the Rocky River on mainly paved bike paths (except for a 8 kilometre stretch of road) to Brecksville and the Oak Grve Picnic area.
The rain never let up much and we started on time at 7 am. The early going seemed rather easy as we kept up a nice sub 5 min/km pace. There were lots of puddles to greet us and in some places we had no option but to wade through ankle deep ice cold water. Evidence of the prevu=ious weeks floods were everywhere, with mud on the path and debris in the woods. Regardless it was a very nice looking area and would have been even better under better conditions. We maintained our pace and kept to our plan of walking through the aid stations and when we neeeded a gel (about every hour). After passing the half way mark things started to seize up a little for me, as was expected, but i kept on not wanting Theo to be disappointed in his first 50K, he may need some help in the later stages. I might wnat to point ut that the course is almost entirely a gradual uphill climb, at least unitl about 35k when the "real" hills start at this point both of us were hurting and we agreed that walking the hills would be good stratgey.
We had been slowing down at this point and it was a matter of just getting it done now. We managed to get our self through the hills and got our selves to the last major road crossing at Brecksville Rd. 3k from the end. It was down hill from here, but we weren't ready for downhills, our quads were in pain. We soldiered on and thankfully finished in a time of 4:48:50, a PB for Theo :).

Overall a great small event, only 87 finishers. Tough course which would have been great on a nice day. Heavy rain and strong head winds didn't deter us though. Thanks to Joe Jurczyk, the race director.