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What started off as a wild idea just  a few months ago, closed yesterday at roughly 9:54 as I cross the finish line of the Cleveland Half Marathon. This was never really planned, but as it played out, I was finishing my 4th half-marathon in 4 different cities in 4 weeks. Insane. There was no better place for me to wrap up this journey than Cleveland, Ohio. It’s always been home and I love that city. Nashville, Columbus, Indianapolis and Cleveland were the locations for our races. Each one different. Each one special. I still can’t believe it’s over now.

We were up and out the door at 6:00 am on Saturday morning. The entire family came along this time…including Wubzzy. Since we took our van to Cleveland and the temperatures were a bit cooler, Heather and the kids stayed in the van once the race started to pass the time. It provided the perfect shelter for the girls to play with their new Barbie Doll House (Thanks Papa C) and “the boy” to watch a Dunk DVD. They left the van in time to see me cross the line at the end.

In terms of the race…wow. I got out to a very good pace and was really doing well through 9 miles. In my mind I was looking at a personal best when I did the math. After an 8:12 9th mile…the wheels fell off. Out of nowhere, I think 4 in 4 weekends finally caught up to me. It all left me pretty quick. I pushed through two 10 minute miles and finished the last mile at a 9:00 pace. Overall finish time was a 1:54. It was a beautiful day in Cleveland and running the city, seeing the sites was awesome.

I will say that it was a bit lonely without my partner, my bride. This was the first one I’ve done without her since February and I missed her presence. I appreciate her taking care of the crew while I ran this last race. I wore a shirt to honor my mom and thought of her often along the journey. We finished the day with a memorial service for her that was beautiful. I’ll cover that in a future post. Thank you to all of those that have encouraged, supported and helped us make our 4 in 4 in 4 possible. It was quite a ride!

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