This year was the 40th anniversary of the Mercy Health Glass City Marathon. Because I’m from Toledo and my mom was a Mercy nurse, I’ve wanted to do the half marathon for a couple of years. The 40th anniversary seemed like a good reason to do it this year. I was glad Deb decided to go with me.

This race starts and ends at the University of Toledo. (My dad graduated from there!) There was a lot of road construction around the university, so it was a little bit difficult figuring out where to park for the expo. The expo was small, but nice. We were able to try on the race shirt and exchange it if we needed to.

Race morning, parking was also a little bit of a challenge. Despite that, we ended up in a lot with plenty of time to walk to the start. Walking to the start there were plenty of port-a-johns.

There were about 5,000 people in the full and half marathons combined — about 3,500 in the half and 1,500 in the full. It was really nice being at a race that small for a change. It was easy for us to find our friend Laura in the crowd.

The sound system was fantastic and the announcer did a great job. He told everyone to be quiet to hear the national anthem, and the woman who sang it did a wonderful job. Then a nun from St. Ann’s Hospital said a prayer for all of the athletes to have a good race. Talk about warm fuzzies!

My original plan for this race was to use it as a training walk because it was our first half of the spring season. Deb and I started out together and kept at a pretty good pace. Laura is faster and went ahead of us. We hovered around a 14:14 mile. The course was relatively flat with minor hills. A lot of the race was in the Ottawa Hills neighborhood, which was beautiful. Many people were in their yards cheering us on.

As we were walking, we heard a noise that sounded like cow bells and finally figured out it was coming from my phone. It was the race app cheering us on! Each time we hit a milestone on the course, we would hear the cow bells.

Around mile 6 Deb made a pitstop and told me to go ahead. I picked up the pace a little, speeding up to about 13:45-14:00 per mile. Somewhere along the way I felt some tightness in my left hamstring, so I slowed a little. Around mile 10 I felt great and picked up the pace, but ended up slowing again later.

The weather was a little bit hard to predict. It looked as if it would be chilly for the entire race, so I opted to wear my favorite jacket instead of a throwaway. I ended up getting too warm, and because my phone was in my pocket, put off tying my jacket around my waist until late in the race. (I hate when my phone bounces on my leg in a coat pocket.)

As I turned back onto the UT campus and approached the finish, things got confusing. There were pedestrians walking everywhere, so I wasn’t sure I was still on the course. (Was this still a race?) A volunteer saw me coming and pointed me toward the sidewalk and a pedestrian bridge. I walked through lots of people, through a parking lot, and I finally saw the arch and the finish line.

I was handed a huge medal, grabbed some water, and was handed a glass beer mug. I kept going and there was a large tent full of tons of food! There were the regular bananas and bagels, but also pizza and pasta. They marked our hands to show we had been through the tent once, and we could not go back in once we left. I skipped the pizza and grabbed pasta. I found a shady spot in the grass, grabbed a beer (Michelob Ultra), and waited for Deb.

The phone app went off when Deb finished the race about 10 minutes after I did, and I knew to watch for her to come out of the food tent.

After the race, we found out that the road construction and a bridge being rebuilt caused a slight change in the course. Typically the race ends on the 50-yard line of the UT football stadium. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible this year. That also explains why the route to the finish line was awkward.

The parking lot we picked ended up being all the way across campus from the finish line, and because of the bridge construction, there was no direct walking route there. That explained the traffic jam before the race, too.

This race was really nice and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to do a spring race. The course was pretty, everyone was very friendly, it was not too large, and the shirt and medal are great! The glass mug is cool, too. I imagine when the finish is in the stadium, it is even better.

Read more about the Owens Corning Glass City Half Marathon in 6 Lessons from Walking Two Half Marathons in 6 Days.

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