My Recent Marathon Experience

On Sunday, I ran the Nationwide Children's Hospital Columbus Marathon. I wasn’t planning on running the full marathon. I thought I had registered for the half marathon. But when the race volunteers couldn’t find my bib number when I attempted to pick up my race packet and swag, they discovered that, in fact, I had signed up for the full marathon—double the 13.1 miles I had already been dreading.

I asked if I could transfer races, but the volunteers informed me that it was too late. They kindly offered that I could run the half marathon, that I could just veer off the full marathon route at the appropriate time. But they also informed me that I wouldn’t be eligible for a half marathon medal. To me, that wasn’t an option—I run races for the medals and technical shirts. If I ran the 13.1 miles and didn’t get a medal, then that’s like not running the race at all—even if the medal eventually gets stashed away in a junk drawer, never to be seen again.

So there I was: with less than 15 hours until race time, I decided to go ahead and participate in the full marathon. It’s the impulse equivalent of buying that Twix bar at the grocery checkout line.

I eventually finished the race, through a combination of running, walking, and swearing at myself. The walking and swearing became more prevalent as the miles increased.

In the end, I got my medal. There’s a lot of lessons to be learned from this event. And once my pain subsides, I’ll jot those down.

In the meantime, you can read a previous blog that I penned called “Learning from My Half Marathon Mistakes.” In it, I explained five things you can take away from my struggles in completing the Mercedes-Benz Half Marathon in 2016 so that you don’t experience the same problems as you’re preparing for and completing the bar examination.

Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/33RYMw1

Perhaps I should add a sixth tip—make sure to check, double-check, and triple-check your application!