Erie - The Wife's Perspective

Soooo you’re telling me that I haven’t made an appearance on this blog in over two years? TWO YEARS? Well, I guess I have been pretty busy, mostly in the way that carrying, birthing and taking care of two babies (15 months apart), a cross-city move, and also continuing to work full-time and enthusiastically supporting my husband’s running habits (club, miles, and, for a while there, part-time employment, which ended when he realized his job really wasn’t so much “fun”) will keep a person busy. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t take any credit for keeping the little people alive day-to-day. That’s all Mike. But I still spend most of my non-working time with one or both of them and just that is enough to fully deplete my tank.

Anyway, at the present moment both of those crazy kids are dead asleep and I can get back to the matter at hand. The Erie Marathon.

As Mike mentioned, we fully intended to make this one a motorcycle trip, given that we almost never get to ride anymore. And I was totally on board, even when Mike said a rainy cool front was on its way in. Until the day before we left when I walked outside in the full sunshine in the middle of the day and was still chilly. Weather like that, on a bike going 75 mph, is just not pleasant and requires so many layers that I’m getting exhausted thinking about putting them on (which we can’t have or else this entry will end right here!). Add to that the fact that there’s really no scenic way to get to Erie from here that doesn’t require going super far out of the way and it wasn’t too long before I threw in the towel.

Usually car rides are great for me because Mike insists on driving (he gets so antsy in the passenger seat that he once complained after I had been driving for all of 40 minutes that we needed to stop so he could stretch his legs) and so I get to read to my heart’s content (another thing I don’t do enough of these days). But this time he insisted that I drive. The entire way there. And that’s when I knew that he was indeed nervous.

As Mike mentioned, we stopped the first night outside of Cleveland to stay with my cousin’s family and to have dinner at The Brew Kettle with them and my aunt and uncle. These guys are always a good time and I regret only that the timing was not good for an all-night bluegrass jam session (complete with moonshine, of course). Breaking the drive into two allowed us to leave the next day bright and early in the late afternoon and still get to Erie with plenty of time to hit packet pick-up and get the lay of the land.

Well, I could have gotten the lay of the land, anyway. Instead, after checking out the expo (which was really pretty decently sized for such a small race), we headed out to get settled in and figure out the dinner plan. Now, in our first few races we always had dinner reservations in place at least a month in advance. In this case neither of us had even pulled up Trip Advisor, which we did immediately after we found out that the race-sponsored pasta dinner was sold out. Lo and behold! Erie’s 2^nd highest rated restaurant is an Italian place, Mi Scuzi. But of course they couldn’t seat us until 9 (at which point not only would we hopefully be asleep, but I’m pretty sure they would have also been out of food). However, they did takeout and so that’s what we did. Along with at least a couple dozen other people from the looks of the bags lined up and waiting to be picked up when we showed up there at 5:20. I’m not sure there was even any food left for the 6 pm diners! The food was really great and we both stuffed ourselves silly (hey, spectating burns like dozens of extra calories!!).

So, the race. After an early morning wake-up (for real, waking up at 4 am for a 7 am race is always the hardest part about the whole thing for me) I finally decided to take a look at the course map. I used to plan my spectating before we even left home! Lucky for me it really couldn’t be any easier to spectate a race. The race is two full loops, so that the Start/Finish is also the halfway point. That’s three times to see your runner right there. Add to that the fact that the “far side” of the loop is about a 5 minute leisurely stroll away and you get to also catch your runner at miles 6 and 19. For Mike that’s a chance to see him about every 40 minutes, which including point-to-point time still gives me plenty of reading time while I’m waiting (this time around my book of choice was a guide on how to make the terrible twos “terrific.” I already have it all figured out, though – just leave them at home with Grandma while you take long weekend trips!). Since everyone’s traveling to and from the same rough spots, I also got to make a couple of cheer friends, which was nice because it gave Mike extra people screaming his name and also gave me more of an excuse to watch the race. Sometimes I forget what a special thing it is to see that many people so deeply involved in such a crazy endeavor.

Everything really was perfect for the race. I was bundled up because I was more or less stationary and also in the shade, but I could tell the runners were all doing really well. So when Mike shouted “I’m going to break 2:53” when he passed me at Mile 19, I certainly got excited. He’s been hoping to PR for years. And when I spotted him in the distance coming down the final stretch at just after 2:50, I absolutely lost my mind. To those of us who don’t run it would seem like shaving off almost 2 minutes over a 3 hour period wouldn’t be a big deal. But it is. It’s a huge deal. I was so proud.

And I have to say, as much as I have tried pleading, betting, bribing and just plain old begging to get him to shave that ridiculous beard, it sure does make him easy to spot on the field of runners.

After the snafu with dinner I decided it was best to go ahead and make a post-marathon brunch reservation at Erie’s top-rated restaurant, a French place called Bertrand’s Bistro. This turned out to be a fantastic place to celebrate Mike’s PR. Not because of the mimosas or other drinks – of which there were plenty – but because the brunch included all-you-can-eat made-to-order crepes. We took so many of them down that at the end the chef started to send out half-portions. We were so stuffed we were actually glad.

And even gladder later when we realized that nothing is open in Erie on a Sunday night. I mean, nothing. We ended up with a pretty decent pizza from a local hole-in-the wall recommendation, but there was absolutely nowhere interesting for us to go had we insisted on a sit-down meal. Good thing all we wanted to do was sit around in our motel room and eat pizza and watch cable anyway. Ahhh the joys of being kid-free.

Mike went through the trip home (I made him drive all the way back!) so I won’t go through that again, but I will say that our visit to Ann Arbor was also a highlight. We got to have dinner and stay with friends who we just don’t see often enough. 

Two back-to-back marathons coming up in a few weeks... you just might hear from me again soon!