This post is being written by a deviled egg. My workplace is holding a costume contest and I’ve been wanting to do something punny for a bit. A lot of those Halloween websites price gouge like crazy and finding something in store as a short chick can be a real pain. Thankfully Miss Amazon came to my rescue and I was able to order a deviled egg costume for half the price I was finding elsewhere online.

Course, being a short chick in a unisex one-size-fits-all is amusing regardless of what the costume is. For your amusement, I present to you: a deviled egg. The result of an exorcism gone very wrong when the nearly-blind priest misread his book and cast the demon into a jar of Hellmann’s mayonnaise instead of hell, and that mayo wound up going into a deviled egg recipe to terrorize my department.

Anyways, the October recap:

October is one of my favorite months, as well as my second-busiest (the first is always December.) My boyfriend and I were in Indy the first weekend for Fort Ben. Then the following I followed it up with a 17-mile run on Saturday morning before going to the Columbus Italian Festival that night, where the big band my boyfriend is a part of was playing for the entire weekend.

Columbus Italian Festival: 10/10 would recommend for the shows, drinks and especially the food. Homemade ravioli, pizza and tiramisu are the best post-run foods of all time.

Then it was Columbus Marathon weekend.

And Circleville Pumpkin Show weekend.

And my boyfriend’s birthday.

And then his private lesson student’s bar mitzvah.

Friday before the race I was a headless chicken getting my place decorated and buying the last birthday present, as well as sitting in downtown construction to get to the expo for my bib and Children Champion’s wristbands. I realized at the expo that my driver’s license wasn’t in my wallet when I went to pick up my bib and had no ID on me, so I had another panic moment that lasted into Friday evening when I finally remembered where it could have been and found it. But on the plus side I finally met another runner I follow on Instagram, so getting to say hi and cool off that way was nice.

My boyfriend loved his birthday celebrations that night and we had a great dinner at his favorite steakhouse. So Friday ended up better than it started.

Saturday was nuts. We went down to Circleville for the Pumpkin Show. I don’t want to be offensive to my pumpkin lovers but to be honest … with the traffic and how crowded it was down there, my boyfriend and I agreed that we would be okay with not coming back for another 10 years or so. And we decided if we ever did marry, moving south of Columbus and commuting up and down State Route 23 would get old quickly.

The bar mitzvah was a whole ‘nother story of fun. I’m not Jewish, so while I obviously know what a bar mitzvah is and the importance of it, I’ve never been to the ceremony or the reception. I guess I thought since it was kids it would be a little more juvenile, but his student’s family put together a beautiful, well-executed event that the kids and the adults could enjoy. I pulled my boyfriend up when it was time for the chair dance (while wondering how the kids who are petrified of heights handle it) and overall it was just a fun evening and a great way to unwind before the race Sunday.

The Columbus Marathon, Full Marathon #7

Then it was Sunday morning. I had my alarm set for 5 and had a vivid dream where I was having a nice breakfast with my boyfriend’s family before the race. In my dream I went back to my place, changed, got all my stuff and checked the time – 9:30 a.m.

I shot up out of bed thinking I had missed the start line by two hours. My phone alarm said 4:15 and my cat decided she needed her breakfast right then, so that was my wake up time. I left before 6, picked up my boyfriend at his place and then we went downtown.

The Columbus Marathon was emotional from the start, as it always is for me. I was thinking about the Patient Champions on the course and met with Carey Thomas in the VIP area. Carey is the daughter of Linda Evans, a Columbus runner who was killed in a hit-and-run in July 2017 while she was training for the Columbus Marathon – #68 in her 40-year running career. I introduced myself, told her what she was doing for her mom was badass and congratulated her on her pregnancy. We hugged.

I then met her dad and Linda’s husband Gary in the tent and got a hug from him too. Columbus brings out my “huggy”, wanting to talk to everyone urges. If someone had a bib announcing it was their first half or full I had to congratulate them; if it was their birthday I wished them a happy birthday. My boyfriend took his place in the stands and I went back to the corrals, where we got to listen to the National Anthem and watch the fireworks display Columbus puts on at the start line.

Of all the races, Columbus is definitely a sight to be seen. And heard – “Thunderstruck” blasts through the Arena District at 7:30 a.m.

Overall I ran a little slower than my race pace but I was okay with it and felt pretty good. Mile 8 takes you in front of Nationwide Children’s Hospital, which is the beneficiary of the marathon, and there’s a section of the course where runners can wave up to the kids and staff in the hospital and they can see us. I waved and kept myself together then, as well as during the Encore Mile at Mile 10, which is where all the previous Patient Champions gather and cheer on the runners.

Then it was Mile 11, the Angel Mile for the patients of Nationwide Children’s who have since passed away. Seeing the families there cheering and holding signs in honor of their kids is brutal. I cried through that mile and wound up getting so choked up I lost my voice for the rest of the race.

Around Mile 18 I was spent and starting to feel the race physically. A surge of energy came back at Mile 20, although it didn’t stay with me long. I cried again during Miles 20-21 when I realized I actually was in the last 10k, and during Mile 22 when I heard “Thunderstruck” over a loudspeaker.

I cried again during Mile 23 when I saw that patient champion, and had pretty much hit the wall then.

It wasn’t a PR, but I did finish the marathon in 4:56:40, so I’ll take the sub-5 victory and call it a good race.

So this is where I’m ending October. It was a good month running-wise. I ran a half and a full, and my total mileage was 116.3. Now I have two more races in November and racing season (but never running) is done.

As for the rest of you? I hope you all have a great Halloween with your families and I’m going to try to unsuccessfully resist the peanut butter cup monsters.

Happy running,

Allison