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Jun 08, 2024

SMITH: The way I See It

Aug 5, 2023 Half marathon is a chance to be part of something big The News and Sentinel Half Marathon is in two weeks – it’s not too late for you to become part of the epic event by either running or

Aug 5, 2023

Half marathon is a chance to be part of something big

The News and Sentinel Half Marathon is in two weeks – it’s not too late for you to become part of the epic event by either running or walking in the 13.1-mile half marathon, or its sibling, the News and Sentinel Two-Mile Race.

I have now been involved with the races for 21 years. There is a great group of people that help stage the event every year. Hundreds of volunteers give up their Saturday morning on the third Saturday in August every year to put on the huge event. They do things like hand out water, pass out awards, provide assistance to racers along the course, cook pasta, or pass out race bags. You get the idea. They help.

They help because each of them recognizes the value of being part of a community. People can do incredible things when they put their minds together and work toward a common goal.

The goals of the volunteers and the racers are not that different — get everyone across the finish line and do so safely, and have fun along the way.

If you have never been part of News and Sentinel races you have missed a truly special event.

An interesting thing about races is they are self-sorting events. Shortly after you start a race you will end up with a lot of people that have similar athletic abilities as you. You kind of automatically end up with people that you have something in common with. Age, gender and size mean nothing, the people around you on that day have nearly the identical ability that you do.

I ran a half marathon a couple of years ago and I came up behind a couple of young women. As I passed them and told them to not let the old guy beat them. They quickly told me that they had run a different half marathon the day before and therefore were not running that hard. Their easy day was my hardest effort ever.

I am frequently asked if I am running the half marathon. I always give the ultimate dad joke answer. “I run it every year.” Last year I wore a sports tracker to see exactly how much ground I covered on race day. It ended up being around 8 miles.

Eight miles, of course, is not a half marathon. I’ve had people signing up ask me how far it is. If you have to ask it may not be the distance for you. A half marathon is exactly 13.1 miles or 21.0975 km for you metric people.

It is exactly half the distance of a full marathon. Which is 26.2 miles. The full marathon distance is based on the legend of an ancient Greek messenger who raced from Marathon to Athens to report an important victory over the Persians in 490 B.C nearly 25 miles away. The exhausted runner collapsed and died.

The modern distance was not set until the 1908 Olympics where the marathon started on the lawn of Windsor Castle and ended in front of the royal box at Olympic Stadium, a distance of 26.2 miles.

The distance was formally standardized in 1921. Friends who have done full marathons have told me that it is almost like running two races. The first one is 20 miles, the second one is 6.2. They are the same distance. 26.2 miles is a long way, it gets harder the farther you go.

Most marathons and half marathons are somewhat a loop, in order to get people nearly back to where they started. Ours starts on Juliana Street near the Wood County Courthouse and ends a few blocks away at Sixth and Market streets. The Two-Mile does the same thing, though obviously it takes a different route to get there.

It is important to end a race close enough to where it started so that tired people can get back to their cars without walking too far.

If you would like to fully understand how far a half marathon is, imagine if you parked your car in downtown Marietta and decided to walk or run to Parkersburg. You would complete a 13.7 mile workout along the streets of Marietta, along Ohio 7, down Main Street of Belpre before finally arriving at the Wood County Courthouse. I’ve always wanted to stage a full marathon that would involve a loop that would pass though Marietta, Belpre, Parkersburg, Vienna and Williamstown before returning to Marietta.

Organizing things with two states and five cities would likely give me nightmares. It’s probably a better idea to keep things simple.

Registering for either the half marathon or two-mile race is easy. Simply sign up at newsandsentinelhalfmarathon.com. Remember to say hi to me on race day. Just look for a stressed-out version of the photo with this column. Enjoy the race and enjoy spending a day with some truly great people.

Art Smith is online manager of The Marietta Times and co-director of News and Sentinel Races.

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