Detroit Half

You know what I think the first place prize of the Detroit Half Marathon should be? A walking tour of the city.

Back in June, I ran the Dexter/Ann Arbor Half Marathon. It was a good race. I trained hard, running three times a week for the three months leading up to it. I finished with a time of 2 hours 15 minutes and 47 seconds. So you would think that for my next half marathon I would train even harder so that I could beat my previous time. That would be incorrect thinking. In all honesty, I started out training hard, and then life set in and all of the sudden I didn't have as much time as I used to.

In the four weekends leading up to the marathon (keep in mind these are the weekends that count the most because you are reaching your longer runs in your training), I was surprisingly busy. The first weekend I went camping and sea kayaking up in northern Michigan at a place called Pictured Rocks. (Click the link for a photo album.) And it's really hard to put in an 8 mile run when you're camping. The second weekend I went to Toronto and Niagara Falls. (Click the link for a photo album.) I didn't run that weekend because...ummm...they don't allow running in Canada...okay...okay...I was just lazy. But still, it was a lost training weekend. Then the third weekend, I did run 9 miles. I finished it at a 10 minute and 20 second pace. Not bad, I guess I'm not totally out of shape. And finally the fourth weekend, the weekend before the marathon, I was shooting an action film. I'll post more on that when the film becomes available. So Nate, since you were not able to run on the weekend, you ran during the week right? Nope. There are 31 days in October and I ran on only one of them. Oh boy, what have I gotten myself into.

The cool thing about the Detroit half marathon is that you cross over the US boarder to Canada. The bad thing about it is that in order to do this you have to cross over on a mile long suspension bridge. And this wasn't one of those flat suspension bridges. There was a MEGA arch on this bridge. The first half was grueling, but not so bad because it occurred around mile 4. The killer obstacle occurred at mile 8 when I was crossing back into the US via THE TUNNEL. As you decend into the depths of the Detroit River, you have no idea of the pain that awaits you as you attempt to climb out of it. I really hate tunnels.

So your training was sub par at best and you walked a lot on the bridge and in the tunnel. What's the damage? How bad did you do? Well, thanks to some small group prayer the Wednesday before, I did freaking AWESOME! I finished with a time of 2 hours 11 minutes and 27 seconds. That's 4 minutes and 20 seconds better than my Dexter/Ann Arbor time. Wow. I should not train for these things more often.