And I had a blast!!!
Kellie arrived at my house this morning at 5:45. Criag drove us downtown, and we were in our starting corral with my friend Shannon from Indianapolis (my friend Michael's best friend from college) by 6:50. The starting horn for the hand bikes went off at 7:05, followed by the full marathon runners and half-marathon walkers at 7:10 and the half runners (our group) at 7:15.
It was just dawn at this point. It was 37 degrees.
Within the first mile, folks were shedding clothes like molting snakes and we had to be careful not to trip over discarded sweatshirts, gloves and jackets for the first 3 miles or so. Kellie ditched me at about the half mile mark (this is the problem when you run with younger, faster friends!)
At around mile 4, I think, we hit the approach to the Ambassador Bridge, which would take us over the river and into Canada. The hill on the bridge wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated, and my practice running hills actually allowed me to pass some folks on the few uphills. At the peak of the bridge, there were too many runners and too little pavement and we actually had to slow to a walk for a few minutes, which was a total drag. But then it was downhill and down to the riverfront in Windsor with a great view of Detroit's skyline from there. The sun was up but it was still very much a dawn sky, and just beautiful.
After a couple miles in Windsor, we ran the world-renown "Underwater International Mile" through the tunnel under the Detroit River. It was downhill in the tunnel except at the exit back onto US soil, which was a killer uphill. When I came out of the tunnel, Craig was there with the camera. Said he had a great shot of me waving, but a border control guy with a large weapon yelled at him to get back onto the sidewalk (they're really touchy, those border dudes) and he missed the shot. He got a great one of Kellie, though!
The exit from the tunnel marked the start of mile nine and felt very much in the home stretch. Mile 10 took us through Corktown, a historic old neighborhood where everyone was out on their porches cheering us on and ringing cowbells, with the runners shouting "more cowbell!!!" as we came by.
There was music all along the way, with live bands playing for our entertainment, and hundreds and hundreds of volunteers handing out water/gatorade at the fluid stops and countless others who make an event like this possible. I made it a point to thank them whenever I could, as did many of the other runners. I met a lot of nice folks along the way.
I don't remember seeing the 9 or 10 mile markers, but I remember the 11th. I remember thinking, "Oh my God, I only have 2.1 miles to go and I feel great!" so I looked at my heart rate monitor (160) and took it up to about 170 for the rest of the race. I felt like I was flying.
This photo below was taken at mile 12.5 (by Michael, who was there with his wife, Darla and their son Max, and Bob, Shannon's BF, and her daughter Gracie). I'm just about 1/2 mile from the finish, and I can't believe I was actually smiling.
I finished in 2:27:13 and Kellie was right there waiting for me (2:13:20, not too shabby!) with a big hug! I had calculated my time as 2:30, so I was pretty close and considering the slowdown at the bridge and the fact that the course is a little slow, I'm actually pretty happy with my time.
After two Aleve and a two hour nap, I'm feeling not too terribly sore, happy that we had such a gorgeous day, and really excited to have set this goal for myself and achieved it.
The first hand-bike emerging from the tunnel.
Some of the first runners coming out of the tunnel.Runners in the streets of downtown...what a gorgeous day!
Kellie, after that killer climb at the tunnel exit.
Somewhere during mile nine, happy to be handing off my jacket to Bob and Michael. I hate running with anything tied around my waist, but I was a little over-dressed.
Now...time to hit the pool to start training for that June triathlon!
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