On Friday, Ray and I took the 5ish hour trip to southeastern Michigan for my ninth marathon and a weekend of fun with Ray and my good friend Kyla who I know from camp. Ray and I arrived in Dearborn for packet pick-up and then went to Ypsilanti, where Kyla lives. We went to a really good local restaurant, where I got pasta of course, and did a lot of catching up.
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| Best marked packet pick-up ever! |
The race day conditions could not have been better! It was just cool enough in the morning to need a light jacket before starting and my race sleeves to wear with my Star Trek cycling jersey. The temperatures were pleasantly warm and the sky was mostly clear. My sinuses, unfortunately, chose race day to act up. So this was far from my best race time, taking me about 5 hours to complete the marathon. But what's important is that I have now completed 9 marathons and have a new state to color in on my map of states I've raced in!
This race was definitely one of my favorite races I have ever done! First of all, I LOVE the theme: there were inflatable aliens everywhere and they just made me smile. The spectators and volunteers were amazing, enthusiastic, and incredibly encouraging. The course was beautiful and mostly flat (with a few very small rolling hills). It was funny hearing people talk about all the "hills" along the course: I don't think they've ever been to Southeastern Ohio.. ;-) The course included a combination of suburbs, running in a large park, briefly through a college campus, and in the city. Even though I normally despise out and back courses, the park was so beautiful that I actually didn't mind the out and back part of the race. And the bathrooms, located approximately every 5 miles, were all REAL bathrooms...with running water! No port-a-potties! Talk about a race luxury!
The other runners were generally very friendly and some of them had awesome outfits on. One guy was even dressed up as an alien from head to toe-mask and cape included! Another guy had lime green hair with a lime green beard!
One particularly fun encounter during the race was with a red squirrel. I named him Tubby. He was very large and sauntered slowly across the street in front of me. Instead of running away when I ran towards him like squirrels usually do, he stopped briefly and looked at me, cocking his head. Then he continued slowly sauntering the rest of the way. It was adorable! Apparently Michigan squirrels are friendlier than Ohio squirrels. Haha!
My energy level dipped a little bit around mile 18, but taking a caffeinated Gu helped immensely. I finished the last few miles feeling energized, especially when we got back into the city where the huge amount of spectators were. I finished strong!
For the rest of the weekend we spent some time with my good friend Kyla who we were staying with. We went to a great restaurant/bar both nights (they had mostly Italian food), did a lot of talking and catching up, and played a card game Saturday night. Sunday morning Kyla and I went to church. After coming back, we talked a bunch and did our nails. She's a consultant for a company called Jamberry: they have wraps that you stick to your nails and they look awesome! Ray joined in conversation but didn't do his nails...as much as I tried to talk him into it. Haha! Around 5 we left for home. It was so hard to leave!
Last weekend was the best and hopefully the Martian Marathon can become a yearly or almost yearly tradition!
