Detroit Free Press Marathon

I finished! I am currently deprived of all energy and strength, but I finished!

Who's this girl? A marathon runner, that's who!

Not only did I finish, but I survived! Ha! 

My finish time was 4:10:15, so just shy of 5 minutes better than my C goal. Although, my A & B goal were very ambitious. I probably would have met my B goal of 4:00, but I had to start taking walking breaks around mile 18 every few miles because my hip was having issues from mile 5 until then. After the first walk break, it felt much better. But by then, my quads were pretty trashed. 

The race started at 7:00am, in the dark, with snow flurries. Yay fall races! The roads were pretty horrible in this first stretch, and quite a few people fell from potholes and whatnot in the road. Climbing over the Ambassador Bridge into Canada was really very cool. The sun wasn't out yet, but it was light and you could see the river and well into Canada. It was quite a long climb, but coming down the other side was fun. Canada was very scenic and the spectators were very nice. Running back to the US through the tunnel was an experience! It was very warm and humid, since it's underwater, and my watch lost satellite so it was mostly running by feel. 

Since we were not allowed to have liquids with us while crossing the border, I had my parents meet me right after the tunnel around mile 8. That worked out perfectly! I saw them right away, was able to make a beeline to them, grab my bottles, shout "Thank you, I love you!" and keep on my way.

From there, we ran a bit more through the city, up and down a few more highway overpasses, and then the half marathoners split off and we kept going. Oh, how tempting it was to run to the half finish line! But I had Travis and Emily stationed just down a few more blocks with my Gatorade bottles, and that worked out really well too!

Around mile 16 I started to fatigue a bit. Not mentally, but my legs were quite tired from the uphill/downhill in the beginning. I had been doing well at keeping my pace, but a few miles I pushed it too hard and started to feel that here. We ran through a nice neighborhood with large homes and lots of spectators partying on their lawns. I finally took a walk break at mile 18 for 1/10th of a mile, then picked it up again. At this point, we ran over a small bridge onto Belle Isle, which is like a park with a yacht club and a few homes. I had to walk again at mile 20 after climbing that bridge, and then mile 23 again after climbing the bridge back to the city. 

I knew from there, it was all mind games. I could keep running, but I walked again at 24.5 for 2/10ths of a mile. I kept telling myself "you only have 1.5 miles to go, you can run that!" We had 3 turns to go, and rounding the first of the last turns we came upon a steep, short climb. No thank you! I walked that too, quickly, and then ran the rest of the way with a huge smile on my face as I crossed the finish line! 

Honestly though, this race was so great and I'm still on a "runners high". I am still sore, and sitting/standing is an interesting feat. I will definitely need a few more days of rest, stretching, and foam rolling. But I'm already looking forward to my next race in May. Training through the winter will be challenging, as always, and I'm so very thankful that I have my new treadmill. 

I'm linking up with Deb Runs this week for her Wednesday Words. The word is Deprivation. Do you feel deprived of anything at the moment?