Detroit Marathon, October 18th, 2015

There is no short story on this one, so skip to the bottom for the numbers. This race was one of my goals for the 2015 fall racing season. It was preceded by a goal HM on Sept 12 that I was using as a last minute gauge to dial in my goal pace for the full. There are many reasons that I selected this race; I’ll explain a little as I go. This was my 2nd full, and I had a score to settle. My first was in December of 2013, and it was very difficult! I was injured in the summer prior to training, and ended up severely undertrained for the distance. I finished in 5:35, walked the last 6-8 miles, I wasn’t really injured, but my knees were screaming every time I tried to run.

It was a very good weekend! My wife and I went down to the expo on Friday to get packets and look around. It was the largest expo we have been to, everything was over priced too! We walked the 5k on Saturday, then drove out to see an uncle I haven't seen in a few years. We also had a FE dinner on Thursday, can you guess who?

I was born in Detroit, but only lived there until I was 6 or 7 years old. My dad still lives there, so this was a trip to see him, turns out he was hospitalized the day before we departed Alabama. He has had MS for 50+ years, and it has taken a toll on him; he hasn’t walked in about 13+ years, and has been bed ridden for the past 3.5 years. Due to his immobility, he constantly fights bladder infections, UTI’s, and bed sores, and because of all the antibiotics, he ends up getting C-diff quite often. He had all 4 of these going on at the same time, and when you throw MS on top, he doesn’t have much of a quality life. I dedicated this run to him, and had a shirt made with his picture on the back, and the phrase “Running For Dad” over the picture.

For training, I used the Hal Higdon Intermediate II and tried bumping the mileage a bit, then inserted a bunch of workouts from the Ryan Hall 10 week plan into the early weeks to focus on the half. My half PR is 1:51:33, and I wanted to give it a go. I had a good summer of training hitting lots of 40 mile weeks, and the plan had me getting into the 50’s prior to the full. I run a 1:51:55 at the half in Sept! Damn!

You probably seen my RR for the half! I got derailed after the race because I had rolled my ankle, shook it off and run the effing race. Probably not a good choice, but the race was fantastic. It was after the race that sucked. I couldn’t walk the next day, and doctors confirmed with X-rays, that it wasn’t broken, but sprained. I run a combined 9 miles over the next two weeks, then on week 3, I run 21, then a 32. During the 32 mile week, I had plans to run a 15k and support it with some extra miles. This was to be my longest run post HM, of 16-17 miles prior to Detroit. I had several LR’s of 16, 18, 19, 21 prior to the half. I ended up running a PR of 1:18:21 on the 15k, with 14.5 miles total for the day.

Based on all that gibberish above, my initial goal was to aim for 4:10-4:15, but with the ankle, I would have been satisfied with 4:30-4:40. I needed a 4:40 to meet a qualification standard for a race in January, so I changed my goal to just start out easy, and go out with the 4:30 pacer, and see what happens.

Parking was a mess, I had picked out the closest lot that was just .3 miles to the start. The garage was supposed to open a 5:00 am, but didn’t open till 6:00. I was like the 16th car in line, and that delay just made for a nerve racking wait. The PM was knocking at the door too!

I was supposed to start in the “H” coral, and somehow ended up at the back of the “I” coral. Whatever, here we go.

Miles 1-5 were 9:41, 9:04, 10:22, 10:02, 9:07. The 5 mile split was 51:53. There was nothing much happened during these first few miles. I grabbed a bathroom break to finish off the PM stuff at 2.5, passed on the first fluid station, then we got onto the big Ambassador Bridge into Canada. The climb wasn’t too bad for me, I was able to run the whole thing and must have passed 300-400 people. I had a Brit guy come up behind me and ask about the story with dad. After we chatted for a few minutes and I told him about dad’s battle with MS, he asked if he could pray for him. I accepted and thought this was very nice.

Miles 6-10 were 8:57, 9:06, 18:41, 9:14, 9:18. Mile 8 is where we used the Windsor Tunnel to come back into the US. You loose your satellite, so mile 8 looks slow, and all the rest of the mile markers are off. I didn’t get a 10 mile split here; I caught the 4:30 pacer somewhere in here. About mile 7, I come up on a young man running with a prosthetic leg, and I just had to high five him and tell him to keep fighting. As we were coming out of the tunnel with it’s slight incline, there was an elderly gentleman on a hand cycle that was having trouble, so I helped push him up to flatter ground. I passed another 500-600 people.

Mile 9-9.5….I come up on some paramedics working on a guy. He was laying just 8 feet from the stream of runners. His shirt was cut open, and just at the moment when I was right beside him, I heard the paramedics holler “CLEAR”, then they zapped him. His whole body arched up off the pavement. Can you say oh shit! Thank god there were people close that knew CPR. The course went past this area and made a U-turn onto an off ramp, and as we came back by, they were loading him onto a stretcher. I later read that the paramedics made it to him within 3 minutes, so the folks doing the CPR, helped save this mans life. He was 44 years old and is making a recovery.

Miles 11-15 were 8:57, 9:33, 9:14, 9:00, 9:04. I crossed the half mat at 2:07:51 Not much happened here except Caught the 4:25 pacer, and passed a ton of people.

Miles 16-20 were 9:42, 9:27, 10:13, 9:37, 9:08; the 20 mile split was 3:13:15. I’m pretty much thinking how the hell am I still hanging on here. I caught the 4:20 pacer, and this is where we crossed onto Belle Island. Still passing people like crazy.

Miles 21-25 were 9:29, 9:45, 9:44, 10:45, 9:20; the 25 mile split was 4:02:30. We were heading back into the downtown are along the river front, and as we started getting closer, there were a lot of spectators. I stopped at mile 24 to take a couple pictures and lost a little time. Passing, passing, and passing more people.

Due to the mile markers off because of the tunnel, I only have another 1/2 mile, and it was at an 8:48 pace.

Finish time was 4:13:47
OA was 1347/3801
Gender was 961/2149
AG was 98/240

I had another friend drive over to visit. We had dinner on Saturday, and then he was kind enough to I've my wife and step mom to the race. It was very nice to have family and friends there, even though I didn't see them until it was over.

Post race thoughts
I took a very casual and laid back approach to this race not expecting much because of my ankle. The previous 4 weeks worth of training didn’t seem productive(except for the 15k). I started slow, I stopped along the way to take pictures, I run faster when I felt like it, I run slower if/when I needed to, I didn’t plan to “race” this. I wanted a fun day and a memorable experience. I could have finished a few minutes faster if not for all the picture stops. They had multiple races all starting at different times and different locations, so that’s why I was always passing so many people. I’m serious, it was pretty much elbow to elbow the entire way. I never walked, well except for the picture stops. I elected not to carry a handheld due to 18 fluid stations. I took 5 Gels, and alternated water and Gatorade at the aid stations. The course was fantastic, lots of volunteers, lots of spectators. I highly recommend this race. The parking logistics sucked. I made my dad proud.

If you made it this far, have a beer on me!

Thanks for reading,
Mitch

Mitch, great report, great race! I've known you were running this for a long time, and you've mentioned your dad, but I never had the whole story.

After your ankle problem I was honestly not sure you were going to be able to run this at all. What a relief that you were not only able to run it, but beat your goal. And have fun while doing it - glad you were able to stop & smell the roses a little. And still be sble to pass a whole bunch of people! We discussed it before, but I really enjoyed that marathon as well (until things got really tough late in the race). Especially considering Detroit's reputation - nice course, good crowd support, plenty of aid stations including an excellent assortment of home-made ones in the neighborhoods (you didn't mention whether you made any beer stops).

Well done!

Hey Mitch, I'm so glad you had a great marathon: You beat your objective, and you enjoyed it. Congratulations on this, and thanks for the very nice RR.

This was such a beautiful RR, Mitch. Very moving. Thank you so much for sharing with us. Congratulations on a strong race, you ran this like a pro!

Congratulations, Mitch!  Well executed and perfect comeback to your first marathon!  Your dad must be so proud, especially when he saw your shirt and your medal.  That is a great tribute to your dad.

It's wonderful that the race went so much better than expected. Those splits are all over the place. That could drive a runner crazy if he relied on them.    Isn't it amazing how runners will help each other even during a race.

Great RR.

Man, you put together a great race report while not straying too far from your goal time. That's pretty impressive in and of itself.

It was great meeting you and your honey. Be sure to look me up whenever you're here and we'll do it all again.