The Grand Rapids Marathon

It is now three weeks after the Chicago Marathon and finally time for the Grand Rapids marathon in Michigan. I drove up with fellow runner Mike who also did very badly in Chicago. There are so many of us from the Chicago area running in this marathon hoping for revenge. Mike knows a lot of the runners from the Lake Forest Running Club so I met some of them at this race. I was finally introduced to Laura at the Expo. Of course I already knew who she was because she’s such a talented runner in my age group, but she didn’t know me until then.

Talk about the perfect day for running…we had it that day. The weather was cool, clear and not windy. With the problems I’ve had with my ankle the last couple of weeks, I didn’t even bother bringing my watch. My strategy was to run with Eric and Dave (who was the 3:29 pace leader). If I couldn’t keep up with them, I didn’t want to know my time. There were so many of us running with this pace group. At times it was difficult to maneuver because the running path was narrow. Three times I had to back track to get water because the group was so big, all the cups were passed out before I got one. That meant running faster to try to catch up, especially since I usually walk when I drink. For the first 18 miles, I kept up with them keeping an 8 minute per mile pace. It’s that magical 18 miles again. I dropped back slightly and ran alone after that.

I felt pretty good except for my left leg muscles (started with my thighs). After spraining my left ankle, I had favored that leg the past 2 weeks, so it was really getting sore. Despite the fact that I only ran 19 miles since the Chicago marathon in the past 3 weeks, I felt pretty good. The cross training (biking and stairs) helped a lot.

The GR marathon is such a nice marathon taking you through beautiful paths with lots of trees with leaves turning all different colors. It‘s just slightly hilly (if you call them hills) only in the beginning. What a great day to run! I would definitely run this one again.  The only warning I would give is to watch out for those posts at the start and end of the path.  The path is too narrow for a car, so I'm not sure what they are designed to keep out. 

I finished with a time of 3:40:07, not bad considering what I went through. Mike PRd with a 2:57 time. Eric PRd with a 3:31 finish. Laura finished as overall first female with a time of 3:01. She’s unbelievable. I am so anxious to run another marathon in November, but I won’t until Walt Disney World on Jan 13. I’ll be doing the Goofy Challenge then, first running the half and then the full the next day.  I've got the bug...you know how that goes, you run one and can't wait to run another!