Maybe I’ll Stick with the Half

I must admit I used to be a bit of a marathon snob. When someone told me they were running a half-marathon, I would often think to myself, “the half is a nice little run for people who can’t handle training for a marathon.” I used to think the half wasn’t really a commitment, it was basically a training run. But for some reason this year was different. I ran two different half-marathons and took a different approach to each. And now I think the half may be my new distance. I really liked both of the them for different reasons.

I’ve run two halfs in the same season before but this year I enjoyed them much more. I posted about the Brooksie Way last month, and two weeks ago i ran the Detroit Free Press Marathon half. I’ve run it before and always love the course.

The race starts downtown Detroit and about three miles in you run across the Ambassador Bridge into Canada. Then the course goes along the Detroit river in Windsor looking back across to Detroit. At 8 miles you take the tunnel under the river to cross back to the USA, then loop through the Mexican Village and Corktown neighborhoods before finishing downtown.  The course is lined with spectators most of the way in both countries.  Lots of fun and sights to see.

As usual, I set three goals. “A” goal was to break 2:00. B was to break 2:10, and C was to finish. At 1:56 I was very happy with my time. 24th of 246 in my age group so no complaints about a top 10%.

Next year I plan to look into some half-marathons in the Spring. They’d be good training for the National Senior Olympics. And fun too.