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Northville/Detroit Virtual Marathon

 Since I'm teleworking full time, I've been able to run a lot more than usual, so I decided earlier this year to train seriously for a marathon. I've run two, but was pretty half-hearted about the whole thing. It was reflected in my times, with a 5:07 first marathon, and it didn't improve much more with my second. I really wanted to get a sub-4 hour marathon, and convinced Mark to start training for one with me. Since it was a virtual race, we set the date for the week of BBB, I smashed a couple of 16-week training plans together, and since early July we've been checking in daily to keep ourselves accountable for the plan. Glo decided to run a half marathon the same day as us, and she's been sending her daily runs to us as well for the last two months or so. It's been really good for us, and even in the last week since the marathon, I've missed the accountability of it all.

We ran it on Friday, and while I think we were all nervous, we woke up in pretty good spirits considering we were running 26 miles. A welcome surprise was that Papa ended up not having to work, so he decided to run a spur of the moment marathon with us! No big deal, of course, for the ultimate marathon boss. 

I planned our route all through Northville, and tried to have the majority of it stay within a ten-fifteen minute drive from the house, so that we could have a solid support crew. :-) Mama, Rebecca, Hannah, and the babies were willing to follow us every couple of miles and get us water, cheer us on, and check in with us, which was really fun. There's nothing more invigorating than being eleven miles into a run, and then have a car full of cheering family drive past, blasting Billy Eilish and knowing that I'll get water and snacks from them just up the road. It was more of a logistical challenge for them than I think we expected, because of all the different speeds at which we were running. Plus, Glo had a slightly different route because she was only doing thirteen...they were seriously champs. 

I can't speak to Mark, Papa's and Glo's runs, but for me, the first half of the race was really good. I was at a solid pace and was feeling really good to reach my sub-4 goal. About seventeen miles in, the route went into Maybury Park, where we were going to be running for a few miles and where everybody couldn't get to us. Unfortunately, that was also where I hit the infamous "wall" of the marathon. Mile 19 ended up being a 13 minute mile, which kind of blew stuff up for me, and then Mile 20 was even slower. When I finally got out of the park and reached Mama and Hannah, I almost passed out next to the car. They got me in, gave me some water and a banana, and Mama heroically switched shirts with me. Mine was super wet and I didn't realize until then how cold I had been. Thankfully, the food and the warmth got me ready to again, and I headed out for the last 10K of the run. I felt a lot better, thankfully, and pretty soon I met up with Rebecca and the babies, who had potato chips and sour worms. Who knew they would taste so good that far into a marathon??? The next couple of miles weren't as fast as I may have wanted, but they were certainly faster than 19 and 20, and at mile 25, I had everyone cheering me on the entire time.  Rebecca even got out to run with me for part of it! I finished in 4:14:47. Definitely slower than what I wanted, but still a really great PR.



It was super fun to cheer Mark and Papa on when they were coming through! Everyone was seriously so supportive, and it was awesome to see how strong both Mark and Papa looked as they finished up the race. We were all happy to be done and proud that we could get through it all. Plus, the medals for the Detroit Marathon were sweet. Totally worth all of the pain. :-) It all felt like a total community effort to be both running and supporting all the runners, and was a great culmination to all the work we had put in.




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