Martian Half Marathon Race Review

20 miles on the schedule today!!!!  Done!  Let the taper begin.  Well, ok, I do have another half marathon next weekend but the taper is beginning otherwise.

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Martian Half Marathon Review

Short Version:

Ran the half marathon(there was also a Marathon, 10k, 5k, and kids run); well organized, plenty of food, great medal, terrible course.  I probably will not race this again unless it's free.

Chip Time:  1:51:54
Gun time:  1:54:18
Men AG(40-44):  53th place out of 148
Overall place:  451 out of 1791 finishers
Pace:  8:29/mile (not racing this one)
PR:  Nope - not racing it.

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Long Version:

I ended up getting there about 6:30am.  I went to pick up my packet at the start line, got my bib number and picked up my shirt and pin.  I do like the fact that they gave you a pin - I know it's not much but something cool to keep from the race.  The shirt, on the other hand?  OMG - no, no, no, no, no.  Really?  I'm sure I'll use it for training but I already know this will never get worn to a race.  Ok, maybe if I liked space invaders more, I'd wear it.  I know it's a space theme but I'm thinking that a little more creativity would have been nice.

Cool Pin

Would you wear it?

Back - yuck!

I will say that you can certainly tell they have experience setting up races(Running Fit puts it on) as things went very smoothly and I was in and out in a matter of a minute.  I did not have time to go to the expo yesterday but I did hear that it was a pretty decent expo.  They also had a virtual goody back that you could look through on your computer.  There was a 10% off coupon for the Detroit Marathon so if you are thinking about doing that, let me know and I'll give you the code.

The plan was to meet Mark from Writing, Running & the Human Experience   at 7:30am, get in the miles we wanted to get done(20 for me, 19 for him) then finish when the race was about to start. Unfortunately, Mark got stuck in traffic -- I bitched about it to myself for a few minutes and went off on my own.  I had time to get in 6.5 of the 7 miles which was fine with me.  I tried to keep these miles somewhat on the slow side of things which I did a pretty good job of.  Average pace of 8:58 - slightly faster than I wanted but Ok.  I basically just circled around the race start area since it was difficult to find too long of a stretch but there were some roads that were closed I was able to run.

I literally ran all the way until they started the race and jumped into the half marathon.  The start was located in Ford field(in Dearborn, not where the Lions play).  It was not too bad a place for the start/finish but you could not park there unless you did not mind being stuck there until 12 noon.  I decided to park a few blocks away which worked out fine. If they would have had the race on Sunday, we would not have had to pay for parking - it's the details, right?

The very start was a slight hill and then we were off.  We did a somewhat of a circle around the area and then headed out to Hines Drive.  Ok, maybe some of you like this course(I have heard many of you do) and I'm Ok with an out and back - I did one for the Bayshore Marathon which was awesome.  But I'm sorry to say that this course was B-O-R-I-N-G.  Oh my gosh, there is nothing around.  Probably the worst course I have done since I started running.  I will qualify it by saying that I have only run 5 half marathons including this one and 2 marathons but I've run a total of 25 races and I can tell you that I liked all of the other course better.

I cannot imagine doing the full marathon at this race.  I would have gone absolutely crazy.  What I did like was the ending of the race at about mile 10.5 through mile 12 we go through the Rouge River park and next to the UM-Dearborn campus and I did enjoy that part of the race.  We also had to cross two wooden bridges which I also enjoyed but other than that, sorry I would pass.  Also, no fault of the races, but it started to rain again at about mile 10.  It was not too hard, just a sprinkle until I actually finished then it started raining harder.  Fortunately, there was a covered bridge right at the finish so many of us hung out there to eat and recover.  I did get to see Mark because it was an out and back as he was ahead of me about a mile.  He turned around and found me and ran with me for a couple miles.  That was really nice of him to do that.  Probably because I was carrying the umbrella(kidding!)  We chatted for a couple miles then he took off ahead - he's much faster than I am plus I did not want to race this.  I also got to see Megan and Ryan from WatchMegoRun and Rose from Hacker Half Marathon.  Are we the only ones that seem to race everything?  Haha!  We always see each other.  I also saw Ty from This is how Ty Runs.  Forgot to mention she yelled my name and said my non-race running was kicking her butt.  Haha!  Sorry I did not talk much Ty.  I was in a zone at that point.

When we finished, there were half bagels, bananas, pretzels, water and Chocolate Milk.  Remember, this is the reason I was at the race since Refuel with Chocolate Mile sponsored a giveaway for race entries.  Yum - the Chocolate Mile was nice and cold and delicious.  The race finish line was also very organized in my opinion.  We also got a medal which I think was nice - probably one of the cooler medals I've received.  It's great with the space theme.  Here it is:

Unfortunately because it was raining before the race and after, I did not bring my camera so I don't have any pictures of the race itself.  Overall, I finished with a chip time of 1:51:54.

In conclusion, I probably would not do the race again next year.  It was fun - I love any race but given the hour it takes me to get there, the course which I did not like and the shirt, I think I would pass.  I am happy that I got one of those medals though.  Plus I know that there are many people who love doing this race so please don't just take my opinion of it.

Have a great day and.....Keep Running!!!!