Great Lake Bay Marathon/Half Marathon Next Month!!!!

As some of you already know, I'm a race ambassador for the Great Lakes Bay Marathon this year (Click HERE for their website).  For those of you that don't know it, the Great Lakes Bay Marathon will be coming next month on May 19, 2013.  That's less than a month away and I'd love to see you all join me for this event.

The event is really a weekend of activities(Dow Weekend of Races) including the Dow Run/Walk a 10k Run, 5k Run, 5k Walk, 1 Mile Run and a Tot Trot!  These events will start on Friday afternoon with packet pickup and the expo and races will be Saturday morning at 7:55am.  Here a look at the schedule for these great events:

As you can see, the Dow RunWalk is an event geared towards all types of runners and walkers for the entire family to enjoy.  It looks like an awesome event to be involved in and a great one especially for those that have not signed up for a 5k before.  Here a great chance to try it.  I hope you'll find you like race events as much as I do.

Then, on Sunday will be the area's Marathon and Half Marathon, the Great Lakes Bay Marathons.  I'll be running the Half Marathon of the event but there's sure to be lots of people also running the full marathon.

Here's the event schedule for these events as well:

As you can see, you have the opportunity to pick up your packet on Friday or Saturday at the Midland Curling Center.  The marathon starts off with Wheelers which is a great experience.  If you have never seen the Wheelers start at a marathon, come out early as it's extremely inspiring to see them start.  Following that, the marathoners will start followed by the Wheelers Half Marathon and the Half Marathon.  Check out the new course for this year:

Marathon in Blue; Half Marathon in Green

It's not a completely flat course but what fun would that be right?  Actually, it is a pretty flat and fast elevation and I love the loop course layout.  You get to see parts of Midland, Saginaw and Bay counties if you are running the full.  You can see the green lines of the half marathon above as well but here's a picture of just the half marathon below:

Fairly flat course and a great chance to PR

As I've said in a previous post, the half looks like a fantastic course.  I love that it goes through parts of the trail system(as does the full) which makes sense since the race will help raise funds for the Great Lakes Bay Regional Trails.  The best part I can see about the race is the finish line!  It's inside Dow Diamond.  I absolutely love stadium finishes - you feel like such a rock star!  One of the best ways to finish a marathon or half marathon in my opinion and a rare opportunity.

If you are looking for a PR, consider joining one of the pace groups.  The race has Marathon Pacing set to come to the race to help pace you to a new PR.  I've run with these guys at the Detroit Marathon and they helped me achieve a PR.  These guys are good and have a tremendous amount of race experience to get your there on the time you want.

Dow Diamond

In regards to parking, there's plenty of parking.  Here's the map that shows where you can park:

Lots of options

I'm always a guys that gets there early so I can park close to the start/finish line but, as you can see, there is quite a few options to park and get to the race in a timely manner.

So what will you get for signing up?  Each runner receives an event shirt, a goodie bag, a supported course with aid stations, post race food, the awesome finish inside Dow Diamond and a finishers medal if you run the half or full marathon.  Of course, the race will be chip timed so you'll know how you did on it as well.

So I hope you decide to sign up for one of these great races.  If you are interested in joining me for the half marathon, I hope to see you out there.  Let me know if you'll be joining me so we can meet up before the race.  Only 26 days and the race will be here!  If you've been training for a full, now's the time to get signed up and commit yourself to it.  You've got eight days before the next price increase so click HERE to sign up.

Also, new this year, the race is offering a $10 discount on the Brooksie Way Half Marathon if you sign up for the half or full Great Lakes Bay Marathon.  The discount code is GLMBROOK2013 to be used during checkout.  I've run the Brooksie Way twice before(click HERE to see last years review) and I've already signed up to run the Brooksie Way this year as well.  It's another incredible race experience.

To keep up to date on all race information, "like" Great Lakes Bay Marathons Facebook page HERE

You've got less than one month to sign up for this event.  I, for one, can't wait to enjoy it!  It will be half marathon #14 for me.

If you can't join us, I'll have a detailed race review of the half marathon as I always do with races so you'll get a great idea of what the event was like.  Here's hoping for cool temperatures and no rain!

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