Bayshore Marathon Spectating

I ran the Bayshore Marathon in Traverse City in 2011 as my first marathon.  My running buddy, Kevin, was running it this year as his first marathon so I decided to go out and cheer him on.  The weather was absolutely perfect for a marathon.  Start was in the high 30's and finish close to 60 and sunny all day with no wind.  You could not ask for better weather.  It was extremely enjoyable to watch as well.  I'm jealous I didn't at least run the half but I do have Dexter to Ann Arbor this Sunday so I didn't think I could handle three half marathons, three weeks in a row right now.

For those of you that have never run Bayshore, this is one you need to put on your list.  The view of the bay is spectacular and while I have not run many marathons in other states, I'd guess this has got to be one of the prettiest courses out there and probably why it sells out the day of open registration.

It started off pretty early.  I got up a little after 5am - yes, on the weekend and I was not running today! Haha!  My place up north is about an hour away from Traverse City.  I got a picture of the moon coming out of my neighborhood but this pictures does not do it justice.

An hour later and I was there.  The race started at 7:30am and I'm glad I left when I did since it took me some time to find a parking spot.  As soon as I got there, I saw this!!!

The weather conditions were perfect as you can see.  Not many opportunities to see hot air balloons at this race is my guess.  The balloon was going higher and I was able to get this picture once I got to the start line.  I was looking for my running buddy and he was in line for the bathrooms so I ended up missing him before the start.  I did get a half-assed picture of him running but didn't include it here.

Ready to run!

One of the great things about this course is the out and back.  You get to see the top runners coming back.  I was at about mile 7 when I took this picture and this is the eventual winner of the marathon.  The race had shuttle buses for spectators so I hopped the bus to this location and stayed there since it was mile 7 and then mile 19.

The half course, you are bussed out to the start and then run the second half of the marathon course back to the start.  Here's Clint Verran, who was the winner of the half.

My running buddy, Kevin, was right behind him.  Well, ok, not right behind since he was running the full.

About a 1/4 mile from the above pictures, I walked to where there is an awesome view of the bay.  

This is why you have to run this course! 

See what I mean? - beautiful

This is the road of the course next to the water - outstanding!!! 

This was the women's marathon winner

Then I got a great picture of my running buddy.

 Once I got pictures of my running buddy, I headed back to the shuttle bus.  The last bus was at 10:30am and it was about 10:27am so I just made the last bus.  I wish they would have had the last time at 11am.  If you missed it, it was a six mile walk back to the start and I didn't want to do that.  Plus I didn't want to miss Kevin at the finish line.

One thing I didn't like about my finish line pictures at Bayshore in 2011 was where the photographer stands.  You can see him in my picture below.  There is no finish line or time in the finish line picture.  Really, who cares about the pictures on just a track?  I wanted proof of the finish but didn't get it.  Fortunately, I was able to get Kevin from where I was standing with the time and finish line in the picture.

With that, I met up with him after to congratulate him and drove him back to the hotel so his family could spend the rest of the weekend enjoying northern Michigan.  If you get a chance, this is a race not to be missed in Michigan.

I took a ton of pictures but rather than post them here, you can go HERE and see them.  If you know someone that I took a picture of, please feel free to share it with them.  I'd be happy to give them a full size file.

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