Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Government Shutdown will Keep Runners from Their Appointed Route

Today was the Sleeping Bear Marathon and Half Marathon in Empire, Michigan.  Endurance Evolution did a great job putting on this race.  The course was a simple out and back along the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  It ran thru the quaint little towns of Empire and Glen Arbor, over rivers that were teeming with huge salmon, and thru northern Michigan's beautiful Fall colors.  The temperature was in the mid-50's, so the course and the temps had all the makings for a near perfect race.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature had something else in mind.

As I have learned over the last several years, northern lower Michigan races in October can be very beautiful, but can also be very damp.  The hourly weather forecast predicted 70% chance of rain for most of the race before diminishing for the afternoon.  As I got to the race, the rain had stopped and I hoped that that meant it had ended earlier than the forecast predicted.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.  By Mile 5, it was pouring again and it rained on and off for the first 3/4 of the race.  (On the bright side, there was no sleet - apparently they had that for last year's race).

I started out with 30:30 intervals, but in the first few miles, my legs felt pretty heavy.  Since the first 3-4 miles were hilly, I decided to walk with the intention of resuming my intervals once the initial hills were behind me and my legs had warmed up.  Once I resumed intervals, they were short lived because it was not long before the rain (and the subsequent unavoidable puddles) came back.  That resulted quickly in blisters and chafing which forced me to slow to a power walk instead of the intervals.  I was still maintaining a good pace walking (~14:30/mile) until Mile 18 when my Garmin completely died.  When I don't know my pace, I tend to slow down - I really need to learn not to rely on that for my pace as much as I do.

I ended up coming in just over 7 hours, almost an hour longer than I had planned.  The good thing is that my legs felt great when I finished, it was just the blisters that hurt....so I should be ready for my epic race weekend next week.  Stay tuned for info on that!

The medal for the Sleeping Bear Marathon at Sleeping Bear Dunes

With the government shutdown, all entrances to the Sleeping Bear Dunes and associated areas were closed.  Fortunately the race was always scheduled to stay on state highways and local roads, so the shutdown didn't affect the course at all.  We could see the dunes from the course and when we passed them, I knew I needed to get a picture of the medal with the landmark the marathon was named for, so after the race, I ignored the barricades blocking the driveway and went in to take a picture.  I felt like such a rebel!  (You'll notice that by this point, the sky had cleared and it stopped raining as well!)

Sleeping Bear Marathon is one of the races that are part of the Great Lakes Marathon series.  This series is comprised of 25 marathons that have views of the Great Lakes at some point during their course (Sleeping Bear is along Lake Michigan).  As a resident of the Great Lakes state, I'm hoping to eventually complete this series, but it will be a long term goal.