Detroit International Half Marathon

Detroit Free Press International Half Marathon

October 15th, 2017

Detroit, MI

13.1

This year was the 40th running of the Detroit Free Press Chemical Bank Series, and my first time running the race. I found out about the run back when I worked at the running store and had seen a flyer about it. Of course, I was curious, and had to look it up. When I found out that it crossed international borders, I had to run it. So, last year, when I was visiting my friend in Ann Arbor, I drunkenly made the agreement to run this with her the following year. Fast forward to 2017, I signed up with my sister and my friend, and we got to running it. Here are my thoughts and experiences.

Me and the Sister pre-race.

Overall, this was a great race. Just going to start there. When you begin, you start early, so when we began, it was dark out. It was also windier than ever, but that was not something that was under our control. To be honest, we were nervous as they were saying there was a chance for some bad storms heading towards us, and would hate to be stopped during the race and told we were done.

The view of the bridge as we were heading towards Detroit.

The race starts off fairly flat, (now do remember, that this information is coming from someone who lives in a city on bluffs and every road is a hill of some sort), and one of the coolest sights as you're running is how you can see the bridge just getting closer and closer as you approach it. Once you go under it, you realize how high off the ground it actually is and then it kind of hits you. You have to run up that thing.

To prepare for this race, my sister and I ran across the bridge in our hometown that connects Iowa and Illinois (my sister has a fear of bridges and we had to make sure she could even cross one). That was horrible. The bridge we practiced on pretty much puts you out over the Mississippi river with nothing protecting you besides old, rusty, chain link fencing on both sides of the old, cracked sidewalk. I can tell you that running across the Ambassador Bridge to Canada is nothing like this. If you have a fear of bridges, you can huddle more towards the center of the bridge, and with everyone around you, you don't really know that you're crazy high up over open water. The worst part was how steep it was. You could look up and see the Canadian and American flags hanging at the international line, but you had to tilt your head back pretty far to see it. It was tough.

This doesnt even do the bridge justice. 

As you came down the downhill portion of the bridge, you could hear the announcer in the border patrol stations. He was so fired up and let me tell you, after that hill climb, that could motivate anyone. The people in Canada were also more excited to be there than the first half of the Detroit side. At one point, there was a woman who was handing out Tim Hortons doughnut holes (I couldnt pass them up). 

Eventually, you got to the tunnel, which is an amazing, (and hot), experience. Just knowing that you are underwater and running is kind of hard to get through your mind. But it was hot and humid. There wasnt much of an airflow coming through it at all, and one of the worst things was you just didnt know when it was going to end. That and the fact that people would stop at the international line and take pictures, blocking the flow of runners and backing things up a bunch. When you finally made it back to America/Detroit, the border patrol was definitely not as friendly as the guys that welcomed you into Canada. They were more focused on if you had a bib or not. Did not seem very happy. 

The rest of the run was pretty flat, and I would have to say not too interesting. The crowds picked up as you got closer to the finish line and were way more peppy and cheerful.

Post-race. Was in a lot of pain (hence the discomfort on my face)

Post race was tough for me. I hadnt trained well for the race so I was hurting. A lot. One thing I will say about the post race festivities, dont expect free beer. They had a beer tent, but wanted people to pay for it, including the runners, and the only way you knew it was the little sign at the table under the tent. They did have food trucks, which you could buy food at, but I dont know about the rest of you, I dont carry cash when I run a race. So it was kind of a weird thing to me. 

Overall, this was a fun race. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a challenge and who wants something different in a race. Gotta have a passport, but otherwise, thats pretty much it.