Bayshore Marathon Report!

I ran -- and enjoyed immensely -- the very beautiful Bayshore Marathon out of Traverse City, MI last Saturday.  The course is an out and back with 12 of the 13 miles right along the Grand Traverse bay on a small road with gorgeous homes and lake views.  We hit perfect weather -- 37 degrees at the start, but warming quickly with the full sunny day building to 62 at the finish.  I was very undertrained for this race...only one 18 and a 20 for my long runs (lots of 14's and 16's otherwise) but with low mid-week mileage.  On all but one of my long runs, I would run out of gas at 13-14 miles and drop down to 14/15 minute miles -- reflective I believe of low mid-week mileage.  Going in, my plan was to go out at 11:00's and hold sub 11:30's as long as possible (my comfortable pace), then walk if needed to finish.  My "A" plan was 5:00; "B" was 5:15-5:30 (which I expected), and "C" was to finish.

Turns out, I had a solid "B" plan day.  I averaged 10:47's for the first 4 miles before settling into steady 11:12's through mile 15.  This was followed by progressivly slower, but still steady 'running' (no walk breaks except for the aid stations) of 3 miles at 12:29's, then 4 miles at 13:35's, and finishing 4.2 miles at 14:12's.  A higher, properly trained mileage base would have held those back miles up.  Finish time was 5:19 for a 12:02 average pace.

This was my slowest marathon ever, but one of my most fun.  I was proud to keep moving, and can see that I'm on the road back to better running here.  The course and crowd was fabulous.  My sister Kathy and husband Hans came out and cheered me at 5 different points from the second half to the finish.  I was totally taking in all the Northern Michigan experience I could as I have a long family history of vacations in that part of the world, and I was in effect 'drinking it all in.'  At some point during my return leg I thought "this IS the best way to drink in the north woods...nothing slows down time like the back half of a marathon!"

My sister, Hans, and I had a great weekend celebrating her 65th birthday for the rest of my weekend.  All in all, this was a very special, memorable marathon weekend that has me psyched and ready for a summer full of long bike rides, our fall Katy Trail trip, and continued long distance training!

Here are some pictures from my weekend:

Kathy and I at the mile 19.4 aid station

Kathy and I at lunch after the race

Kathy and Hans on a beautiful trail we hiked on Sunday

Northern Michigan is beautiful!