Detroit Free Press International Half Marathon

I really should try to be better about blogging my races. I did a few good ones this past summer to get ready for the big cahuna, but honestly they all kind of pale in comparison, so they didn't feel memorable enough to blog about. The Detroit Free Press half marathon was today and it's pretty dang fun—although my left IT band didn't really think so, as I had stop a few times and give it a little love. Stretching seems to do the trick, but the moral of the story is: stretch early and often. That was really the only way I could get the job done. But done it is, and at a meh-just-okay time of 2:27. I had hoped to squeeze in under 2:20, but whatev. At least I was faster than everyone sitting home on the couch, eh?

One of the things I love about big events like this is all the signs people hold as they cheer for the runners. Some of the really good ones I saw:

• "Way to go Melissa and all you adorable random strangers"
• "Toenails are overrated! Keep running!"
• "Run like a damn Yankee" (in reference to the Tigers running the Yankees out of town last week)
• "Run like you stole something"
• "The Zombie Apocalypse just happened, and they're right behind you. Keep running!"
• Two-tenths of a mile into the race: "Just 26 miles to go, people! You got this!"

Also some of the shirts that runners wear are pretty funny. Here are ones that I liked a lot:

• "I am a bomb technician. If you see me running, you better try and keep up."
• "WTF?? (Where's The Finish?)"
• On a half-marathoner: "I thought you said 1.31"
• On a full-marathoner: "Because 26.3 miles would just be crazy"
• "In my mind I'm a Keynyan, but in my legs, I'm a chubby white guy"

Getting my groove back

Crazy how life goes sometimes. A series of unfortunate events (none of them big or catastrophic, but the sum of which has been somewhat overhwelming) has caused almost three and a half years to go by in the blink of an eye. Hence the curtailment of most things recreational, including, unfortunately, both hiking and blogging. 

Which brings us to today when, I'm happy to report, the queen mum's getting her groove back.

Oh it's not like three and a half years have gone by with NO activity. Somehow during that time I managed to complete my first half-marathon, hiked the Manistee forest with the man I love (it was part of our 20-year anniversary celebration), ran a few 5k races, a few 10k races, got myself all smitten with yoga, and a few other things. But I won't kid you—all this took a backseat to just getting by. Basically I've been kinda busy with slogging through some wicked-hard parenting struggles and general midlife BS.

But now I'm back. The ship's starting to turn in a good direction. THANK GOD. Evidence:

• I'm training for my 2nd half marathon, which will be in October. It's the same one I did a couple years ago, the Detroit-to-Windsor Free Press race. I'm pretty geeked about it.
• The general climate in the household (I'm talking emotional/spiritual, not the indoor temp) has become fairly agreeable about 70% of the time, which I can live with. Because that's a hell of a lot better than it was a year or two ago, or even six months ago. Oh and have I mentioned that parenting is really hard? Yeah.
• As part of my half-marathon training I've been doing a couple 5ks here and there and this morning I did one in Lansing to benefit the Greater Lansing Sports Hall of Fame. It was a beautiful cool morning and crazy-fun to run along the riverside boardwalk next to the Grand River, and near the Michigan state capitol (you can kinda see it in the picture below). 

Oh and guess who got first in her age group? Yeah, this girl.

Now please don't equate that with the notion that I was fast, because I wasn't. I ran my typical pace of about 9.5-minute miles. But as luck would have it, all nine of the other ladies in their forties were even slower than me! Wooty woot!

A medal for my trouble? Why yes please, I'd love one. (Excuse the hair.)