Marathon Day

Today was the day, my friend Jake ran his marathon. It was cool, but dry. All week the forecast for the weekend was for rain both Saturday and Sunday. So I was grateful he had great conditions to race in. It is the only marathon in the world (so I hear) that feature two international border crossings. They start in downtown Detroit and run across the Ambassador Bridge, then along the river in Windsor and back to Detroit through the Tunnel. Running through the tunnel is the only 'underwater mile' in the world. You even get a split time for your underwater mile.

I went downtown early this morning to watch and try to find Jake to take a few pictures. Just as I got there the first runner went by, then a few wheel chair people and some more runners. They were moving. Jake was running in the '3:45' pace group and he had told me that he'd be wearing a red shirt and an orange cap. Thing is, there was a lot of people wearing red shirts or orange caps. Finally, I saw him and yelled out. He came over and I ran with him for 30 seconds or so.

He looked good and I talked to him early in the afternoon. At mile 20, typically known as "the wall", his knees started to hurt and he fell off the pace. He finished in 4 hours. Very cool, that's a long way to go and I know he's happy with his first effort.