I Run These Towns

I love Traverse City, Michigan . I love, love, love it. It has everything a thriving community should have – a wonderful downtown, walkability, great restaurants, local shops, a beautiful setting right on the Grand Traverse Bay.  And if you run the Bayshore Marathon or Half Marathon you don’t see any of this picturesque downtown.  I ran the Bayshore Half Marathon in 2007. It was my second half after San Francisco, and obviously it was very different.  We arrived in Traverse City the evening before the race and stayed at a random hotel. I honestly can’t even recall where we stayed, and I’m not sure it matters.  Everything about getting around Bayshore requires driving to various sites. There’s no walking outside from your hotel and right into the race start. The morning of the race we met at Traverse City Central High School and piled into busses to head out to the half marathon start.  (The marathon is an out and back along the bay.)  It was a chilly mo...

Next weekend marks the 25 th anniversary of Sunburst Races in South Bend, Indiana. Last year some girlfriends and I headed down to run the ½ marathon.  I’ve got this thing about ending races in football stadiums so the “Hall of Fame to Notre Dame” race, heading from the College Football Hall of Fame and ending on the 50 yard line of Notre Dame’s stadium, was perfect. The first hiccup with Sunburst was the race hotel, the Marriott in downtown South Bend. The location was excellent – literally out the door to the start. But the price was outrageous – over $175 for one night in Indiana. My husband still complains about the cost of that hotel, and the hotel itself was average at best. Sunburst holds its expo outside the College Football Hall of Fame. It was lively and fun with lots of music and entertainment. I must say that the shirt for this race was not great. The design was cute, but it’s HUGE. I got a small, and I could belt it and wear it as a dress. It’s always disappoint...

In theory it is spring time, although you wouldn't have known it this past weekend. On Saturday a girlfriend and I ran the Heart of Michigan Governor's Cup 10K . Last year this race proceeded in a torrential downpour, and at the start of this year's race it appeared it would suffer the same fate. Running the 2010 Heart of a Spartan Race - so rainy! The race began at Dunham's Sporting Goods store in the Frandor shopping center and ended in front of the beautiful Michigan Capitol Building.  Runners met on the Lansing Community College campus and took buses over to the start. While the rain poured before the race, runners were huddled under a tent and in doorways to stay dry.  The 5K started around its scheduled start time, but the 10K course had to be re-routed and started 20 minutes late. I have been running on the Lansing River Trail for several years. Anyone who runs the trail regularly knows it floods regularly in the spring. This year we had an extremely ra...

As I've mentioned several times I'm not the fastest runner. I run for me not because I'm ever going to win any awards. But last weekend, at the 1st Annual Kayla Stanford Memorial Run , I found myself running for girl bragging rights.  A number of my co-workers were running the race, and I was insisting that I was going to beat the boys. Go big or go home, right?  The race was held on a gorgeous spring morning in Ypsilanti, Michigan.  A sizable group gathered to complete the run/walk. Runners and walkers at the start I started the race with two of my male co-workers refusing to let them get ahead of me. The run began on the grass soccer field at Ypsilanti High School, and to my surprise the entire course was on grass or trails through the woods. The woods were also quite hilly - surprise! I've only done one trail run, and it didn't go well. Running on wooded trails, even for a 5K, is so much harder than running on a road or sidewalk. About half a mile in I...

It’s May which means it’s almost spring here in Michigan. Spring to me means one thing – 5k season. I’ll be honest, I’m not good at running a 5k. It’s not as though I’m the world’s fastest runner anyway, but the 5k distance baffles me. When I started running I was training for a marathon, and I’ve never been able to adjust to running 3.1 miles. Despite my love/hate relationship with the 5k distance, I love the races. They are short, effective and quite often for good causes. This weekend I am running the 1st Annual Kayla Stanford Memorial 5k . As far as good causes go, this one is second to none.  Kayla Stanford was just 12 years old in 2006 when she collapsed and died from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). Her death was completely unexpected and yet 300 Michigan youths die annually from SCA.  I didn’t know Kayla, but I work with her mother Kelly. She has worked for the last five years to raise awareness of SCA and to ensure that automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are in...