Detroit Marathon, Part 1

Asia and Katie are running the Detroit Marathon this Sunday. Katie's husband John is also running the full marathon, and 128 of their Running Fit teammates are running either the half or full marathon. They have trained together all summer, on sweltering hot days, in downpours and thunderstorms, in high winds and fog. In the winter they ran on icy roads, in calf-deep snow and sub-zero temperatures. They are ready for just about anything Mother Nature can throw at them. Fortunately, the weather looks to be about perfect........a little cool, maybe, but not bad. Temps in the 30's at the start, warming to 50 by later in the day. Clear and not much wind.

This will be Asia's second full marathon, and she and Katie are going to try to qualify for Boston with a time of 3:40 or better. Coach Gina says she can do it. Katie ran Boston in April. Her goal will be to keep Asia from going out too hard, to have negative splits. We know that if the weather gods cooperate, and the blister gods behave (Kinesio tape rules!!) she has a good shot at qualifying.

Katie came up with an ace in the hole. Since Asia always runs faster when people cheer for her. Katie suggested getting shirts with her name on them, so the crowd would know who they are cheering for. We got shirts for Asia, Katie, Jerry and I in the team color and had the front printed at Elmo's Tee Shirt Shop in Ann Arbor.

We are getting so much support from teammates and friends in this effort. Since Asia has taken so well to wearing her fuel belt and drinking her "chocolate water" (Chocolate Outrage Gu and water) on the long runs and in races, we are going to have a full belt of 4 bottles at the halfway point to carry her thru to the end. Zoe, who ran the Chicago Marathon last weekend, volunteered to be at the 13 mile point with the replacement belt and help Asia and Katie make the switch.

There is going to be online, race day runner tracking through the freepmarathon.com website. This is the first race Asia has run that we haven't been able to parallel the course to see her, and we won't have any idea of her time or how she's doing. Linda, a friend at work, is going to set up the race day tracking on her computer at home, then call me as Asia's times come in. And other volunteer teammates, who will be cheerleaders along the course, will try to call me with times as they see Asia and Katie pass.

We're all getting pretty excited. Time to go work on my packing list. More news to follow.