Christopher Steinmetz's Staging Area

Cool town, beautiful course and well organized race… Run along Lake Michigan on this very flat course which is great for attempting a BQ. I gave it a shot but blew up at mile 21, you win some you lose some! Highly recommend this race and Traverse City in general, fun place to visit!

Just a gorgeous course overall. Swim was fine, although it was quite crowded. Everyone tries to stay “on the cable” and so there was no break from swimming into people. The bike was tough. Started out great with a steady climb then an awesome downhill, but last 30 miles of the loop seemed like all up. I went in undertrained and cocky and met my match here. Finished the first 54mi loop and had to call it a day because my legs were just no longer functioning. Went out on the run just to see how my legs would feel. Confirmed suspicions that there was no way I was running 26.2 even if I was able to suffer through that second bike loop. Did a 6 mile run of shame and called it a day. Several lessons learned here. Although this would have been my 3rd Ironman, I failed to respect the distance. I thought I could suffer through the bike just to get to the run and then pull this one out but zero bike training and only run training got me exactly what I deserved, a DNF. I know I’m in the minority here of people who would attempt an Ironman on little to no training but if you’re even considering it, don’t. At least not this race. This bike course is unforgiving and I underestimated the elevation I would have to cover. For all other sane, disciplined triathletes, you’ll love this race. It’s picturesque and the logistics are great. Organization was a little lacking in my opinion. Run and Bike Special Needs bag drop-offs were not located at convenient places and poorly (in some cases incorrectly) communicated. But despite some small organization gripes, this was a great race and I’m deeply disappointed in myself for not finishing. I’ll likely be back in a year or two to redeem myself.

No race report needed on this, the oldest Marathon in the world! It took me more than 3 years of trying to finally qualify for this race and it was worth every minute of work, pain and frustration. I was just so grateful to be there that I really didn’t even race it… I just took it all in the entire 26 miles and 385 yards 🙂 Very well run race, top to bottom. If you have the opportunity and are actually debating it (for some unknown reason) stop it and sign up at the next available time!

I’m writing this review a little over a year later but my feelings for the race have not changed. I tried for 3 years to qualify for Boston running a few marathons a year to no avail. I had heard of this race but the idea of running loops seemed crazy and boring to me. I have to say I was wrong, this race is literally designed specifically to get you the best possible time and not works. As with any race, you need the stars to align to have your best performance but this race removes many of the obstacles for you. The crowd is small so you’re not fighting other runners for position. The course is flat and manageable and breaking it into 8 smaller chunks made it easy to mentally handle. The weather on the day of my race was perfect and so for me, the stars all aligned and I got my BQ time. And here I am just over a year later and I’m now a Boston Marathon finisher (2022)! If you want that BQ, give this race a try, it’s well run and to me, the best option for trying to run a PR especially if you’re going to be close to your BQ time. Highly recommend!