Donna R's Staging Area

I signed up for this race because the idea of entering into Canada and running back into Michigan sounded like a cool experience. What I did not think of was the obstacles involved with running across international borders. The rules say that all runners were required to run with their passport, and that liquids are prohibited while crossing international borders. With that said, I did not bring any water with me but wore my fuel belt just to serve for the purpose of holding my passport (which no one ever checked for during the race). I wish I would have brought my water bottles anyways! Although there was an aid station right after the Ambassador bridge, I personally wish I had water with me as I ran up the incline of the bridge. While crossing, I noticed the only people really getting stopped were those who were wearing camel backs. Another thing I did not realize was how long the Windsor tunnel run really was. It was very crammed and stuffy in there and again without having water until exiting the tunnel made it a challenge to get through. Even though the rules say not to bring liquids, I would recommend bringing them. To me its worth the risk of getting stopped or having to throw out the bottles than relying on the aid stations which seem farther apart while you are running than they appear on the map.
One thing I was pretty disappointed in was the corral assignments and start. It was very unorganized and nobody was “enforcing” the assignments. I was assigned to corral D but noticed a lot of people standing all around me with corral assignments to E, F, G, and even H, even though I was standing in the D corral area. A group of 4 runners standing near me were in corral A but could not even make their way to the corral A sign because it was so crowded and didn’t allow for everyone to fit in the correct areas. The “wave start” was ideally to separate runners into groups that matched their pace, but there was no enforcement and found that to really be a pain the first few miles of the race, trying to get around slower runners than me.
Over all the course was pretty most of the way and people who lived in the residential areas tried to make it fun for the runners which was nice.
Once getting to Belle Aisle, it was EXTREMELY windy which is another thing to mentally prepare for.
Having big crowd support near the finish area was a plus, but I was not overly impressed with finishers snacks that were available, and also noticed there were not very many photographers taking photos of runners with their medals. I never got a photo taken after finishing.
I enjoyed seeing parts of Canada and Detroit I have never seen and overall liked the route, but am comfortable with saying that running this marathon once is enough for me.