Ellen Thompson's Staging Area

5th marathon and 1st Detroit marathon, so glad I got to experience this one! It was a great way to explore the city AND what a cool experience to run across the international bridge at sunrise.

Top-notch organization: great pre-race communication, efficient expo, very knowledgeable volunteers, tons of well-run aid stations (19 for the marathon!), plenty of porta-potties (no lines even at the start!). Wave start made it never too congested. Only thing to know is they don’t have much food at the aid stations: all had gatorade but just two stations had clif blocks. I always bring my own fuel so this was a non-issue for me, I just took water at the aid stations and ate my own gels. But good to know so you can plan ahead.

Course: Very flat and fast, the only real hill is up and over the bridge at mile ~3. The tunnel is stuffy but it’s only about a mile long and pretty early (~mile 7). Very twisty course with lots of right-angle turns had its pros and cons: hard to take the shortest line but on the other hand it was windy and this kept us from ever having to run with a headwind for too long at a time.

Swag: Nice long sleeve technical tee and a buff. Big medal. Lots of little snack freebies. Swag isn’t super important to me but I’ll make good use of the tee and buff.

Community support was the best part. There were tons of people out cheering in all the different Detroit neighborhoods and across the bridge in Windsor. We passed back through a central area a few times which made it easy for spectators to find us multiple times during the race. Lots of live music and DJs out – a highlight was a saxophone player on the Dequindre Cut ~mile 18. It was fun to have our names printed on our bibs and lots of people cheered for us by name.

Also had great weather and ran a huge PR, so that helps too 🙂