Ann Arbor Marathon

This race normally takes place in the Spring but this year was moved to October due to Covid. I was excited the Ann Arbor half marathon fit into my schedule, since I have a friend in Ann Arbor who works at an amazing place called the Barn Sanctuary and I’ve been wanting to visit since I moved closer to Michigan. The October date meant colorful leaves and cool weather but also meant a football game on Saturday which made some of the logistics a bit trickier. I had trouble finding a hotel since they were all booked because of the football game and also traffic getting into Ann Arbor was a mess. I don’t think this would be the case in the spring. There was an excessive amount of emails. I appreciate a lot of communication but I felt like I received an email about this race practically every day. I did really appreciate a few emails such as the one when they officially got their permit and the one with the athlete guide. The rest weren’t as necessary and could have just been added to the website or combined into one longer email. For the race there is an expo the day before from noon to 4pm and also race day packet pick-up. You only get the goodie bag if you go to the expo. I actually liked this as it was a smart way to incentivize going to the expo without punishing those who can’t make it with extra fees for race day packet pick-up. I made it to the expo Saturday but due to traffic and plans with my friend I could only go for a few minutes. The expo is not huge like you see with the LA marathon or an RnR event but it was a nice size expo for a race this size. They had an incentive where if you got a hole punch from visiting all the booths you got a free old race T-shirt. That seemed fun but I didn’t have time to do it. Packet included the shirt, bib and a goodie bag. The shirt is a nice, long sleeved tech shirt. The goodie bag is okay. It had a buff, an energy bar and a few other things. It was nice to get more swag than a shirt and medal but not worth going out of your way to go to the expo for. Race morning went pretty well. Parking is at the football stadium and is free. However it is about 1/2 mile from the start which would be very annoying for the marathon. There were lots of porta potties at the start. There was a big corral with pacers. However the slowest pacers were 5:00/2:30. I was aiming for 2:45 knowing this was a hilly course and I did a marathon 2 weeks ago and have a double next weekend. I would have liked a 2:45 pacer. I did stick with the 2:30 pacers in the beginning to make sure I didn’t go too fast and lost them on some of the hills as expected. The first quarter of the race is pretty cool and goes through University of Michigan campus. There are a few big hills this section. Then next half of the race is kind of boring through parks and a golf course. It is pretty but just not exciting. This part is a little flatter though I wouldn’t call it flat. The last quarter of the race gets interesting again going back to University of Michigan and at around mile 10.5 you go through the Arboretum which is really pretty. However it is on non-technical trail and there is a killer hill at mile 11. I was on pace to finish 2:45 but I lost too much time in this section. I still really enjoyed it since it was so pretty. The last mile is mostly downhill through campus and fast but I didn’t make up enough time to make up for the hill at mile 11. The marathon does the course twice. Yikes the hill would be killer at mile 24. The course was very well marked and easy to follow with lots of volunteers. It could easily be confusing since there were four distances and a lot of intersections on campus but it was not. There was a ton of water stations. About every 1 to 1.5 miles. I did carry water but I definitely didn’t need to. All had water and gatorade and one had Gu. Volunteers very helpful and friendly. My only complaint about the course is the mile markers. They didn’t have markers for every mile. They had marathon markers from mile 16 to 24 and half marathon markers from mile 7 to 11 but didn’t have markers for the first and last miles. I just thought it was odd for a race that paid such close attention to detail to not have these details. It wasn’t really a big deal especially for the half but I love seeing the 26 mile marker when I do a full. Spectators were mixed. I think 8am is a little early for college students so there were actually more spectators at the end of the race and for the slower half marathoners. They call out your name at the finish line and you get your medal. My finishing time was fine. I was a little slower than my goal due to the hill at mile 11 but I thought it was fine for the course difficulty. The medal is really nice and sparkly. The half marathon medal is nice sized. The marathon medal is ginormous. Maybe it is worth the hill at mile 24. There was a ton of finish line food. They had granola bars, bananas, pretzels and also some hot food. I was very excited they had vegan mac n cheese and vegan pancakes (along with non-vegan versions). This race was somewhere between a four and five sneaker race but the vegan options made me decide to round up. After the race I got a vegan burger at Detroit Street Filling Station. Overall I thought this was a very good half marathon. If you have a connection to University of Michigan this is a must run, if not this is still a good race and seems to be a good choice for Michigan.