Since I was unable to go to Florida, I decided to take a little road trip. Since I was about four weeks out from the Philly Marathon, I decided to to try and find a half to test my fitness. I looked for something that was easy to drive to and found the Great Turtle Race on Mackinac Island. Then I saw that the Vikings were playing in Green Bay and figured, this is way too perfect. So I signed up.

Mackinac Island at Sunrise

I really wanted to stay on the island, but couldn’t find anything cheap enough for me, so we stayed in St. Ignes the night before the race. We drove across the really cool bridge to Mackinac City, where they had more choices of food. Ended up settling on an Irish Pub. The food was decent, not sure if I’d eat there again. The service wasn’t really good and all around the city, people were a little rude.

We had to take the 8:30 ferry over to Mackinac Island. Nice little 20 minute ferry ride. The waters were calm and it was pretty uneventful. We did get to see the sunrise over the island which was beautiful. Arrived at the island and headed for the resort to pick up the packets. It was at the Mission Point Resort. Very nice looking hotel and when I go back, I’ll probably end up staying there.

The race started at 11:30, so it was really hard to try and figure out nutrition. I think I got it down ok. I was having a bit of stomach problems and really skipped eating anything before the race, except the gel that I brought.

Based on the elevation profile, my race goal was to start about 6:50 pace for the first two miles, get up the two miles of hills, then hit it hard once I got into a rhythm at the top of the hills. It’s good to know the elevation chart didn’t really show all the hills. Ha.

Early in the Race

Gun goes off at 11:35 and we’re off. One of the guys starts chatting with me. Find out he is a former runner for Michigan State and now is a local and works on the island. He’s older and loved to talk. We were having a blast as you can see by the picture. We both had pretty much the same goal in the race, so we stuck together. The first two miles were on the biking path, nice and flat and really uneventful and we went through them in 6:45 and 6:49.

Things changed quickly as we took a left and went up into the middle of the island. There was a huge hill right away and it was on trails. Based on my last experience on trails, I was really hesitant. We came up to a group of three guys and were starting to all work together through the mid-part of the race. We never got too far away from each other and it really helped pass the time as we climbed and climbed. The next two miles were 6:59 and 6:52. I probably should have been a little more relaxed going up them, but live and learn.

I had figured that we were done with the hills and there would be some flat to really get going again, but we took another run and there was another hill staring at me. This one was a bit long and very steep. My pace slipped to a 7:33 this mile. Grrr. I started to get frustrated, but I was running well and just kept pushing along. Three of the guys pulled away, but I was keeping them in my sight. It was a bit flatter in this next section so I was able to get some decent paced miles in.

The local guy pulled away from everyone and was gone quickly. You could tell he had run the course before. There was some amazing houses in this section and I caught myself doing too much sight-seeing. We came up to the fort and there was a big downhill. So I took advantage and had caught and passed the two guys out ahead. I thought I had dropped both of them, but once came back on me. I thought he was in my age group, so I really wanted to stay with him. I heard somebody say we were 16th and 17th. Didn’t realize we were that far up in the placings.

The hills kept rolling and I was starting to get a bit tired of them. I ran the uphills as best as I could, but the downhills were on trails covered in leaves and I really couldn’t take full advantage of them. The guy I was running with pulled away from me a bit and I couldn’t keep him in my sights anymore. Grrr.

About mile 10, I noticed there was a bike behind me. I thought it was weird, then I realized that it was the woman’s leader. She got around me on one of the uphills. I was sticking with her as much as I could. About this time we hit the really big downhill that was once again on trails. I actually ran over 7:00 on this, since I was so afraid of twisting my ankle again.

Trying to hang on…

Finally we got done with the trail section and were on the final two mile stretch. My legs felt good and I started picking up the pace. Trying to catch the woman. Mile 12 was 6:28, but she kept the same distance away. I was starting to get frustrated that I couldn’t catch her, but she was strong. I was down to just around 6:00 pace the last mile and couldn’t make up any ground.

I ended up finishing in 1:31 and somehow won my age group. I think that was my first age group win. Ha.

I high recommend this race and recommend staying on the island the night of the race. I guess it’s the closing weekend of the island and there big parties going on all over. I would have loved to stay, but I had to get down to Green Bay for the game the next day. My review of Lambeau Field (and the wonderful officiating) will be my next post!