Change of Plans: Detroit!

Hey friends! Perhaps this post is anti-climactic after announcing my new year’s ambitions, but yesterday I sealed the deal: I am running the Detroit Marathon on October 20, 2013. I pulled out my credit card, answered many questions, and now 26.2 miles is my fate this fall.

If you recall, originally my plan was to run the Chicago Marathon with Chrissy, Raquelita, and possibly JD. We were all very excited—I just could not pass up the chance to meet two of my favorite blogging friends. But then plans fell through. Time and money concerns reared their annoying heads. Chrissy and Raquelita bowed out. And you know what? That is okay. (I just typed “that is oaky,” like I’m talking about Chardonnay. Which reminds me: wine will definitely be part of my marathon training plan. I think it’s important that we’re all on the same page here.) Anyway, really, it’s okay. I am not at all upset, but it did make me reconsider my own marathon plans. JD lives in the Detroit area, and it’s my hometown and where my entire immediate family lives. With just two of us to consider now, Chicago seemed less appealing. It was going to be an expensive weekend, between the hotel, food, and travel expenses. Even the race is quite pricy: $175 registration fee. Detroit, on the other hand, is much more budget-friendly. If I ran Detroit, I would stay with family, eat homecooked meals with them, and save a boatload of cash. The Detroit race is just $80, less than half of Chicago’s fee. Of course I’d still have to buy plane tickets, but I do that anyway to see my family a few times a year. Plus JD lives in the area, so if we ran Detroit, he wouldn’t have to worry about the costs of a destination race (though he totally sounded ready to run Chicago—maybe some day we will).

When I weighed all the logistics, it was very clear that the Detroit Marathon was the better choice for a race in the North. Plus, the Detroit race is just cool: you run over the Ambassador Bridge and through the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel into Canada, making it an international race. The course loops through lovely old neighborhoods and along the Riverwalk (which I’ve never even seen! Or maybe I have? I don’t know!) and through Belle Isle. In short, it sounds terrific. I am really excited about it, and fall in the Midwest is a spectacle that I dearly miss now that I live in Texas.

Running the Detroit Marathon pushes my marathon plans back by a few weeks, but that’s not a problem. I’ll still be training during a Texas summer, so I’ll be trying to beat the heat by starting in the early, early morning. (I totally plan to take Sunday afternoon naps during marathon training.) I expect that marathon training will have its ups and downs, and I will do my best to keep blogging through that adventure. I wish I had more time to spend on both my blogs, but alas, I need lots of sleep and some time away from the computer in order to keep up with all my commitments. I love blogging about long runs best, which is why I’ve settled into doing Sunday posts for Feels Like Flying. I can’t wait to share my first marathon experience with all of you! Thanks for reading, and I hope that some day we can toe the line of a race together.

{PS Chrissy and Raquelita, if you two are ever interested in organizing a blogger meet-up somewhere in the US, I would love to join you. Just because we aren’t running Chicago this year doesn’t mean I am any less excited about the chance to meet you! How about Denver? Or San Francisco?}