The weekend was amazing. I arrived in Downtown Detroit mid-morning Saturday to visit the Expo and get my race bib. Then I took a really cool bus tour of the route seeing parts of the city I'd never seen and learning more about its history.
After a 4:30 am wake up, we arrived at the 7 am start ready to rock it. I dedicated my run to Survivors Terri Norman, Katie Paulson and Kitty Grund and wrote their name on my singlet so they were with me in spirit the whole time. An emotional moment was when I paused by a fellow TNT runner with "Survivor" written on the back of her shirt. I asked how she was doing and she said "Who would have thought that 6 years ago when I had blood cancer that I'd be running a marathon today!"
The course included running over the Ambassador Bridge into Canada, running through Windsor, then back through the tunnel into the US. A cool moment was as I exited the tunnel, the announcer said "Deb Drummond of Ferndale"... and something about looking strong and doing great. Caught me by surprise but put some fuel in my tank.
After only having run up to 12 miles in training, 13.1 was another barrier buster so seeing the finish line in the distance was a welcome relief. I was feeling strong so I gave a good kick at the end and was SO thrilled to finally cross the finish line. Even though I didn't start my training intending for the Detroit Free Press to be my first half marathon, I was SO glad it was...everything about the day and the event was absolutely perfect!
