I had more fun than just the 8 mile race while I was on Mackinac Island.
Last year I was not able to run on my 50th birthday because I was dealing with Plantar Fasciitis and was determined to get rid of it so I could make it to the starting line in Key West in January. I had to settle for a long bike ride on my 50th birthday; it was quite depressing. I did not take turning 50 well at all.
I'm still not happy about being in such high numbers but this year several things happened that made it easier to take! When I returned to my hotel after the race there were several people who had run the race on the porch talking about the race so I joined in. (Hotels on Mackinac Island all have big front porches.) Other race runners came back and joined too. It turns out that of all the people who were there talking about the race that I had the fastest time!!! I was also the oldest!! A lady asked how people found out their time and I showed her the scanning thingy on the bib and explained how it can be scanned. I felt really smart!! After I had lunch, I rode my bike all over the island for 2.5 hours. The weather was beautiful that day.
I biked by the Governor's vacation house.
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| Governor's vacation house |
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| Gov's house |
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| Skull Cave |
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| Haunts of Mackinac ghost tour headquarters |
It had cooled down a bit so I wore my long sleeve race shirt on the tour. There were a couple other people doing the tour who had run the race and, once again, I had faster times than them!! (Just call me Kara!!) I also made sure to tell them that it was my birthday!! One of the haunted places we went to see was up on the top of a hill. As we were walking up the hill I realized that I was passing other people and then I was right behind the tour leader! A lady who had run the race said something about how I could be moving so fast after the running the race this morning!! Somebody else said something else about the younger ones speeding up the hills. This was one time when I was more than happy to admit that I was 51!!!
This church has a ghost who is seen at times but did not appear during our tour, oh well!
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| Are there any orbs in my pic? |
Sunday morning I was once again awaken by the sound of horses hooves on the street! Sunday morning was much cooler than it was on Saturday. I went out for an easy run. I was planning on running about 3 miles. I had a brochure from one of the bike rental places that had a biking tour map and it said it was approximately 3 miles. I had to keep stopping to look at the map. I passed by a lot of the things I saw yesterday when I was biking. The 8 mile race was mostly flat but once you turn off the outside perimeter road it becomes hilly. When I got to the end of the approximately 3 mile bike tour route I was at 3.7 miles and had to run back through town to my hotel so I ended up with just over 4 miles. When I was out on the roads I saw several others out running. As I was running through town back to my hotel, a man called out to me that the race was yesterday and didn't I get enough then! (He said it jokingly.) I yelled back, "training for Chicago and that doesn't stop!" When I got back to the hotel and walked up the walk to the front porch, a man who I had talked to yesterday and who also ran the race was surprised that I went running again that morning! That me feel like such a hard core runner!! I'm not telling all these things to brag; it's just that all of these things made turning 51 less tragic!
All too soon it was time to get back on the ferry and head back to Mackinac City.
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| Goodbye Mackinac Island! Thought I was taking a pic of my hotel but it is only partially visible on the far right. |
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| View of Fort Mackinac as the ferry pulls away |
So, that was my birthday weekend! I can't think of a better way to spend a birthday than to run a race! Next year my birthday will be on a Sunday so I'll be looking for somewhere spectacular that is having a race that day!
Now I'm back to training for the Chicago Marathon!
Runner Nerd
back from the UP
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