See Cara Run

It’s holiday race time!! It’s that time where you can run like a fool through the streets dressed in whatever costume you can find, and no one will think less of you for it. Last year Mary Beth was a zombie marathoner for a Halloween party, and she inspired my costume for this year’s Dead Run (that’s just what I’m going to call it). 

With my charming personality I got myself a free race entry. That’s a lie, my friend’s friend registered but couldn’t race so he was giving his registration away. Normally I wouldn’t accept a registration that wasn’t mine, since I would want my name listed on the results page. I made an exception this time just because I was broke, it was my first race back since Freep, and I wasn’t expecting to PR or win anything. 

His friend was really obsessed with not having me timed, to the point where he made sure to ‘deactivate the timing chip’, but it was just a D-tag and I could have easily just, not put it on my shoe. But whatever, free registration. I did con a volunteer into giving me a shirt saying something about my boyfriend registering for me and picking up the packet but forgetting the shirt. It worked, I got my shirt. :) 

Like I noted before I dressed up as a zombie marathoner, complete with finisher’s medal, sweet sweatbands, and a bib on my back that said “I’m running for Braaaiiinnnsss”. It was a pretty rockin’ outfit, and nice and breezy! I was kind of bummed that out of all four of us just me and Adam dressed up as zombies. 

The race course was pretty neat, it took you through the streets of Southwest Detroit, along a bike path, and into a graveyard. At some point during the race some of us got confused as to where the path was and we were running through the road and there was a stopped cars we had to run through in the road. Very strange. 

During the race I felt really great, my leg didn’t give me any issues at all and I felt strong! I did have to stop two times because my zombie make up was running into my eyes and making them sting and I couldn’t see! Good thing I had those rocking sweat bands to wipe the makeup away! 

I finished in about 29:34, that’s a 9:33 pace, which is loads faster then when I was running pre-stress fracture. Imagine if I didn’t have to stop and wipe the makeup off my face!

I leave you with a few memories from this, my 18th, race:

• Best Costume: Toss up between the dinosaur and the zombies on stilts
• Worst Course Obstacle: An empty wine bottle around mile two just hanging out in the grass where the crossover was. Pretty dangerous if anyone would have landed on that the wrong way. 
• Best Sign: There were signs all over the area is business windows saying “Welcome Runners”. For such a small event it was nice to see such welcoming signs.
• Worst Experience: Packet pickup. Even though I had mine already the packet pickup was a disaster. They had the list of bib numbers in between the entrance to the bathrooms and people were constantly getting squished every time someone would enter/exit the bathrooms.  
• Post Race Noms: Russell Street Deli in Eastern Market provided a delicious egg scramble with fresh veggies and toast. With the amazing company of Kristy and Mary Beth.