26 - Grand Island Trail Marathon, Michigan - Saturday, July 30, 2011

The Grand Island Trail Marathon in Michigan was my 26th State marathon and my 33rd marathon overall.  It was beautiful trail course that followed the perimeter of this wilderness island.  The running surface made for an "enjoyable" recovery.

Nichol, a friend of mine from NYC who is originally from Michigan, and I arrived in Michigan on Wednesday (July 27) night in a torrential rain storm.  Fortunately, better weather was in store for us the remainder of our visit.  We had lunch with her family in East Lansing; Dad —Bruce; Mom —Vicki; Sister —Chelsea; Brother-in-law —Greg; Nephew —Xavier; Niece —Maya; parent's dog —Pugsley; and finally, the sister and brother-in-law's dog —Macy. After lunch we headed north to the Upper Peninsula.  It was about a 4-hour drive to the bridge.

To be honest, I did not realize that Michigan was divided into the Upper and Lower Peninsula with the Mackinac Bridge connecting the two.  The Upper Peninsula is referred to as "the U.P." And sometimes the residents of the Lower Peninsula are jokingly referred to as "trolls," because they live "under the bridge."  We spent the night in Mackinaw City, which is on the south side of the Mackinac Bridge, on Lake Huron.

On Friday morning, we crossed the Mackinac Bridge and drove along the southern part of the Upper Peninsula.  It was a pretty drive, mostly along Lake Michigan.  We arrived in Munising early Friday afternoon, checked in the for race, and picked up our numbers.  Friday night, we went to the organized pasta dinner at a local restaurant called Sydney's.  To bed early!

We were up early on Saturday to catch a ferry over to Grand Island for the marathon and half marathon which Nichol ran.  There were about 300 runners in the full marathon and 200 in the half. We were required to carry our own water bottles;  it's a "green" marathon.

The course was spectacular —mostly shaded by the forest on single or two tracks and narrow dirt roads, with views of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Lake Superior.  We had to run about a mile of the course on the beach. It was beautiful to the eyes, but horrible for the feet.  We had two choices: we could run either higher on the beach on the soft sand or run down close to the water on the hard sand which was also on a slope.  I opted for the hard sand but ended up getting a blister by the time I got off the beach.

After our run, we celebrated with a swim in Lake Superior - no need for an ice bath back at the hotel.

Nichol and me after our swim in Lake Superior.

Sunday we started heading back to the Lower Peninsula.  We stopped along the way and had a pasty, which is famous on the U.P.  We decided to stop in St. Ignace, which is on the north side of the Mackinac Bridge, and take a ferry to Mackinac Island.  It was nice but too crowded and touristy.  We took the recommended carriage tour of the island and got off the island as soon as we could.

We then spent the night in St. Ignace at a hotel on Lake Huron with a view of Machinac Island.  We liked the view of the island better than the island itself.

Monday we drove back to Nichol's family in E. Lansing.  Monday night we went to see a Lansing Lugnuts baseball game. Tuesday was spent relaxing and recovering from the marathon, and Wednesday morning we flew home.