john amato

enter pain

you may have noticed that last sunday i participated in the detroit marathon. i signed up at the request of danielle briones, who gathered a group to run as a relay team. jimmy hoben, beth poz, and scott jones filled out the squad.

i originally agreed to run as part of a relay team before i ran the columbus half about a month ago. finishing so strongly in that run made me wonder if i can run a full marathon. it slowly picked up steam as i went from, a goal of 15-18 miles, to, one week before the race deciding i’m going to run the whole thing. employing my europe strategy (i.e. telling everyone i saw that i was going to run the whole marathon to put too much pressure on myself not to finish), completing one long run of 17 miles, and constantly asking pat, nate, and dr for tips, i prepared myself for the real deal.

the plan was for me to run the first leg of our relay and then just keep going. it was slow going in the beginning because of the sheer numbers participating in the race. all said, there were roughly 18,000 people running that day (marathon, relay, half, walkers, 5k). i didn’t cross the start line until 8 minutes after the start and at two points, early on at a turn and while running up the ambassador bridge, the pack was slowed to a walk.

the first half my pace was slower than i typically run. i was held back by the numbers, running a decent portion on the sidewalks, and held my pace back so i didn’t fall apart late in the race. my legs first felt the pain around mile 10. it helped considerably that i ran with my teammates from mile 7-20. jimmy held his pace back to stay with me, and danielle and scott were consistent with my pace when i was with them.

beth had our final leg which began at mile 20. she’s a very strong runner and by that time my pace had slowed too much to keep up with her. the last 6 miles were brutal. the miles dragged on and on. but by that time i figured i had gone too far to quit. i knew that i could run 6 miles and that the pain would end sooner or later – sooner if i kept running. i completed the marathon in 4:20:44. my legs were pounding once i stopped running. it was very difficult to walk and i had to sit down twice before leaving the finish area.

i am so excited about running the entire race (if you want to be picky, i did go to the bathroom twice and walked through the fluid stations). it’s one of the coolest and probably the hardest thing mentally and physically that i’ve ever done. i’ve looked for excuses all week to tell people about it – so forgive me for being longwinded here or if we talk and i randomly turn the topic to the marathon.

while the entire race wasn’t exactly smooth, i thought the route we ran was really neat. we crossed over the ambassador bridge into canada and came back through the tunnel. running over the bridge in the early morning was really cool. you could see both cities – detroit and windsor – just as the sun was waking up. the route also took us to belle’s isle and through the villages, which is kind of like toledo’s old west end but completely renovated and nice.

i’ve learned that i really enjoy running races. it’s a great excuse to stay in shape and gives me a reason to train. race days are lots of fun. there are people cheering you on, holding signs, and playing music. (my favorite sign from detroit was a young couple with their child in a stroller. the dad had a sign that said ‘you’re better than the lions’. the mom had a big sign that simply said ‘go’ with the center of the ‘o’ cut out. she placed it so her kid’s head was inside the ‘o’. my favorite fan was canadian. he was taking photos on a ladder just as we entered canada from the bridge. as i passed, he yelled, ‘hey people! welcome to canada!’ canadians are the best.) the half marathon i ran in columbus also had great food after. the detroit marathon was a huge let down in terms of post race food. in the end, it’s really exciting running down a packed street to the finish while people watch and cheer you on. that feeling of support and achievement can’t be beat.

you can see photos of the race at runphotos.com. to see our team, enter the bib number 5310. for some reason the photos of me crossing the finish line are stuck in with bib 2622. you can even see video of me crossing the finish line at the detroit free press. click this link and forward to the 1:12 mark.