Bayshore Marathon Traverse City Michigan

What can I say about this marathon than WOW!!! Michigan is a well kept secret in Utah communities. Everyone just thinks of Detroit. Murder capitol of the world, dirty, impoverished etc. Well this is not true about the West Coast. Unfortunately because I flew into Grand Rapids, I never made it over to the temple in Detroit. Everyone told me how ugly it was in Detroit and Mom told me how scary it was, so I opted out of the adventure. Plus where I was was drop dead gorgeous. Beautiful blue water lined every water outlet. Clean and safe. I went to Mackinac Island. No cars are allowed on this island, so I ferried across to the island with a bunch of Knights of Columbus. They have their annual meeting every memorial day at the island at the Grand Hotel. I told them I was from Utah, they didn't have much to talk to me about after informing them of this. I told them the LDS people loved the Catholic people. I didn't make any headway with this statement! The Island was charming! Horse and carriage or buggy transported luggage and people to their different destinations. Most were going to the Grand Hotel. This hotel is famous because not only is it gorgeous, it was also the place where they filmed Somewhere In Time with Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeves. The weather had been unusually warm and so the lilacs were in full bloom even though the lilac fest wasn't for 2 more weeks. LUCKY ME! I rented a bike and even though I had a sore knee that I was recently healing from having stitches resulting in a staff infection, I decided to tour the island. THIS WAS SO FUN! I enjoyed circling the entire island with the wind in my face and the waves breaking in my ear. THe beauty of the trees in full bloom along with the other natural beauties of this island was another testament to me of how much Heavenly Father loves me. Utah has been so cold, we haven't had a Spring so this was incredibly welcome. After returning from my bike ride, I went through the several shops and then rested in the library. I ate lunch in their park while I listened to the cannons fire in the background from fort Mackinac. I ferried back to Mackinaw city where I got my first taste of Smoked White Fish. Some fellow travelers told me about this delectable food only found in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. OH MY HECK! I ate the whole fish, which was not very smart since it had so much sodium in it. The next morning I woke up and felt like a swollen flounder! My knee looked bad the day before after biking, so I decided to rest my leg all day before the marathon the next morning. I was worried since the wound hadn't closed yet, and I hadn't been able to run more than 10 miles without pain. This was indeed a TENDER MERCY OF THE LORD MARATHON. I stayed overnight in the darling city of Charlevoix. The day before I arrived the town people had all gotten together for an annual party and planted petunias up and down their main street for about 2 miles welcoming people into their city. There is also a cute little draw bridge on their main street that goes up every half hour letting sail boats out of into the harbor. This is where you can catch a boat to go to Beaver Island. This is an Island where all the town people said lived a MORMON KING. I was very interested in this piece of information, so I investigated this story. Sure enough this king broke off from the church when Joseph Smith died. He didn't want to follow Brigham Young, so he started his own group. He eventually ran off every gentile from the island. He became a congressman and got the US government to install a lighthouse on the island. Eventually he even had his own people hate him, and one of his followers shot him. He eventually died from this wound. There is a marathon on Beaver Island. This is on my bucket list to do. More information about him later. I ate another smoked white fish for breakfast resulting in more floundering. I was full of water. I kept drinking 24/7 to flush the sodium out of my system. I picked up my packet and worried about the race in Traverse City. I didn't know how my knee would react. After a restless sleep, I woke up to prepare for the run. The run was on a trail that followed lake michigan for 13.1 miles. The coarse then turned around and came home. The trail had rolling hills, but was drop dead gorgeous. I took it really slow until mile 20, then I poured it on. My finish time was 3:56:44. I placed 4th in my age division with a bumb knee. I could feel it when I finished, but I babied it big time, and I'll watch it to make sure the infection doesn't go up my leg again. I never like the congestion of a half marathon being run with a marathon, but it wasn't too bad. They had cherry juice for an post race treat and a few other goodies. Everything about the race was fantastic. I love small home town marathons. Missionary moments: Telling everyone on the coarse about my wrapped knee! How two weeks prior to the marathon I had stitches with a red line almost to my groin filled with staff infection. I told them the story of the Indian Medicine Woman, and her miracle salve. I even told a few that her name came to me after intense prayer and going to the temple. Everyone was awed! This was truly a miracle marathon. The Lord has blessed me indeed! I know he wants us to have joy on this earth! After the marathon I traveled through the west coast to the most darling cities I have every seen. Fish town was one of these cities. Of coarse I got enough smoked white fish to take home for everyone to try! Cherry trees were everywhere through this beautiful countryside, I wished they would have been ripe! I quilt shop hopped through some of these cities finding material for Suzanne to make a quart jar vegetable and fruit quilt in memory of this state. The next morning I went back to Grand Rapids and attended church with a very forward single man that wanted me to sit by him. I was nice to him, but not too nice. The missionaries were there and I introduced myself to them. They had a good sized congregation there. All is alive and well in Michigan. I WILL TRAVEL HERE AGAIN!