Marquette Marathon 2025

For about a year now my son Seth has been expressing his desire to run his first full marathon. We've done a couple of trail half marathons together and he had done training runs up to 16 miles on his own. He certainly appeared ready and able to handle the preparation and ultimately the race itself. The question then became which race and when. We had to balance his school schedule as well as cross-country, soccer, and track seasons to make sure the race we picked would fit all of it. We also wanted a race that would be on a fun course and a worthwhile first experience.

The Marquette Marathon in the U.P. of Michigan became the top choice. It was at the end of summer which meant hopefully the temps wouldn't be overly hot. Check. Race day was 45 degrees at the start. We also need a time in which he would be able to train a few months and then race without affecting school sports. Mostly check. Seth did have an unexpected cross-country race about 4 days post-race and another one we were prepared for 6 days post-race. We were also preparing for him to be able to train all summer once the track season ended. Except he was hit with a difficult case of IT band syndrome almost immediately in June. This limited his running most of the summer. It led to a very cautious and customized race plan. The final thing we looked for in Marathon choice was the enjoyable course. Double check. Marquette was a nice point-to-point from Ishpeming to Marquette most of which was on the Iron Ore Heritage Trail. It is a fantastic asphalt bike trail and scenic going through the woods and beautiful landscape of the U.P. The finishing miles would be a long Lake Superior in downtown Marquette and around Presque Isle. As far as road marathons go, the course was top notch.

The Race:

My father dropped Seth and I off at the race start in Ishpeming. It was 39 degrees out and we were just in our race shorts and short sleeves. We were quickly wishing we had brought a little more clothing. As I saw others with drop bags it suddenly donned upon me, at the race expo our race shirt and bib came in a clear drop bag. That was intended to be used for just this moment. I was in my trail race mode thinking of drop bags in the middle of the race and thinking today that was unnecessary. It didn't hit me to use it as a bag from the start to the finish. That's what the smart people were doing. Put the warm clothes in the drop bag when the race starts and it waits for you at the finish. We spent our 30 minutes of wait in the cold and in line for the port-o-potties. There were probably 15 of them but a long enough line that we didn't take care of business until 7:28, 2 minutes to spare until race start. When we were putting together our race plan we were anticipating a 5/530 race time, probably running the first 8 miles and then doing intervals from there. I think I calculated our run intervals at like a 9 minute pace. We agreed to a run 1 mile, walk 5 minute interval. This was largely due to Seth's having major IT band issues over the summer and because of that he hadn't done a long run more than 8 miles since the beginning of June. It also would help me as this race was somewhat of a training run for me as my "A" goal was the Sawatch 50-50 in 4 weeks and I didn't want to get too far into the hole with this race. We hoped the walk intervals would bring recovery into the race and keep us from hurting ourselves.

There were officially 458 starters in the full marathon with even more starting in the half marathon. The half would meet up with the full course 13 miles down the road somewhere. About 10 minutes before race start they gave some announcements and instructions and then about 2 minutes before race start they played the national anthem. We didn't see a flag anywhere in the area but a gentleman suddenly held up a small personal flag high enough for all to see and it turned into quite an awesome moment. The race began with some winding through the streets of Ishpeming and then out into the woods on the Iron Ore Heritage Trail, a wonderful double track asphalt bike path. We very intentionally tried to keep things easy the first couple miles target a low 9-minute pace. I was surprised to see my HR quickly move into the upper 130s and then 140s and I hoped that didn't mean bad news later in the day.

The aid stations at the race were very primitive in terms of items offered. Only sports drink and water at every station with one station near the halfway point with a supply of energy gels. Perhaps I'm just used to trail races where every aid station has a supply of food. My nutrition plan for the day involved taking a glass of sports drink at every aid and then a Gu energy gel at the even numbered aid stations. This would be easy to track and would come out to roughly 250-300 calories an hour or 75 carbs.

We really enjoyed the early part of the race and the miles were clicking off nicely. Having the aid stations every 2 miles or so was a nice break and distraction. We found ourselves pacing just ahead of the 415 Race Pace Group. We didn't think much of it at the time, figuring out walk intervals would lose them at some point later.

Our race plan was to start the walk intervals at the mile 8.5 aid station, but we were feeling so good, and Seth was really wanting to keep running, so we decided on doing the next aid station at around 10.8 miles. At around mile 10 passed a small lake on the left while the trail went over a small bridge, very scenic area. At the aid around 10.8 miles we started our run/walk intervals. We also both did a port-a-potty stop here which gave us our first bit of a break. I would track 5 minutes on my watch for every walk interval and would use the lap button so we could look back on it later. Every time we started one of the mile run intervals we found ourselves running at a 745-8 pace and it was feeling good for the first several intervals so we went with it. I think our pre-race estimates were figuring we'd just do a safe 9 min mile for this.

We ended up in a cycle where during the walk we would have numerous people passing us, and then we boost up and run for a mile and pass some of the people back. Somewhere around mile 18 some guy must have noticed what we were doing and asked about the intervals we were running. We ended up see him a lot the last 8 miles and eventually passed him for good around mile 24.

Running into Marquette was fun, Seth was really enjoying the city scenery. The bike path just cut right into town with only one or two major street crossings (which were police protected). We ran by the large farmers market in town and eventually make the lakeshore. There was an out and back along the lakeshore where you pass tons of people going different directions. We did another quick bathroom stop in here. The turnaround was nothing more than a cone (to my best recollection). It was definitely fairly simple. As we rolled north along the lakeshore I was starting to feel some soreness in the quads. It wasn't necessarily slowing me down but I was feeling it during the run intervals. I wasn't sure if it was coming from late race fatigue or if it was people of the high speed we were running in the intervals or what. We passed by the Superior Dome going north which is one of those "the finish is so close but we have like 5 miles to go moments". The scenery here was amazing with views of the water and of Presque Isle. Around mile 22 Seth was doing mental math and said if we ran the final 3 miles around 730 pace we could possibly finish sub 4. While his math was sound, I was pretty much I didn't nearly have it in me to finish the final 4 miles that hard. As we entered Presque Isle for the loop around the peninsula we encountered the hill on Peter White Dr and it was a toughie. A short steep part leads into a half mile gradual climb all on tired legs around mile 23.

I was glad, with help from the intervals, I never really bonked this race. Running with Seth helped the mental game as there was no room for quit or letting up. we stuck to our intervals and we stuck to running the mile intervals at around an 800 pace, most of them under it. As a whole the body did feel good in the latter miles. The knees and the tendons were holding up nicely (mostly due to the intervals). The fatigue was modest and the energy was good. The only thing I felt was some soreness in the quads. That would become the main recovery issue after the race. Quads were wrecked for several days after, while everything else recovered very well.

When our last walk interval ended around mile 24.5 we decided to finish the thing with no more slowing. We ran the last mile and a half sub 8 pace. As we neared the quarter mile to go turn I looked over and it seemed that Seth was hardly breathing while I was gasping for air. That strong pace to the finish was me giving it all I had. He was making it look easy. Our finish line photo illustrates this well. The announcers were sharing everyone's names as they hit the finish and they noted us as a father-son combo. What a fantastic finish. We were delighted to see that we would sneek in just under the 4:10 time. Much much faster than our 5 to 5:30 pre-race plan. The fast run intervals and brisk walk intervals as well as no slowing due to fatigue really kept us going. We weren't too far off from an even split marathon. I think the times were 2:02 to 2:07 for the two halves. For Seth, his IT band did fine during and after the race. He had the usual marathon fatigue and he had some soreness in the hips which I was unfamiliar with. He played in his soccer game on Tuesday which was 3 days post-race. He ran well in his XC race 5 days post-race. I was very sore in the quads until Thursday when I did my first treadmill workout. On Friday I was feeling good and decided on an Anaerobic intervals workout (as my Garmin suggested). It felt good until the 6th of 7 intervals when I felt a soreness threatening in the quads. It dawned on me the jarring of the fast intervals was bringing out some latent soreness in the quads.

In whole, Seth and I had such a great time at the race. We loved the course and Seth was especially interested in the prospect of doing this race again. We especially loved running every step of this race together. My experience and his speed made for a day that far exceeded expectations and days like that are truly hard to come by on the race course.

Trip Info:
Marquette Marathon 2025 Course
Start Elevation: 1,411 ft.
Finish Elevation: 610 ft.
Distance: 26.21 mi. (watch said 26.5) 
Elevation Gain: 726 ft.
Elevation Drop: 1530 ft.
Race Time: 4:09:41

Track:
I have a track and waypoints from the activity all contained in the embedded Google Map. Check it out and use at your own risk.