Smile, feeling strong and good somewhere near the 6 mile mark.

The Brooksie Way Half Marathon began back in early October of 2008. I decided to enter the first Brooksie primarily because of the management team organizing the event. The race was founded by our local County Executive L. Brooks Patterson initially to celebrate fitness in our area. However, still in the early planning stages Brooks lost his son to a tragic accident. Brooks always told the story of how the race was named for his son “Brooks” for his special way of enjoying life. So despite not exactly fitting into my training for the New York Marathon in 2008 I decided to enter the inaugural Brooksie Way Half Marathon and have since competed in each and everyone!

A sampling of 501 Running Club members ready to race The Brooksie Way.

My first Brooksie Way will always be remembered as one of my all time best racing experiences as I raced along the side of Hall of Fame runner Bill Rogers! That race experience is a whole separate story for another post. This post is why the 14th Brooksie was important to me. This year’s race was more than about returning to the event after last year’s virtual race. This year was more about celebrating my return to running and all the fun that goes with it. For when I last ran this course, I did not realize at the time how very sick I was. In 2019 I was forced to walk the last 10 miles! I finished second to last among nearly 1,400 other runners and I swear all of them past me at some point along the way. So my goal for the 14th running of The Brooksie Way this year was to simply run relaxed, enjoy the race, and maybe finish in less than half the time it took me to finish in 2019 (3hrs 53mins).

Traditionally this has always been a race that where my 501 Running Club has been well represented. In recent years we formed a team and competed in the Open Division of the team competition. We have also always managed to finish on the podium, often even winning in this competition! The team event is more than about the race, it’s also traditionally been about being able to celebrate in the team tent with plenty of good food and beer samples! Thanks to covid, there was no team tent th year, yet ironically the club managed to add a second team and one of our members formed a third team too! Happy to report that my 501 Elites team placed second, with the other two 501 related teams right behind us.

Following days of seemingly never ending rains, Mother Nature blessed race day with near perfect running conditions. Sunny, a little cool but not cold, no wind, and no humidity. There were no excuses to run bad on this day. So I didn’t run bad. The route is challenging with most of the first half being slightly downhill and most of the second half being predominantly uphill to flat. What this means of course is one really needs to pay attention to their pace especially in the early miles. My goal was to run easy and hopefully hold about an 8:50+/- pace. Well, thanks to the course, I ran a little faster in the early miles. I remember running along with long time running bud Jim O’Brien during the 4th mile and while we felt relaxed and the pace felt easy we were clipping along at 8:10! Way too fast for my conditioning and goal. Jim warned me to slow it down! So, I did. The next few miles were in the 8:25 to 8:30 range. Not bad I thought, but I knew what lay ahead as we ran through the scenic Paint Creek Trail portion of the route.

Before I knew it the easy part was done. Time for the real challenge to begin as the boisterous marching drum line met runners as we stepped off the trail and onto the long hill at Tienken Road! This brought back memories of when I ran along this challenging path with Bill Rogers back in 2008. The mantra back then was to simply “run from one telephone pole to the next”. I also remembered 2019 when I walked this entire route and other walkers were still passing me! I was grateful to be able to return to running this road and determined not to give into the temptation to walk! Instead, I recalled the many lessons on uphill running form, so I kept my head up and slowly picked off runners ahead of me.

Before I knew it I was finally rounding the corner after mile 8 and onto Brewster. Brewster is no easy road either. It’s another steady incline for the next mile or more. But you know this too will not last and before you know it you hit Dutton Road, a dirt road that presents it’s own challenges for the next half mile and again, not only before you know it you are turning the corner for the long final, and reasonably flat stretch of road, for the final few miles. I was able to gut it up a bit here, regaining strength, I pushed my pace a bit faster while simultaneously holding just a bit back for that final big kick. It felt good to run strong and I felt I was able to rescue some pace previously lost along the Tienken hills. By now of course the field of runners was rather thin compared to the early miles of the race. Some had also decided to push their pace, more power to ya I said, I was determined to run my own race. Despite these faster runners, I was still able to reel in several others as I recalled running strong along the final few miles in previous Brooksies.

Ready or not, we need to get ready to race! Lee, Kelli, Jessica.

Then it happens, you are able to finally return to Walton Road and the very early portion of the route. You have run about 12 1/2 miles and ready to finish strong only to be met by yet another hill after turning onto Walton! This little hill is a real drain on your effort but it does not last long for there actually is a very welcomed downhill slope as you approach the 13 mile mark and it’s time to let your legs fly! The last tenth mile of the route is actually the steepest hill! But since you can see, hear, and even smell the finish line you push through. I ran as fast as I could and managed to pass at least two other runners up this final hill and crossed the finish line! The clock read 1:53:30! My actual chip time would be a bit less. I was extremely happy with this time. I had beaten my last race time by more than half and had hopes of possibly finishing on the podium in my age group too! Time to celebrate.

Who needs a Team Tent to celebrate when you have so many running buds sharing race day with you? Our 501 Running Club had our largest turn out of runners for this year’s Brooksie! In addition to the many members my sister Kelli traveled from Grand Blanc to run the 5K event. She trained diligently during the weeks leading up to race day and it paid off. Kelli (aka Kelli Belli) finished 7th in her age group!

I will let the pics below tell the rest of the race day story. Thanks for following and reading this post. I hope to see you for the 15th running of The Brooksie Way, the last Sunday in September 2022!

Coach Lee

Time to go run 3.1 miles, Kelli starts with smart pace!

Kelli finishes strong running the entire length of the long uphill finish!

Kelli proudly shows off her finishing medal.