2012 A2 Marathon

Created Feb 06, 2012

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Everyone

Greetings and welcome to the Inaugural Ann Arbor Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K. We are pleased to now have posted all of the course maps and a portfolio of pictures which highlight much of both the Marathon and Half-Marathon courses. We believe we have created courses which capture much of the beauty, classic landmarks and running traditions of this city and the University of Michigan. The picture portfolio is organized to take you through the marathon course from start to finish and the following is a narrative of the marathon with a focus on the pictures. After the marathon narrative we will address the half marathon in the context of these pictures. So here we go:<br><br>The race starts on Main Street at the Northwest corner of the University of Michigan Football Stadium (the "Big House"), with great views looking over Central Campus, and a downhill start on Main to downtown Ann Arbor. Right on Liberty up to State Street with Burton Tower constantly in your sight, then to North University past Hill Auditorium. Next, it is across the Pedestrian Bridge by the Central Campus Recreation Building to Geddes. Geddes is a beautiful rolling (more down than up) residential street that takes us to Huron Parkway with views of the Huron River and Gallup Park. The course then takes us out and back on scenic Huron Parkway and Hubbard on North Campus, back to a right onto Fuller Road with a quick left for a 1.2-mile loop along the river through Gallup Park, then back across the Gallup wooden bridge to Fuller. West on Fuller Court past the VA Hospital to UM Hospital where we take a turn back to the east and into Nichols Arboretum with another great stretch along the river which takes us on a 1-mile journey through The Arb (not the easiest part of the course, but classic Ann Arbor running) up to Observatory, and then back across the CCRB bridge to North University to Washtenaw Ave. <br><br>——<br><br>We then embark on an out and back loop on Washtenaw (we don't think ever done before) returning to a left turn onto South University heading to State Street past the historic Engineering Arch, the law school, the President's House to the Student Union. We now turn left and begin a long stretch on State Street, again past the Law School, down the hill, past Yost Ice Arena, and all the way out to Briarwood Mall, where we do a complete loop on Briarwood Circle, the home for many years of the Briarwood Run. As we leave Briarwood we head west on Eisenhower Parkway to Main Street. We then head back north on Main past the UofM Golf Course to Main and Stadium and the Big House. We continue straight on Main past the start line, back downtown to East Huron where we U-turn back down Main to a left on Madison and a right on Fifth with the Big House in the distance to a 50-yard-line finish on Elbel Field, the home of the UofM Marching Band. It's quite a 26.2 mile journey!<br><br> —— <br><br>Visit theannarbormarathon.com

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