A tremendous weekend.
That’s how Aaron Velthoven, the vice president and race director of the Detroit Free Press Marathon, is describing this year’s event in Detroit and Windsor.
“It was amazing energy,” says Velthoven. “It was such a celebration in both Detroit and Windsor. The world came to see our region, and we brought the energy, and we celebrated the thousands of runners that finished on Sunday and Saturday.”
It was the 49th running of the marathon that featured roughly 30,000 runners, including 3,000 Canadians.
Velthoven says the excitement started on Friday afternoon for the Health and Fitness Expo at Huntington Place.
“We had a line out the door, getting ready to come and see the largest health and fitness expo in Detroit, and we had great crowds throughout; we had great energy throughout,” he says. “The thousands of participants you could tell were ready; they had trained for months to do what they did over the last couple days.”
He says they’re wrapping up this year’s event before the attention turns to the 50th anniversary.
“It’s going to be a historic year, something that we’ve been planning for for a few years, and we’re excited to share more details soon,” he says.
Runners crossed over the Ambassador Bridge into Windsor and ran down Riverside Drive before returning to Detroit through the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel.
The Detroit Free Press Marathon is the only marathon in the world that crosses two international borders.
This year’s international full and half-marathon races were sold-out.
The event also included a marathon relay and Saturday’s 5K and kids’ races.