Thanks!

I want to thank everyone that came down to Detroit to watch the marathon last Sunday. I can't describe how much it meant to have your support. I am really thankful that it worked out and I was able to have a good race. As you know good races only come so often, and to be able to share one of these moments with all of you is priceless.

Perusing all the pictures you took, it looks like you all had 2+ hours of fun touring the city. I hope you were also able to take away some lessons by watching the race. Both T. Stanko and I do what we preach. In regards to racing tactics... I hope you saw how the race developed. Luckily the Brooks-Hansons group had a pace setter for 15 miles. This allowed me NOT to lead and just follow for 15 miles. I did not have to do any work for a little over half of the race. After that point Chad Johnson (the second place finisher) and I switched leads every mile until 22 miles. This helped us keep the pace going for each of us. When it was my turn to lead a mile at 22 miles I knew the race was beginning and I upped the pace a little to see how he would respond. I was able to open up a gap... and my kick started with 4 miles to go. Yes... like we always say the kick is not the final 100m straight in your races... it is the last mile for a 5k (the last 6 miles of a marathon).

Something else that I hope you all can take away from this is what goes on behind the scene to run a race. As you all know it takes a lot of hard work to get ready for your races, and to perform at your best. It might be hard to comprehend some of the training that I do at my age, but you should know that I was once in your shoes one day... doing similar things to what we have you do (it's not the same because I have learned from my mistakes and am able to train you all better).

So what did I do to prepare for Detroit. Here is a snapshot of my training for the weeks leading up to the race. To have something to compare this to you can also look at the training I did as a senior in high school 10 years ago.

• Detroit Training
  
• http://nicholasstanko.com/traininglogs.html (click on 1999)