Pain goes away, and in this case it’s well worth it.”Ĭorby dropped to his knees on the asphalt road briefly after finishing. I couldn’t wait to cross it for the pain to be over. “I was surprised that I could win and pull this off. His thoughts upon reaching the finish line: “There are all kinds of mental and physiological phases you go through, and it was really tough.” “It was a bit lonely,” said Corby, the marathon’s first winner from Michigan since 2016. “It’s rare to start a race when it’s this dark, but I train a lot in the dark.”Ĭorby, winner of the Glass City Marathon in Toledo in April, ran alone after the halfway point of the endurance test that began with temperatures in the mid-40s and ended in the bright sunshine on Fort Street, just across from the Anchor Bar. He also was inspired by the sunrise that came between the fifth and six miles. He thought of them when the pain got to him for “motivation” to keep striding. He appreciated the support of his wife and two children in his efforts to train with sometimes as many as 115 miles per week. I’m 39 now, and this is my 10th marathon, and I’m really happy that this was here in Detroit. “It’s something that almost can’t be described,” Corby, who lives in Novi, said of winning. He often rises at 4:35 a.m., to run before going to work as a design engineer and manager in the automotive industry. He trained on the track at his school, admitting he had no idea of what would be effective.Ĭorby said his time was “3:54 or 3:56” back in 1998, but this year he shaved more than 90 minutes off that first effort. He was running track and field at Armada High, located about 45 miles north of Detroit, when Corby got the inclination to run his first Detroit Free Press Marathon. Ryan Corby, a Michigan State graduate from Novi, won the overall race and men’s portion in a time of 2 hours, 22 minutes and 3 seconds.īecca Addison, who ran for the University of Michigan and now works at Harvard, captured the women’s division in 2:51.08. The Spartans and Wolverines both came up big winners in this one, too. But the state’s largest celebration of distance running was back as part of one long street party through Motown. The race took place virtually last year, and the entries were down from 26,000 in 2019. However, all had one thing in common: pure joy. They finished in different styles, drastically different times and with different stories of overcoming the odds of completing the 26.2- and 13.1-mile endurance tests Sunday morning. There were close to 14,000 entrants in the various Saturday and Sunday races connected to the headlining marathon.
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