Earlier this summer, we went up north to spectate and support our friend’s first full marathon, the Charlevoix Marathon! We decided on this trip fairly late and wound up with a campsite an hour away, at Burt Lake State Park in Indian River. The lake was pretty but there were no short hiking/walking trails. We did a lot of walking around the campground instead. We arrived early Friday evening and the weather was looking great! We had an early start and a long day planned for Saturday – we didn’t set up much at camp, opting to keep it simple with a tent and testing out our new jet-boil and cooking freeze dried meals for dinner.

View of Burt Lake from the edge of the campground

Our alarms went off by 4 am! We needed to be on the road at 5 AM to get into town before the race started. We did leave a little late and went south around the lakes (because there is a drawbridge that surely would be backed up with traffic and the bustle of people for the race). This is a race I’m familiar with – if you’ve been around this blog for a bit – you’ll know I ran the race in 2018.

However, this year the race director(s?) were forced to change the course due to the boardwalk section requiring repairs for safety. It was recounted to me that the possibility of a canceled was very likely. Instead of a northern route, the course started south of the draw bridge with a short stint along some rich properties with lake views, looping through neighborhoods, and out of the residential area into a more industrial part of town. This ran on the sidewalk (or lack of a sidewalk in a mid-way constructed path at parts, image below), passing car sales lots, the airport, and a few storage unit facilities. Then the course followed a shared road for a quarry and state park, Fisherman’s State Park. The road was in such bad shape, it might as well have been a dirt road. Don’t worry, the state park was a dirt road! They kept the out and back design but also doubled up the paved-road-but-could-be-a-dirt-road shared by the state park and quarry. I previewed the course via Google Earth prior to my trip and it didn’t look like a fun time. Compared to previous years, there wasn’t much on their website about spectating areas since the course changed. I commented to a social media post twice, asking if more information would be posted for spectators but there was no response.

This map is deceiving. The course looks like participants are through pretty forests and trees for a good stretch but outside of town, the left-to-right stretch along an industrial highway.
Lush forests and green space to run through, right?

Well, we saw our runner in the neighborhood at our first cheer spot, about Mile 4! I was fighting a migraine and could not be my chipper-self just yet. But I had my signs with me! My “You could be at work right now!” got a lot of chuckles.

Our next spot was about Mile 5.5; we parked across the two-lane ‘highway’ and traffic was absent here to cross safely. This was an alright to spot to spectate. There was definitely nothing interesting to look at as a runner at this point on the course. It would probably feel like a training run in your suburban neighborhood except being on unfamiliar terrain.

Once our runner passed, we hopped back into the car and turned into the shared road for the quarry and state park. And HOLY COW. The participants were sharing the road, sure, but there was still two-way vehicle traffic! We stopped at the 10k mark, caught our runner at around Mile 6, then continued on for another mile. Here’s where it got bad. Just forget about continuing any further along the course as a spectator! By this point, the fastest runners were coming head on where the cars were heading out towards the state park. I pulled over and stopped. It was no longer safe to continue driving along the course. We caught our runner and then got our lawn chairs and bug spray out, content to stay put for awhile.

On the right, you can see car parked along the road, that is similar to how my car was parked in the grass off-road. But you can see the car traveling partially on the road.

Check out the course map image above and correct me if I’m wrong: The course map specifically states that runners should be on the north or east lane of Bells Road. That means, the south or west lane of Bells Road would be open to vehicle traffic. This did not happen and there was NOTHING from the course officials to control this* – no cones, no volunteers, no law enforcement. This meant that cars would drive down the road on both sides or in the middle. I watched a SEMI-TRUCK drove down to the quarry, only, say, 10 feet behind a runner. It was HORRIBLE to watch. We sat about a car’s width away from the edge of the road and as a spectator, which there weren’t too many here, we could see the cars coming and felt decently safe as the vehicles were forced forward moving practically in neutral. But they still trailed way too close. These vehicles passing could have been other spectators or people who were coming/going to the state park. Or like the semitruck, into the quarry, maybe workers. This wasn’t affecting only the marathoners, by now the half-marathoners had caught up from their late-start. We have a few thousand people here.

*Note: If runners violated the course markings does this question the integrity of their BQ? I don’t want that to happen here.

See the truck in the middle of the pack of runners in both directions. This truck might have been one of the race directors. One of the marked trucks had drove by us.

I’d like to point out here that I specifically commented on another social media post before the race on the official account to inquire how accessible the state park was to spectators. I originally planned to enter the park, and having never been there, wanted to know what to expect and how often I can be there to cheer runners on this desolate section of the course. I received no answer.

No spectating information provided!!!
Again, three cars trailing mere feet behind runners for a few miles. See the quarry in the background.

I have ran in races open to vehicle traffic and I’ve never seen anything so awful as this. So it was TERRIBLE to watch. Again, speaking as a runner, if this happened in my race, I’d definitely move to the edge of the road to let the car go by. I’d be SO MAD if a car followed behind me like that. Surely the race crew knows how bad that section of the course turned out to be. I assume no one got hurt or it’d be on the news. Thank goodness! They got lucky!

Because we were parked (read stuck) at one spot, we saw our runner around Miles 6.5, 12.8, 14.6, and 21. The section inside the state park would have been long and lonely. When it came time to exit this area, the runners were much more dispersed that I could safely go by. Our last spot before heading to the finish area was around Mile 23.5. Here an officer asked me to direct participants to stay on the sidewalk since there appeared to be no course volunteer remaining and the participants were too dispersed to keep on the road with vehicular traffic. By then, my migraine had backed down and I was in full force cheering.

After participants rounded the corner here, they jumped into the street like how they began the race. The participants were spaced out and here the officer asked me to advise participants to stay on the sidewalk.

Our runner was still was moving great! I never would have guessed he’d encounter cramps to slow him down! 😊

One of the mushroom houses!

For us, it was very easy to move the car down State St towards the finish and use the free residential street parking. We headed to the finishing stretch. I was sure he’d be there any minute now! Alas! His wife shared his location with me and I ran down the course to him; he was nearly there. We are so happy for him. To every runner, what an accomplishment! I had my sign up, “I am so proud of you!”

Afterwards, we took some pictures. Even though officials started the award ceremony, I encouraged him to stand in front of the Charlevoix backdrop with standup numbers 26.2. A mom told me after I snapped the photo that her daughter was waiting to take a picture. We weren’t taking cuts! But that because awards were being initiated, the daughter felt that she can’t go up there to be mistaken for someone receiving an award. Not on my watch! If you’re not directly cutting off or joining a finalist’s picture, I see no issue with heading to the front to take that well-earned finisher’s photo!

I don’t remember a backdrop and standing numbers to take pictures with after my race.

For the rest of the day, after our runner cleaned up, we grabbed takeout sandwiches (Shout out to Marek’s Harbor Grill for letting us do takeout on a busy Saturday!), walked to the water, the lighthouse pier, to the library, and downtown area. We also took a short drive to North Point Nature Preserve to walk out on the rocky peninsula. Then we drove into Fisherman’s Island State Park to see where the course led. The ranger at the gate looked exhausted, said the beach lots were full. I said we weren’t stopping, just seeing what the course looked like and led to. I have a state park pass on my vehicle. He let us through. There was hardly any spots for spectators to get by and certainly not with the race in full swing. That would have been impossible and even less visibility for vehicle and runner traffic. I have no idea if any vehicles were able to venture down but it was a typical Michigan-dirt road.

It was a great day for a run and I had a lot of fun cheering my friend on! By the time we got back, it was around 6 PM. The dog was doggone tired.

Our simple campsite setup.

Their social media page already posted about next year’s race. I inquired about the boardwalk bridge being fixed. They responded they ‘have some things to fix’ and you can see in the replies another individual agreed with me it wasn’t safe. Yikes! I wish they would have acknowledged the runner safety!

So please leave me all the comments!!! Come at me (nicely!)! Were you at this race as a spectator or participant? What did you think? Did you feel safe?

Also, were you disappointed in the course change? I certainly would be. Depending on the expenses deposited for lodging or travel, I may have looked into a marathon on the same weekend in a new place, especially if it wasn’t the original course I ran before.

And while I love supporting our small towns and the economic boost thousands of participants and tourists bring to the city, I feel obligated to share the safety concerns of this race and the potential for it to reoccur.