The annual Probility Marathon returns to Ann Arbor on March 24th, and organizers are hoping for a large turnout. The race’s first event, held in 2012, attracted runners from 44 different states and raised thousands for nonprofits and Ann Arbor Public Schools. This year, Packard Health, Cancer Support Community, Ele’s Place and North Star Reach will be receiving the profits from the marathon, with attendees given the chance to donate more upon registration. The race program is run by Epic Races, which has raised a total of $205,000 for charities since 2015, all while providing the opportunity for new and experienced runners alike to join the local events.
This year’s course begins at Michigan Stadium and passes through the Hill neighborhood, around the Forest Hill Cemetery, through Gallup Park and the Arb (and the feared hill which runs through it) before finishing back at Michigan Stadium. Runners can choose to run a 5K, 10K, half or full marathon. The race had also deviated from the standard marathon policy in proudly overseeing a zero waste policy and a standardized results system, a move which has helped to attract the thousands of attendees in previous years. Hotel information, route maps, registration and race results can all be found on the Epic Races website, linked here.
Epic Races is also adding a new event this year: the relay. Runners have been invited to split the distance of the full marathon among teams of two to four. That harrowing 26.2 has been smashed into the far more approachable numbers of 6.05 and 7.05 (two legs of each). And you know, when you can run three miles you can run four, and when you can run four you can grossly round up to seven. And then, suddenly, you’re piecing together a marathon team from the largest group of people you see most frequently: Daily Arts.
Although Arts has a reputation for not, like, doing anything except talk about highbrow music and movies, running is in our brand. Haruki Murakami has run one marathon a year from the age of 33, and completed all 62 miles of the Hokkaido ultramarathon in 1996. Will Ferrell has three full marathons under his belt, and P. Diddy finished the New York in 2003 “in sunglasses, his hair in a closely cropped Mohawk and an ‘I Heart New York’ breathing strip across his nose.”
If P. Diddy can do 26.2, we can do seven. Welcome the Daily Arts Runners: Emma Chang, John Decker, Shima Sadaghiyani and Verity Sturm. As a unit, we boast a spectrum of relationships with running, ranging from “cross country in middle school” to “5ks on treadmills” and “half marathon into Canada.” And to be honest, we haven’t been training (have you seen the ice?). But hey, the internet says we can get the deed done in four, three even two weeks. So stop asking me about it.
All irony aside, there’s something alluring about passing the baton across that historic distance across the city in which we seem to weather a marathon of experiences day in and day out (and with our coworkers, to boot). Register here if you want to run alongside us and rip on “Green Book,” stay tuned for our training video dropping the week of 3/18 or watch us do the damn thing on Sunday, March 24th at 7:30 a.m.