This past Sunday, Grand Rapids held its annual Grand Rapids Marathon, a race in which participants either ran a full 26.2-mile marathon or a 13.1-mile half marathon. The course begins with a loop around the river in downtown Grand Rapids, and then heads toward Millennium Park for a “color tour,” allowing the participants a beautiful view of a West Michigan autumn while they make their way through the course. The race began bright and early with most runners beginning at 8 a.m. and ending anytime between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

While the race is hosted in Grand Rapids, runners come from all over Michigan and the Midwest to participate. The female winner of the marathon, Angela Swain, who clocked in at 2 hours, 57 minutes, and 51 seconds, is from Evanston, Ill., while the male winner, Brandan Molony, with a time of 2 hours, 31 minutes and 11 seconds, is from Kalamazoo. The female runners-up were Grand Rapids’ Jessie Lair (3:00:37) and Royal Oak’s Kelsey Bragg (3:02:39), while the male runners up were East Lansing’s Zane Grabau (2:34:04) and Calvin alumnus Gabe Gunnink (2:34:36).

The half marathon was won by East Lansing’s Jon Gries (1:09:49), and the female winner was Calvin alumna Nicole Michmerhuizen (1:20:04).

Much of Michigan was represented in the Grand Rapids Marathon, and Calvin was as well, with well over 15 students participating, many of which participated on Team World Vision, a charity team running to raise money for clean water for children in Africa.

Running any long distance race requires hard training and endurance, which means anyone training for a marathon must put in a lot of hard work and dedication, and it seems that the accomplishment of running a marathon is incredibly rewarding and absolutely worth the difficulties, according to Calvin senior Erin Tanis who ran the marathon.

“It isn’t uncommon for marathon runners to suffer from blisters, chafing and lost toenails, not to mention the soreness everywhere. But there’s something about running a marathon that makes you feel like you can do anything.” While this was Tanis’ first full marathon, she is no stranger to long distance runs, having participated in Girls on the Run, middle and high school cross country, and more recently, the Grand Rapids half marathon and the 25K Riverbank Run.

“I’ve never been a fast runner, but the fact that I was able to cross the finish line means so much to me. I would definitely do it again,” she said

Tanis is not alone in feeling the rewards that running brings. “I fully trained for my first marathon in high school and absolutely fell in love with the distance running,” said Calvin senior Jacki Cronin, who placed 19th, beating her high school PR in this race as well as qualifying for Boston’s 2017 marathon. Some of her other marathons include the Boston Marathon almost three years ago, as well as an Iron Man triathlon just weeks ago, but she said this one was her most enjoyable.

“I was the most well trained, I ran the fastest I ever have, and I felt great. I thought I would never ever run as fast as I did in high school, so to finally beat that PR and qualify again is really exciting.”