No sooner than crossing the finish line of the Detroit Free Press Marathon did men’s winner Andrew Bowman go from champion to supportive husband.

After all, his wife, Sydney Devore, was still running the course and leading the women’s field, on track to give the husband and wife duo a memorable dual win.

Less than half an hour later, she rounded the corner onto Woodward Avenue and ran through the finish line, into the embrace of her husband.

“That whole last four miles I was like, ‘He’s waiting for you, he’s waiting for you,’” Devore said. “And then I just felt like I was going to start crying when I turned the corner and I was like, ‘I have to run into his arms in case I cry because it would be embarrassing.’”

Bowman won his race — and the overall — with a time of 2:17.47, and Devore won the women’s field in 2:42.46.

The International Half-Marathon saw Morsi Rayyan of Ann Arbor win the men’s field with a time of 1:06.56 as Anna Benedettini won the women’s race, with the Kailua, Hawaii, resident finishing in 1:14.29.

And as both Bowman and Devore were racing, they were nominally aware of what was happening, that the other was leading their respective fields. Those mental reassurances didn’t make the course any easier to run on a sometimes windy and chilly October morning.

“Those last three miles were murder,” Bowman said.

Bowman said he probably ran a bit too fast for his energy reserves to hold out, and that he was starting to feel his legs get tired around mile 20, earlier than preferable. He also understood the only thing that could stop him from winning, still, was his own doubts. So he silenced them and pressed on.

He added that his concerns and issues leading into and on race day didn’t compare to what Devore had dealt with. But Bowman’s ultimate message, just minutes after winning his own race, was still one of the utmost belief that his wife would prevail.

“You can do it baby, and I’m so proud of you,” Bowman said when asked for his message to his wife as she still had miles to run. “We came out here with the intention to be that married couple that wins two crowns and our builds were less than perfect, especially for my wife, I felt so bad. She was dealing with so much and if she could pull this off, I mean, again, she just continues to be my inspiration. That’s why I married her.”

About half an hour later, they were standing arm and arm, basking in the shared success.

“I think I was feeling a lot of self-doubt starting off and he just kept reassuring me that I had nothing to prove and just to go out there and have fun and I just told myself, ‘Smile the whole time and make sure you’re having fun’ because the end result doesn’t matter,” Devore said. “And I think because I was having a lot of fun and I realized I was leading pretty early on, I was just like, ‘I don’t know why I doubted myself.’ He believed in me and now we’ve won it.”

With the dual win, Bowman and Devore were planning to celebrate with family and friends on Sunday afternoon at a Ferndale brewery.

Along with their medals, they’ll also be bringing along another key part of their training team: Their German Shorthaired Pointers, a high-energy breed and a duo of pets that Bowman gave some credit for keeping the couple moving.

And while a celebration of the duo just running and completing the race would surely be in order, the husband and wife share something most couples won’t ever have: A pair of 1st place medals from the same marathon.