GREAT RACE BY A DAM (Dimondale - 2019 - 5K)

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  Great Race by a Dam 2019 Photos

79 Mile Drive



The 2019 Great Race by a Dam was awesome with some of the best race staff.  Many runs I have done recently have had great race names.  The town of Dimondale is Holt’s sister city.  Our drive to Dimondale was almost identical to Dragons in the Woods.  We passed the same McDonald’s we got Luke a yogurt at the day before.   

I met a few local Dimondale ladies while waiting for the bathroom before race start. They told me how their grandmother had been at Bath High School back when the janitor explosion occurred. They knew so about the town’s amazing history.  It is so awesome they have lived in Dimondale their entire lives.  I have a picture of them in my album for this run.  They are sisters that are now both in the 60-65 age group category.  They joked about competing against one another.  They do Great Race by a Dam together every year.  

The course was a scenic semi-hilly run through town past an amazing old cemetery with a crypt!  I loved the bridge turn around over the Grand River!  I saw the dam but could not find a place to get close enough to it to get a good picture.  There were residential homes all along it on either side of the river.  How cool would it be to back up to that in your backyard!!  

I got to high-five Luke again with the course’s loop back to the finish.  He had another amazing course time and came in second in his age group.  I came in third place and we both got the coolest medals that look like stained glass.  Holding them up to the sun is awesome!  They are engraved!  I love it when runs engrave age group medals.  It’s a nice touch for runners to remember.  

Great Race by a Dam had donuts, candy and a make-your-own hot chocolate bar with marshmallows!!  I got the whole family hot chocolates and got myself a second cup right before they closed it down.  I loved the post-race food!  

Jason bought a Go-PRO for us. He intended to use it LARPing and thought it would be cool for me to use while running.  I had it on the whole time running Dimondale but something malfunctioned and it only got five minutes of run time.  We are going to experiment with it more later.  It would be nice to get videos from runs that don’t shake violently from me trying to hold my phone while moving.  I do pretty good taking pictures, but my videos are terrible.   

We stayed around so long after our stretching routine and playground fun that we were the last ones to leave the race.  I got an AMAZING photo with all the wonderful people that put on this race in their yellow volunteer shirts.  We took a second picture because one man was in the bathroom.  Everyone had a good laugh.  They were the nicest staff.  They made the race so enjoyable.  They even added a fun raffle for participants after the award ceremony.  It’s the little things that really matter and Dimondale’s Great Race by a Dam is proof of that. 

On our drive home we saw great city skeletons all over Dimondale! 



Location: 300 W Jefferson St, Dimondale, MI 48821, USA

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