ST. PATRICK'S FALL FESTIVAL DAY RACES (Portland - 2019 - 5K)

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  St. Patrick's Fall Festival Race 2019 Photos

100 Mile Drive



I got an unexpected run and new city after making an appointment to see a home in Portland.  After setting the appointment with the realtor I looked at what was happening in town that weekend and I was surprised to discover there was a run in Portland Sunday morning in addition to a St. Patrick’s Festival.  I looked at the 5K course and noticed it went right past the house we were interested in seeing on the Portland Riverwalk.  The morning of the run we woke up a few hours earlier so Luke and I could run the Portland St. Patrick's Festival 5K before our house showing.  I would have loved to run their half marathon with a longer course through more beautiful scenery on the Portland Riverwalk, but Screaming Banshee half was coming up soon.  My half marathons have to be spread out to avoid injuries.  I couldn't risk the mechanical bull muscle strain being agitated or re-injured.  It is has been doing really well. 

We started at Portland High School.  We got to the run two minutes late.  I GPS-ed us out into Ionia county to a group of wild turkeys. The turkeys should have been the red flag we were going the wrong way.  I was admiring them too much to see the warning sign.  We parked at 8:19 with an 8:20 5K start time.  Everyone was lined up.  The really nice race director stalled the race by yelling to her start team and walked with us to get our bibs and shirts.  No one was upset.  It was so kind.   The course went out of the high school past Lyons Road onto the Portland Riverwalk and became a beautiful Fall trail run.  5K courses that go out on a 1.55-mile path and come back the same way are starting to wear on me.  I got to encourage and high five Luke. This was another run that had amazing rates for children and teenagers. I thanked the race director for that. 

The Portland race staff was one of the best. Everyone stopped during the 5K awards to scream for the first and second male half marathon finishers and first female half marathon finisher.  I am inspired by first-place finishers.  Luke got first place in his age group!  He was a little powerhouse out on the course.  His recent 5K’s have been in the 40 minutes.  He cut 10 minutes off his time in Portland!  I took home second place which was absolutely amazing because they had medals like Belding with Olympic colors.  I really liked the silver. The medals were beautifully engraved.  I saw an amazing dog named Rusty out on the course with his owner Barb.  They took home an age group award!  I got a picture with the wonderful race director.  In addition to hunting down city signs to pose by I am taking more shots with race directors and some have been surprised and excited to be asked.  I love that.

After the run, we took a drive around Portland. We loved driving over the one-way bridge in town.  We went to the St. Patrick’s Festival at the Saint Patrick Catholic Church.  The craft show was HUGE and AMAZING!!!  We bought Aunt Sue’s four pack of spices on discount since we couldn't choose from her amazing samples.  We met the most amazing organic pepper growing couple, Thomas' Natural Roots.  Jason bought their hottest peppers for his trainer Dave's 20th wedding anniversary and put them together in a very thoughtful basket with labels.  His trainer likes life on the ultra-spicy side.  Some of the peppers were hotter than a ghost pepper!!!  We bought a purple bell pepper and candy cane peppers for ourselves.  They were very good peppers. I am usually not a big pepper person.

After exploring the craft show we went down to the buffet lunch in the basement.  We were served drinks and desserts on platters by local Portland high schoolers.  They were so awesome.  It was delicious.  Luke won a raffle from the dinner and picked a beautiful wood engraved cross with the St. Patrick’s clover.  We took a walk over an old shut down railroad that is now part of the Portland Riverwalk path to stretch Corky’s legs.  It was chilly but gorgeous.  We enjoyed our time in Portland. It is a city we have grown to love.  It is also a Michigan Twister City with an amazing recovery from the 2015 E-1 tornado bringing 110 mph winds to downtown Portland. I drove past the damage from that tornado after it happened and talked to a few locals about what they had seen.  On our way home, we stopped and Halloween shopped with my parents. The boy's 2019 Halloween costumes are my favorite year so far, they picked great costumes.  

Portland Page

Location: 1090 Ionia Rd, Portland, MI 48875, USA

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