PINCH THE GRINCH (White Lake - 2019 - 5K)
24 Mile Drive
The 2019 Pinch the Grinch in White Lake was short and sweet with a very scenic drive. The drive had a lot of round-abouts in the Commerce Township area. My Waze GPS Cookie Monster was nonstop with his round-about spiel. It was hilarious and annoying..."Round about in 1...2...3....me like cookie!" I met the pinching Grinch during and after the race. I only got one shot at pinching him. He was in the first half mile of the race. When I turned a corner I saw him surrounded but it didn’t look like he was being chased. It looked like he was passing out tickets to five runners. When I got up to him he ran down a hill, did a spread eagle slide, but recovered. I could not run on the slope and had to give up. It was a hilarious scene I wish I could have gotten on tape. When I saw him again he was in that same spot sitting in the grass pointing to the finish. I yelled out, “Are you still pinchable?” and he replied that he was out of tickets for prizes. It was sad and funny. I wish he would have come out once per mile, or at least twice during the race. Maybe having two Grinch (What is the plural word for Grinch?) would have helped. I hope the group of runners had legitimately pinched him and not just walked up and got a ticket. Grinch pinching is a really cool concept that makes this run unique. In the end, I didn’t pinch the Grinch, but I got to take a simulated pinching picture with him at the finish line!
The best part of this race was the Santa Frenchie that walked into the school before the start. I love dogs in costumes at runs! I liked their food table variety. They had a candy dish, apples, bagels, fruit bars and corn wafers. I came in third, my favorite age group place. The age group was the extremely hard ten year gap of 30-39. I was really beat from this week. The course was 90% trail with frozen grass, a lot of sticks to jump over and in general it was pretty hilly. Frozen grass is tough to run on because it has a lot of hard lumpy spots and my feet couldn’t stabilize well. It looks even to the eye, but it actually feels like running over a bunch of bouncy balls cut in half and glued onto the ground. I barely came in under 30 minutes today.
They only gave mugs to first place finishers. I got a really unique Grinch ornament and beanie hat for participating. I really like the finisher ornament. With Blitzen on the Dotte from this year and Playmaker’s Holiday Classic from 2017 I officially have three running ornaments. I keep them on my medal wall. I should really move them to the tree during Christmas.
I liked this run. It was a perfect run to go to without my family because it was short and didn’t have activities. I am sure the kids would have still had fun. They almost always find a park near a run. I asked half a dozen people (runners, race workers and athletic center employees) where the White Lake city sign was with no luck. In the line to look up results a man said he didn’t live in White Lake but knew there was a sign on 59 by the Police Department. He was absolutely right! I found it! It was tough without Jason, my race photographer, but I managed getting the city sign picture alone. I was very happy to make it to this race after what happened after running through Hell. It was a huge success for me. Thank you 248Event Productions for a super cute and well organized race!
…. I’ll pinch you in the future Grinch!
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