POLAR BEAR RUN (Okemos - 2020 - 5K)
67 Mile Drive
The 2020 Polar Bear Run put another Lansing city in the books! I was still recovering from being sick making it exhausting and very hard. I hadn’t run in a week. This was my discount birthday run. I saved $45 by not going to the Poho Hot Cocoa. The $45 in savings bought my registration for Winterlaufe in Frankenmuth next week!
Our GPS failed us going up to Okemos. It led us to the wrong park entrance. Luckily at this run we arrived with spare time. The course was a beautiful mix of trail scenery through Nancy Moore Park with some street running at the end through Okemos. I loved the mile timing clocks! I wish more races had mile timing clocks. Even at smaller races they are great for runners. They had a great indoor area for registration and awards next to the Okemos Police Station. The only thing I was frustrated with was not receiving a race giveaway for registering by January 10th. You can see my screenshot of this in my album. When I asked about the giveaway I was told the giveaway was the shirt. I found that answer odd as most shirts come with registration and shirts were mentioned separately. I also saw almost every person with a shirt.
After the run I passed by the coffee table not realizing they also had caramel hot cocoa! I went back after awards to grab a cup and since the carafe was still very full I got the family hot cocoas. This was the first race in a month that didn’t run out of hot cocoa …
….and I was last in line!!
The Polar Bear Run had great finish line music and a blow up polar bear to take pictures with. I was sad there were no finisher medals but then I saw my name on the age group list in second place! A bunch of people were ahead of me the entire race. My stamina has been totally depleted since I have fallen ill. I predicted sixth or seventh place. I think I got lucky with smaller attendance numbers. I know a handful of runners that hibernate from winter events and reappear in the Spring.
After the very nice award ceremony which my family came in for, we went out for lunch at Noodles at Company. It was originally going to be Chick-Fil-A for my birthday nuggets but I forgot the ultimate Chick-Fil-A rule…
CLOSED ON SUNDAYS...
We decided to check out a local resale shop but had a really creepy experience in Okemos. The owner came to the door and watched us get out of our car. Once in the shop we were continuously watched in person by the owner, by fake video cameras in each room and a few real cameras. They mounted one of their fake cameras so that it pointed down into their dressing rooms! They had warning signs on their bathroom about shoplifting and a real video camera pointed up close on the bathroom door. While Jason and the boys were using the restroom the shop owner’s wife passed me pretending to go to an employee only room multiple times but it was painfully obvious that her real intentions were to watch me. We were so uncomfortable we left. I laughed out loud as I found a google review describing our exact experience from a past customer. I have a screenshot in the album.
We couldn’t find other resale stores that had a lot beyond clothing in Okemos so we went 10 minutes down the road to Williamston and found a huge antique store with wonderful owners. I found a $13.00 Polaroid and Jason found an air force plane he had as a kid. I was interested in the Daisy BB guns they had, but they were all made in the Arkansas plant, not the Plymouth plant.
Things I take away from The Polar Bear Run are:
1. The amazing timing clocks at mile markers to help us pace and see how we were doing.
2. The great lunch and blast from the past shopping extravaganza we had after the run.
3. The shocking and amazing age group award! It was my first age group award since December 7th at the Ionia Jingle Bell Run and my first age group award since turning 33 just two days before this run! It was a great way to bring in 33. I am not in a new age group, but I am going into another awesome year of running.
4. The really tall wooden walking bridge along Nancy Moore Park’s borders. Unfortunately, it was not part of the course but was still cool to admire.
5. The mysterious animal tracks the boys found while I was running! A few had claws and were much bigger than a large dog. Cougar? Bear? Take a look! We found them in two different areas of Okemos.
I love the name Okemos. Never give up and think it’s over. I learned today results may surprise you. You may think a run was the worst and still be pleasantly surprised.
Comments
Post a Comment