WINTERLAUFE (Frankenmuth - 2020 - 8K)
87 Mile Drive
Winterlaufe 2020 must be broken down into a race summary and a Frankenmuth summary. First I will break-down the race itself.
The 2020 Winterlaufe race was set in a beautiful location with a very warm and cozy registration venue at the Bavarian Inn. They had a wonderful atmosphere with bagels to eat before the run. I have never been offered food before a race start. A nice slideshow was set up in the Bavarian Inn’s family dining room. There were chairs for their awards ceremony and a few cool vendors (gloves and essential oils). ^_^ The course start was a short walk across Main Street behind Zehnder's. The boys stayed warm inside the Bavarian Inn and got sweets at the bakery downstairs while I ran. I lined up with a sweet dog named Lory and saw a good amount of dogs during the race. An amazing Mastiff ran with his owner. I got to meet and pet him after the run. I started the race behind a woman wearing hilarious socks. They made you want to stay behind her (see pictures). I was hoping we would run more through or around downtown, but the countryside was still nice. The course was much more hilly and icy than I expected. It was about two-thirds street running and a third trail run. The off-roading trail section with the awesome bridge was the most beautiful and most dangerous part of the race. I lost traction on my left foot at one point and a very nice man behind me asked me if I was okay. Luckily, I didn’t see any runners fall. I did see a woman in shorts! Her legs were so red. She scared me. She must know something I don’t or have a body built for cold. My favorite part of the course was the Gugel Bridge over Cass River built in 1904.
After the race I was totally surprised by the pizza slices and chocolate milk for runners!! It was really good pizza and everyone got a slice (Jason got two) because they had so much left over and asked us to take more. Luke got double chocolate milk and gluten free bakery treats. They gave out finisher medals for the first time this year! The lanyards had “First, Second and Third Place” in big text. There was a dangling centerpiece in the center of the snowflake on the medal. I felt like I really struggled again and my time surprised me. Running for five miles at 9:07 was great for me. I got really excited because it was so close to the eight minute realm. We sat through all the runner awards and left before walker awards were announced. I would normally have stayed for walker awards but Corky wasn't feeling well. I loved that they gave out awards for walkers. Their shirt design was amazing with an outstanding font for their logo and great color choices. I’m looking forward to the next two runs in this Frankenmuth series to see what other scenery in Frankenmuth I get to see.
Our day in Frankenmuth was spent cashing in on our Zehnder’s birthday chicken dinners and going to Bronner’s. The last couple times we have gone up to Frankenmuth we did not stop at Bronner’s. I missed my free birthday dinner by a day but I had forgotten that Jason added the kids to our rewards card. Jason and Luke had free dinners and the rest of us got $3.00 off for coming in within two months of our birthdays. Zehnder’s has gluten free options on their menu but they are very expensive. Luke got a huge steak with corn for his dinner and they surprised us by having gluten free bread! It was really good gluten free bread. They weren’t suppose to give Luke his gluten free meal for free, but they did. This took our bill from $125 to $35!! It was amazing. Luke and Jason got fancy ice cream sundaes with “Happy Birthday” sticks in addition to their plastic animals. I found a bag of plastic animals in the gift shop downstairs that I bought with our 20% off birthday coupon. The plastic animals break easily, so it’s good to have back-ups. We went over to Bronner’s after lunch for our birthday ornaments and coupon. We had never eaten in the Bronner’s café before. The hotdogs were amazing. They ran out after we bought three.
We did a, "Who can look like a king or queen the best" contest on the Bronner's Santa throne. You decide the winner. ^_^ I love Bronner’s. I am Buddy the Elf when it comes to Christmas Spirit. I like Christmas music in November, I go over top in Christmas decorating and mail out 85-100 Christmas cards each year. We never have time to see everything in Bronner's. We saw the back presentation room next to the kids section for the first time. It had a lot of huge collections and Catholic decorations. Everyone picked out an ornament. Ryan chose a customizable ornament and we all got to see how they are made. The rubber band trick is amazing if you haven’t seen it! Unfortunately, Corky got very sick from getting into garbage the night before the race and we had major cleanups to do between our stops. He has since made a full recovery.
…we however can never unsee some of the intestinal horror.
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