JAZZ BLUEBERRY RUN (Shelby - 2020 - 5K)

  Jazz Blueberry Run 2020 Photos

23 Mile Drive (Two Run Weekend Trip)

I don’t know how to begin when it comes to The Jazz Blueberry Run.  I will start with our time at Lake Michigan and end with all the chaos that took place during the actual run.  

We had a great Saturday afternoon.  After visiting Fremont we drove to Muskegon State Park and watched boats go in and out of the harbor.  We saw a Golden Retriever on the front of a boat, it was amazing!  So many sailboats were going out to Lake Michigan.  It’s so peaceful to watch boats.  We left Muskegon State Park and headed to our favorite dog friendly beach in Muskegon, Norman Kruse Park.  Jason and the kids built a massive sandcastle.  I decorated it with grass and rocks.  It had a moat and a wall to stop water from destroying it.  We put a towel down for the floor of the castle and put Corky inside it for a photo-opt.  He ended up enjoying himself too much as Beach Lord and laid down inside it.  He stayed in the castle while we went out into Lake Michigan.  It was amazing.  At one point a couple walked by him.  As soon as they spotted Corky they smiled.  The man turned and gave us a thumbs-up from the beach.  Corky isn’t a water fan, but he loves sunbathing on the beach.  Lake Michigan’s water temperature was a lot warmer this trip.  After the initial shock and it was comfortable to stay in.  We stayed at the beach all afternoon and left for another favorite, Pronto Pups in Grand Haven.  For desert we had ice cream from Captain Custards.  I tried Double Chocolate Almond.  Chocolate covered almonds in chocolate ice cream is amazing.  We moved from a picnic table to the grass.  The grass ended up being a terrible choice as I got bitten by ants.  I had a very painful reaction for an hour followed by huge red bumps and itchiness.

We got back to camp late, at the perfect hour to get the fire going and snack on leftovers.  In my Fremont album I mentioned our disruptive camp neighbors so I won’t go into that again.  With disturbed sleep I had a challenging time waking up on Sunday for the Jazz Blueberry Run.  The lack of internet became an issue as I couldn’t read my emails from the race directors to get a clear address.  I left my hand-written note with run addresses at home.  There were no signs on the road confirming the run entrance.  We got to a Jazz Blueberry Farm entrance at 8:57. The run started at 9:00am.   I rolled down my window and asked the man where to park and I was asked if we were spectators.  I told him I was a runner and he replied, “The entrance is closed, no more are being let in.”  He tried to call the family in charge but got no answer.  I asked if I could walk to the start.  He gave me permission to do that, but Jason and the kids had to stay behind.  When I started walking I had no idea how far I was from the start.  It was a half mile trek to the clearing at the center of the farm.  I was all alone for most of it until I got closer and saw all the runners taking off down a path to my left.  My heart sank a little, but on the bright side I was on the right path.  As I got to the start area I wiped out from walking so fast uphill.  I went down in front of their race staff.  I was coming up the course in the wrong direction and I fell in front of them.  It was a bad first impression.  

I approached the timing tent first and was told to go to the shed and ask about getting my bib.  When I got to the shed I saw tons of water bottles, shirts and a very nice old man in a wheel chair.  I spoke with him but he couldn’t help me.  I went back to the timing tent and the lady came back to the shed with me to get my things.  They let me start late at 9:12.  It was kind of nice being alone along the woods.  They had clear course markings on the ground.  I had Jason’s phone because my phone hadn’t charged enough.  It wasn’t able to take clear pictures while I was running with his phone.  I wasn’t used to using an Iphone at all. 

I believe MapMyRun paused without me knowing at 1.31 miles.  When I noticed the pause I had been running for a bit and couldn’t estimate how much distance had not been recorded.  I resumed my run immediately.   When I crossed the finish line my app was at 1.91 miles and their timing clock was at 30:05.  I knew I had run a long stretch with the app paused so I figured everything was okay, but it was not okay.  I started seeing runners finishing after me coming up from a different direction than I had come.  I was very confused.  After stretching I walked over to the results they had posted and it confirmed my time of 30:05.  I opened my phone and looked at my pace for the first mile of the course.  Thankfully, MapMyRun had logged an entire mile accurately.  My pace was 9:27.  I calculated what my finish time would have been based on that pace and it came out to 29:15.  Ironically their 30:05 was not far off from 29:15, but the catch was…. 

I had started 12 minutes late. 

I was extremely confused and unfortunately could not get answers at the run.  I have run 5K courses as short as 2.67, but none that were short by an entire mile.  I followed every single arrow and marking on the course.  The course was a figure eight.  If you imagine starting in the center and running each loop you would end back up in the center.  That is where I finished.  I think I was supposed to repeat the first loop by running past the finish. I definitely missed a portion of the course. 

I would never cut a course.  It’s a huge pet peeve of mine that runners cut courses.  I would have realized something happened had my running app not paused.  The pause led me to believe I may have run longer than my finishing mileage.  I must have missed critical race instructions by not being at the start on time.  I wish there had been a sign saying, “Go around again this way” or someone had said, “Hey! You have to repeat a loop.”  I feel like someone had to have seen me coming up the wrong direction, a fellow runner or staff.  If anything this was a freak experiment of how easy it is to cut a course.  Some courses are much easier to cut than others.  If I did it by mistake, others could have accomplished it intentionally.

I thought the epic mess was over as I walked the half mile back out of the blueberry farm.  Their time of 30:05 was comparable to my projected time based on my first mile pace.  It was another fourth place for me for the second time this weekend, no free blueberry bucket or medal, but one heck of a memory.  At a rest stop on the way home I checked the online course results and saw a changed time for me of 22:49!  I was now first in my age group and eighth overall female for the race.  Panic set in.  It was so wrong! I wrote the race director an email (see the screenshot in the album) asking him to change my time to 29:15.  I apologized for the incident.  Their response was, “Don’t worry about anything.  We hope you had a good run and you didn’t mess anything up.”  I was at a loss for words.  I decided to wait and check the results page in a few days.  

The next day I got an email from Jazz with a link to pictures and official results.  I felt hopeful that I had emailed them before their official results email went out.  I thought it all would be fixed.

…. It was not fixed.  

I am still sitting at a 22:49 superstar speed 5K time.

In hindsight, I wish I would have read the email sent the night before.  I had such bad reception at the beach and camp site.  In the email it said the gates would be closed for entrance at 8:50 in the morning. This was critical information I missed.  You all know I run late to runs but I have never been denied entrance at an event.  Most runs with timing mats in place don’t mind if a stray runner shows up a few minutes late.  This is especially true now with many staggered starts at races.  It’s the runs with more old school timing practices in place (all runners get the same start time) where being late becomes a problem.  Fruitport had this kind of start and it was a problem for me.

I have myself to blame for the mess-up at Jazz, but I still think the closure of the entrance was not a good practice.  We had to leave early to go home because I had to work Sunday night.  Jason brought up a good point that had we made it to the run on time we would have been stuck in the farm until all races were over.  With their course on their entrance path no one could leave until all races were over.  They had a mile event an hour after the 5K started.  I don’t know how many entrances Jazz Blueberry Farm has, but I wonder if the course could have been altered slightly to prevent this situation.

I was able to go on Google Maps and map the course through the farm.  The course I ran ended up being 2.17 miles, which I ran in 18:01.  My app was paused for a distance of .26 of a mile.  Running the first loop in the figure eight a second time would have gotten me to 3.07 miles on Google which is close enough to 3.10 for me.  The race staff never got back to me with a course map so I may never know the path I was supposed to take to run the full 5K.  I would have never thought to run a partial section of course over again. I’ve run whole courses twice to reach 5K and 10K distances, but never a portion of a course twice.

The Jazz Blueberry Farm was really nice with awesome decorations everywhere.  They had awesome inspirational wood signs all around the course.   I love their smiley face blueberry man and their scrawcrows.  The run shirts were the exact opposite of the Chris Cook tech shirts.  They were a pretty green in super soft cotton.  I think my favorite of the two is the soft cotton.  I didn’t get a finisher medal.  I may have been able to come in third place for a medal had my app not paused, but it was just too messed up of a day for that.  I loved the course.  It was 100% trails through the farm.  The unmanned water station with the dummy on a stick was hilarious.  I didn’t get a great picture of him, but I got something!

Things I take from the Jazz Blueberry Run are:  

1.  The amazing inspirational signs I got pictures of walking in.  They were my best pictures using Jason’s Iphone.

2.  The awesome fake dummy manning the second water station in the woods. It was a great way to social distance race staff from runners.  

3.  “You-Pick-Them” blueberry buckets as first place age group awards.  

4.  The awesome raccoon that kept visiting our neighbor’s cabin.  At one point it was on their porch swing swinging and then it tried to enter their cabin.  They were not happy.  I loved him.  He peeked out from a tree two feet away from where I was standing and then ran into the woods.  

5.  The injured Monarch I found.  He was my friend while I stretched at the run.  We tried to nurse him back to health with juice and set him free.  I will never know if he made it.  

6.  How I cut a course unintentionally for the first time.  I don’t feel bad about the shortened course distance because I had to walk a mile to the start and back (which all other participants drove).  My total distance equaled a full 5K.  I just ran two miles of it and walked the rest. 

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