K of C 5K (Cass City - 2020 - 5K)
116 Mile Drive
The K of C or Knights of Columbus 5K for Food Pantries was a small hometown run in Cass City. It put us in the northern middle of The Thumb! I capitalize because “The Thumb” is an authentic location to a Michigander. We had a great ride up to Cass City. I love the part of M-53 by Romeo where it goes from city to country. You bounce back and forth from freeway to 55mph road a few times and then you are cruising through cleaner air and farmer’s pastures. You can see for miles. We got to watch the sun come up, it was beautiful.
With everything going on in the world, The K of C 5K had a really good turn-out in a smaller rural town. Participants were spread out in age. They had temperature checks and lots of hand sanitizer. The Knights of Columbus men were very helpful and nice. They had awards displayed before the race started and granola bars lined nicely on a table. They made sure the water bottles and Gatorade were cold for us in ice buckets. There were maps of the 5K route for us to take on the check-in table. The registration and snack tents were lined with colorful flags that went down the street. A hilarious dancing blow-up man greeted people turning into the parking lot. Start and finish lines were near one another but not in the same location and it was not a chip timed race. We were warned of deer on the trail sections of the course. Apparently one year a deer almost took out a runner. I had never thought of deer as a running threat …. until I ran in Cass City! A lead bike led us through the course which was half street and half trail. The lead male runner beat the lead bike back! I loved the Cass River views the most. In the area where we crossed the river it had really cool large rocks. A runner saw me taking pictures and asked if I made sure to get him in them as a joke. ^_^ They had volunteers at every turn telling us where to go and signs at about half of the turns. It would have been very hard to get lost or make a wrong turn unknowingly on this course.
I felt really hot running in Cass City. It was 77 degrees. I should have taken water from the volunteer that politely asked me if I would like some at the halfway point in the course. I had forgotten my hydration pack in the car. In the last half mile I had to stop and walk three times for 20 seconds. That usually doesn’t happen to me in 5Ks. I was really out of fuel today. I passed a young girl on the trail section and told her she was doing great. I got the sweetest, “You are too” back from her. It made me smile. Those kind of moments are the most inspiring to me.
The boys were playing frisbee with Jason in the parking lot when I finished. There was one amazing volunteer who kept tapping his watch and throwing his hands up in the air at me. It was the funniest finish line! I loved all the humor. The kids all got granola bars after all participants visited the snack table. We danced with the blow-up man. We watched the cool award ceremony that included walkers!!! I LOVE AWARDS FOR WALKERS. It’s so cool to watch walkers get awards. This run in particular was really special because they gave overall trophies to walkers. They also raffled off a $35 Kohls gift card to a very deserving man.
I am on the fence about giving additional age group awards to overall female and male finishers. Overall runners often get very special trophies, plagues or gifts. Overall males and females are automatically also the first in their age groups. The question arises…
….Should overall winners also get age group awards?
I feel like it is double award dipping. It’s a bummer for the fourth-place participants in those age groups that end up going home empty-handed. I personally like to see the overall male and female get very special awards for their accomplishments while the rest of the top finishers in their age groups get placing medals, pint glasses etc. I’m not saying what happened at the K of C 5K was a horrible injustice. Every race has to make that call.
We were the second to last to leave the race once again. I got to see the knights taking down their canopies as we pulled away. We never found a city sign for Cass City. We searched all directions. We decided to go with the “City Limit Sign” in addition to many business signs that said
Cass City. We found a great Cass City Park sign on our way home with beautiful flowers.
Before we came home we stopped at a park with the best name, “Fun in the Thumb.” It lived up to its name. It was as large as McClumpa in Plymouth. We played Bloody Mary in the day light which transitioned to Hide and Seek. Jason killed it with a “dead animal” approach. He laid down on the ground behind a playscape. Luke found all of us but Jason.
We got drive-thru chicken in Imlay City on the way home. Our breakfast was a giant container of 40 Tid-Bits because the landscaping men I bought them for had left when I went to deliver them. I did not think the six of us could consume that many. I stand proven wrong. Thankfully Jason made fruit bowls last night to make up for the unhealthy food on this trip.
Cass City has nice looking schools. I loved their high school’s front lawn. It was huge! I could imagine cool events taking place on it. Cass City also has a very large and scenic cemetery. It does not have a water tower or city sign that we could find. They have a cool old-fashioned theater downtown and a lot of big parks with great trails. I liked all the landscaping downtown that made the city really pretty. It was great reading about the history of the town name (see plaque picture). I love country towns….and of course while on M-53 we passed a tractor!!! Just like in Coleman. We see a tractor driving down the road almost every time we go to rural farming cities. Tractors are almost as bad as animal sightings when I am driving. I frantically tell Jason to get the camera.
Things I take from the K of C 5K are:
1. The super huge cow we passed on M-53. Just minutes later we found his girlfriend down the street! He had a huge mask made from tarp covering his mouth. We also saw tons of cows all together eating. I have seen cow pastures but never so many cows eating all at once. It was awesome.
2. The overall trophies given to the fastest male and female walkers!!! That was awesome!! I snuck over and took a picture of the four.
3. The backyard house store on 5th street that had all kinds of dog merchandise. The owner used to work at dog shows. I didn’t know that in some cities you can make a shop in your backyard. It was like a 24/7 garage sale. So cool!
4. The most unique BIB of all time!! It was a little sheet of paper. It reminded me of a cow tag. I may have just had cows on my brain. They took it off at the finish and I forgot to ask for it back. I keep all my bibs in a scrapbook with details from the race on the back (as well as in an Excel Doc to be extra safe). I emailed the race director when we got home about it. He found it and offered to send it to me. I will be mailing the Knights of Columbus a donation for being so nice and doing that for me.
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