KENT CITY RIDGE RUN (Kent City - 2020 - 15K)

Kent City Ridge Run 2020 Photos 

160 Mile Drive

The Kent City Ridge Run was just as my running friend Barb described it, a reasonably priced beautiful run through hilly farm country.   When we lived in Grand Rapids I always had the impression Kent City was huge, but we never traveled up to Kent City.  I don’t know why I had that preconceived notion about it.  Maybe it was because “city” is in its name and makes it seem large.  It turns out Kent City is a very small village.  I could count the number of shops in their downtown.  I was really surprised.  It is a great Michigan farming town.  I saw so many apple farms and a truck carrying crates of apples.  A lot of Michigan apples must come from Kent City.

The run itself was set up really nice.  The start for both the 5K and 15K at Kent City High School had a lot of space.  There were spaced X’s on the ground for runners to stand on.  They had great music playing.  As I have mentioned before, high schools make great venues for running events with their spacious roads and large grass areas.  The open start time let us sleep in longer.  I started just after the 5K group took off.  I was in the last wave of the 15K.  I followed the 5K group along hilly roads.  During the first mile we approached a very large hill that looked absolutely exhausting, but thankfully turned right instead of going up it.  

I started to get worried I had missed a turn for the 15K when I saw everyone in front of me turn around at a cone.  I saw no arrows or signs.  The volunteers gave me the instruction to turn right and that’s when I saw a 15K arrow spray painted on the ground far over near the grass.  At that moment I was officially out of the 5K group of runners and completely alone.  I saw a gator coming towards me leading the first-place male in the 15K.  He was running so fast!  He was just a mile and a half away from finishing an hour into the race.  

When I started running I was holding their thick cotton event shirt that I didn’t want to carry for nine miles.  Jason had Ryan go out and stand by the first turn out of the school to grab the shirt from me.  I must have been too focused because I missed him.  Ryan saw me run right past him.  He turned around and looked back at Jason wondering what to do.  I felt really bad.  When I got to the first water station a very sweet volunteer asked if she could take my shirt for me.  She took it while I ran six miles.  On my way back to the finish I grabbed it from her when I passed the aide station the second time.  It was a really nice break and great timing to have a much needed sweat rag.  I thanked her and took a picture of the aide station.  Jason found me around mile two to take my shirt but I had already handed it off.  He then proceeded to blast, “Eye of the Tiger” and drive away with the kids.   I found out after the race he blasted that song for many runners he found driving along the road after finding me.   

After my family left I went down a hill near a swamp. There was an abandoned shed that had an eerie window and door.  It was the darkest area on the course because of the tree coverage over the road.  Inside the window on the shed it was pitch black.  It creeped me out.  I  stopped to take pictures.  A scene from Halloween could have been filmed there.  It was very  out of place.  No other parts of the course were like that.  The course was sunshine and vast farmland.  The hills gave amazing views of miles of West Michigan land.  It was hard climbing to the top of some but the reward was worth it.  I passed a few awesome 15K walkers.  Power-walking nine miles is really amazing.  In the last three miles I walked a lot.  It was hot and I wasn’t as trained as I could have been for a long run.  I managed to run at a 10:14 pace which I was really happy with.  

They had a nice finish line with pre-made bags separated for the 5K and 15K.  They had a drink, snacks and a finisher medal inside.  I walked over to the awards table to rest and met a woman in her 70’s that had set a new 15K age group record.  She was wearing the coolest colorful pants.  When I told her how awesome they were she showed me the huge pockets they had!  I need running pants like that.  They were vibrant and practical.

I stayed around to wait for results when I only saw two finishers listed in my age group.  When new results were posted I saw my name in third place, but they were already shutting down the self-pick-up award station.  I wanted to wait to make sure I didn’t get bumped down but I also didn’t want to miss awards.  They pulled the award choices back out of their boxes for me.  I got to choose between a glass and three different old race medals.  The beautiful copper medal really spoke to me.  The finisher medal and age group medal I got complimented one another.  I’ve never taken an age group medal home for anything over a 10K distance.  I know it wasn’t a true win because there were only three in my age group but in the words of my husband, “I showed up.”

I stretched after the run by our car.  I saw the last two 15K finishers coming in on my last stretch.  I told the family we had to walk over to the finish and cheer for them.  The two women had big smiles as we clapped.  It was a ghost town finish line.  It’s always nice to hear people cheering you on when you get to the finish. I have my family most of the time.  If my family isn’t with me, I usually have great race staff cheering.  The last two women to finish were great power-walkers.  I had told them they were awesome when I passed them on the course.   We were the last to leave the race again.  This is becoming normal for us.  I got to see the trailer pack up with all the race supplies and leave the school.

Kent City was surprisingly small.  I loved their meeting area in the center of town that they used for donations to give to families in need.  They had a railway that went through town with a walking path next to it.  Their city sign was really cool.  Their schools were really nice.  I liked the white brick laundry mat.  They had a cool fire station with a giant mural and a sign that said they had only responded to 240 calls in 2020.  That was a cool statistic.

We drove to Fruitport to get the Fruitport city sign after we left the race.  I love Fruitport because it is one of six Michigan cities that have smiley water towers.  Jason got a great city sign picture with the smiley water tower in the background.  The gas station we had to park at to take the picture claimed to have “world famous popcorn.”  We got way too much of it.  It was amazing.  We went to Grand Haven after Fruitport and got Pronto Pups.  We watched boats go in and out of Grand River for a while before leaving to get three city signs near the Grand Rapids area I needed.

Things I take from The Kent City Ridge Run are: 

1. Beautiful scenery for nine miles through Michigan fruit farmlands.  

2.  The cone mile markers!  My favorite half marathon mile marker is always mile nine.  I compiled them in a collage but missed taking a picture of mile one.  

3.  I really liked their shirt designs.  They gave color choices during registration and I chose the darker gray with white lettering.  It was the only time I’ve had color choices during registration.  

4.  Two farm dogs watched me and at one point ran with me for a few hundred feet.  I got a video.  I also saw a dog running with his owner. 

 5.  The pig farm!  I ran past a barn full of hundreds of pigs that were so rowdy and loud.  I tried to get a video of it!  The noises were hilarious.  It was a first for me!

6.  Losing the nozzle to my hydration pack on the course past mile five.  That’s when I noticed it at least.  I was able to get a replacement on Amazon for $6.00. I am so glad they sell just the nozzles.  We went back and looked in the area I thought I lost it but never found it.  It was after we looked for the nozzle that we filmed a video re-creation of Jason’s Eye of the Tiger drive-by.

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