HOBBITON BEER RUN (Benton Harbor - 2020 - 5K)
161 Mile Drive
Michigan’s most dangerous city is not a major metropolitan area of Detroit or Flint. It’s a small town nestled on Lake Michigan on the southwest side of the state, 50 minutes from South Bend Indiana. In 2017 Benton Harbor reported 2,200 violent crimes per 100,000 people (22 per 1,000 residents) which included three murders. 48% of Benton Harbor’s population of 9,944 were homeless in 2016. Since 2017 Benton Harbor has shown a steady decrease in violent crime.
We drove out to Benton Harbor on a Thursday evening. It was a different day for a run to take place. The benefit of a mid-week run was getting the weekend off. The last time I had a weekend off from running was during the lockdown. I’m not big on beer runs but I liked the “Hobbit” in Hobbiton Beer Run, the shirt design and the proceeds going to Benton Harbor library. I was also excited to get Benton Harbor on the city list.
The Hobbiton Beer Run was very simple. It had no timing mats and no mass group of participants. It started downtown Benton Harbor near the Livery restaurant. Participants took off down an alley before turning left out of town. We ran over railroad tracks, the Paw Paw River, under the interstate 63 over pass and along an awesome golf course. Last week I had to watch out for cyclists in Gregory. This week in Benton Harbor I had to move around a few golf carts. I’m getting a new running challenge every week! I ran past a dead Gardner Snake that had been run over by a golf cart. That was sad. The best thing about Benton Harbor was the halfway turn around. We ran through a very beautiful subdivision with houses high up on a steep hill on the right side. Houses on our left were on road level. The homes were newer construction. We came to a turn-around at the end of the subdivision’s street. Orange arrows on the ground pointed for us to continue straight over a set of metal teeth grates on the ground. They were at an entrance to a separate concrete path. Ahead I saw a huge and very cool yellow art sculpture at a dead-end circle. I got up to the loop looked to my right and stopped dead in my tracks. It was Lake Michigan over a sand dune only hundreds of feet away. The view was breathtaking. It brought me to a stop. I tried to get a picture but it was hard with the sand dune. I didn’t have time to climb it. I kept the image in my mind and continued back to the finish.
The second half of the course ran next to a really scenic pond with a golf course hole on a wood walkway in the middle of the pond! A hole in middle of a pond! I was hoping our course would go over the wood pathway over the water, but when I saw all the golf carts on it I knew why we had been diverted around.
My family was in the grass field when I rounded the corner back to the alleyway finish line. Luke and I grabbed snacks and water at the registration tent. I stuck around after my stretching to talk with the race director and members of her staff. They were all wonderful people. The race director was thrilled with the help the run gave to her library. I was told they invented the super cool race name. After I said goodbye to them we went back to places on the course I needed better pictures of. We climbed the Lake Michigan sand dune and get an epic picture. We took pictures of all the art murals and sculptures in town. The sun was setting just as we left to go back home.
Things I take from The Hobbiton Beer Run are:
1. The race director’s awesome Jawa ankle tattoo. I am an avid Jawa collector. I have thought about what tattoo I would get if I ever got brave enough to get one. I really liked hers. I asked her the slightly awkward question of pulling her pants up so I could get a picture of it.
2. Luke was registered with me but I was told the starting for the 2.5K was a tad confusing and he didn’t take off in time. He will be doing his virtual at home. He still got a cool medal and shirt with a dragon.
3. The really embarrassing experience I had leaving the run. As I was walking to our van I heard a guy call out numbers 19 and 20 on a microphone. I immediately looked down at my BIB and read, “19.” I exclaimed out loud next to three women, “I forgot about the raffle!” I then proceeded to go under a fence and walk to the man. I saw him holding a pizza and got even more excited that I had won Jason his favorite dinner. When I got up to him the pizza box was gone. It was then I realized he was calling out numbers for carry out orders. I thought it was a raffle because an email had mentioned they were having a free giveaway for registered runners. I hadn’t seen anything given out. I felt like such an idiot. I’m so glad we left the race area immediately after. Jason laughed for a long time about my pizza raffle. We got him a pizza on the way home as a consolation.
4. The Benton Harbor city sign was awesome and took us on a very scenic path to find it. It was totally different than what I had googled and found. The sign was next to the Bicentennial Draw Bridge over the St. Joseph River. It was a tall sculpture of a sailboat. The Bicentennial Draw Bridge separates Saint Joseph and Benton Harbor.
5. The art murals and mysterious red man sculptures all over town. The sculptures were on top of buildings and all around the city. I did research after we got home and found out the statues are part of a 16 piece art exhibit by John Sauve called, “I Am the Greatest.” The sculptures were of boxer Muhammid Ali.
6. Finisher medals were bottle openers!
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