Living Waters Turkey Trot 2020 Photos 50 Mile Drive The Hands and Feet Turkey Trot hosted by Living Waters Mission and St. Johns Lutheran Church was the second of only two runs I could find in the entire state of Michigan on Thanksgiving Day.   Usually there are so many runs on Thanksgiving it can be overwhelming.    Almost everything got cancelled this year on the holiday.   I was registered for the New Beginnings Turkey Trot in Sheridan leading up to Thanksgiving.   I saw their cancellation post on their Facebook page days before their November 20 th   race cancellation email was sent out.   It was pretty short notice and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get a back-up run in time.   Lakeview had an in-person race.   It was a two-hour drive.   I emailed the race director at Lakeview to see if they were debating a cancellation of the race.   They seemed solid on an in-person race.   I kept searching and found a run in Adrian.   I had been registered for a half marathon in Adrian

   ISSC Turkey Trot Photos 72 Mile Drive   Another sad running loss of 2020 was the Detroit Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving.   I look forward to making my best costume of the year for Detroit.   It would have been my fourth year entering the costume contest.   I was super excited with a hammerhead shark costume idea.   Long before November I knew events as big as the Turkey Trot would never be able to stay live in-person.   Getting the official email was still very sad.   In place of Detroit I found a turkey trot run in Imlay City the weekend before Thanksgiving as well as a turkey trot on Thanksgiving in Adrian.   Imlay City was one of my most anticipated thumb cities to visit.   We had driven through it on the way to Cass City.   I like its name.   I knew it was a pretty big thumb city with a lot of businesses.   I love driving on M-53.   It’s a very peaceful rural version of an expressway.   The run was held at the Christian Reformed Church on Cedar Street.   It was a great location

    Outrun Hunger 2020 Photos 18 Mile Drive Jason and I ran together for the first time at the Outrun Hunger 5K in Commerce Township.   Jason’s parents watched the kids for us.   It was a run close to home that helped people in need around the holidays.   We both got $10 Kroger gift cards just for registering for the 5K.   Overall male and female winners got an additional $25 in Kroger gift cards.   There were no shirts.   They had great medals and post-race food.   The run started at the Commerce Township City Hall which is located off Martin Parkway.   Martin Parkway has a lot of round-abouts.   I remembered it from my drive to Pinch the Grinch in White Lake last year (Cookie Monster GPS Hell).   We checked in and listened to the race director talk about the impact the run had on local families in need.   We lined up at the start based on pace.   Small groups of runners took off every 10 seconds.   The course had a variety of terrain.   For half of the course we ran down Martin P

   Beat the Train 2020 Photos 153 Mile Drive The best competitor to run against is not a human being…it’s a train!  I love unique races that stand in their own league.  Beat the Train was just that.  I had been excited about it when it had its original date of March 21, 2020.  When 99% of runs got cancelled in late March I was worried Beat the Train would postpone until 2021.  I didn’t want to wait that long to run against a train.  I also didn’t want it to go virtual.  A virtual run would have been a very bad option for a run against a train.  The race director sent lots of emails with surveys about the unique circumstances they were facing and finally decided on postponing the event until November 7th.  I knew it would be worth the wait and was glad they didn’t cancel.  It was sad that they refunded family tickets.  It would have been amazing for Jason and the kids to be in the train as spectators.  With the coronavirus still out and about you have to take what you get if you are giv