ALMA HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS JINGLE BELL 10K/5K (Alma - 2020 - 10K)

   Alma Home For The Holidays Jingle Bell 10K/5K 2020 Photos

125 Mile Drive

Alma’s Jingle Bell Run can be summed up with one single word: wet.  I love a good weather experience, but they usually don’t happen on longer runs.  I signed up for the Alma 10K.  Lately, I’ve been registering for longer distances whenever they are available.  A lot of runs I do are limited to 5Ks.  I like mixing in longer distances.  I had no idea it would be raining nonstop in December.  In colder temperatures, rain is much harder to run in than snow.  Snow doesn’t make you quite as wet as rain does.  When you add in temperatures in the 30’s it can become extremely uncomfortable.  I told Jason when I saw the forecast for the weekend I was going to need a poncho for this run.  He had a really nice poncho from the monthly survival box he was once subscribed to.  It even had a hood!  The one downfall was its heaviness.

 

It was raining the entire drive up to Alma.  Thankfully, it was not a heavy rain.  It was, however, a consistent rain that did not let up for a minute.  I checked into registration and got a cool personalized race bib, postcard from Alma, holiday face mask and a good-sized jingle bell on a safety pin.  I asked Jason to pin the jingle bell to my shoe before I started.  We pinned my bib under the poncho on my second layer. 

The start was an open start. We could start anytime between 9:00 and 9:20am.  The course was a straight 3.10 miles out and back down the Fred Meijer Heartland Trail.  The timing mat crew were very flexible and nice.  They had one of the smallest timing areas I have seen.  It was a little trailer and a laser gun without mats across a standard sidewalk length path.    

 

The course was consistently smooth and flat with town views at the beginning that turned into country views for the four middle miles.  We had breaks in the path for roads every mile.  Jason and the kids waited at many of the road/trail intersections to cheer me on and wave.  At one point I got overheated in the epic poncho and Jason took it from me.  I had two layers on underneath it.  At times the path was so flat I could see the minivan way up ahead.  It was good motivation since…

 

It really didn’t stop raining the entire run.

 

Running slower than usual in combination with starting late and running the longer distance left me as the last participant to cross the finish line.  I was not the last in the 10K coming in 16^th of 17.  ^_^  In the last quarter mile I came running up to a group of race staff walking back to the start with course signs.  They walked off the sidewalk and clapped for me.  It was awesome and made me feel better about being the last runner in. 

 

After the run, I didn’t stick around the race area in Alma.  I booked it to the car for warmth.  We went to get city sign pictures.  It was still raining.  We drove downtown Alma and went into a two amazing shops.  The first was Cindy Lou’s Sweet Creations.  It was an awesome candy shop/bakery.  There were so many baking supplies lining every square inch of the wall!  They had a staircase for staff that went to a second story.  We got three chocolate pizza slices for Christmas stocking stuffers, smiley cup cake baking liners and an assortment of baked goods.  Luke loved the gluten free trail mix.  The kids all loved the Christmas Tree rice krispie treats.  We bought a home cookie decorating kit and treats for Corky!  It was an awesome shop!  We stopped in Treasures next.  It was a vintage wonderland.  I found a Coca Cola napkin holder to give to Jason’s parents for Christmas, a gingerbread man plush to remember Alma by and a few Christmas ornaments.  I love colleting eclectic Christmas ornaments from different places.  The more they don’t match on the tree, the better.

 

Things I take away from the Alma Jingle Bell Run are:

 

1.     The painted panther statues all around Alma.  The panther is the Alma school district mascot.  There were some really fun ones!

 

2.     The giant gnome Christmas trees outside Tom Billig Flowers and Gifts!  It was such a cool idea!

 

3.     The awesome jingle bell I was given and put on my shoe.  It jingled the whole 6.2 miles.  I liked having the little bell being all alone in the rain.

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