DIRTY SNOWFLAKE (Peninsula, OH - 2021 - 5K) OUT OF STATE RUN
178 Mile Drive
Registration:
I used RunSignUp to register for
The Dirty Snowflake. It was like any
Michigan run I’ve registered for. I paid
a little bit more for The Dirty Snowflake 5K because my original birthday run in
the U.P was cancelled due to a lack of snow and I had to register very close to
the event day. The main event at the
Noquemanon Snowshoe Races are cross country skiing. You can’t cross country ski without
snow. It was so ironic an upper
peninsula race got cancelled due to a lack of snow in January and not the
pandemic. The Dirty Snowflake had a
second webpage with even more event information. They had course maps, detailed aide station
notes, refund policies, award breakdown…everything you needed to know about the
race. It was very easy to navigate
through and one of the best event webpages I have used when registering for a
run.
I was frustrated that the Noquemanon
Snowshoe Race wouldn’t allow the 5K snowshoe race to be virtual. I didn’t get a refund, but that wasn’t the
main reason for my frustration. I was
hoping to get a virtual packet in the mail.
The cross country skiing races and 10K snowshoe race went virtual. There was a raffle for amazing prizes. Virtual submissions got participants entered
into the raffle. They were mailing raffle
prizes to participants. The 5K was the
only race that they cancelled completely.
It felt like the smallest race didn’t mean anything to the race
staff. It was extremely discouraging and
I told race staff that in an email. It
felt like they were using 5K funds to better events that were more important to
them. I hope that was not the case.
Course:
I am not familiar with the
northeastern parts of Ohio. I am used to
“flat” Ohio being an ignorant Michigander.
The 5K and 12K courses were described as, “One of the best hiking and
bridle trails in Northeast Ohio.” I
hadn’t heard of Cuyahoga Valley National Park before registering for The Dirty
Snowflake. I’ve run at a lot of state,
metro and local parks. I had not run in
a national park. The course ended up
being unlike anything I was expecting from Ohio. The amount of hills I climbed on wood and
dirt stairs topped any Michigan trail I have ever run on. It was so intense! I loved the beautiful winter scenery. The finish line stretch was up a very slow
incline that seemed to go on forever.
After I finished Jason and I watched other finishers walking up it. We took a video of a few who kept trying to jog. The hill was too much for most people to run
up. I walked up a lot of it. The run started and finished in a huge grass
field inside Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
It was a great area for the kids to run around. There was plenty of parking. I wish I would have seen more wildlife. I
didn’t see one animal out on the trails.
There were no water views on this particular course, just a lot of amazing
hills and trees. I couldn’t believe the
hardiness of the green ferns in the woods.
I also found awesome ice footprints!
The finish line was really nice with lots of guiding cones, four awesome
colorful Western Racing flags and two pop up finish signs. They had yellow cones approaching the finish
and orange cones between the two timing belts.
Swag:
We received a Dirty Blend Coffee
bag as our race swag. They mentioned it
was created just for The Dirty Snowflake race on the registration page. It was a blend of three kinds of coffee,
Colombian, Sumatra and Tanzanian. I am
not a coffee drinker. I’ve never drank
an entire cup of coffee in my life. However, I do enjoy the smell of coffee
beans. I liked the scent holes in the
coffee bag. I ended up donating the
dirty coffee to Jason. We didn’t get
anything else other than a cool race bib.
I bought a Dirty Series maroon shirt and glass to take home to remember
my birthday run by so I would have something to put on the wall and wear.
Food:
They had energy gel packs,
granola bars and pre-poured dixie cups with water on a table just past the
finish line for us. It was pretty bare
when I get there with only three granola, two energy packs and two little glasses
of water out. They had nice mini fire
pits for warmth near the food area. They
had a table with pre-poured water cups at the one aide station on the 5K
course.
Awards:
This was a very unique
prediction race. Awards were given to
the 10 males and females that most accurately predicted their finishing times
in both 5K and 12K races. They also gave
overall awards to the first, second and third 5K and 12K male and female
runners. Only first place awards were
given to age group winners in five-year increments. I was really excited about
awards being given for finishing predictions.
I thought it would give me a great chance to win on my birthday. I went high on my usual 5K trail finish time
and made a finish prediction of 29:00. I was confident I could come in around
29:00 until I went up my third hill on the course. I knew then it was going to be one of my
longest 5k trail times…
It was exactly that at a 37:45
final finish time.
I was almost nine minutes off in
my finish prediction and did not come close to taking home a prediction
award. With a time of almost 40 minutes
I knew I would be going home empty handed in all categories. Had they gone
three deep in age groups I may have had a chance. It was sad.
I really wanted to win something on my birthday. I still really enjoyed the amazing trail
run.
On our way home I checked
official results and saw I was first place in my 30-34 age group among four
other Ohio runners. I would be getting
an age group medal! It took a long time
to get to me in the mail, but the wait was worth it. In early March I received a very heavy “Dirty
Series” age group medal with an awesome blue and green lanyard. The medal will
always remind me of the start of my last year in the 30-34 age group.
City Notes:
Peninsula, Ohio is a very old
small town or the be most accurate,
“coropration.” In 2020 Peninsula
reported a population of just 554 people.
There is a railroad that runs through town. The Cuyahoga River, Slipper Run, Furnace Run
and Boston Run go through town. It was a
very hilly town with very scenic driving views.
An old church was ringing its bell tower as we drove through town. The Winking Lizard Tavern is located in
Peninsula, Ohio. What a cool name for a
small town tavern! Behind the Winking
Lizard is the Cuyahoga National Park gift shop.
It was an amazing gift shop with tons of locally made art. We got buckeyes, a plush opossum and a long
sleeve park shirt in extra soft cotton.
One of the most unique things in town were the street markers. They were old cement posts only a few feet
tall. I have never seen street markers
like that before. We found what Jason
thinks were old horse troughs! We pulled
over by the Valley Trail and walked the bridge over the Furnace Run by Szalay’s
Farm and Market. The Peninsula library had a cool stone mural on the
building. Peninsula even had a Deep Lock
Quarry. It was a 1.2 mile walk and everyone
was hungry so we didn’t walk down to it. We did see it from the road. I saw two women walking to the quarry while I
was taking pictures of the sign. There
was a freaky tree that looked like it had a ghost face in it near the quarry
entry area. Jason says it had a bat
wing. It is one of the scariest pictures I have taken at a race. Peninsula, Ohio had a lot of historical cool
landmarks. It was a very unique Ohio
town.
City Sign:
The only Peninsula city sign we
could find was the small green “Corporation Limit” sign next to the railroad
tracks. It happened to be right on the
way to the run. We didn’t have to go on
a wild goose chase in a different state.
Even though it wasn’t a Michigan city I still like getting city signs. I
liked the railroad in the background of the city sign picture.
The Dirty Snowflake was a very
special run for me on my actual birthday.
This will be my last year in the 30-34 age group. I have never had a run fall on my actual
birthday until this year. In 2018 The
Auto Show 5K fell on January 20th.
In 2019 Big Foot Snowshoe was on January 26th and in 2020 The
Polar Bear 5K was also on January 26th. It won’t be until 2026 that my birthday falls
on a Saturday again. I knew I had to
make this year special for that reason.
I was really excited to get my first U.P city and really disappointed
when the Noquemanon Snowshoe Race got cancelled. When finding a replacement run in Michigan
came to a dead end I started looking in Indiana and Ohio. That’s how I found the Dirty Snowflake. Jason and I agreed that as long as the drive
was not longer than what we would have driven up to the U.P, we would go. Peninsula was half the drive time of the original
U.P trip. We didn’t have to stay in Ohio
overnight.
I love trail running and winter
running. It was amazing to run in a
National State Park and be the only participant from Michigan. There was a man from North Carolina and a few
from neighboring Pennsylvania. The border of Pennsylvania was only an hour east
of Peninsula.
After the run we went to Texas Roadhouse in
Stow, Ohio. We all had an amazing
meal. With restaurants still closed in
Michigan it was amazing to eat out. We
drove to Toledo to see The Crood’s Two.
On our way to Toledo we stopped at an Ohio Turnpike rest stop in Clyde,
Ohio. The Ohio turnpike has so many rest
areas. Their rest areas are like mini malls.
They are awesome! They have such
cool games and food. We hadn’t been to a
movie theater in over a year. It was a real treat to watch a new release on the
big screen. Crood’s Two was
hilarious! It was one of the best
comedies of all time, way better than the first Crood’s movie. Sequels don’t usually outdo their
predecessor. Overall, it was an amazing
day spent in Ohio.
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