HIPPITY HOP (Lansing - 2021 - 5K)
Registration:
Hippity Hop had a virtual and in-person event for
registration. A lot of runs are now
offering virtual events in addition to their in-person events. They had a very large open start window from
10:00am to 12:00pm. They said groups no
larger than 10 would start at a time but it seemed more like one person or family
at a time started. The run website had a
lot to read. It warned to register by March
23rd to guarantee a finisher medal instead of having finisher medals
for all. The run hit capacity before
race day and sold out in-person registrations.
I found this particular registration page a little too busy. It looked like instead of rewriting the
description as things changed the race staff just copied and pasted new info after
old info which made for a long read.
Many things were repeated that weren’t affected by changes. They had pictures of the finisher medal,
shirt and Easter Bunny as well as a flyer for the run. The flyer contradicted the RunSignUp time and
said the start was open from 11am until 12pm.
Course:
The course was very familiar to me from my past Lansing Pie Day
Runs in 2019 and 2020. The Hippity Hop
5K started at the same location the 2019 Pie Day Run started. The difference was we ran out 1.55 miles
northeast and ran back to the start to finish.
At the Lansing Pie Run we took off heading northwest to a finish line
3.1 miles away. I like the Lansing River
Trail. It’s about 13 miles in length and
goes in all four directions through Lansing.
A majority of the trail runs along the Grand River and Red Cedar River. It
The Hippity Hop course wasn’t a dirt trail, we ran on sidewalks and over many wooden bridges. Some of the bridges were very long. I loved all the bridges. We went under three overpasses that consisted of 496 and 127 expressways and one railway. I saw Luke on my way back after the turn around by the 127 overpass. That portion of the Lansing River Trail ends at E Kalamazoo Street by Kircher Park. They had us turn around just after the 127 overpass a quarter mile from the end of the trail. I love seeing water views on runs and this course was constant river views. Parts of the trail looked new and other parks were really patched up from cracking. It was really cool finishing by the Potter Park Zoo.
Swag:
Luke and I both got blue Hippity Hop t-shirts and finisher
medals that had the run logo sticker in a circular medal. We both received Lansing bags with a bottle
of water, granola bar, hand sanitizer, a pen and a water bottle. In addition to the Lansing bags kids got “Egg
Hunt” egg bags. The kids Easter bags
were really awesome and had a lot of candy.
Food:
The post-run food was given out in the swag bags at registration
and included a bottle water and granola bar.
Kids got additional candy in their “Egg Hunt” bags.
Awards:
Blue gift bags were given to overall male and female runners. I do not know what was in them. It was a mystery! First place medals in giant eggs filled with
candy were given to first place age group winners. Hippity Hop only went one deep for age group
awards.
City Notes:
I’ve run in Lansing three times now. We’ve been in the Capital and on the grounds
outside. We went to Preuss Pets during a
past Lansing visit and it was like going to a small zoo. We were in the store for over an hour. They have so much in Preuss Pets and the
layout is awesome! It is the best pet
store in Michigan that our family has been to so far. I love seeing the Capital around Christmas
time. I want to go to the Lansing
Christmas Tree Lighting one year. For
being a big city and Michigan’s Capital Lansing has many parks and trails. From an aerial view the city seems to be
surrounded by greenery in its many parks.
We couldn’t stay in Lansing for long after Hippity Hop as we had Easter
plans with family that night to get back to.
City Sign:
I didn’t get the Lansing city sign when I ran in Lansing for the
first time at the Lansing Pie Run in 2019.
The storms were insane that day and all Corky and I wanted to do was get
back home. One day when we were in the Lansing
Metro area for another run we found a Lansing city sign. I thought Lansing would have something really
big like Saginaw and Midland. If Lansing
does have a large city sign, I just haven’t found it yet. We spent a good amount of time finding the
one I got a picture with. It was like
the standard green city limit sign I try to avoid using, but it had a picture
of the capital building on it. I thought
it the picture was really cool.
We got to see the Easter Bunny at the run and take pictures with
him! The Easter Bunny was wearing
running shoes so he must stay active and fit too. So many kids and adults got pictures with the
Easter Bunny. He stayed at the
start/finish to clap for people finishing and see people off that were
starting.
Corky and I had a great time stretching at the playground. The ground was made of compressed rubber bits
and it felt great to lay on. The
temperature was perfect with a slight breeze.
I got some great pictures of Corky.
When we left Lansing we stopped for gas and saw a house with so
many plastic Easter eggs in their trees!!!
I have never seen so many easter eggs!
The work that went into hanging the eggs was incredible. It was an Easter egg wonderland! When we got home we spent the late night
getting ready for Easter and stuffing eggs.
My finisher medal got clipped into the plastic bag it came in
and was difficult to get out. Luke’s
medal was in the same state. It was
funny. I don’t like medals that come
with the bags still on them because in my experience participants take the
medals out of the bags and the bags end up on the ground. Bag littering was really bad at the Red Nose
Run in Comstock Park. I’m disappointed that
people litter so much in general.
The run gave participants free entry into the Potter Park Zoo
for the day. Luke and I both would have
had free zoo admission from running. I
was a little sad we didn’t get to use it.
Our pre-Easter plans with parents caused us to have to leave to go back
home. I wish the free zoo passes would
have lasted a few days but they were race day only. It made it difficult being Easter weekend. We have multiple families we try to see
around holidays.
Tiny Chihuahua standing on a truck! ^_^
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