CINCO DE MAYO (Manitou Beach - 2021 - 5K)
56 Mile Drive
Registration:
The RunSignUp page for the Cinco de Mayo 5K in Manitou Beach was short and sweet. The address and time stuck out. Registration was a good price and benefited the Addison Girls and Boys Cross Country & Track programs. They listed their age group award categories and said awards would be handed out in the finish chute. That was it for information. Packet pick-up was in Nutrition Beach. They had two tables set up with lots of fun decorations.
Course:
The course was a big rectangle
with one side that zigzagged and wasn’t straight. We took Manitou Road to N Rollin’ Hwy and then
made a right onto Manitou Beach Road to complete the three sides of the
rectangle. The first part of the course
near Devil’s Lake had awesome water views.
The rest of the course was on country roads with a lot of farmland. We ran by a parked Addison Fire and EMS ambulance
(I’m using to seeing ambulances at the start and finish), one water aide
station and two guys cheering sitting on top of a white truck at one of the
street intersection turns. There were
beautiful clouds in the sky. The weather
and temperature were perfect. I met a
man turning onto Manitou Beach Road that I talked with for a few minutes. He hadn’t run a 5K in years but used to run 5K’s
under 27 minutes. He had just run his
first 5K last weekend since his break from running. I told him he was doing really well. He wasn’t too thrilled with his pace. He was a really nice guy. I stayed close to him the rest of the way to
the finish. Before I got to the finish I
ran by our van. When I got to the finish
area I had to run past the finish mats down Lakeview Boulevard on the north
side of the loop and turn around back to the finish which was on the southeast
area of Lakeview Boulevard. It was a
very flat shade-less course.
Swag:
I almost didn’t get a shirt! Jason came to the rescue while I was running and asked the registration staff if they had shirts left. He was holding a shirt at the finish line for me. They had black t-shirts with their awesome race logo. The print is a print I’m worried about coming off after multiple washes so I don’t wear the Cinco de Mayo shirt a lot. I got a really awesome personalized running bib. Participants got coupons for .50 off ice cream of a coffee at the Sandbar Café.
Food:
There was bananas, three flavors of soft Nutri-Grain bars, Nature Valley crunchy granola bars and Aquafina bottled water. Nutrition Beach was open and had 11 race day smoothie flavors available. The smoothies were very popular with participants.
Awards:
On RunSignUp it said there would be awards for overall male and female, masters overall male and female and age group awards three deep with five-year increments starting with “11 and under.” I was given a cool plastic medal when I finished at the finish line chute just as the registration page described. It confused me because it looked like they were being handed out to everyone. I didn’t see overall awards anywhere so I inquired about it. I was told the medal was a finisher medal. Something must have changed after their page was written. They went from having awards to giving everyone a finisher medal. I liked the medal a lot. It was very unique heavy duty plastic that will last a long time.
City Notes:
Manitou Beach was an amazing
town on Devils Lake and Round Lake. The
people that live in Manitou Beach are really tight knit. I got the impression everyone looked out for
one another and genuinely cared about their fellow neighbors. Even with a limited number of businesses the
shops that were in Manitou Beach were awesome.
We walked around the Michigan Gypsy Boutique for a while. It was right in front of the starting
line. The owner was so kind and
nice. She had an amazing selection of
art and fun items. The back of the store
was a a fine art gallery and the front had lots of clothing and great home and
yard décor. I bought a pair of fun socks
for each of the kids.
After visiting Michigan Gypsy I
got smoothies for everyone at Nutrition Beach.
They were very unique in taste and the kids did not like them. Ironically, they tasted like they used real
fruit and good ingredients. I ended up
drinking a lot of smoothies. I stopped
in Devil’s Lake View Living and met the owner Darlene. She was so sweet, told me a lot about the town
and helped me find a Mother’s Day gift for my mom. I bought a few dog treats too. Darlene had a Maltese named Daisy that passed
in January. Daisy was the shop dog and
had a bed on the check-out counter she would lay in and greet people from as
they walked in. Daisy’s bed was still on
the counter with a framed picture of her.
After leaving Darlene we were very hungry and stopped for lunch at the Two Lakes Tavern. We sat out on the outdoor porch because the weather was so amazing and we were able to enjoy lake views. The food was great! We split three big meals.
City Sign:
Manitou Beach’s city sign was the closest city sign to a start and finish line of any run so far. We got the city sign picture before the run started. This city sign was not on the border of the town as you drive in like many others we have found. It was smack in the center of town on a grass median separating the “U” shaped Lakeview Drive. It was a very cute little sign that well with the town.
Other Awesomeness:
The MC’s were amazing. It
was a couple in charge of the music and announcements. They really liked Bean and Corky. They played “My Eyes Don’t Cry No More” by Stevie
Wonder and a group of people started doing the line dance. I was awesome! There was such a great energy at this run,
more so than the usual great running energy at any running event.
They had great Cinco de Mayo signs, props and costumes for
pictures in Nutrition Beach. We had a
lot of fun taking pictures waiting for our smoothies.
We were the last to leave the event again. Our minivan was the last vehicle left on the
grass parking lot. Corky decided to lay
under it for shade while I stretched. He
was really weird laying under the muffler even though the car wasn’t
running. He looked very peaceful. He needed the shade.
Something that was really cool and rarely happens at runs was
the group picture of all of us Manitou Beach race staff took under the “Lakeview
Shops” archway. It was so cool!
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