MIDLAND RECYCLERS STAR WARS 5K (Midland - 2021 - 5K)
Registration:
Star Wars events
always catch my eye, especially when they are tied to running events. I saw that Midland was having a Star Wars 5K
the same day as Croswell’s Library 5K.
The drive from Croswell to Midland wasn’t far off our drive home. We would already be in the thumb for the morning. Registration was very reasonable for the Star
Wars 5K. We got an $8.00 discount and
paid $56.00. The run said there would be
a Star Wars festival area with games, prizes, food vendors and a costume
contest! It was a fun run that was not
chip timed. It was just to celebrate the
love of Star Wars and running. There was
not a lot of information on the RunSignUp page.
Without the run being chip-timed there really wasn’t a need for additional
information so being short and sweet with the address, time, location and festivities
to expect was just fine. Registration
mentioned they had three costume categories that would be judged.
Packet pick-up was at Midland City Forest at the same location Snow Moon Trail Run took place. They had tables and canopies set up with awesome displays. The middle table was registration with costume forms information to sign. The table to the right had our prepackaged bibs and shirts. The table to the left was Yoda green and was loaded with Star Wars items and pre-packaged festival accessories in see-thru plastic bags with handles. The ladies at packet pick-up were very helpful and nice.
Course:
The course through
Midland City Forest started in the woods.
It was not a long walk from the festival and check-in area into the
woods to the start. We didn’t know that
the finish line was the trail next to the start on the left. The 5K course was a circle through Midland City
Forest. It was a completely different trail
than my Snow Moon Trail 5K path. It was
nice to see a new part of the huge forest.
There were great Darth Vader signs with arrows that said, “Star Wars 5K.” They had tons of pink signs on trees that had
Jedi motivation such as,
“May the Force be With
You.”
“Together we can defeat
the Empire.”
“Be Strong.”
At the end of the
race there were three signs on consecutive trees with signs that read:
“You”
“Are”
“Awesome!!!”
They had an awesome
finish line sign banner strung across trees.
The course had extremely wide trails in dense pine trees. It was pretty flat for a trail course which was a nice break since Luke and I had both run a 5K earlier in the morning. We passed a few hills but they were not part of the course. Our biggest obstacles were roots and holes in the dirt. In the last quarter mile I thought we got lost and got worried because my phone was dying out in the woods. I stopped my run tracking at 2.67 miles and turned it back on to get the last .24 miles thinking I was going to run out of battery. Luckily Midland City Forest is surrounded by main roads. If someone had wandered off in any direction, they would eventually make it out.
Swag:
Our 5K bags included
an awesome orange Star Wars shirt with the Mandalorian and Grogu, a pink beer
coozie, pen, car air freshner, cool pair of green and black sunglasses, two notepads,
lip balm, a car cell phone mount and two packages of green and white M&Ms
with lightning bolts on them. The M&Ms
were the best!
We got the most
amazing medals with Grogu on them made from recycled materials. The bib was also made from recycled materials. It was very soft with woven plastics. It had huge numbers and the Mandalorian and
Grogu on it.
We got prizes from
the Star Wars table for completing all the games and getting stamps from the festival
area in our passport Star Wars books. Jason, Ryan and Will got the prizes while Luke
and I ran. They picked out a Villain Stories Star Wars book, candy Jedi dispenser,
Darth Vader socks with capes, a Star Wars hero card pack and an awesome crayon
wax mini canvas art of Yoda. Jason said
the Yoda canvas was what they picked for me.
I put it on my running wall. It’s
awesome!
We got to keep the toys
they gave us to play the games in the festival area. In addition to the bag, a Star Wars sticker,
lip balm and pack of M&Ms they included:
A stretchable flying
disc
A flying foam rocket
A mini blow-up beach
ball
A bean bag with a tail
that looked like a meteor
Luke and I won the “Star
Wars Costume Made from Recycled Materials” costume contest category with our
Jawa and Gonk costume. It was awesome! We got a Mandalorian and Grogu homemade
spinning frame for winning.
I felt like we left the Star Wars 5K with so many things. I have never gotten so much for the whole family from a run. All five of us got passports into the festival area with game bags even though Luke and I were the only ones registered for the run. We all got prizes from the Star Wars table. It was amazing and so generous on the race staff’s part. The Star Wars 5K had a lot of cool sponsor freebies and a great medal, bib and shirt. The medal and bib were the most unique handmade medal and bib I have received, especially the bib, I have never had a bib like it.
Food:
There was a table out in the forest in a “V” shape between the start and finish areas. The table had a wood basket with apples and oranges in it, there were granny smith apples in a plastic bag. They had Chewy granola bars and full-sized water bottles. There was a cool large piece of Star Wars fabric rolled up in a ball on the table. I don’t know if they forgot to put it down, something spilled or it dropped on the ground and they had to remove it. It was too bad it wasn’t out on the table. They had a recycling bag for plastic bottles and aluminum cans. It is so rare to see plastic bottle recycling at runs. Epic Races implemented recycling stations at their races a few years back. I am very grateful for running events that have recycling because it has always bothered me how many plastic water bottles go to waste at runs. I saw it firsthand working for Kona Running Company. It really disturbed me because plastic bottles are so easily recyclable.
Awards:
There were no age group or overall awards for the Star Wars 5K because it was meant to be a fun run and family event for Star Wars fans with an emphasis on the festival and costume contest. All finishers of the 5K received shirts, finisher medals, sponsor giveaway items and festival game items.
City Notes:
It was a very fun long day for us. After Midland we were very tired, so I once again did not get to spend a lot of time in Midland. I did get more Midland city pictures driving around. Midland has an awesome VFW Hall with all the military branch seals separated by different colors of brick in a dimensional pattern. Captain Dave’s Family Entertainment Center had a rollarena and restaurant and looked awesome. Splash N’ Dash was a great name for a self-service car wash. I found a beautiful spray paint mural of flowers, butterflies, and hummingbirds under one of the M-10 overpasses in Midland. We drove by the Great Lakes Loons Baseball field. It had a cool raised stone wall along Buttles Street. Valley Lanes was a huge bowling alley in Midland with three colorful bowling pictures on the side of the building. Midland has a lot of nice hotels and the Midland Mall. It’s a big Michigan city packed with entertainment and fun which I hope to come back and do in the future.
City Sign:
I got the Midland city signs after the Star Wars 5K. I was unable to get Midland city signs the first time I ran in Midland at the Snow Moon Trail Run in February because it was too dark and too late. Even though the Star Wars 5K had a 6:30 start time and we didn’t leave until 8:00pm, sunset was late. We were able to drive around and find three Midland city signs. When I asked the run staff where Midland city signs were located we were told one was by Lasko’s restaurant. The run staff was right! The largest Midland sign was across the street from Lasko’s. We found another Midland sign on our way to Lasko’s that was very tall. Luke and I stood under it. I stopped near M- 10 and got a picture with the Midland city seal. The seal said, “City of Modern Explorers” and was done in copper. I liked all the Midland city signs. They were very colorful, large and had great variety. It was a cool hunt finding them all and putting a city sign collage together for Midland.
Other Awesomeness:
Before we got to Midland for the Star Wars 5K we went east to
Lexington to spend some time on the beach of Lake Huron. We stayed at Lexington Harbor for the afternoon. When we left the beach, we walked past a fishing
tournament taking place. There was a
food table with hotdogs, chips and drinks and I had $20 in cash on me. I rarely carry cash. It was $4 per person so we all got lunch and
sat down in the park to eat. We watched
a remote-control car and boat drive around.
We met the owner of the remote-control boat and his amazing
Mastiff. Lexington Harbor is a dog
friendly beach. A lot of dogs were spending
the day out in the water. I had the kids
find beach rocks and drop them in my hand with my eyes closed. After looking at each one I guessed who
picked what rock. The first time I got
everyone’s rock right, including Jason’s.
I failed bad the second time.
I really enjoyed making a Jawa and Gonk costume. I love Jawas. I collected yogurt cups, Martinelli’s apple juice containers and toilet paper rolls for a few weeks leading up to the run. The recycled costume category was perfect for us. Luke’s Gonk turned out a lot better than the Jawa. He had amazing huge boxes for feet that he had to shuffle around in. Midland Recyclers had constructed a huge Sandcrawler and Gonk droid made from recycled materials in the festival area. It was awesome! We were the only contestants in the recycled materials costume category but there were a bunch of other costumes. As Jason always says, “We showed up.” ^_^
In the festival area there was a light saber ring toss game, a
galaxy planet rocket shooting game, a Jedi frisbee throwing game, a defeat the
blow-up stormtrooper by throwing beach balls game and a tower can knock over bean
bag game. It was a very fun area. The kids loved it. We got a stamp from each one of the volunteers
manning the stations. The only thing
about the festival area that didn’t go with the recycling theme was the bag and
items we got to play the games with were not recyclable. I know the run structured it that way due to
covid. They didn’t want people touching
things someone else just used that were not easily cleaned. It was awesome to have toys to take home.
Andrew Mullin (amullin@hearstnp.com), a photographer from the
Midland Daily News was at the event and took a lot of great pictures of us which
I have put in my album. Below is the link
to the article as a siting reference and so that anyone who would like to can
read it. Andrew was awesome and asked
for all our names. I loved the photos he included in his news article. The article from the Midland Daily News can
be found here:
https://www.ourmidland.com/photos/slideshow/Midland-Recyclers-holds-Star-Wars-themed-5K-221653.php
I have never registered Luke for two 5K’s on the same day and I won’t again until he is older. He really like the book medals and was really interested in running a Star Wars run. Both Croswell and Midland had very affordable registrations for two people, so I registered both of us. Luke was very tired at Midland. I stayed with him, but he was dragging. Sometimes I ran ahead but I would stop and wait for him. There was no pressure to run fast at the Star Wars 5K so we enjoyed a good nature trail. Luke noticed that this particular course used “K” signs instead of “mile” markers. It was a unique way of giving us distance and really put a 5K in a clearer perspective for Luke. He especially liked the kilometer signs because it made him feel like he was making faster progress.
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