NORTH MITTEN (Thompsonville - 2021 - 5K)
218 Mile Drive
Registration:
I loved the North
Mitten medal. It is what drew me to the
race. Anytime I can receive a medal shaped
like Michigan or with Michigan on it, it’s amazing. North Mitten had three race distances, a half
marathon, 10K and 5K. I registered late
for the half marathon, but it was still a good price. There was a lot of information on Sport Nomad
about the race. I had never been on Sport
Nomad’s website before. They had a very
detailed description of the event. On both
Crystal Mountain and Sport Nomad it stated that the courses were a mix of trails,
dirt roads and paved roads. The three
events would start a half hour apart with the 5K last. Two awesome things I learned on the
registration page were:
1.
Participants could
plant a tree (trees were available at packet pick-up) or donate a tree and let
North Mitten plant it in memory of someone.
My Earth Day run in Brighton was the only other run that has plated
trees. The racer guide sent by email
stated:
“North Mitten Events
has partnered with the Grand Traverse Land Conservancy and volunteers to plant
over 100 Red Pine trees at the Lower Woodcock Lake Nature Preserve on May 26th.
The 230-acre property features the entirety of a 22-acre lake, a half-mile of
the Platte River and two other unnamed streams.”
2. North Mitten teamed
up with the North Sky Raptor Sanctuary and donated $1,000 of their race proceeds
to North Raptor. The sanctuary had Sprocket,
a Northern Saw-Whet Owl, at packet pick-up.
She was so tiny! I have never
seen an Owl that small. I learned the Northern
Saw-Whet Owl is Michigan’s smallest owl.
Both websites gave
all the information needed about the North Mitten races, including course maps
for each distance and a disclaimer not to bring pets, even though there were a
bunch of pets with owners before and after the race.
Packet pick-up was in the Crystal Center at Crystal Mountain Resort. Crystal Mountain has a HUGE parking lot. It could support a much larger race easily. The Crystal Center is the main building at Crystal Mountain and is very easy to find. I walked into a really cozy room across from the elevators where I saw the amazing blue kayak, Sprocket and three separate lines for race check in. There was a wall lined with participant goodie bags. It was a very nice indoor set-up for a race with a larger packet pick-up.
Course:
The course started
on a downhill which is a rare but awesome occurrence in my running. We ran towards the huge Crystal Mountain golf
cart lot. There were so many golf carts! Signs on the course were color coded for each
race. There was one area in the woods near
the halfway point of the 5K where only the green 5K arrow broke away from the
hot pink half marathon and yellow 10K arrows.
Other than that one area, all courses followed the same path at the six
directional points we passed on the course.
When we were past
the golf cart lot entering a wooded area a woman started yelling. It was hard to make out her words but it
sounded like she was yelling, “STOP.”
It was the weirdest thing. She
was a race participant. Luke and I sped
up and ran around her so we wouldn’t have to hear the yelling. Luke asked me why she was yelling but I didn’t
have a good answer. We weren’t the only people
that noticed.
The course took us
into a scenic wooded area with very nice large homes I later found out were
upscale rental cottages. One of the cottages
was called, The Laughing Moose Lodge and another, Ski N’ Tee. We were blasted with sun as we came out of
the cottage area along a shade-less grass field. The sun was short-lived as we turned onto a single-track
sand trail that widened and shortened many times before we came off of it back
onto a paved road. We ran past more
awesome cottages. We pasted a beautiful
line of pine trees alongside the Crystal Mountain Golf Course. The sun was bright,
but we got plenty of on and off shade, even on the pavement portions of the
course. We finished the way we had started,
past the lot golf carts, and this time, “up” the hill to the finish.
I really liked the course. It changed constantly. The description on the Crystal Mountain website said the course was primarily flat. For being trail and resort roads, the course was surprisingly flat. We did not go up any part of the ski mountain. I loved the trail section of the course the most. Running on soft ground and sand felt extremely therapeutic on my feet. Finishing on a hill with the finish line right at the top made it so all the spectators came into view very quickly. It was a very rewarding finish!
Swag:
Luke and I got short
sleeved shirts and awesome race colored-coded bibs. In cool mini brown paper bags with a North Mitten
Events stamp was an energy gel pack and stickers from Crystal Mountain and North
Mitten Events. Our registrations entered
each of us in a drawing to win a blue kayak.
I wanted the kayak a little too much, which I knew meant we wouldn’t win
it. Our new home is on Kalamazoo riverfront
property. We can’t afford multiple
kayaks right now. I’m saving up for an
inflatable boat this summer. Kayaks are
next on our list to get.
The race shirt was a little problematic for Luke. Luke and I both received v-neck cut shirts. Luke’s was huge on him. The low-cut v-neck made it even worse. It was not a masculine v-neck cut and I wondered if Luke was given it by mistake. I emailed the race director Janice and she sent Luke a smaller crew-cut t-shirt from the 2016 North Mitten Race. She didn’t ask for shipping when I wrote an email offering. She simply said to promote her race. It was very kind.
Food:
There was a HUGE white
canopy tent with string lights, multiple tables and fancy creased table clothes
like you would see at a catering event.
The tables had pre-poured water and orange Gatorade in larger sized
dixie cups, halved bananas, and Gold Fish in dixie cups. Since Luke couldn’t eat the Gold Fish I gave
him the rice krispie treat Jason got me while we were running. It was a giant shaped Michigan rice krispie
with a chocolate chip where Thompsonville is located. I had to take one bite before I gave the rest
to Luke. I got an amazing peppermint hot
chocolate and lemon poppyseed muffin from the Crystal Mountain coffee shop.
The Michigan shaped wood medals were the best! Wood medals are my favorite medal material. Any medal with Michigan becomes an instant favorite of mine. The personalized race lanyards on the medals were really well done.
Awards:
Overall finishers in each race got a free entry into North Mitten 2022, an amazing engraved wooden plaque and a yellow hydration pack. It was the most generous overall award bundle I have seen at a race. There were age group awards three deep in five-year increments. Age group winners received metal water bottles with the North Mitten logo on them. Luke’s age group was capped high at 14 and under. Neither of us won an age group award. I missed third place in my age group by seconds. Losses by seconds are always tough because the first thought that goes through my mind is… “I could have run a few seconds faster.” A runner doesn’t always know who is in front of them. I take it as a push to keep trying harder in the future. I’ve gotten a lot of wonderful age group awards through the years that I love and am extremely grateful for.
City Notes:
The city of Thompsonville
was very surprising. Crystal Mountain Resort
is known around the country for its award winning 58 downhill ski trails,
A-list resort and 36 hole companionship golf course on its 2,600 acres in
Thompsonville, Michigan. Thompsonville is
two and a half miles down Lindy road from Crystal Mountain. The difference in two and a half miles is
shocking. Thompsonville feels like it
has been left to slowly degrade. A “Village
of Thompsonville” sign said the town was once known as, “The Biggest Little Town
in Michigan” in 1896 and had 48 businesses and two churches. It has less than two dozen businesses in town
today. Thompsonville used to be a huge
railway town. When rail service in the area
decreased in 1910 the town declined with it.
It’s a really sad story. Crystal
Mountain feels like the new town that took over the pieces left of
Thompsonville.
We saw a large three-story
barn that look liked it was being renovated.
It was in really bad shape. The
Thompsonville water tower was in need of a good cleaning. We passed a brick building with a variety of Thompsonville
road signs on it. It needed paint work,
but did have a nice bird mural on the side.
100F was a mysterious building with cinderblock windows. There was a red
wood building with no business name. It
had a cool candy cane on the outside. It
looked a little rough. The building next
to the candy cane shop was falling apart from the roof down. The Main Street Resale building was in bad
shape. Thompsonville had a small park downtown
with a tennis court overgrown in weeds.
Some of the highlights
of Thompsonville were the Bestie Valley District Library, Geno’s Sports Bar and
Grill, Weldon Township Hall, Downtown Pauley’s and the Thompsonville Volunteer Fire
Department. They were all buildings that
were well taken care of. The little library
was very cute. Weldon Township Hall had window
flower pots and great landscaping. The
Thompsonville Junction 2007 red train caboose with lights was awesome. It was still sitting on an old section of railway.
I saw a house with the biggest homegrown aloe plants I have ever seen outside in the garage. Near the aloe plant house was a cool Native American totem pole.
Thompsonville can still make a comeback. Seeing the newer renovated buildings gave me hope that it can build itself back up. If it can no longer be “The Biggest Little Town in Michigan” it can certainly be the, “Small Town Comeback of a Century” (literally). I want to have hope for Thompsonville because I can look past the broken, unkept or damaged and see the potential deep down. I can always find awesome things in places that look like they have nothing. Nothing is ever too far gone.
City Sign:
The Thompsonville city sign was an AWESOME four-sided mural on an abandoned building. It had a red and orange colored side with a fisherman on a lake, a green side with a couple walking through the woods, an orange side with a train that said “Ann Arbor” and a white side with snow mobilers. I was surprised to see an Ann Arbor reference so far north. The brick building was one story and had one door in the front and two windows on each side. The windows and doors were painted as part of the mural. It was amazing art! All the different vibrant colors were fantastic.
Other Awesomeness:
We got to pose on a ski lift that wasn’t currently in use. Ski lifts freak me out and I don’t know that I could ever go on one, but I would gladly walk up a ski mountain to ski down if that were an option.
When we were taking a picture next to the Crystal Mountain entrance sign Jason saw two purple salvia plants that had been dislodged from the soil. The plants were laying on their side down a way from the triangle of plated salvia plants in front of the sign. We bagged them and took them home to save them. They are doing so well in the garden and have grown huge! I am reminded of North Mitten whenever I see them. I am so glad we were able to rescue them.
I was originally registered for the North Mitten half
marathon. I registered Luke for the 5K
because I knew he would enjoy running at a ski resort and getting a great
Michigan medal. Luke’s registration gave
us another shot at winning the awesome blue kayak. My left hip had been acting up the week before
the race. We got a late start to our long
drive race morning. The 5K start started
an hour after the half marathon. Our GPS
had an ETA of 8:05am. I emailed Janice at
5:39am while we were on the road and asked if I could drop down to the 5K. I was originally told I could defer my half
marathon registration and pay for the 5K when we arrived. I didn’t want to pay more money and defer the
half to 2022.
When I started to sound like I may not be able to switch
races I asked if I could start the half marathon late. I was very frustrated that I wasn’t told in email
correspondence of the half marathon’s open start window. I could have started at 8:10am or 8:20am and
not missed my race. I may have still
tried to do the 13.1 with my hip had I remembered that. It was my fault I forgot about the wave start
times from the racer guide. I wish I
would have been reassured running a few minutes late wouldn’t have been an issue. There have been many times where slight irritation
randomly disappears and does not turn into anything serious.
I was sad about the 5K switch because I haven’t run
a half marathon since Holland Haven on September 12, 2021. Even though I finished a 25K just three
months ago, I still miss half marathons.
The 25K distance was too long for me. I love running 13.1’s every couple of months.
When I didn’t get a response about starting late and my last email went unanswered, I made the tough decision to drop from the half marathon to the 5K. In the end I was very happy to run with Luke in the 5K. The North Mitten race worked out in the way it was meant to.
Something happened with the 10K route. Participants ran a course that fell short of a 10K distance. I speculated that the signs in the woods at the 5K halfway point were originally placed incorrectly. Each course started and ended on the same path. There was a critical turning point for the half marathon and 10K. If that arrow had been set the wrong way, it would have made 10K participants run a 5K instead. I wonder if the sign fixed halfway through the 10K race. I think that was the reason behind the woman yelling when we started. She was a 10K participant that decided to go back out after she finished and run a second 5K to get a true 10K distance. The race director apologized repeatedly and kept announcing that 10K participants needed to stop by the tent to see her. The 10K participants that had sign issues got free registration for the 2022 North Mitten race. No 10K awards were given out due to the course signage mess-up.
I passed a participant that was walking on the trail portion of the course. She may have been a 10K participant or a 5Ker that had to take a break and slow down. Either way, I told her she was awesome. She shrugged off the comment and laughed like it was a good joke. I looked back and yelled out, “No, I really mean it.” I did really mean it. I’ve always commended and looked up to walkers. I especially admire walkers at winter runs because walking doesn’t heat up the body as much as running can. I hope the woman knew how serious I was. She should not feel bad about walking. She is deserving and her finish should be celebrated. Another woman I passed was stopped taking a picture of a cool cottage. When she saw me looking at her she said that she liked taking pictures of neat things she saw on her 5K walks. I told her I did the same thing and we both smiled. It was great meeting a fellow course photography for the first time.
After leaving Thompsonville we turned our three-and-a-half-hour
drive back home into a mini adventure that started in a city none of us had
been too…
Frankfort!
We ate at Frankz in Frankfort.
I thought the name was very fitting.
Frankz had gourmet hotdogs. I was
the only one that didn’t get one. I
opted for the Reuben Egg Rolls because I had never seen a Rueben combined with
an egg roll shell on a menu before. When
I asked for ketchup I felt like they gave us a pound of it to go. We went across the street to Mineral Springs
Park on Betsie Lake to eat lunch. The kids
had a lot of fun at the park. It was a very
unique well-maintained park with a lot of different playscapes, spinning
machines and hide-outs. The best part
was its water views!
We stopped at the Arcadia Overlook on M-22. It was amazing climbing up so many wooden stairs to get an incredible view of Lake Michigan. A really nice woman offered to take our picture at the top. The weather was fantastic for viewing and photos. I love finding random gems on the road you can pull-over and enjoy. It’s even better when they are free. The dogs were a little freaked out by the stairs but they conquered it. The day before we got to the Arcadia Overlook another J & M left their initials in the wood beam. What are the chances of that?
We stopped in Arcadia at the Lily Pad Gift Shoppe and Ice Cream Parlor after leaving the Lake Michigan Overlook. It was too bad the gift shoppe was not open. The ice cream parlor felt like we were walking back into the 1950’s. It had all kinds of cool antiques inside and a lot of hard dip ice cream flavors. We got the kids Superman cups with hot fudge and Jason got a shake.
Our next road trip stop was getting some much needed Lake Michigan time. We parked under the Manistee water tower and walked 775 feet through a cool mini nature trail to Lake Michigan. We had never been to North Shore Beach before. It was very sandy and not as eroded as some of our favorite beaches in Muskegon and Grand Haven have become. Corky loves sunbathing. We found some interesting rock and stick formations made in the sand. There were a lot of rocks at North Shore Beach. Carrying the rocks the kids wanted to keep back to the car was a workout for both Jason and myself.
We went off roading in the tightest dirt road I have ever been
on. It was insane! You could not do a three point turn it was so
tight! We just cruised through and
enjoyed the scenery.
Our last stop of the day was one of our favorite places in one
of our favorite Michigan cities….
PRONTO PUPS IN GRAND HAVEN!!
There’s nothing really to say about Pronto Pups because their “Pronto Pups” never fail to leave your stomach totally satisfied. I eat two to three each time we are luckily enough to stop at Pronto Pups. The tiny yellow shop on the Grand River has massive lines for a reason and if you don’t know, you must go.
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