Paws in the Park (Jackson - 2021 - 5K)
Registration:
I was trying to keep runs close
to home for a few weeks in August. I fell
in love with the Paws in the Park medal and shirt design. Their logo change from 2019 was amazing. I loved the two dogs jumping out of the
water. Cascades Humane Society (CHS) always has the amazing
Ultimate Air Dogs at their Paws in the Park festival. The finisher medal was a see-through acrylic. It was a very unique medal. The t-shirt was a bright neon green. It looked awesome.
RunSignUp had all kinds of great
information on the Paws in the Park 5K, Woof Walk and events following. I was left questionless after reading though
the “General Information” section. There
was a separate website for Paws in the Park with even more information that
listed show times, schedule of events and had pictures for past year’s events.
Packet pick-up was at the CHS tent at Horace Blackman Park. It was very easy to find the CHS tent being
located at the front of the festival with bright streamer signs. There was only one participant ahead of us
and the line moved quick. They had a lot
of volunteers at their check-in tent.
Packet pick-up was only feet from the start/finish line.
Course:
The 2021 Paws in the Park course was in a completely different location in Jackson than the 2019 course. In 2019 the inaugural Paws in the Park 5K took place in Sparks Foundation County Park 1.7 miles from the downtown Jackson. The 2021 Paws in the Park moved location to Horace Blackman Park in the epicenter of downtown Jackson.
The 2019 course was a loop around the park
without major street intersections. The
2021 course had the most road crossings I have ever done in one 5K. Luke and I crossed 42 Jackson streets with at
least eight of them being major intersections. It was a great running first and
something I will always remember about Paws in the Park. It takes a lot more planning, volunteers and
signage to host a 5K over so many intersections.
The 5K had a flexible start time between 10:00am and 10:30am. We could have started with a larger group at
a competitive 10:00am start. I wanted to
take it easy and stay with Luke on this run.
I had no intentions of taking home an age group award. This year Paws in the Park was meant to be a fun
day with the family. Luke and I started
around 10:20 and were alone for most of the 5K course.
The course was almost an “L” in shape. After making our first left from the start we traveled down the outskirts of downtown past Washington Avenue eventually making our way into the suburbs back on Washington Avenue. We spent the majority of the 5K on Washington Avenue and Franklin Street running by Jackson homes crossing over street after street.
There was an aide station at the
corner of Durand Street and Franklin Street.
A few residents were on their porches watching participants. Signs were great on the Paws in the Park
course. There were signs at every
intersection, many with the colorful dancing streamers and tons of 5K and Woof
Walk arrows written on the sidewalk with chalk.
There were not volunteers at every street crossing.
I imagine it was difficult finding 42 groups of volunteers. Crossing the low traffic neighborhood streets
was not dangerous and rarely had cars.
At one point we passed a small strip mall of businesses that included Healthy Vibes (a smoothie shop) and Stitchography Shoppe.
My favorite part of the Paws in the Park course was the last mile. The east side of Jackson on Jackson Street was beautiful to run down. The Consumer’s Energy building and First Baptist Church of Jackson were a few of the highlights. We loved all the murals we passed in the last half mile of the course.
Running through downtown Jackson was a great
build-up to the finish. In the last
quarter mile we passed the Paws in the Park festival, running alongside the
masses of people gathered near the water pool of the Ultimate Air Dogs. We turned down Pearl Street (feeling like
home) and disappeared behind festival scenes as we approached the finish
line.
Paws in the Park was a flat and shady course, with road
crossings every 369 feet. The only
elevation changes were going up and down the tiny transitions from sidewalk to
roads. There were a few Jackson police
officers manning the highly trafficked intersections. About a third of the intersections had
volunteers while Luke and I were running.
We started behind the majority of participants at 10:20am and it is
possible some volunteers left.
Volunteers normally man their stations until all participants have passed
them. I loved all the neighborhood trees
that lined our course and gave us plenty of shade in the July heat. I had a great time staying with Luke at a
slower pace, having fun and taking some great mile sign pictures.
Swag:
Luke and I received the amazing neon green Paws in the Park tech
shirts I had seen in registration pictures. They were
just as awesome as I had anticipated. I
love the neon color, it’s a shirt color
I don’t have a lot of. I was so glad to
get a shirt that fit from Paws in the Park.
There was a mistake at the 2019 Paws in the Park and I somehow received
a youth medium. I didn’t notice the size
issue until I got home. The size mess up
was the only time I’ve received a shirt so small I couldn’t wear it.
Finisher medals were on a great hanging display on the post-run snack
table feet away from the start and finish balloon arch. They had black lanyards with the CHS logo in repetition. The lanyards had an actual clasp that could
be opened at the end rather than a hook or ring. The acrylic part of the medal was a good
size. I loved the slightly blue tinted see-through
material used for the medals.
There was a trailer near the Ultimate Air Dogs pool that was set
up inside for photography sessions. For
being run participants we got a free professional family photo taken with the
dogs by April Messer Photography. Bean looks amazing in the photo. I forgot about getting
the digital download of our photo until the day April was taking the Paws
in the Park album off her website. I got
our picture just in time!
Restrooms:
There were two blue Porta-Johns near the start and finish arch. I didn’t see any other Porta-Johns in the festival area,
but I could have missed them.
Food:
Post-race food included dog and human treats. There were full size water bottles and assorted
granola bars for people and packaged bags of Milk Bones and Kong peanut butter
packs for dogs. Race staff let us take Milk
Bones and Kong packets for Bean and Corky even though neither participated in the
Woof Walk or 5K. Corky can no longer
walk more than a quarter mile daily due to his age and heart. I believe in exercise no matter what age a human
or animal is. You should do what you can
do, even if it doesn’t seem like much.
I don’t count the festival food as race food, but I still want
to say they had great pretzels and a really cheap $5 hotdog lunch that I
surprised an unsuspecting Jason with for the Ultimate Air Dogs dog show. Luke found gluten free treats from a festival
vendor. I got a great picture of the two
ladies that had gluten free food smiling at their booth .
Awards:
Paws in the Park didn’t have an official awards ceremony after their races. They had 5K age awards in five-year increments starting at “15 and under” and ending at 70+. The first three canine participants that crossed the 5K finish line received colorful paw print bags full of dog toys, dog treats and human treats. I loved that they gave awards to overall dogs. Paws in the Park has the largest amount of dog participants I have seen at a 5K. I love seeing dogs at running events.
I forgot about age group awards when I got fixated on running to have a good time and goof around. We went to the festival after the run and left
for home never inquiring about age group medals or looking at results. It was not until I received an email days after the event that said Luke
and I were age group winners I knew there were medals waiting for
us. I was shocked and excited. The medals were at the Cascade’s Humane
Society. Jason was able to stop in Jackson
on his way home from work and pick up our medals. Age group medals were different from the finisher medals
in that their lanyards read, “Paws in the Park 5K” and were in Olympic colors. The lanyards were
different colors based on place as well.
I liked the number design on the age group medals. It was dimensional and looked really official.
Timing:
The Michigan Running Foundation timed Paws in the Park. Paws in the Park put up a gray and neon green
balloon arch behind the yellow and red “Start” and “Finish” banners of the Michigan
Running Foundation. The balloon arch
looked amazing but was bopping around in the wind a lot. I got a video of it. Race results for Luke and I were instantly
sent to my phone minutes after we finished.
I didn’t click on them like I normally do. The timing guy was really cool about Luke and
I starting. He told us where to
go. We were confused on which side of
the arch to start.
City Notes:
We live a lot
closer to Jackson now. Jackson has a fantastic
downtown with an amphitheater at their city square. City square has sidewalks that appear as an “X”
on Google Earth. The Consumer’s Energy building
has a beautiful plaza next to the Grand River.
Jackson’s Farmer’s Market is also on the Grand River with a huge permanent
canopy built near a well sized parking lot.
Jackson is one of the only cities left in Michigan with a Fazoli’s. Lansing, Battle Creek and Kalamazoo also have Fazoli’s. We miss the Fazoli’s we
had in Canton growing up. Jason loves
Fazoli’s bread sticks and I love their cheesecake.
We took a break from the festival before the Ultimate Air Dogs show began and walked around Jackson. I wanted to get better pictures of the murals we had seen while we were running. I came across a plaque that mentioned “ Bright Walls” in Jackson. It was a collection of murals and there was a map to find them.
Since 2019 Bright Walls has been artistically spray-painting new murals around
downtown Jackson. There are 41 new murals
in the city. The murals are clear coated
so they last and are loved for many years.
Bright Walls murals are made by a group of volunteers from the Jackson
Young Professionals. Music, food and festivities
were combined with mural viewing to make it an even bigger celebration. The grand finale of the Bright Walls project in Jackson is
set for September 2022. No more murals
will be made by the group after that time.
Their creations will stay in Jackson indefinitely as a reminder of
Jackson’s bright past and even brighter future.
Cascades Humane Society is a wonderful humane society that adopted
1,301 animals out in the 2020 year.
Those 1,301 animals included one bearded dragon, one pot belly pig, one
snake, four birds and eight hamsters. Jason
said the layout of the facility was fantastic with amazing cat facilities.
City Sign:
The first Jackson
city sign picture I got was from the round-about on Cooper Street. It was a hard picture to take. I had to be dropped off, get situated, and
wait for Jason and the kids to drive back around. Once they took the picture, I had to wait for
them to return to pick me up. It was a
nice day and I had no issues waiting. Traffic
worked in our favor when we had to stop twice in the middle of a round-about. I loved that the round-about had “Jackson” in
it. It had nice brick work. Jackson was my first round-about city sign.
While we were in
Jackson for Paws in the Park Luke and I took pictures next to the Bright Walls “Welcome
to Jackson” mural and the “City of Jackson” capped brick wall next to the Ultimate Air
Dogs pool. Both were walking distance from
the festival downtown. I now have to
make a collage of all three Jackson city sign pictures and update the city sign
for Jackson blog posts. Jackson has great
city signs. I am sure there are more I
have not discovered.
Other Awesomeness:
The 2019 Paw in the Park was quite a running experience for me and the kids. Jason came with us for the 5K run and then left. We dropped him 23 miles down 94 in Chelsea for a LARPing event after the run. I took the kids back to Paws in the Park to enjoy the festivities at Sparks Foundation County Park. There were all kinds of fun kid games, the Detroit Circus performed and for $1.00 you could kiss The Kissing Chihuahua.
Sadly, everything ended early due to a
massive thunderstorm that rolled through Jackson an hour and a half after we
got back. The weather was so bad we
picked Jason up early from his event because it was outdoors. I remember sitting in the parking lot of the T-Mobile
on N. West Avenue as hail came down on our car.
It was not drive-able weather and we had to sit and wait the storm out. We thought the storm was awesome, but I felt horrible
for the festival vendors and staff that had to rush to pack up everything
before their things got destroyed.
Flash forward two years and Paws in the Park “2021 addition” had
perfect July weather at Horace Blackman Park in downtown Jackson all day long. It was a great day to stay, get food, listen
to music, admire all the dogs, see vendors and watch the amazing Ultimate Air Dogs. That is exactly what we did after the
run. We also walked the Bright Walls mural
map through Jackson and stopped at the amazing Jackson Farmer’s Market buying a
bunch of local produce before we left.
I made it in the 2021 Paws in the Park advertisement with my starting
line picture from 2019. I had no idea
until I was putting this blog together months later. I need to do a better job keeping current
with things that come up with Paws in the Park.
I.E. Age group medals, shirt sizes and pictures with me in them. It’s so cool that I made it in the “N” of “RUN.” …and my hair actually looked awesome for once. ^_^
I love the Ultimate Air Dogs!
I was absolutely fascinated watching them perform again. I love getting still shots of the dogs
airborne. Check out my album for the
most epic flying air dogs!! Slow motion
videos are a great way to film Ultimate Air Dogs. Jason was the only one watching the show from
the bleachers. The kids and I got
splashed a lot. It was really
refreshing. I hope Ultimate Air Dogs
never leave Paws in the Park. They are
the stars of the event.
Paws in the Park is the run to come to if you love dogs! You will never be anywhere without a dog within
five feet of you. We saw a dog wearing a
hot pink wig in a pink JEEP. We met the
most amazing older black Pug that we sat and petted for what felt like 20
minutes. I didn’t want to leave. Black Pugs are my No. 1 favorite dog. In almost every single one of my festival
pictures there is a dog. We saw a whole
line of dogs crossing the finish line with their owners before Luke and I
started running.
When Jason picked up our age group award medals at Cascades
Humane Society he adopted a black kitten which we immediately named
“Cat.” He really surprised us coming
home with him. I had asked Jason if he
would look at cats while he was there. He
sent me a video of an orange cat he met but then decided against him and said
he had left. Our cat tragically passed
away when he was two years old without making it to our new home in Marshall. The last time I saw him was during my last
day of packing at our old apartment in Plymouth. I had our new house ready for Cat. It was a really hard time for our
family. I gained ten pounds and couldn’t
return to our old apartment after he died to finish getting the last items we
had left.
We lost Cat on April 9th
and got our second Cat on August 19th. At first I kept saying he wasn’t like old “Cat”
which wasn’t fair. Our old Cat was the World’s
Best Cat. He would come when called,
play with dogs like a dog and be by my side all the time. Since getting second “Cat” he has become the
World’s Second Best Cat. He rides in
cars out of a carrier without a complaint and loves water. I am thankfully Paws in the Park gave us
a new cat for our grieving family. Our Cat that
passed was adopted at the GRR Runway Run in 2018. Both of our cats were found because of a
running event in months that started with the letter “A” and had a nine in the
date.
Things really do happen for a reason.
Course Rating: 5 Stars
Post-Race Food Rating: 4 Stars
Swag Rating: 5 Stars
Awards Rating: 4 Stars
Race Execution: 4.5 Stars
Restroom Rating: 4.2 Stars
Aide Stations: 4.4 Stars
Timing Company: 5 Stars
Paws in the Park 2021 Quote:
“Dogs are what people would be if the important stuff is all
that mattered to us.”
–
Ashley Lorenzana.
Jackson Page
Comments
Post a Comment