Maple Syrup 5K (Vermontville - 2022 - 5K)
Registration:
As Spring running
months approached and the amount of runs per weekend tripled, it got more
difficult to pick out cities. The things
that draw my attention the most when it comes to choosing runs are:
-
Inaugural runs
-
Runs with festivals
-
Runs on any of the Great Lakes
-
Runs that have extremely unique courses
-
Runs that have been happening for decades
The Vermontville Maple Syrup 5K was close to home and part of the 82nd Vermontville Maple Syrup Festival, the oldest maple syrup festival in Michigan. It immediately got my vote as I was planning the end to the month of April.
Online registration
was very informative for the in-person and virtual races that were
offered. I loved that their virtual
participants could receive age group medals with proof of their times in a separate
“virtual” category. The only time I’ve
seen that done was during the three months of pandemic lockdown in Spring 2020
when 99% of races went virtual.
It was a nice touch
to include proceeds went to helping the Maple Valley Cross Country teams go to
Cross Country camps and buy new running equipment. Registration said there would be t-shirts, a
sticker and a small maple syrup gift included for in-person 5K finishers. Virtual finishers would receive the shirt and
sticker. The maple syrup gift was
awesome and almost topped a finisher medal.
It was intriguing that the course’s start and finish were 3.1 miles
apart. There would be a shuttle to take
participants back to the start if they chose to park their cars at Maple Valley
High School. I hadn’t run a course that
started and finished in different areas since the great 2019 severe
thunderstorm Pi Run in Lansing.
I loved the detailed course map on RunSignUp. It had me confused at first. I asked Jason for his input on the “Ø” symbol on the map. The arrows above the “Ø” were the confusing part. Jason pointed out the numbers 1-10 that were meant as guides along the path. If the “Ø” path was followed participants would cut the course. It was an important note. There was a volunteer stationed at that intersection to guide us in the right direction.
Packet pick-up was in
the front lawn of the Maple Valley High School.
The race director and one other staff member were manning a table on the
grass with filled plastic bags in front of them. They had a few crates of office supplies on
the table. They gave us bib numbers as
we checked in. The two ladies were very
helpful when I inquired about bathrooms after picking up our packet bags.
Course:
The 5K course
started at Maple Valley High School and took a northeast path to downtown
Vermontville finishing near the intersection of Main Street and Second
Street. We started by taking an almost a
complete circle around the high school before we veered off past the football
stadium to the Thornapple Trail. The
Thornapple Trail is located behind Maple Valley High School. The 42-mile trail from Grand Rapids ends in
Vermontville.
We were on the Thornapple Trail for half the course. The trail had a nice wooden arch entrance with the trail name and was paved the entire section that we on it.
The sun came through the trees in very photogenic ways while I was on the trail. There was bright green moss on the ground until we got to the bridge over the Thornapple River, it disappeared for the most part past the bridge.
Right before the bridge there were large sections of bright new grass that had sprung up next to the water. I saw a lot of excess water in the trees due to the rain the night before. The Thornapple River was high.
The bridge was very slick as we had been
warned. Their first mile marker was .20
off which made me concerned that the entire course was short. Past races that have had mile markers off
have been shorter than 3.10 miles by quite a bit. In the case of the Maple Syrup 5K, its second
mile marker was 1.20 miles from the first, making up the difference.
We exited the Thornapple Trail on Linden Street where the trail officially comes to an end near downtown Vermontville. We went from a paved trail to a dirt road that was pretty muddy from rain. The sun reflected off the puddles of water and made the dirt road quite beautiful. The last mile of the course was a zigzag through paved Vermontville neighborhoods.
There was an amazing home on Main Street with a huge red barn. We passed the Vermontville water towers and baseball diamond right before the finish line.
There was a beautiful house with a row of purple and yellow tulips near the road.
The finish line was up
hill on Second Street ending a block from downtown Vermontville with the bright
yellow flags of the Michigan Fitness Foundation.
The course had a few
inclines and many bends and turns. It
was a great scenic tour of Vermontville showcasing Maple Valley High School,
the Thornapple Trail and downtown.
Swag:
Luke and I received soft
cotton green t-shirts, stickers with the maple leaf man logo and instead of a
finisher medals, we got sample size maple syrup containers from Benedict Family
Maple Farm. I missed not getting a
finisher medal, but I also loved the mini maple syrup bottles. It was the perfect thing to give out to finishers
with the festival theme of the run. I
have never seen a maple syrup bottle so small at 1.36oz. It looked just like a regular sized plastic
maple syrup bottle. Luke wanted to drink
it. We were given a second coupon for free maple candy that I discovered once we got home. I wish I would have checked my bag more thoroughly before leaving.
Whiling taking a break
to eat on the grandstands after walking through the craft fair I pushed my
empty maple syrup root beer bottle off the stands and it shattered on the
ground. A really nice man sitting in
front of us walked down and started picking up the glass pieces. We went down to help forgetting about our bag
hanging on the grandstand pole with our finisher syrups and rainbow maple tree
soap inside. The bag got left behind and
ultimately un-recovered to any lost and found.
It was unfortunate that someone didn’t turn it in. By contacting the Maple Syrup Festival Office
I was able to get a phone number of one of the owners of Benedict Family Maple
Farm who was kind enough to mail out two new 1.36oz syrups the next day with
one-day postage. I offered to pay for
postage and she told me not to worry about it. I was so touched by her kindness. We couldn’t get our soap back because they
were sold out. The maple syrups meant
the most to us.
Restrooms:
I asked the packet
pick-up ladies where the restrooms were after Luke and I checked in. They were in the back of the high school by
the football field. It was a decent walk
back through gates to a small brick building.
The bathrooms were nice inside, much better than Porta-Johns. The finish line was a block from the festival
area which had multiple Porta-Johns locations.
Food:
There was a table at
the finish line jammed packed with a box of apples, a box of tangerines, neat
pile of bananas, bowl of cheese sticks, bowl of assorted granola bars, tub of large
chocolate chip cookies made by “Good Time Pizza and More” in Nashville, MI. There were full sized bottles of water for
participants. I loved the cheese sticks
and cookies. I have gotten cheese sticks
at races before. I don’t get them often
enough.
Awards:
There was an awards ceremony following the last 5K finisher in the epicenter of the Maple Syrup Festival. Everyone sat comfortably in the festival grandstands that wanted to watch. The race director and two helpers that may have been her children conducted the ceremony.
Giant gallon jugs of maple syrup ($55 value) were given to overall female and male winners of the 5K.
Unfortunately, the overall male winner was
part of the Maple Valley Cross Country team and was not allowed to accept the gallon
of maple syrup because it was over $25.00 in value per MHSAA rules. The gallon of maple syrup was given to the
second overall male instead and the race director said she would make sure to
do something for the true overall male.
He still seemed really excited. I got a great photo of him with his
hands in the air leaving with his medal.
I felt bad he was denied a great year supply of maple syrup.
Medals were given to
age group winners three deep in ten-year age increments starting at “12 and
under” and ending at “70 and up.” Age
group medals had the running maple leaf mascot with the run name and were on
solid red lanyards. There was no place
identification on the age group medals.
They all looked identical. My
only suggestion for the future would be to put a sticker or engraving on the
back of the age group medals showing place.
Stickers are a lot more cost-efficient.
I read the awards
information wrong on RunSignUp and thought it said, “Overall winners of each age
group” would receive maple syrup. I
tried to run harder to be in the running for maple syrup. Ironically, I did end up getting first place
in a group of thirteen “30-39” year-old women.
That was really cool.
Aide Stations:
There was one aide
station positioned at the end of the Thornapple Trail where we exited onto
Linden Street. There were two men
sitting in chairs in front of a truck.
They were behind a table with pre-poured water cups. The water cups were huge 16oz plastic cups! I don’t know how filled with water they were,
but they were the biggest aide station cups I have seen at a race. The two men smiled when I took their
picture. I didn’t take a glass of water,
but it was nice to have an aide station upon leaving the trail at the two-mile
mark of the 5K.
Timing:
One of my favorite timing companies was setup at the finish line. It was a gun timed race, not chip timed. Michigan Running Foundation did the finish line timing with their classic yellow flags that could be seen from the bottom of the hill of the finishing stretch.
I had a chance to talk with
Luke from Michigan Fitness Foundation after we walked back through the last
quarter mile of the course taking pictures I had missed. I really wish I could be at his inaugural Spring
Fling race at Sleepy Hollow State Park as a debut race director next week, but
I am scheduled to be in Swartz Creek for my re-do on milestone city 175. It will be a big day for me in Swartz Creek,
as milestone cities always are. After
the disaster of Avoca falling through for city 175 a week ago, I am looking
forward to hitting city 175. I will register for one of Luke’s future races. I wish him an amazing first race as a race
director. He picked a great state park
for a trail race. Sleepy Hollow is huge,
beautiful and has a great name.
City Notes:
Vermontville is a small village 30
miles southwest of Lansing in Eaton County.
It’s ironically a neighbor to Nashville, MI. Both cities have a name of another
state/capitol outside of Michigan.
Vermontville has a population under 1,000 but Michiganders that call it
their hometown come back year after year for the oldest Maple Syrup Festival in
the state of Michigan. 2022 was the
festival’s 82nd year. The
festival came about after a handful of maple syrup makers gathered at a barber
shop to discuss the best way to sell their syrup in 1940. The festival has a craft show, tree tapping
event, flea market, carnival, Grand Parade and fireworks. Ten years ago the 5K event was added to the
festival.
Vermontville has a very cool downtown. Their post office and city park are feet away from one another. Downtown businesses are very unique. They are a mix of old and new construction and have different colors, heights, designs and materials that they are made of (wood, brick, stone etc.) Vermontville’s downtown is an awesome hodge-podge of buildings. I found an awesome Native American themed restaurant with lots of huge wooden sculptures and a great patio setup.
The First Congregational Church of Vermontville is a
staple in the town that’s steeple can be seen from a distance down Main Street.
The Citizens
Elevator in Vermontville is one of the first things you see after you pass the
first Vermontville city sign. It was
bought in 1988 and distributes soybeans, corn and wheat. It has five sister facilities from Lansing to
Battle Creek that serve over 300 farmers in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. It’s a really cool elevator with a dozen
silos of varying sizes. I was able to get a great picture of it after taking my
second city sign picture.
Every city, village
or corporation has something special about it.
Vermontville has the oldest running Maple Syrup Festival in Michigan
that brings thousands of people to it each year. Many that call Vermontville their home and a
lot of other curious Michiganders come to taste the amazing maple syrup fresh
out of Vermontville trees and enjoy the entertainment.
City Sign:
The sign across
the road was an upgraded stereotypical green city sign. It was much larger with white posts, had
maple leaves on either side of the words and said, “Home of the Original Maple
Syrup Festival.” There was an added
smaller
“Sequicentennial Village 1936-1986” green sign next to the bigger sign. There was also a shoutout to Ken Beardslee,
the National High School Baseball Strikeout Champion.
Getting the picture of the first city sign was nice
because it was next to an Amish bake sale under a big white tent. The trouble came when Jason tried to drive
the car over to take the picture and a truck blocked him talking to one of the
bakery women for almost eight minutes. The
driver didn’t notice he was causing a major traffic jam after Jason left. Three cars got stuck because of the oblivious
man.
Other Awesomeness:
Having the Maple Syrup Festival was wonderful in addition to the 5K. After the 5K awards ceremony we hurried over to the Vermontville Fire Station for the pancake breakfast.
We couldn’t miss a chance to try the famous
maple syrup on some delicious pancakes from the Maple Valley Band
Boosters. Jason and I both wanted to
know what brand the sausage was, it was amazing. Maple syrup on sausage is delicious. I tried the combination for the first time a
few years ago.
After eating a great breakfast we walked to the craft fair to check-out
the vendors. There were a lot of
vendors. There were also a handful of
garage sales mixed in at surrounding houses.
We went from garage sale back to craft vendor. An older man at a garage sale joked with the
kids and was really nice to chat with. I
got a picture of him walking back to his house before we left his sale.
There were a lot of vendors at the craft fair with all kinds of
products. We bought a deer fat candle
to try. We are fans of natural bees wax
candles.
The kids wanted to go on some of the carnival rides, but we had
missed the sale on wristbands that ended Thursday. Fifteen dollars for all three kids to ride on
one ride was outrageous. I always look
forward to the Calhoun County Fair kid’s day where we can buy all day passes
for $18.00 a kid. It was worth it in
2021. The kids rode on rides endlessly
for hours. Wristbands are the best way
to go when it comes to carnivals. We admired
all the rides even though the kids didn’t go on any this time.
Luke and I split a bun-less hamburger and baked beans from one
of the food vendors. Jason and I
expanded our root beer tasting to maple syrup root beer from the Benedict
Family Maple Farm. We bought a gorgeous
keepsake maple syrup bottle and rainbow maple syrup infused soap. I went to buy two 1.36oz maple syrups in the
cutest plastic jugs shaped just like regular maple syrup containers and was
told by the farm owner they were “free” for participating in the race. She saw the bibs Luke and I were still
wearing. I didn’t realize until we got
home we both had free maple syrup coupons in our packet pickup bags for that
specific vendor. I am so glad the woman
was awesome and said something. Luke
wanted to drink his maple syrup he liked it so much. With how small it was, he could have. It was about a shot of maple syrup. The container was the ultimate keepsake.
During our vendor walk we stopped at a tent with a woman dressed up as a duck to ask for a picture. We discovered it was a duck race ticket booth for a river race happening in Nashville, MI on June 18th. Tickets were only a dollar and being at the event was not required to win. I would love to be at the event to watch the ducks race down the river.
I will try to
plan a run near Nashville that Saturday.
The other duck race woman at the booth (not in costume) inquired about
my Mandy Runs Michigan shirt and took a picture of it. I don’t know what will come of that, but I
really appreciate the word of mouth it may bring. I need that a lot right now.
The kids played on the Vermontville City Park’s wooden train and
we stopped at an Amish bake sale on the way home where we found two loafs of
bread and….
“Pride of Michigan” cookies!
I asked what was in a Pride of Michigan cookie and the woman
wasn’t completely sure. They looked like
oatmeal cookies. They didn’t have
raisins, which was awesome. It turns out
Pride of Michigan cookies are the world’s best oatmeal cookies with a new and
improved name!
In a very muddy area of the craft fair there was a booth with
the friendliest artists. An older man
was sitting in front of an interesting looking machine. The man was charging $1.00 to make horseshoe
nail rings. We each made our own ring
with the press. It was an awesome
experience. He gave us receipts that
were a coloring sheet of himself. He was
very funny. It was a very informative
and great family activity for $5.00.
The last 5K finisher was an older woman that really struggled to
get to the finish. The race director and
the woman’s daughter went to help her cross the finish line. When she crossed the line she immediately started
to fall to the ground and was grabbed by surrounding people. Race staff got a car to take her back home so
she didn’t have to walk anywhere else. I was glad we were at the finish line so
we could cheer for her. She may have
not heard it in that moment of exhaustion and pain, but it still meant
something to us. I give her a lot of
credit for continuing, but sometimes you have to be careful just how far you push
yourself. I hope she was okay after and
got to enjoy the festival with her family.
The last story I have to tell about our experience in Vermontville is our stop at the Planks M-79 Grocery Store. We went in for drinks and I very quickly knew it was unlike any rural grocery store I had ever been in. I rushed to find Jason to tell him everything was insanely cheap and that I wish we lived in Vermontville. I had grabbed a handful of items.
They had expensive brands like Annie’s for
80% off retail price. With the current price
of groceries, it was shocking. I walked
around looking at everything. I was in
their cereal aisle when I saw an old Elf cereal box and it raised a red flag. I knew the box was not from Christmas 2021. I looked at the expiration date on top….
It had expired in Summer 2021…
I checked two more cereal boxes and they were expired by 3-6
months. It suddenly dawned on me why everything
was so cheap and I rushed back to Jason for the second time to tell him the news. We still ended up getting a few things, but I
had to put back our Jiffy muffins and Kodiak Cakes.
I don’t know the whole store behind the M-79 grocery store. They must get their food almost at expiration
at extremely cheap prices, if not free.
It was still a really cool grocery store. Going from the most reasonable grocery store
to, “The food’s expired!” was hilarious.
I would still recommend the store as long as expiration labels are looked
at. The owners are very nice. They had a lot of toilet trees, cleaners,
household items (much longer shelf lives) and even handmade gifts. I wanted to grab a Reese bar on the way out ….but
it had expired in July 2021.
We lit our deer fat “Jamaica Me Crazy” candle and made French Toast
with the Amish bread from the bake sale tent to have with the Vermontville
syrup Sunday morning. Jason spent
Saturday afternoon fixing some stone foundation. It was a cool and very messy cement job and a
great day to spend outside.
Avoca was supposed to be milestone city 175 the week before the
Maple Syrup 5K in Vermontville. The Maple
Syrup 5K became the first 5K I had done since Strides for Adam in the last
weekend in March. It was the longest non-injury
related running break I have taken since the pandemic lockdown in Spring of
2022. I was okay taking the first two
weekends in April off because I had not registered for races. The first weekend would have been a repeat
city and the second weekend of April had two runs I was skeptical about. Jason being the amazing man that he is, spent
hours Thursday night trying to find a rental car when he discovered the closest
electric car charger was 20 miles from Avoca.
He made a reservation with Avis at Detroit Metro Airport for $68. We thought we had it all figured out and Avoca
was a go until we got to the airport at 7:00am and they wanted an extra $300
hold on a credit card. We couldn’t use
our debit card. We were stranded at the
airport for and hour and a half without enough range to get to Avoca or back
home. It was a very sad day. My only hope is that the Trestle Trek race comes
back in 2023. Their email about lack of 10K and Half Marathon participants has me
worried. Running on an old trestle railway
is one of those once in a lifetime courses.
Course Rating: 5 Stars
Post-Race Food Rating: 5 Stars
Swag Rating: 5 Stars
Awards Rating: 4.4 Stars
Race Execution: 5 Stars
Restroom Rating: 5 Stars
Aide Stations: 4.4 Stars
Timing
Company: 5 Stars
Post-Race Activities: 5 Stars
Maple Syrup 5K Quote:
“The greatness of a town can be found in its festivals.”
-
Siddharth Katragadda.
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