Frightful 5K Zombie Run and Miner Mile (Negaunee - 2022 - 5K)
Frightful 5K Zombie Run and Miner Mile
452 Mile Drive
Registration:
For months I couldn’t figure out what Milestone City 200 should be. When it dawned on me that 200 would fall sometime in the month of October I thought of a bucket list wish of mine, to see the Upper Peninsula in the Fall.
I looked up runs in October and didn’t find a lot in the U.P. The last weekend of October had two runs in Marquette and Negaunee. I learned Negaunee was 16 minutes west of Marquette on M-41. The two 5K’s started an hour apart. The short distance between the cities made it doable.
I love to get multiple U.P cities on U.P running trips. If I can’t find two cities in the U.P having a situation like Grayling and Sault Saint Marie from 2021 is amazing. Stopping in a new lower peninsula city on the way across the Mighty Mac is a great alternative.
Unfortunately, there were no new lower peninsula/upper peninsula city combos in October. If I wanted to run in the U.P in October and get two new cities, Marquette and Negaunee were the only option. I liked having two Halloween themed runs on Halloween weekend, but I knew by Halloween it would be too late to see the U.P Fall colors. That was the only downside about the timing.
Negaunee’s race description was very short. The Frightful 5K, Zombie Run and Kids Miner Mile was in its third year and had added an optional “Zombie Course” for 5K participants to take through the woods along a slightly different 5K path.
They stated they would have a costume contest with a prize for one adult and one child, race t-shirts and other “goodies” for participants. Negaunee’s Miner Mile for kids was $20.00. I’ve seen cheaper pricing for 5K kids registration. I only signed Luke up in Negaunee and I paid for him to run the 5K with me for $25, since it was only $5.00 more.
Packet pick-up was under the pavilion at Jackson Park in Negaunee.
When we arrived the only people there was a woman I assumed was the race director and a man that worked for Negaunee Parks and Rec Department. I wondered where all the participants were. We were only ten minutes early. Check-in was not ready yet. I questioned if there was an event for a minute.
As time went on only a few
people showed up. We went back in the
car to stay warm. When we went back out
five minutes before the race about 10 people were present. Half were high schoolers dressed like
zombies. We walked up and waited to be
checked in. While we were waiting a
woman came up to register her three boys for the Miner Mile. She was helped first even though we had been
standing there before she arrived.
I had written the race director the night before as we driving to the hotel to ask if I could take a picture with my “200” sign and the race participants. Only 22 people were registered for the Negaunee race the night before. I thought with such a small group it would be okay to ask. I was really excited about a group picture. The race director was really nice and wrote back with a congratulatory email saying she would invite interested participants to join in the picture.
When Luke and I checked in I didn’t mention I was the runner who had requested the picture and the race director did not recognize my name. Nothing was said to anyone about the picture. It was really sad. I should have said something, but I was too stressed after overhearing the 5K was going to start at 9:30 and the kids Miner Mile at 9:00am. RunSignUp listed both races starting at 9:00am. It isn’t unheard of for runs to start different race distances at the same time or just minutes apart, especially at smaller runs. I couldn’t believe the 5K time got moved up a half hour! There were no pre-race emails sent out with races details.
There was no way Luke and I could have run a
5K in Negaunee at 9:30 and made Marquette at 10:00am. In that moment I had to make a choice for
both Luke and I to run the kids Miner Mile and leave for Marquette after. It was the only way to get both cities. I have a standing rule that as long as I run
a mile in a city, it counts towards my 450 city goal.
Course:
I cannot comment on the 5K course. I didn’t receive a map and there were no maps of the course present at the run to help me guess what it may have been like. The kids Miner Mile Luke and I ran was a half mile out on the Iron Ore Heritage Trail and back.
Even though 90% of leaves had fallen off the trees, there were areas of large leaf piles on the trail which made it really beautiful. I have an amazing picture of a young girl running as a Monarch butterfly though the leaves with her wings open.
The Miner Mile path was on a blacktop trail with only one turn at a road that went through the park.
We passed a historical marker, informational
sign and an awesome Iron Ore mile marker with a silhouette of iron miners on
top. There were so many white birch
trees on the heritage trail.
My issue with the Miner Mile course was the lack of a visual turn around point or volunteer. When it was feeling close to a half mile I started looking at my MapMyFitness app. Luke was ahead of me and I had to yell at him to turn around. Him and another boy would have kept going. There were more kids after us that had no one to tell them where to turn around.
In
hindsight, I should have stayed and told all participants where to turn around,
but we had time constraints with Marquette.
Thankfully, there were a few other parents running the kids mile with their
kids. I couldn’t believe there was
nothing, not even a small sign to tell kids where to turn around. Kids are far less likely to have GPS watches
and apps to tell them how far they’ve run.
I believe the race director mentioned a turn around point on the trail in her pre-race briefing. The issue with only verbally stating a turnaround point’s location…
1.
Most people need a
visual reminder
2.
Participants forget
while running
3.
There were multiple
landmarks by the halfway point
4.
Kids get excited and
are more prone to forget instructions
Swag:
Luke and I received “Run Like Zombies are Chasing You” blue and yellow t-shirts. The shirts were awesome with big words, great zombie font and an actual zombie silhouette in the “O” of “You.” The shirts had the names of the events on them as well as “Negaunee Boosters.”
After finishing our mile a very nice woman, different from the race director,
gave us Negaunee Pennants. I called them
flags by mistake and was corrected by her.
I still call them mini flags. The
Negaunee Miners school pennants were a very unique and cool finisher item for participants. I liked having something with big font that reads,
“Negaunee” on it for my running wall.
Restrooms:
The pavilion that
packet pick-up was under had restrooms and a drinking fountain on the backside. We didn’t need to use them. I did not check
to see if they were open and did not see anyone go in one. Many parks lock up their restroom buildings
come Fall. If the restrooms were still open
they were nice indoor restrooms for participants. No Porta-Johns were at the run. Downtown Negaunee was a very short walk away
from the start of the race if all else failed.
Food:
After we finished
our mile run there were three opened snack-size candy bar bags, Reese, Crunch
and Snickers next to a two 12 packs of 16oz water bottles for
participants. We both took one candy and
a water bottle to the car. I took a Crunch
and Luke took a Reese.
Awards:
Negaunee’s one mile and 5K were not chip, gun or manually hand timed races. There were no age group awards. They said they were having an adult and child costume contest. I only saw kids dressed up in costume. The race director had an awesome blow-up Pterodactyl costume on.
I wore my Harley Quinn costume I haven’t worn in years. It’s still a very cool and complete costume
all these years later since first debuting it in Detroit in November of
2017. When I didn’t see other adults in costumes
I thought I had a good chance of winning the contest. The winners must have had to be present
during the announcement and because we left before the 5K started, I was
eliminated from the running.
Aide Stations:
There were no aide
stations on the mile course. I have a
feeling there were none on the 5K course, but I cannot confirm that. I believe there were only water bottles at
the pavilion for participants after they finished. When zombies showed up at 9:00am (race start)
asking about their course assignments and there were no volunteers at the mile
turn around, I got the impression there was not a lot of course support at this
race.
The Negaunee Frightful
5K and Miner Mile were not gun or chip timed races. No timing method was used to record
participants finishing and no bibs were given out.
City Notes:
Iron ore was
discovered in Marquette County near Negaunee and Ishpeming in 1844 on the roots
of a fallen tree near the Carp River. Chippewa
Chief Marji-Gesick of the Ojibwe People took businessmen from the Jackson
Mining Company, who were originally thinking of opening up a copper mine, to
the fallen tree. It was here the first iron
ore mine in the Upper Peninsula was built, the Jackson Mine. Negaunee is Chippewa for “Pioneer.” The Negaunee city emblem has the fallen iron
ore tree still on it.
In a fifteen year span from its opening in 1845 to 1900 the Jackson Mine in Negaunee mined 3.6 million tons of Iron Ore.
During 1901
and 1902 collapses of the mine occurred due to a large area of quicksand that
was underneath the mine. The quicksand
area had free flowing water and made the mine very unsafe. The January 1902 collapse took the lives of
ten miners, one who sadly escaped the tidal wave waters that flooded through
the mine only to suffocate slowly in a cavern of air. The 1902 collapse would have taken hundreds of
miner’s lives had the majority of men not been above ground taking lunch when
it occurred. By June the Jackson Mine
was reopened with replacement miners for the dead.
Iron mine currency was
often used to pay Jackson Mine workers. Unlike
U.S Currency, it could only be spent at the local Iron Mine Store.
In 1924 the Jackson Mine was closed for good and in 1956 it was designated as a Michigan State Historical Site. In 1971 the Jackson Mine made the National Register of Historic Places.
You can still see openings to the Jackson Mine
north of Jackson Park off the Iron Ore Trailhead in Negaunee. In hindsight I am really bummed that I didn’t
take the family to find the mine openings.
The pictures I found online of them are so creepy and cool.
You can see the strong
presence of iron in the soil and rocks in Negaunee. The Lake Superior Beach in Presque Isle Park
was made of red stone and red sand. It
was an extremely unique and beautiful Michigan beach.
Just before the mining
ceased in Negaunee, the small U.P city became the smallest city to host an NBA
game in 1952 (Baltimore vs. Milwaukee).
To this day Negaunee is the smallest city in America to have hosted a
North American Professional Sport.
Negaunee has the only full-length (800 meters) all natural luge course in the United States with a 288 foot vertical drop. It can be used by locals and tourists in the winter months and is still operating because of the work of the Upper Peninsula Luge Club to maintain its grounds. In addition to holding a luge course record, Negaunee is also home to the infamous “Suicide Hill” where cross country, Nordic and ski jumping training has taken place since it opened in 1925. Suicide Hill is one of three ski jumps located in the Upper Peninsula. The ski training center at Suicide Hill has a total of five ski jumps, two of which are open for summer training. The Suicide Hill jump is the largest at 295 feet high. The National Ski Hall of Fame was built in Ishpeming Michigan because of centuries of skiing in the area.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_Hill_Ski_Jump)
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Mine)
(https://project.geo.msu.edu/geogmich/ishpemingnegaunee.html)
(https://www.miningjournal.net/news/superior_history/2019/01/1902-negaunee-mine-disaster/)
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negaunee,_Michigan)
City Sign:
Other Awesomeness:
When I missed the Blue Lake Firefighters 5K in Twin Lake this past March I forgot to delete the folder on my desktop which left it as a city number. I didn’t realize until I got back from the U.P that due to that mistake, Negaunee was actually city 199. I thought it was City 200 for a month leading up to the Frightful 5K and Miner Mile Run. I was very relived at my discovery.
I had debated heavily on making Marquette City 200 because Negaunee’s run turned out to be so disappointing as a Milestone City. The Frightful 5K and Miner Mile felt like it was going to be amazing the night before the race. When we got there I quickly noticed the run wasn’t planned as well as it could have been.
I understand that race staff wasn’t expecting a participant to drive six and a half hours to come to their race, but I still feel that some race basics missed their mark and they are as follows:
- No pre-race email confirming race times.
- A change from the RunSignUp advertised 5K start time minutes before race start.
- A half hour window between the kids mile run and 5K.
- No clear markers for a course turnaround.
- Volunteers not positioned on the course prior to 9am (original start time stated)
-
A Halloween contest that only included costumes
present when contest results were announced.
I was disappointed that such a small race (25 participants) couldn’t remember a name from a previous night’s email. When they decided the 5K would be starting a half hour later it caused Luke and I to run a shorter race. There was no remembrance of the group picture. No email was sent later that day or Sunday. I think they completely forgot I existed.
I feel that I could have been in the running for their costume contest and I wonder what the prize was for best adult. I wish at the very least I could have gotten that chance.
Not running my planned 5K,
not being remembered for something I was really excited about and not being
counted for a contest were all really crappy circumstances. Without timing of any kind I knew I also had
to rely on MapMyFitness as proof I ran in Negaunee. It will never be “official” or on my
Athlinks.
Negaunee may have had its negatives but the Iron Ore Heritage Trail (even for the shortened length my feet were on it) was absolutely beautiful. I loved the course. It was a course so rich in Michigan history you could feel it as you ran. I love the shirt and pennant we received. I have the pennant high up on my running wall. I view it as a finisher medal. I loved the town of Negaunee. There were some amazing Halloween houses.
We drove to a different area of the Iron Ore Heritage Trail off East New York Street and saw an amazing rock cliff. Jason wanted to stop and look closer at a blue mark he saw while we were driving.
It ended up sadly being spray paint. I hate it when people graffiti nature areas. I’m okay with spray painting buildings and
underpasses in cities but not rocks on cliffs.
I’m still trying to figure out how it was even done. One of the spray painted areas was in the
middle of the cliff. It wasn’t artistic,
it was just two big blue circles.
We stopped at Irontown Pasties in Negaunee, Michigan because they advertised gluten free pasties and I wanted Luke to try one. When we got inside they only had frozen gluten free pasties and we had no way to heat one up for Luke.
I got a chicken pot pie pasty so we wouldn’t leave the store empty-handed. The shop had amazing Halloween decorations and a pumpkin decorating contest.
When Luke and I cast our votes we missed the four pumpkins (#1-#3) on top of the display case. The Nightmare Before Christmas and GRU pumpkin were great. The chicken pot pie pasty was amazing. I tried a pasty in downtown Plymouth once and really disliked it.
Authentic U.P
Pasties are delicious. I loved learning
about their history as an iron ore mine lunch.
The pasty was created as a way to keep the actual meal (inside the
bread) warm for great lengths of time centuries ago. It was essentially an edible thermos.
Our last stop in Negaunee was the Michigan Iron Ore History Museum off M-41, not far from the Negaunee city sign. It had a scenic drive into the woods to the parking lot.
I loved the little museum. I really enjoyed my time inside learning about
the history of Michigan Iron Ore. When I
saw a very old picture of an iron ore worker eating a pasty in a mine it really
hit home for me.
The kids were able to pull a level and watch iron ore pellets drop into a freighter. I loved the “Rebirth of Earth” museum area that talked about growing back vegetation on mining sites. There is a 2,300 acre wetland preserve established over the site of the old Republic Mine that is a beautiful habitat now.
The kids got to shift through rubber pieces and look for objects, we went into a fake mine and set off a detonate button.
There were gorgeous views from the museum overlooking the Carp River. I looked for a Moose out the windows in desperation.
The gift shop on the way out of the museum was awesome. I found an amazing U.P ring similar to the Michigan ring I bought in Fowlerville.
I saw a headband that matched a pink and gray
winter hat I bought from Michigan Awesome years ago and bought it. It was only $11.95 and was so warm. I have to wear headbands when the temperature
falls below 60 degrees or else I get bad headaches after 10 minutes of being
outside. I have a small collection of
them in my running basket.
I felt like we got to see a lot of Negaunee and I got a pasty from Negaunee. For the two days we had to split between two cities we saw a lot of amazing things.
The five of us got a great Michigan Iron Ore history lesson and nature walk.
We saved
a tiny red pine from Negaunee. It was
growing up against a telephone poll. We
knew it would eventually be removed by a utility company. We are growing it in a large pot indoors until
the Spring.
I have an embarrassing story to share in regards to Negaunee. In preparation for U.P running I bought bear spray. The Negaunee run was a trail run. I didn’t know what to expect on a U.P morning trail run. I carried the bear spray in my hand for the mile run.
I felt really stupid coming to the finish line with it. I tried to wrap it in my costume so I wouldn’t look like the tourist that was scared of a bear encounter. I really didn’t know what to expect with bears. Down on the North Country Trail that I frequently train on I see deer on at least 50% of the runs I go on only feet away from me. I thought bears were as common as deer down by us.
One lady at a local shop told me about a stretch of road she drives home on that has bears everywhere, so much so she won’t get out of her car if it breaks down. It seems like there are bear areas I the U.P but not as many bear sightings as deer.
I wanted to be prepared just on the off chance. I joked with Jason that I looked like someone from the south crossing the Negaunee finish line when I really am a true Michigander.
I would
never spray a bear just because it was nearby, only if it charged me. I like bears a lot too. I haven’t seen a black bear in nature yet. I
would take a bear in consolation of not seeing a moose.
Course Rating: 5 Stars
Post-Race Food Rating: 4 Stars
Swag Rating: 4.9 Stars
Awards Rating: N/A
Race Execution: 3 Stars
Restroom Rating: N/A
Aide Stations: N/A
Timing
Company: N/A
Post-Race Activities: 1 Star
Frightful 5K, Zombie Run and Miner Mile Quote:
“The most important thing to come out of a mine is the miner.”
- Dr. Bill Mercer
National Miners Day
is December 6th
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