Goodbye 2020 Hello 2021 2020 Photos 41 Mile Drive Registration: Registration was very reasonable.  The run was capped at 100 participants due to covid mandates still present.  The race had a unique late afternoon start between 2:00 and 2:20pm.  It’s nice to get breaks from waking up early.  They mentioned a white elephant raffle.  I did not see anything done at the run while I was there.  I was however given one of the Christmas mugs they were using as registration decor.  On site registration was very quick with very nice and enthusiastic staff. Course: A straight 1.55 miles down the Clinton River Trail.  It was extremely icy.  The entire course was a solid ice block. I wore YakTraks and still had to run on the side of the path in the dirt because the ice was so thick and slippery.  I haven’t seen ice that thick in a long time.  The trail was very wooded with water views and wooden bridges to cross.  The views were beautiful. ...

    Jingle Bell Jog 2020 Photos 261 Mile Drive My love of Michigan’s west coast and Lake Michigan gets me really excited about west coast Michigan cities I have not been to.   Manistee was no exception.   I was hoping to stop into Manistee when I ran in Free Soil but had forgotten about the Wings of Mercy race that Saturday night.   I got a hotel for the Jingle Bell Run in Manistee that was dog friendly with a continental breakfast and pool.   I always try to stay under $120.   There are nice family hotels in that price range.      The ride up to our hotel was not bad.   We drove up in the evening.   I was able to stuff, sticker and stamp 80 Christmas cards on the way up.   Jason doesn’t usually drive to runs.   He did this time so I could become Buddy the Elf and get our cards finished.   It was good teamwork.   I dropped our Christmas cards off at the Manistee Post Office the next morning.   ...

    Alma Home For The Holidays Jingle Bell 10K/5K 2020 Photos 125 Mile Drive Alma’s Jingle Bell Run can be summed up with one single word: wet.   I love a good weather experience, but they usually don’t happen on longer runs.   I signed up for the Alma 10K.   Lately, I’ve been registering for longer distances whenever they are available.   A lot of runs I do are limited to 5Ks.   I like mixing in longer distances.   I had no idea it would be raining nonstop in December.   In colder temperatures, rain is much harder to run in than snow.   Snow doesn’t make you quite as wet as rain does.   When you add in temperatures in the 30’s it can become extremely uncomfortable.   I told Jason when I saw the forecast for the weekend I was going to need a poncho for this run.   He had a really nice poncho from the monthly survival box he was once subscribed to.   It even had a hood!   The one downfall was its heaviness. ...

    Polar Run Michigan Brewery Series 2020 Photos 38 Mile Drive   One of the biggest milestones, city 100, was originally planned to be Ludington.  A fractured pinky toe delayed city 100 and Ludington became city 95.  City 100’s second plan was to be Montrose.  Montrose had an awesome Frozen Blueberry Run in December.  The run would not only be city 100 but would also hit another huge landmark, my 150 th run.  I thought the second plan seemed even better than Ludington but then The Frozen Blueberry Run got postponed out to February.  I had to search for a third back-up city.   Michigan Brewery Running Series was the race company that put on the first run I missed due to my fractured toe.  Jason ran for me in Livonia at their Supernatural Brewing 5K.  I saw on their schedule they had another brewery run at the Rochester Mills Brewery in Auburn Hills.  Auburn Hills was close to home and I knew what to expect from the...

    Living Waters Turkey Trot 2020 Photos 50 Mile Drive The Hands and Feet Turkey Trot hosted by Living Waters Mission and St. Johns Lutheran Church was the second of only two runs I could find in the entire state of Michigan on Thanksgiving Day.   Usually there are so many runs on Thanksgiving it can be overwhelming.    Almost everything got cancelled this year on the holiday.   I was registered for the New Beginnings Turkey Trot in Sheridan leading up to Thanksgiving.   I saw their cancellation post on their Facebook page days before their November 20 th   race cancellation email was sent out.   It was pretty short notice and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get a back-up run in time.   Lakeview had an in-person race.   It was a two-hour drive.   I emailed the race director at Lakeview to see if they were debating a cancellation of the race.   They seemed solid on an in-person race.   I kept searching and found a...

   ISSC Turkey Trot Photos 72 Mile Drive   Another sad running loss of 2020 was the Detroit Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving.   I look forward to making my best costume of the year for Detroit.   It would have been my fourth year entering the costume contest.   I was super excited with a hammerhead shark costume idea.   Long before November I knew events as big as the Turkey Trot would never be able to stay live in-person.   Getting the official email was still very sad.   In place of Detroit I found a turkey trot run in Imlay City the weekend before Thanksgiving as well as a turkey trot on Thanksgiving in Adrian.   Imlay City was one of my most anticipated thumb cities to visit.   We had driven through it on the way to Cass City.   I like its name.   I knew it was a pretty big thumb city with a lot of businesses.   I love driving on M-53.   It’s a very peaceful rural version of an expressway.   The run was h...