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...

    Outrun Hunger 2020 Photos 18 Mile Drive Jason and I ran together for the first time at the Outrun Hunger 5K in Commerce Township.   Jason’s parents watched the kids for us.   It was a run close to home that helped people in need around the holidays.   We both got $10 Kroger gift cards just for registering for the 5K.   Overall male and female winners got an additional $25 in Kroger gift cards.   There were no shirts.   They had great medals and post-race food.   The run started at the Commerce Township City Hall which is located off Martin Parkway.   Martin Parkway has a lot of round-abouts.   I remembered it from my drive to Pinch the Grinch in White Lake last year (Cookie Monster GPS Hell).   We checked in and listened to the race director talk about the impact the run had on local families in need.   We lined up at the start based on pace.   Small groups of runners took off every 10 seconds.   The...

   Beat the Train 2020 Photos 153 Mile Drive The best competitor to run against is not a human being…it’s a train!  I love unique races that stand in their own league.  Beat the Train was just that.  I had been excited about it when it had its original date of March 21, 2020.  When 99% of runs got cancelled in late March I was worried Beat the Train would postpone until 2021.  I didn’t want to wait that long to run against a train.  I also didn’t want it to go virtual.  A virtual run would have been a very bad option for a run against a train.  The race director sent lots of emails with surveys about the unique circumstances they were facing and finally decided on postponing the event until November 7th.  I knew it would be worth the wait and was glad they didn’t cancel.  It was sad that they refunded family tickets.  It would have been amazing for Jason and the kids to be in the train as spectators.  With the coronav...

   Run for Your Lives 2020 Photos 237 Mile Drive Ludington was originally set to be city 100.  I thought Ludington was a fantastic city for the significance of the 100 milestone.  I had heard nothing but good things about it for years.  Unfortunately, my fractured toe set Ludington back to city 95.  Ninety-five was still a cool number and the best part was I still got to run the race.  I didn’t miss it!  The drive to Ludington was a little chaotic.  We got a late start in the morning.  Luckily, the kids slept for the entire drive out.  We couldn’t stop for anything and I made it with just minutes to spare.  My friend Lyndsay had gotten my registration packet for me which helped a lot when Jason dropped and ditched me.  It was almost a duck and roll situation out of the car.  It was so nice to run with a friend even though we were in different races.  The speech given before the race was funny and heartfelt. ...

   Halloween Hustle 2020 Photos 38 Mile Drive The week before Halloween I decided it was time to test the healing of my toe out on a run.  I had been eyeing Halloween Hustle emails from Hanson’s for weeks.  I loved their skeleton finisher medal.   My original goal was to be at Ludington in-person on Halloween but being cooped up and more stagnate then usual was getting to me.  I had walked a lot to test my foot out and had no issues.  I am a big believer in trusting your gut.  A doctor may give you a set time to heal but that doesn’t mean it’s that back and white.  Healing times can be shorter or longer.  I told Jason I would stop if I felt any pain.  I was still worried something may happen out on the course. When we pulled into Freedom Hill we saw the set-up for the drive-in movie in the field across from the parking lot.  I had debated paying for it during my registration.  I decided not to incase bad Fall weather ...

   Timber Trails 2020 Photos Jason and Luke came to my rescue again with my healing toe for the Timber Trails 5K in Grand Ledge.  Luke took my place this time.   The plan was to register Jason the day of the run.  Unfortunately, we were told onsite registration had closed just minutes before we got there.  The run had an open start from 9:00am to 10:45am.  We arrived at 10:00am.  Jason ran anyway without an official number.  Luke and Jason took off together into the woods.  It was a perfect Fall day with beautiful scenery.  It was Jason’s first trail run.  The colors of the trees were amazing.  I went for a walk with the kids and Corky.  We followed their course until we found a path that went down wooden steps to water.  It looked really cool.  We had never been to Fitzgerald Park before.  It is the most beautiful park I have been to in all my Michigan trail running.  The Grand River winds ...

   Will's Run 2020 Photos Will's Run caught my eye on Running in the USA because of it's name.  I thought of our Will.  I read about the race and was deeply saddened about the circumstances behind it.  A 10 year old boy had tragically passed away less than five months after getting a brain stem tumor diagnosis.  Will Goodale had dreams of becoming a police officer, loved lemon heads, sports and driving his dad's golf cart.  He was a little boy with a big heart and personality.  He was the only child of his parents Shane and Ronda.  The loss of an only child is exceptionally devastating.  Instead of letting their grief consume them Shane and Rhonda created the Will Goodale Memorial Foundation.  The foundation holds the annual Will's Run that began in 2019.  Proceeds from the run are given as scholarships to two students enrolled at Michigan Police Academy so other kids can fulfill the dreams that Will had of becoming a police of...