Another great local race is the Lakeshore Miracle Run 10k.
This race is held along the Lake Michigan shoreline, just south of Holland. A portion of the proceeds form this run go to benefit the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital and is organized by local running stores, Gazelle Sports.
I signed up not only to run this race, but also to volunteer both before and after. I've found that a lot of race directors are willing to have some of the participants come out early and help out, with either registration or course set-up. It's been a great opportunity to meet others in the running community and sometimes even get some free swag. Who doesn't love an extra tee shirt?
This race is held along the Lake Michigan shoreline, just south of Holland. A portion of the proceeds form this run go to benefit the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital and is organized by local running stores, Gazelle Sports.
I signed up not only to run this race, but also to volunteer both before and after. I've found that a lot of race directors are willing to have some of the participants come out early and help out, with either registration or course set-up. It's been a great opportunity to meet others in the running community and sometimes even get some free swag. Who doesn't love an extra tee shirt?
So there I was, at 6:00 am Saturday morning, helping to set up the start line and registering people for the race. This is a smaller local race that has really grown in popularity the past couple of years. The downside of that was that we ran out of teeshirts before everyone had finished checking in. Even worse, was that the tech shirts were sized differently than in years past and they ran MUCH smaller... While a couple people got pretty frustrated, most people were very understanding. They tech shirts were made by North Face and the rep for them happened to be at the event, since they were a sponsor. So we let him know that their shirt sizing ran a weee bit on the small side. ;)
There were about 300 people who ended up participating this day though and it was a GREAT run. The first mile is a road, followed by a mile of trail running and then 2 miles of sandy Lake Michigan shoreline and sand dunes, then 1 mile trails back out and 1 mile back to the start/finish line.
And when I say sand dunes... I'm not joking.
There were about 300 people who ended up participating this day though and it was a GREAT run. The first mile is a road, followed by a mile of trail running and then 2 miles of sandy Lake Michigan shoreline and sand dunes, then 1 mile trails back out and 1 mile back to the start/finish line.
And when I say sand dunes... I'm not joking.
Despite my slowest 10k to date, I still really enjoyed myself though. The challenge of the varying terrain and the what, at the time, seemed to be the world's steepest dune, made it all pretty enjoyable. Plus, the other runners were AMAZING and everyone was very supportive of each other. We all had to face that dune. We were in this fight together.
Plus, they had Dairy Queen flurries at the end for everyone. ICE CREAM FOR THE WIN! <3
And, to top off a pretty good morning, I won a pretty nice North Face 1/4 Zip pullover that I wear constantly now. Gotta love raffle prizes!
Oh, and as a follow up! Gazelle Sports hosted a twitter contest for a great photo during the race and I won! I got myself a nice $10 gift card... Now to decide what to spend it on...
According to my Nike+ GPS Watch:
Distance: 6.4 miles
Time: 1:21:04
Average Pace: 12:40 / mile
Plus, they had Dairy Queen flurries at the end for everyone. ICE CREAM FOR THE WIN! <3
And, to top off a pretty good morning, I won a pretty nice North Face 1/4 Zip pullover that I wear constantly now. Gotta love raffle prizes!
Oh, and as a follow up! Gazelle Sports hosted a twitter contest for a great photo during the race and I won! I got myself a nice $10 gift card... Now to decide what to spend it on...
According to my Nike+ GPS Watch:
Distance: 6.4 miles
Time: 1:21:04
Average Pace: 12:40 / mile