MR0512

May / June 2012 Publisher and Chief Executive Officer

Art McCafferty artmccaf@glsp.com Editor

Scott Sullivan scott@glsp.com

Associate Publisher

Jennie McCafferty jennie@glsp.com Editors Emeritus

Dave Foley Mike Duff

Riley McLincha Charles D. McEwen Gary Morgan Jim Neff Rachael Steil Tamara Steil Nick Stanko Anthony Targan Cregg Weinmann Amanda Weaver Brian Wilson Composer

Jamie Fallon Photo / Video

Senior Photographer

Carter Sherline Columnists

Paul Aufdemberge Desiree Davila Ian Forsyth Tom Henderson Scott Hubbard Herb Lindsay Laurel Park Robin Sarris Hallop

John Brabbs Judith Cutler Pat Davies Peter Draugalis Jeff Gaft Steve Jones Don Kern Larry Maas Dave McCauley Gary Morgan Greg Sadler Victah Sailer

Chief Financial Officer

Cheryl Clark

Contributors

Tracey Cohen Cynthia Cook Heather Dyc Larry Eder Michael Heberling Jeff Hollobaugh Dean Johnson Bill Kahn William Kalmar Dr. Edward H. Kozloff Doug Kurtis Grant Lofdahl Ron Marinucci

Great Lakes Sports Publications, Inc. 4007 Carpenter Rd, #366 Ypsilanti, MI 48197 (734)507-0241 (734)434-4765 FAX info@glsp.com

a member of

Michigan Runner © is published six times yearly for $17.00 per year by Great Lakes Sports Publications, Inc., 4007 Carpenter Rd., #366, Ypsilanti, MI 48197. Third Class Postage paid at Dearborn, MI and additional mailing offices.

Postmaster: Send Address changes to Michigan Runner,4007 Carpenter Rd., #366, Ypsilanti, MI 48197. All contents of this publication are copyrighted all rights reserved. Reproduction or use, without written permission, of editorial or graphic content in any manner is prohibited. All unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, and illustrations will not be returned unless accompanied by a properly addressed envelope, bearing sufficient postage; publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited materials. The views and opinions of the writers are their own and do not necessarily reflect endorsement and/or views of the Michigan Runner. Address all editorial correspondence, subscriptions, and race information to: Michigan Runner, 4007 Carpenter Rd., #366, Ypsilanti, MI 48197, (734) 507-0241, FAX (734) 434-4765, info@glsp.com, www.glsp.com.

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Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

Vol. 34, No. 2

2012 Event Calendar May - June 2012

p. 36-49

Featured Future Events

p. 50-51

Features and Departments Editor’s Notes: S.E.X. Games By Scott Sullivan

p. 5

Simple and Silent By Dave Foley

p. 7

Beyond the Chip: Balance By Desi Davila

p. 9

Zombie By Rachael Steil

p. 12

Road to London Goes Through Ann Arbor

p. 13

Going the Distance, Now and Then, Required Food By Ron Marinucci

p. 14

Foundation Runs Toward Awareness, Light By Ron Marinucci

p. 17

Michigan Runner TV: An Interview with Bob Figuli, 1928 - 2012

p. 18

Michigan 60+ Teams Sweep U.S. Crowns By Ron Marinucci

p. 21

Steve Prefontaine Night Photos by Carter Sherline

p. 24

Brian Wilson, Gary Morgan and Scott Hubbard Remember Kermit Ambrose

p. 25

Eulogy for Kermit Ambrose By Brian Wilson

p. 26

Kermit Ambrose: 101 Years of Teaching, Inspiring By Gary Morgan

p. 29

Running Shorts with Scott Hubbard

p. 30

Michigan Runner Race Series

p. 34

Running with Tom Henderson

p. 52

At the Races

Grand Valley Women Dominate National Indoor Meet

p. 8

Koster Makes It Trifecta at Winter Blast By Scott Sullivan

p. 10

Fecht, Park Romp at Roney Run By Charles Douglas McEwen

p. 11

Corktown Marks 30 Years with 8,000 Irish Friends By Charles Douglas McEwen

p. 16

Shamrocks and Shenanigans Photos by Carter Sherline

p. 19

Steuben Doubles Pleasure, Fun at ShamRock ‘n’ Roll Run By Charles Douglas McEwen

p. 20

Riverview Winterfest Silver Anniversary Photos by Carter Sherline

p. 23

State Prep Athletes Excel at MITS Meet By Grant Lofdahl

p. 33

Splash ‘n’ Dash Indoor Triathlon Photos by Carter Sherline

p. 54

Cover: Grand Valley State University women celebrate at the top of the podium at the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships in Mankato, Minnesota, March 9-10, 2012.

Photo by Steve Jones, Grand Valley assistant track and field coach. |

michiganrunner.tv

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

Editor’s Notes

T

his just in: Hedonism II will host S.E.X.Games in Negril, Jamaica, June 23-30.

“Must be bulk email to the media,” I told my wife when she spotted it. “Why wasn’t I asked to teach?” I thought to myself.

“They should name these games after me!”

Guys learn in college to hold such attitudes, in between classes that teach us the counterpart to hedonism (believing life’s purpose is pleasure) is eudaimonism (which posits happiness is only achieved through virtue).

You’ve heard of the former, but not the latter? Eudaimonists have been few since death put the throttle on Aristotle. Who’s to resurrect what has barely lived?

I was so appalled at the thought of S.E.X.Games I had to research them in detail.

Only through knowledge can we cure the world of such blights.

Hedonism II, I learned, is a 24-acre, clothing-optional resort “with a reputation,” said the press release, “as the world (sic) largest Adult Play-Ground (sic).

“The party never stops at Hedo,” the document continued. “During this week the folks at seXGames (sic) will take the already wild Hedonism schedule to another level!

“S.E.X.Games hosts Susan & Bobby Lee are notorious partiers. Bourbon St (sic), South Beach, Key West, they have don (sic) it all!”

Clearly, the S.E.X.Games needed my expertise. Look at the (sic) things in their press release: dropped apostrophes … unneeded capitals and hyphens … inconsistencies (S.E.X.Games or seXGames?) … Susan and Bobby have don it all? Like in donning leather and gear? Good grief.

Grammar and spelling are no doubt paramount to the Games’ target demographic. Think of the respect — hence, money — they could earn with a decent editor.

I was faced with an ethical dilemma: Should I offer my services to this multimilliondollar resort and its sister, Hedonism III, also in Jamaica, or open my own resort, Eudaimonism

By Scott Sullivan I, in some dreary spot that is perfect for cultivating virtue, splurging only on what is truly important, proofreaders?

So I’m off for Negril. “Hi Susan, let’s talk conjunctions,” I’ll introduce myself.

“Is that a preposition?” she’ll coo. “Look at your dangling modifier. Let’s see an interjection.”

“Are you in a subjunctive or imperative mood?”

“Either, as long as it ends in an exclamation!”

Picture virtue and pleasure wed through proper English. Dionysus in a pas de deux with your grammar teacher.

Can editors dream? Or are we just going through a phrase? men’s sanity, to learn a litany of woes have amassed that reduce to just one thing: me.

The worst problem with Levi’s I can’t get mad at him. Pee lakes on the porch? He chewed up my running shoes? Won’t let me write because he keeps plunking a drool-soaked squeak toy on my keyboard (Let’s play fetch!)? How can I be angry?

I played wishbone for Thanksgiving when the Old Boy, seeing I was dressing to take Lev running, made it clear he wanted to go too.

Let’s see: two arms, two leashes, one poop scoop and two plastic bags “in case.”

The wishbone part came when Lev (on the leash in my right hand) bounded off while the Old Boy (left) stopped to sniff every post, pole, leaf and grass blade.

When the Old Boy delivered a solid waste product, I needed both hands to scoop and bag it. Not about to let dogs outsmart me, I stood on both leashes while …

Incoming cat! Off went Lev and out went my feet.

Solving this isn’t easy. Luckily, my wife helped recently without meaning to by adopting a bounding hound I can take for runs.

The incumbent dogs — an Old Boy who’s game but tires quickly, and a Yapper who’s too short-legged to do more than poop, turn and bail for home — weren’t cutting it.

The bounding hound does — with vengeance. My wife named him “Lev” (from lyv, or lion, an ancient symbol of Bulgaria) and he is part Lab, part locomotive.

Lev is so full of energy and exuberance — Oh boy! A squirrel! Another dog! — that towing him on a leash is an arm amputation about to happen.

He is so fast (or I’m so slow) that he zigzags in front of me to amuse himself, stopping when the mood strikes. Scott, meet asphalt.

No runner worth his assault lets a few abrasions cut short his workout. But try washing bloodstains out of Gore-Tex or explaining, “Your Bulgarian lion tripped me.”

ing.

I would have preferred a less-fragrant land-

Any delusions I’d had about coming home a hero for running both dogs vanished quickly.

What did I do to myself? And why didn’t I take the Yapper?

Why do guys like sports? Because shutouts are rarer in them than marriage. With Lev I at least have a fellow scapegoat. Running removes us both from the house, allowing for domesticity that is feminine bliss or at least like an echo chamber.

The bounding hound, as my cohort in chaos, assures that such situations are short-lived. He provides a service there are no words for.

Plus, now that I’ve hid his squeak toy, I can … Yuk! He just plunked his slobbered-up leash on my keyboard.

Sorry, gotta run …

- MR -

“Well, if you weren’t so clumsy …”

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Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

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By Dave Foley

T

he beauty of running is its simplicity. No experience needed. No complex equipment either. Just put on the shoes and go.

It’s quiet, too. The soft cadence of your quick footsteps reaches only your ears. The runner moves through his environment without disturbing it.

Running serves as a perfect antidote to our increasingly complicated and sometimes stressful world.

Even though I live on the edge of a forest on the shore of a lake, too often the roar of machinery obliterates the natural serenity of the environment.

In the winter you realize you’re a long way from Robert Frost’s world of “stopping by woods on a snowy evening” when the stillness is crushed by the wail of the snowmobiles echoing across the lake and along trails in the deepest reaches of the forest.

With the arrival of spring comes the roaring of dirt bikes and screaming of chain saws.

Once the lake thaws, the revving of personal watercraft engines makes the winter seem like the quiet season.

Even your normally sedentary neighbor, who likes to spend summer afternoons reading novels on his deck, stirs himself every couple weeks to fire up his lawnmower and weedwhacker to tame his yard. On a summer weekend a runner could be tossing lit firecrackers at every step and still not be noticed.

About 30 years ago I shut off our power equipment. At first it was not a conscious protest against noise pollution; it was because I have no mechanical aptitude and got tired of loading the lawnmower into the trunk (their shapes being incompatible) so the local mower specialist could make the necessary adjustments.

After one particularly excruciating struggle with the mower and trunk, I decided the next time the mower quit, I would revert to our ancient hand mower.

When I hauled out the hand mower and began to push it, I recalled hot days of my childhood when I went back and forth in the yard with the blades whishing around, spewing grass fragments into the air. The power mower never ran again and my children entered their

adult lives never having cut a lawn with anything other than a hand-push mower.

This simple mower is really a cross-training device. After a good run there is no better to way to warm down than making circuits of the yard walking behind it.

When the chainsaw didn’t respond to my earnest pulls on its cord, it too was relegated to the shelf. Now the ax gets the call for firewood cutting and brush removal.

There was scant chance at this point that I’d ante up for a snowblower, so I battle snowfall on the driveway armed only with a shovel and muscles that get strong if the winter is long and snowy.

My small, 5.5-horsepower outboard motor waits for a call that hasn’t come since 1983; it and its partner, the aluminum boat, have been supplanted by seven canoes and three kayaks — some purchased to take us on our annual wilderness trips, others being race boats used during my seven years as a competitor, and a couple for recreational use.

Between 1977 and my retirement from teaching in 2003, I started most school days by running the six miles from my home to Cadillac Junior High. Putting that mileage on my legs rather than my car’s odometer seemed to be the best way to begin the day.

Running to work, paddling a canoe, pushing a lawnmower, cutting wood by hand and wielding a snow shovel — it appears as though I’m turning back the clock to a simpler era, a quieter time when one relied on muscle rather than machinery to meet one’s needs.

This has been good for my muscles and mind as well. Whether shoveling snow on an night when the air is filled with falling flakes, paddling a canoe through mist-shrouded waters, mowing a lawn on a sunny day or just running along a road shoulder, my mind seems more alive with ideas and thoughts then if I were operating a machine whose motor blots out the sounds of nature.

Now that I’m no longer vexed by gasolinepowered machinery and its tendency to be inoperable when needed, I find the simple act of working by hand supplies similar satisfactions to those I get from running.

- MR -

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Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

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Photo by Steve Jones

Grand Valley women are all smiles as they celebrate their second straight national championship.

MANKATO, MINN. (3/9-10/12) — The Grand Valley State University women’s track & field team led from start to finish en route to claiming its second straight NCAA Division II Indoor National Championship.

The Lakers dominated from the opening event and scored 94 team points, 43 more than second-place Adams State (51). Lincoln (Tenn.) finished third (43) and Central Missouri fourth (42).

Athletes from the Allendale-based school claimed five event titles and three second places. GVSU’s 94 team points rank as the fourth-best total in NCAA DII Indoor National Championship history.

“I am so proud of our team,” said Laker head coach Jerry Baltes. “This was a total team effort as we scored points in so many events.

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Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

“With five National Championship event winners, three second-place finishes and five additional top-eight placers that earned All-American honors, you see how strong our entire team was.”

Senior Chanelle Caldwell of Toledo, Ohio, finished second in the 800-meter run (2:10.26), missing out on an individual National Championship by just over one second.

Senior Lauren Buresh won the shot put title on the final throw of her indoor career. The Morley-Stanwood High School graduate, who has now won three straight shot put National Championships (2012 Indoor, 2011 Outdoor, 2011 Indoor), tallied a throw of 52-10.25. That bettered the toss of teammate Sam Lockhart, a junior from Lansing Sexton High School, who led prior to Buresh’s toss and eventually finished second (52-04.75).

Kalena Franklin, of West Branch Ogemaw Heights High School, earned All-American honors with her seventh-place finish in the 60 meter hurdles (8.53). Karie McDonald of Frankenmuth finished sixth (4:53.88) and Betsy Graney of Harper Woods seventh (4:54.61) in the mile to each earn All-American honors.

Senior Rachel Patterson of Rochester crossed the finish line first in the 5000-meter run, posting a meet-record time of 16:07.28.

Former Laker National Champion Mandi Zemba held the previous record of 16:16.77. |

michiganrunner.tv

The Lakers’ 400 meter relay team of Caldwell, Brittney Banister (of Flint CarmanAinsworth), Franklin and Leiah Hess (of Battle Creek Lakeview) closed out the 2012 Championship with a third-place finish (3:48.46).

- MR -

Beyond the Chip

By Desi Davila The writer, a member of the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project based in Rochester, placed second in the Women’s U.S. Olympics Marathon Trials in Houston Jan. 14, earning one of three berths on the U.S. Olympic team.

sat looking at a blank page wondering how to race “conservatively aggressive.”

It was the exact same question I faced with daily training: How can I race hard enough to dwindle down the field but not risk going over the red line and falling apart late?

H

aving had some time now to look back on the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials, I’m shocked at how different it was from my previous marathons.

It was again a matter of balance. Unlike any other marathon, it wasn’t about getting 110 percent out of myself and risking it all; it was finding a hard pace that would be “good enough” to get me to the final.

The buildup, while similar, had a different mentality attached to it. Race day was a qualifying process unlike any other marathon where you head out to really test yourself.

If there was one thing I really learned from the Trials, it was the importance of balance.

Sometime in early October I sat down with my coaches, Kevin and Keith Hanson, to map out a training plan leading to race day Jan. 14.

Improvement was an important part of the three-month plan, but it was also important not to push the envelope too much and risk injury or burnout.

Every day throughout the segment I would head out the door knowing that in a few months I would compete in the biggest race of my life.

It became a task each day to find the right effort to put in; push too hard and break down, don’t work hard enough and get to the start line questioning your fitness.

© Victah Sailer / photorun.net

Afterward came a typical post-race letdown, but also one of the biggest rewards I’ve received from the sport.

This was a strange thing to do after training for three months to get in the best shape possible, however it was definitely the smart thing to do. I was thrilled that with great coaching and a little luck, I was able to find my perfect balance for the Trials and land myself a spot on the U.S. team.

After any marathon there is a bit of a low, but this was especially true after the Trials, a race I had marked in red and circled on my calendar for the last four years.

Desi Davila runs the NYC Half Marathon, March 18, 2012

For each segment we mapped out a plan for the following several months, always with the same question in the back of our minds: how will this help me prepare for the trials? It seems only natural that there is a bigger “down” than normal now I’ve crossed such a huge accomplishment off my list.

The excitement of the Olympic Games in A few days before the race, I found myself London has not kicked in yet, so in the meanworking out a race plan for a marathon prelim, time I’ll use my new balancing skills to pull mywhere I would do whatever I needed to make self out of this low. Then I will start the process the final — the Trials being a “prelim,” the all over again, with the biggest race of my life Olympics themselves the “final.” I had a hard on the horizon.

- MR time wrapping my mind around this idea and I sixth horizontal template_sixth horizontal 4/9/12 4:17 PM Page 1

This became the question with most everything in my training. Should I add a new core strengthening routine? Do I need to wake up earlier before workouts to have a better breakfast? Simple questions became complicated and I found myself over-analyzing everything.

As the training segment went along, I managed to find a balance somewhere between knowing I was training for the biggest race of my life and convincing myself it was just another race, no different than any past race.

By the time race day had rolled around, you would think that this delicate balancing act would have come to an end. It had not.

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Winter Blast 5K, Grandville

Koster Makes It Trifecta at Winter Blast GRANDVILLE (2/18/12) — Kris Koster was master blaster again at the Winter Blast 5K. Koster, wearing his Calvin College alumni singlet on streets behind Calvin Christian High School, made it a hat trick on this 30-degree, brisk morning: he has won the Blast each of its first three years.

“It’s great having Kris compete here,” said race founder Laurens TenKate, who as Calvin Christian cross country coach knows about claiming titles.

After his Squires won their second straight Division 3 boys state championship last fall, the National High School Coaches Association named them its U.S. Small School champion and TenKate national coach of the year.

Which he is proud of, then dismisses. “It’s about the kids,” he said. “Are they learning what teamwork and dedication can bring out in themselves?

“Then they’re winners to me,” he said.

Koster, Michigan Runner magazine’s coMale Runner of the Year, is a role model for said work ethic.

His 15:41 winning time fell shy of his 15:30 last year, but still put him more than a neighborhood block ahead of runner-up Andy Yazzie, 29, of Kentwood, who finished in 16:13.

The women’s race was more hotly contested on this out-andback course, which featured north headwinds during much of the long stretch home.

Photo by Scott Sullivan

By Scott Sullivan

Nicole Reames, Kids start the Winter Flurry 1K. 25, of Richland (19:48) held off Jessica Disselkoen, 17, of Grand Rapids (19:51) for the distaff title.

Reames impeocws from fifth last year in 21:30, Disselkoen from third in 20:24.

Mike Woodbeck, 54, of Grand Rapids (18:53) and Jill Evers-Bowers, 45, of Kent City (22:01) paced the masters runners. Leading the seniors were Dave Minier, 63, of Wyoming (21:18) and Carla Schut, 63, of Jenison (28:32).

Harold Plaisier, 78, of Jenison, wearing Bib No. 78, dominated the men’s 75-and-older group with a 27:45. He was also its only entrant. “Hey, I’ll take it,” Plaisier said. “I’ll take anything.”

Where most runners, fearing mid-race we will never get there, finish gladly, Kayra Vazquez, 4, of Ionia, faced a different challenge.

Kayra, wearing a ballerina’s tutu, got there, then was afraid to finish. Crowds of cheering grown-ups, beeping chip sensors, mats and clock were too imposing.

Kayra Vazquez, 4, of Ionia, ran the Winter Flurry 1K in her ballerina tutu.

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Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

Her mom, Janie Ybarra, handed Kayra her own rose for 5K line earlier that morning. That and hugs did the trick. |

michiganrunner.tv

Photo by Scott Sullivan

Photo by Scott Sullivan

The Winter Flurry 1K kids run, held after the grown-ups’ race, saw a blizzard of wee ones explode from the starting line and finish, by and large, at a chastened tempo.

Photo by Scott Sullivan

Nathan Jenkins, 6, won cheers all around as the youngest entrant.

Nicole Reames

Kris Koster

For more information about the Winter Blast 5K and complete results, visit http://sites.google.com/site/calvinchristianxc/home/winter-blast-5k.

- MR -

Bill Roney Memorial 5K, Utica

Fecht, Park Romp at Roney Run UTICA (3/24/2012) — Road racing veterans Matt Fecht, 28, of Warren and Laurel Park, 49, of Ann Arbor dominated the Bill Roney Memorial 5K. But runners-up Mickey Davey, 15, of Troy and Samantha Hanson, 13, of Sterling Heights showed plenty of youthful moxie, as they both pounded out PRs. They were among 720 entrants in this year’s race, presented by Hansons Running Shop. The turnout was one of the largest in the event’s 21-year history.

By Charles Douglas McEwen

Runner-up Samantha Hanson, an eighthgrader at Heritage Junior High in Utica and the daughter of Kevin and Nancy Hanson, timed 19:13.

“She ran very well,” Nancy Hanson said.

“That was easily her best time ever.” (Samantha’s previous PR was 19:34.)

ner,” added Park.

Danielle Savard, 29, of Rochester took third in 19:15, followed by Ashlie Bauman, 15, of Sterling Heights in 19:38.

The Bill Roney Memorial also included a mile fun run.

For complete results, go to www.hansonsrunning.com.

- MR -

half page vertical template_half page vertical 4/13/12 6:45 PM Page 1

“You can tell she’s going to be a good run-

Fecht won for the third time in the last five years. His 15:46 clocking was a little slower than his 15:43 in 2008 and 15:21 last year.

I kept looking over my shoulder to make sure I was going fast enough to stay in front of him.”

Though Fecht led from the start, he still had Davey in the back of his mind. “He’s a freshman at Warren De La Salle (High School),” Fecht said.

“And he’s got some wheels. I kept looking over my shoulder to make sure I was going fast enough to stay in front of him.”

Davey timed 16:05, 12 seconds faster than his former best 5K time. “I was trying to get under 16:00, but 16:05 is good,” he said.

Fecht “went out way too fast for me,” Davey continued. “Then I was by myself in a no man’s land. It’s tough running by yourself.”

Ryan Sullivan, 16, of Davisburg finished third (16:43). Next came Cory Steuben, 25, of Royal Oak (16:55). Joel Kozlowski, 40, of Macomb was the first-place master.

Park has won the women’s race many times during the 21 years that Kevin and Keith Hanson have coordinated it. But she hadn’t run Roney since finishing second overall in 2009.

Park ran 18:07 that year and was delighted to win three years later in 17:53.

“I’m thrilled with how I felt,” Park said. “I had hamstring and glute problems last year and didn’t run well. I’m thrilled to run this well in my first race of the year.”

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Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

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I am the walking dead A zombie.

The physical therapist digs his fingers Into my dysfunctional knee He searches for the hidden meaning, The reason for my despair I stare off into space Unfeeling, as I dream Of the chance to feel To run Alone, I pull off the zombie suit Observe the body That will now only walk For God knows how long.

I stand in the shower Frustrated that it cannot wash away my despair Angry that it instead brings out the hate I now have for my body Tears converge with hot water Trail down my cheeks My neck Past the swollen knee A bruised, damaged body Ugly Broken I want to beat at my body, Tell it to start working right Tell it to LET. ME. RUN. In a final burst of frustration I yank my hair I want to scream out The scream cuts loose in my head I mangle the one thing holding me back — The very same body that was running effortlessly weeks earlier The body that could escape whatever it is That I want to escape now I am a zombie Walking Through campus As the brilliant sun mocks My yearning to run beneath it As the leaves rustle, As they whisper: Cross country

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Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

By Rachael Steil

In my head I cry out in grief In heartache My throat tightens Burns Tears race down Behind the dead mask I wear I hold my zombie stature Hide the hurt.

The frustration

You’ll get out of shape.

You’ll never amount to anything.

You’re losing the team.

Your dreams are disappearing You will Never Run Again.

I drown out these voices with pounding music I blow out my eardrums Make them hurt, make them bleed The bass thumps hard, Beats to the rhythm of my heart A heart pumping blood to a dying knee Pump harder, fix it!

FIX. IT. I cry alone in my car at 11 p.m., Sob to her On the phone The only person I can vent to I tell her.

I tell her that I feel as if someone has died And I am ashamed, because no one has passed My mom responds “But a piece of you has died.”

I am a zombie By day, Until darkness is my disguise Where I break down Lay down On a damp pillow for the third time After leaving the bathroom When I thought tears had ceased.

But sleep cannot win even the fourth time In the final moment of relaxation Near-sleep, My mind Battles back again Voices erupt in laughter, In mockery As they crawl back into my thoughts As I stifle my sobs And tears burst forth again.

I awaken to a zombie state |

michiganrunner.tv

I look into the mirror A torn face Dark shadows The voices, the thoughts Creep from my eyes in heavy bags The burden of stress I carry in my heart Evident in my countenance I want nothing more Than to tear apart my room Throw the chairs Hear the crash of furniture The crack of broken windows Instead I fall to the floor Kick my desk Rip off my shoes Stare at the ceiling Moan in desperation As I picture them racing there I lie here Alone.

I am a zombie As I face the workouts Some complain about a tough day.

They run it off.

That’s when I realize — I can’t.

Jealousy … no, envy Boils like murder through my veins.

It pulses, it poisons me.

I feel hunger A deep, Raging hunger Famished to jump at the interval line To take off Push off The ground Spikes would stab the earth Break into a rhythmic pounding Break out of the zombie state Break the tension Fear I would let go of the hatred I now have for my body I would love it again.

I am a zombie As I come down with my second cold In two weeks As ice spreads from my heart To my nose and throat As I awaken with red eyes, From crying From the disease of hopelessness Filling my body

I am sick Because it’s the only way to remember that I’m still alive am a zombie Angry Sick Tired Lifeless As the physical therapist Pushes into my leg

I must endure this pain to diminish the evil pain I writhe and celebrate in this fix, this key This awakening There are long weeks ahead I am a zombie for now But I slowly awaken.

Photo by Tracey Cohen

He hits the pressure point A scream of pain escapes my mouth — I feel again Thoughts of running Race through my mind It will come back.

An awakening The sign of a fix A step towards healing

Road to London Goes Through Ann Arbor

Aquinas College sophomore Rachael Steil continues healing after injuring a knee.

The Running Institute’s Tim Broe demonstrates active and dynamic stretches at the inaugural Distance Running Clinic. Additional speakers at the clinic included Nick Stanko, Pete Kitto, Nick Willis and Ron Warhurst. Former Hillsdale coach Bill Lundberg emceed. For more information on the - MR half page horizontal template_half page horizontal Running 4/9/12 4:29Institute, PM Page 1see http://tri.mrspt.com

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Michigan Runner - March / April 2011

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By Ron Marinucci

T

hey were marathon paddlers, even triathletes of their time. Accounts of their exploits are so mythic it’s hard to separate fact from fiction.

Surely such physical exertion, with only 10or 15-minute breaks to smoke their ceramic pipes, was exhausting. Massive amounts of food were required for energy, strength and stamina.

These were the voyageurs, the fur traders of the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. They paddled canoes up and down rivers and streams and across the Great Lakes, canoes laden with up to 7,000 pounds of supplies, trade goods and fur pelts.

Time was money, then as now. Stopping to hunt, fish or gather for meals usually wasn’t an option. How, then, did these voyageurs manage?

Most days meant at least 14 hours of paddling, averaging 40 to 60 strokes a minute.

When portaging, a frequent necessity, they ran, “dog-trotting” sometimes as long as two or three miles one way, carrying bundles of furs, before running those same two or three miles back for more. And they lifted weights, in the form of goods and packaged furs.

Legend has some voyageurs running while carrying four or five 90-pound bundles, one in each hand and the others by using tumplines (“portage collars”) or slings.

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One of their dietary staples was pemmican, a centuries-old ancestor of energy bars. “Pemmican” comes from an Algonquin word, pimihkan, which means “grease,” “fat” or “one who makes grease.” And that’s just what it was, mostly fat or lard from bear, deer, moose, goose or other animals.

The voyageurs learned how to make and eat pemmican from the Indians. Narrow strips of venison, elk, moose and, later, buffalo meat were cut and dried, either slowly over a fire or in the sun. The dried meat was then pounded with stones or rocks, pulverized to a near-powder consistency.

Meanwhile, fat, lard or grease was liquefied and poured into a leather pouch or mocuck (basket made of birch bark). The powdered meat was added, sometimes with fruit such as cherries, apples or berries that had been similarly prepared.

The grease then congealed, providing a light (but not on the stomach, I’d imagine), easy-to-carry food that would last a long time, even several years.

If time was available, the pemmican would be mixed

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with water and flour to cook as a sort of porridge or stew. This was called rubbaboo.

One historian who studied the voyageurs’ eating habits noted, “Pemmican is supposed … to consist only of pounded meat and grease; (that is) an egregious error … Hair, sticks, spruce leaves, stones, sand, etc. enter into its composition, often quite largely.”

It may not sound yummy, but pemmican and rubbaboo served the energy and strength needs of the voyageurs quite nicely.

To compare “energy bars,” past and present, I consulted Liz Bailey, RD, CDE, a clinical dietician and diabetes educator at Huron Valley Sinai Hospital in Commerce Township. She’s also an accomplished marathoner and triathlete — of the modern variety, though.

“Pemmican is used today,” said Bailey, “by long-distance hikers, like those doing the Appalachian Trail, because it is packed full of so many calories. A pound of pemmican can provide up to 3,600 calories.”

“The downfall of pemmican is that it is very high in saturated fat and cholesterol and provides no fiber,” she continued. “It is strictly fat and protein. In the past it’s been mixed with berries, which added small amounts of carbohydrate, but in general it is mostly fat and protein.”

The fat provided energy and the protein strength, both needed by the voyageurs. Runners also require both energy and strength, but our tastes are a bit more discriminating. And, as Bailey explained, science helps us too.

“Carbohydrates and protein,” she said, “have four calories per gram, versus fat, which has nine calories per gram. So fat provides one and a half times more energy per gram than protein and carbohydrates.

“Fat, however, cannot be used for quick energy like carbohydrates can. The carbohydrate

in energy bars is available for quick energy, where the fat in pemmican is slow to digest and be converted into a usable form of energy.”

Energy bars, then, are our answer to the voyageurs’ dietary requirements. “Carbohydrate,” Bailey summarized, “is arguably the most important source of energy for athletes.

No matter what sport, carbohydrates provide the energy that fuels muscle contractions. They are the main fuel sources for the muscles and brain.

“Proteins,” she added, “are the building blocks of the body. They consist of combinations of structures called amino acids that combine in various ways to make muscles, bone, tendons, skin, hair and other tissues.”

Bailey urges users to check the labels, noting the amounts of carbohydrate, protein, fat and fiber. “Watch calories and fat,” she said. “Up to 300 calories and 10 grams of fat are reasonable for a meal replacement, but cut that in half for a snack.

“Limit saturated fat to three grams or less per bar. Go for bars with three grams of fiber, for weight control.

“Choose a bar with at least 30 grams of carbohydrates if you plan to engage in long periods of exercise,” she continued. “The same for protein if you’re working those muscles. Look for vitamins and minerals like calcium and iron that you wouldn’t get from foods.

The voyageurs played an important, if rarely recognized, role in state history. Imagine what they could have done with energy bars instead of pemmican!

“As far as I am concerned, they don’t offer anything great, I use them only for convenience.”

- MR -

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But proteins aren’t stored well by the body, so they must be taken in regularly to help rebuild and restore muscle tissue after strenuous exercise.

Fat, on the other hand, should be restricted, but not eliminated, kept to “20 to 35 percent of total energy intake,” said Bailey. “It does provide fuel for long distances and low- to moderate-intensity exercise, such as marathons and ultra-marathons. Even during high-intensity exercise, fat is needed to help access stored carbohydrate (glycogen).”

For more specific information on percentages and recommended daily allowances for individual needs, consult a registered dietician.

12th Anniversary

Labor Day 10K & 30K Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012

Bailey, in her athletic endeavors, uses energy bars, but issues cautionary notes. “They do not typically work well for pre-run consumption,” she said, “due to the fat and fiber in them.

Fat and fiber cause food to stay in the stomach longer and can cause gastro-intestinal issues.”

Something for Everyone •

Although energy bars can be advertised as meal replacements, Bailey said, “I don’t like people to use them for that because they can get much better overall nutrition from complex carbohydrate foods, fruit, etc.

•

“Many people select energy bars by taste,” she went on, “but other aspects of their nutrition and purpose affect the decisions of what bars people choose to use.

“I never use energy bars before a run, but I will use them when I am doing a long bike ride, kayaking or backpacking. They are small, lightweight and easy-to-pack (like pemmican?). In the kayak, they are waterproof and I can put them on the deck for easy access.”

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© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

Corktown Marks 30 Years with 8,000 Irish Friends

By Charles Douglas McEwen

“That’s a 40-percent jump over last year,” race director Doug Kurtis said. “That’s phenomenal.”

He attributed the increase to many factors.

“I have a great staff doing the packet pickup where the stores are promoting,” Kurtis said.

“My staff is from all over the area and they’re constantly helping me promote.

“We have a good product; nice shirts, nice medals,” he continued. “The location is good.

The 5K works out well. We have the Irish theme going for us. Great music.

“There are just so many pieces that come together to make it a fun event.”

Perfect weather helped this year too. “It was awesome out there,” said men’s winner Mike Andersen, 25, of Milford. “It was 62 degrees the week before St. Patty’s Day. “It was a little windy on the way back,” Andersen added. “But I’m not going to complain about wind when it’s mid-March in Michigan and there’s no snow on the ground.”

Andersen led from the start, although runner-up Nathan Burnand, 17, of Waterford stayed close initially.

“He hung in there tight for the first mile, then dropped off,” Andersen said.

The winner finished in 15:03 with Burnand clocking 15:19. Next came Adam Izer, 22, of Taylor in 16:05.

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Jay Steele, 40, of Plymouth won the men’s masters title in 17:01. Tom Yates, 50, of New Boston paced the grand masters in 17:38.

Andersen enjoyed running on Michigan Avenue. “I’m usually not fond of out-and-back courses,” he said. “But down here, it’s so historic and you see Campus Martius almost all the way from the start.

“It was amazing,” Sarah said. “The energy from everybody running and walking was phenomenal. The community involvement was great as well.”

“Then (after circling Campus Martius and heading back), it’s a sea of green coming at you.” (Most entrants wore either the dark green Corktown t-shirts or a green costume.)

Angela Matthews, 27, of Westland won the women’s title in 17:30, followed by Andrea Karl, 27, of East China in 18:00 and Denisa Costescu, 36, of Commerce Township in 18:02.

“Angela just took off at the start,” said Costescu, who won here last year. She was in second for most of this race, but with a halfmile to go Karl went by her.

“My 18:00 today was almost a minute faster than what I ran here last year,” Karl said The masters and grand masters winners were Kimberly Garbarino, 49, of Plymouth (18:48) and Jane MacLeod, 54, of Windsor (31:44).

The event included a children’s fun run and costume contest. Alicia Moore, 16, of Taylor, who sported a green Mohawk to go along with rest of her green costume, was one of the contest winners.

“I have kind of a punk, Irish look today,” she said. “It was rockin’!”

The costume winners also included “Shamrock Sisters” Sarah and Jessica Wallace, 21year-old twins from Shelby Township. |

michiganrunner.tv

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

DETROIT (3/11/12) — A record of more than 8,000 runners and walkers turned out for the 30th annual Corktown Races, presented by the St. Patrick’s Parade and Fraternal Order of United Irishmen and sponsored by Ambassador Bridge.

Costume winners included “Shamrock Sisters” Sarah and Jessica Wallace, 21year-old twins from Shelby Township.

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Michigan Avenue took place immediately after the Corktown Races.

Complete results can be found at www.runmichigan.com. For more event information, go to www.corktownrace.com.

- MR -

Foundation Runs Toward Awareness, Light

W

hile nursing a broken leg in the summer of 1997, Terry Lynn Lane tripped and fell. Concerned about her leg and its cast, she neglected to protect her head, which took the brunt of the fall. Her head hurt a lot but she rested and, later in the day, felt better. She forgot about the nasty fall and her headache.

That autumn, Lane began having problems with her vision. Her right eye was nearly sightless. Doctors, citing elevated blood pressure, said nothing could be done to save the vision.

She still didn’t remember her summer tumble.

Lane adjusted, learning how to manage with vision in only her left eye and rehabilitating her leg. She learned how to drive and complete her responsibilities as a patient care attendant at a local hospital.

“I was putting my life back together and adjusting to this ‘new disability,’” she remembered. “Things were different, but I was able to do what I loved. So I was happy.” Then things worsened.

A year after her right eye went blind, vision in her left eye dimmed. Lane’s doctors, an ophthalmologist and a neuro-ophthalmologist put her through test after test. Finally they came to a diagnosis: optic neuropathy, a disease of the optic nerve.

Only then did Lane recall her fall of more than a year ago, which may have helped in the diagnosis and treatment had she remembered earlier. Now it was too late. “The (optic) nerve had atrophied and much of my remaining sight was unable to be saved,” she said. “I was never able to return to work. I had to give up driving too.”

Since then, some of her sight has returned, but barely. She can see light, but “objects are shadowy. Sometimes when I go outside, all I see is brightness.” There is no peripheral vision in her right eye and her left eye picks up “severely distorted” objects.

“I often run into things,” she said. “I have to count stairs. I am very light-sensitive. While I can’t read books, I go every week to pick up talking books to keep my mind active.”

His mother’s story led Brian Lane to start FiftyTwo4Mom in 2009. The nonprofit foundation works to raise public awareness about vision disorders; raises money for research into its causes, treatments, and cures; and builds programs to help people with vision loss.

By Ron Marinucci

wanted to start something to help other people with vision loss. But as a teenager, I wasn’t sure how I could.”

After he graduated from college and went to work, “I decided it was finally time to start a foundation,” Brian Lane said.

Lane’s original plan to raise awareness and money by “doing one race a week for an entire year, 52 races. But I could only do 22 in 15 states because of funding.”

It was natural for him to turn to running.

“I’ve been a runner since I was 10,” he said. “I ran track and cross country at Waterford KetTherun name FiftyTwo4Mom stems4/11/12 from 8:16 AM tering High steve's 2012_half page vertical Page 1 School.” Running has helped him

Steve’s Run - Fire Up!

S

tart and finish will be in downtown Dowagiac. The races will be run in the memory of Steven Briegel, an SMC honors graduate who died of cancer after a very courageous and determined fight.

C

ourse presents a lot of variety to the runner and walker, including a golf course, a wildlife refuge, forest trails, quiet country roads and even a cemetery. Finish in the park with good and plentiful refreshments, great music and lots of “good times”.

C

ustom-stained glass awards to over 200 finishers in the 10K and 5K (including the walk) based on a participation formula.

Custom-designed T-shirts to all finishers in the 10K and 5K race

P

ledges: All funds raised in Steve’s Run, including 100% of the pledge money, will be donated to Mayo Clinic Cancer Research and Steven Briegel Scholarship Awards. For further information, to make a pledge, or to buy a “Fire Up” sign contact: Ron Gunn Southwestern Michigan College Dowagiac, MI 49047 800-456-8675

swmich.edu/fireup/stevesrun

Steve Briegel

The Original Road and Trail Race 10K • 5K Competive 5K Walk 1K Fun Run and Walk

July 28, 2012

Dowagiac, Michigan 9:00 am

“After seeing Mom struggle,” he said, “I michiganrunner.net

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with the foundation in several ways.

Michigan Runner TV: An Interview with Bob Figuli, 1928 - 2012

“I love to run because it brings me peace,” Brian Lane confided. “When I run my mind becomes clear and I can concentrate on things better. I love to go out on a sunny day, or even a crappy one, and just see how many miles my body is up for.”

The Upper Peninsula’s Bob Figuli passed away March 18, 2012. Michigan Runner TV caught up with Figuli at the 2003 Lake Superior Shore Run. He had recently completed running 100,000 miles. Figuli was inducted into the Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.

Lane has organized fund-raising activities.

In September, FiftyTwo4Mom will again sponsor The Run at the Farm, a 5K cross country race at Hess Hathaway Park in Waterford.

http://michiganrunner.tv/2003figuli/

“We’ve been asked to open a visually-impaired category this year,” he said. “We haven’t in the past because it’s a cross country run.” If that comes to pass, “we will be the only cross country run that has an official visually-impaired category,” Brian Lane said.

FiftyTwo4Mom hosts a volleyball fundraiser each summer. And it participates in the annual Oakland Community College Book Fair, with Terry “talking to students about what it is like to be blind.”

© Karen Thibodeaux Sport Photography

Brian also sets up information booths at running events. “Not having the resources of a large foundation, I have had to be creative to get our name out there,” he said. “I ask existing races if I can set up a booth and pass out information.

“When I run races, I only ask the race directors if they will allow me to do so. I never directly ask for donations there, but if people want to donate, I don’t turn them away. Most people prefer to check us out online to make sure we are legitimate, then donate.

“Trying to organize vision runs across the country would be impossible, but by participating in existing races, I can still raise awareness and network with local running communities.”

Lane runs national races as well as local ones. “I did my first marathon in 2010 for FiftyTwo4Mom at P.F. Chang’s in Phoenix and have now done two full and 10 half-marathons,” he said.

He’s run more than 40 races in 15 states for FiftyTwo4Mom. He’s hooked up with running clubs and races in Detroit, Northville and Royal Oak in Michigan, plus New Orleans, Tampa, Fla., Little Rock, Ark., and Hilton Head, S.C. When others run races with Lane and for the cause, they identify themselves wearing tshirts that say “Team 52” on them.

In March this year, to raise funds, Lane wore blindfolds “to learn what sight impairment is like. For 10 days I had tunnel vision, 10 days with no central vision and 10 days totally blind. I tried sticking to my normal routine as much as possible to get a good understanding of some of the daily challenges.”

On this schedule was “my first blind 5K,” 18

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

the Corktown Run in Detroit. Original plans called for only walking the course because, “I have only been able to run on a track blind so far and I didn’t want to hurt someone.” Thanks to friends, though, he was actually able to run and jog most of the race. “We didn’t go fast,” Lane said, “but it was still fun to be running instead of walking.”

FiftyTwo4Mom donors have their names placed on a virtual race bib on “The Road,” located on the foundation’s Web site. “I would like to see a million names on ‘The Road’ in the fight against blindness,” Lane dreamed aloud.

He is training to be a guide for blind runners and would like to see more visually-impaired categories in more races.

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“We work with the International Foundation for Optic Nerve Disorders and Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy,” Lane noted, “and are always looking to network with other vision and running groups.

“I would like to see people open up more to the visually-impaired community. There are a lot of limitations when you’re blind, but with the help and support of people, those limitations can be overcome.”

For more information, visit http://www.fiftytwo4mom.org. Persons may contact Lane directly at blane@fiftytwo4mom.org.

- MR -

Shamrocks and Shenanigans Ann Arbor, March 11, 2011

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

Photographs by Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

5K winner Neil Atzinger 15:54

5K winner, Lauren Dennisuk 19:58

Kid’s Kilometer

Fruitport 2012_Fruitport 4/13/12 6:51 PM Page 1somerset12_twelfth 4/9/12 2:54 PM Page 1

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31st Annual

Fruitport Old Fashioned Days Run

Saturday May 26, 2012 9:30 am

5K and

10K

Start at Football Field, Fruitport High School, 6th & Beech St. Measured loop courses through scenic, hilly Fruitport countryside.

(231) 865-3551 Sponsored by Fruitport Lions

SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 2012 take the road less traveled... somerset-run.com

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ShamRock ‘n’ Roll Run, Northville

By Charles Douglas McEwen

“We had 3,250 at the Wicked Halloween Run (which debuted in Plymouth last fall),” he said. “So I expected similar numbers today.”

Whitehead and the Kona Running Co. also coordinate the Solstice Run, which had 3,300 registrants last year.

At ShamRock, entrants dressed as leprechauns, Irish wenches and a variety of Celtic fairy creatures. After crossing the finish line, they enjoyed rock ‘n’ roll music courtesy of the Remix Band and a dance performance by Piazza Dance Co. in Kellogg Park. One or two frothy, green beverages were also seen in the crowd.

The run had serious entrants too. Heather Hanks, 27, of Plymouth set a personal record winning the women’s 10K in 39:46, which shattered her past best of 40:20.

“I don’t really go into a race with any kind of expectations, other than to run as hard as I can,” she said.

Hanks enjoyed the course. “I live downtown, so it was great to be able to walk out of my house and run a race,” she said.

Nicole Reames, 25, of Richland finished second among the women in 39:55. Jessica Shehab, 36, of Northville took third in 41:36.

In the 5K, a trio of 13-year-olds led the way.

Marissa Dobry of Beverly Hills finished first (19:08), Emma Herman of Northville second (21:03) and Natalie Douglas third (21:05).

The 10K started at 8:15 a.m. and the 5K at 9, giving 10K leaders a chance to run both races. Cory Steuben, 25, of Royal Oak did just that.

Steuben won the 10K in 35:27, then rolled to another victory in the 5K with a time of 17:45.

“I’m happy,” Steuben said. “I was shooting for a low-35 time in the 10K; in the 5K, I just wanted to see how much I had left.”

Steuben won the 10K by more than a minute, finishing ahead of masters runners Chris Woodring, 44, of Canton (36:37) and Joel Kozlowski, 40, of Macomb Township (37:37).

“It was beautiful weather, perfect temperature, no wind,” said Woodring, who set a PR en route. “The course was very similar to Plymouth YMCA Father’s Day Run.”

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

"Green Man" ran the 5K and won the ShamRock 'n' Roll costume contest.

Trailing Steuben in the 5K were Alex Chevoor, 15, of Northville (18:51) and Bradley Valentine, 33, of Filion (19:18).

Hospital president and CEO Dave Spivey, 53, of Northville ran the 10K. “It was great,” he said. “It was a beautiful day. The race was well organized. It couldn’t have gone any better.”

Spivey looks forward to future races.

“We’re sponsoring this race here, as well as the Solstice Run in Northville June 23 and the Wicked Halloween Run back here in Plymouth on Oct. 28,” he said. “My goal at the Solstice Run is to do the 10 mile.”

For complete results, go to http://ShamRocknRollRun.com.

- MR -

Michigan Runner TV http://michiganrunner.tv/2012shamrock_roll/

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© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

The huge turnout didn’t surprise race director Alan Whitehead.

“It went by really quick,” Douglas said. “I felt really good today.”

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© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

PLYMOUTH (3/18/12) — The ShamRock ’n’ Roll Run, presented by St. Mary Mercy Livonia Hospital, made a rollicking debut as 3,100 St. Patrick’s Day revelers ran, walked, danced and pranced their way through the 10K, 5K and mile fun run.

ShamRock 'n' Roll costume contest winner: Linda Shaw, Sylvania, Ohio

Michigan 60+ Teams Sweep U.S. Crowns

By Ron Marinucci

L

ast year saw the inaugural presentation of the USA Track & Field Masters Long Distance Running Championships Club Grand Prix Award. Michigan teams staked claims to two of the eight age-group titles.

The Ann Arbor Track Club’s 60-plus men’s team won in dramatic fashion, one that came down to the final placing runner in the final event of the eight-race series. In the same age category, the Playmakers’ women’s team grabbed its award by a more comfortable margin.

The Grand Prix includes eight USA Masters Long Distance Road and Cross Country Championships. Three races are cross country, the others road races ranging from 5K to the half marathon.

of five members in each race, with, in the 60plus division, the first three scoring points.

The AATC finish was dramatic in every sense of the word. The locals edged the Raritan Valley Road Runners from New Jersey 52-51.

Having run one less event than the Garden Staters, AATC knew what it needed to do to win and did exactly that, no more or less.

“We knew going into Seattle (site of the club cross country championship and the last event) that we had to beat Raritan by three points to tie and four points to win,” said team captain Doug Goodhue. “Four turned out the magic number. We finished third (to earn six points) and Raritan seventh (two points).”

Adding to the story was that Wally Hayes only ran in Seattle, having just turned 60 in late October. The newest team member “scored big as our third-place finisher,” providing the margin of victory, Goodhue said.

To qualify, teams must compete in at least three events. Points are scored when teams place among the top eight finishing clubs in their age groups. Teams can enter a maximum half page horizontal template_half page horizontal 4/11/12 10:01 AM Page 1

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The Ann Arbor team ran six of the required events, winning the four road race distances from 5K to 15K. They added third places at the last two cross country races. They ran in Williamsburg, Va., Ann Arbor, Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester, N.Y., as well as Seattle.

Members included Goodhue, 69, Hayes, Terry McCluskey, 63, Lloyd Hansen, 63, Paul Deladurantaye, 65, Dave Minier, 62, Mitch Garner, 62, and Wally Herrala, 67.

McCluskey ran in six team events, Goodhue five, Garner and Hansen four each and Deladurantaye two. Minier, Herrala and Hayes ran in one event apiece. “Each member played a part in our success,” McCluskey said.

The team has added three members — Doug Kurtis, Lee Mamola and Jim O’Brien — for 2012.

“The nucleus of the team started as the Michigan Grand Masters in the 1990s,” Good-

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

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hue said. “Then we moved on to run for Fred Vanhala and the Front Line Racing Team. When Fred stepped down as Front Line’s coordinator, we decided to go back to our roots and run for the AATC. “The club and board have been wonderful and supportive,” Goodhue said, singling out Garner. “Mitch was instrumental in getting board funding for our team.”

McCluskey and Goodhue dominated their age divisions in the Grand Prix events, each picking up individual awards along the way. McCluskey was ranked No. 1 nationally in the 6064 age group, earning the Road Runners Clubs of America Male Masters of the Year recognition. Goodhue, who won the same RRCA award last year, was rated the top runner nationally in the 65-69 age division.

“Nothing beats the joy, camaraderie and team spirit of being a member of a national championship team,” said Garner.

“The winning was a lot of fun,” said Goodhue. “Traveling to events with old friends was even more fun.”

The Playmakers’ 60-plus women’s team had an easier time of claiming its Grand Prix title, besting runner-up Boulder, Col, 38-20. “We

knew we had won the series before Seattle,” said member Ruth Thelen. “So we didn’t go.

None of the other teams could beat our total.”

The 11 women who made up the team are scattered widely throughout the Lower Peninsula. “Since we live so far from each other, we don’t get a chance to train together,” said Thelen. “Most members train with other clubs in their area.” She, for instance, runs with Playmakers’ other masters teams and the MidMichigan Track Club, “whenever time allows.”

The team ran four of the eight Grand Prix races. In Ann Arbor (10K), Buffalo (15K) and Syracuse (5K), they finished first. At the 5K cross country championship in Fairport, N.Y., they were runners-up. The only close race was at Syracuse, where Playmakers had a team score of 25:08 and the Syracuse Chargers had 26:15.

Team members include Grace Harrison and Nina Bovia of Ann Arbor, Maggy Zidar of Pontiac, Merion Knight of Detroit, Ellen Nitz of Brighton, Vickie Putnam of Gaylord, Louise Holman of Mason, Sarada Sarnaik of Grosse Pointe Woods, Chris Swanson of Macomb, Thelen of St. Johns and past Michigan Runner magazine Senior Runner of the Year Sharon Dolan of Fowler.

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Thelen and Knight competed in all four

events the team entered. Dolan and Nitz ran in three, while Harrison and Putnam each raced once. Thelen gave special thanks to “Our Happy Days Team Express Driver,” Chris Swanson, who “drove to all three New York races.”

“Our first race was in Buffalo,” Nitz remembered. “We drove through Canada both ways.

“On our way back, just out of Buffalo, we went through Canadian customs. In reply to the official’s question about our reason for entering Canada, we mentioned the Buffalo race, then held up our award medals.

“As they clanged together, the official smiled and praised us for our running, said he hoped to get in shape soon and sent us on our way home,” she said.

The men and women ran separate races at Syracuse. “We were unhappy about waiting so long for our race as the men started first,” Nitz remembered.

“The clouds opened up and poured throughout the men’s race,” she continued. “Just before we started, the rain stopped, the sun came out and we had the most glorious race ever.”

Thelen organized the team. “I had run on a team many years ago,” she remembered. “I happened to see on the USA Long Distance Web site that they were going to start a Masters Grand Prix Team Race Series for ages 40 and up, so I contacted some of my friends from years ago, plus new ones I had seen at races in the Lansing area. Everyone was excited about joining.”

“Ruth and I used to run together as Motor City Striders in Detroit,“ Nitz said. “Now, 20 years later, we are back together. Though our times are slower, we are renewing old friendships and discovering how much fun it is to be a part of this sport as a team.”

Playmakers, an Okemos-based running store, made major contributions. “They’ve done a lot for us,” said Thelen.

“First of all, in order to run in the series, a club must have a USATF membership along with a club affiliation. When I asked Playmakers if our team could be affiliated with them, they were very supportive. They provided us with singlets and traveling money, plus help disbursing our team award winnings to us.”

The Playmakers team is also gearing up for the 2012 Grand Prix. For the three masters agegroup teams, “we currently have 35 members from ages 40 to 75,” said Thelen. “This year the final race will be in Lexington, Ky. We plan on going, since it will be an easy drive for us.”

- MR -

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Riverview Winterfest Silver Anniversary February 12, 2012, Riverview

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

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Race founder 4 mile winner Andrea Blake, bib no.

4 mile winner Tony Mifsud 445, leads a pack enroute to 27:08.

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A bundled up Donna Olson wins her age group in 31:16.

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Steve Prefontaine Night March 3, 2012, Shelby Township

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© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

Photographs by Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

Joe Burns, David Danyko, host Michael Ward, and speaker Richard “Mac” Macintosh.

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Steve Prefontaine’s teammate Richard “Mac” MacIntosh addresses audience at Steve Prefontaine Night– a fundraiser for Prefontaine’s Coos Bay, Oregon track team.

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Brian Wilson, Gary Morgan and Scott Hubbard

Photo courtesy of Lyn Ketelhut

Remember Kermit Ambrose 1911 - 2012

Kermit Ambrose poses with Lynn Ketelhut at his 100th birthday celebration in January 2011.

I encourage you to recall when Mr. Ambrose first influenced your life, be it in the classroom, on the track, at a MITCA clinic or in conversation over a bite at one of his favorite eateries. It is my wish that you will hear his frequently booming, sometimes frightening but deep down truly gentle and caring voice as I reference a number of his favorite familiar phrases.

“One hundred percent is not enough; give 101 percent.� Is it not fitting that Mr. Ambrose could not be satisfied with living 100 years? It seems he had to make it one more year just to hammer home this point. Only after turning 101 did he close his eyes to rest.

-- Brian Wilson

Eulogy for Kermit Ambrose

By Brian Wilson

Brian Wilson delivered this tribute to and remembrance of Michigan running legend Kermit Ambrose March 3.

Throughout the Depression Mr. Ambrose taught in and near his hometown. In his files I uncovered notes of his time at Pierce High School, Wayne Prep and Creston where he taught and coached football, basketball, baseball, “kitten ball” and track.

I

t’s an honor to stand before you to say goodbye to our dear friend, Mr. Ambrose. How wonderful of the Lord to have permitted us the opportunity to say “thank you” to him at his birthday party barely a year ago. Too often we do not have that opportunity until it is too late.

I am grateful this was not the case with Mr. Ambrose. We loved him and he knew it.

Mr. Ambrose was an educator. I suspect several in the audience are educators as well.

No doubt, you are familiar with the poster and accompanying list of axioms titled, “All I Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten.”

I propose to you that all I need to know I learned from Mr. Ambrose. With this theme, I hope to honor him and remind us of the lasting lessons he strove to teach — not merely by his words, but by his actions.

I encourage you to recall when Mr. Ambrose first influenced your life, be it in the classroom, on the track, at a MITCA clinic or in conversation over a bite at one of his favorite eateries. It is my wish that you will hear his frequently booming, sometimes frightening but deep down truly gentle and caring voice as I reference a number of his favorite familiar phrases.

“One hundred percent is not enough; give 101 percent.” Is it not fitting that Mr. Ambrose could not be satisfied with living 100 years? It seems he had to make it one more year just to hammer home this point. Only after turning 101 did he close his eyes to rest.

“All confidence is acquired. No one was ever born with it.” Mr. Ambrose began his 101year journey in the simplest of ways. One year before the Titanic set sail, he was born to impoverished Swedish immigrant farmers on the Nebraska plain. His parents were so poor that they had to rent the land they farmed. They joined with neighbors in the same meager circumstances to share the burden of harvesting the grain. Within that baby boy was born a will, a spirit and a spark that would take him far from his humble beginnings.

“When you put a limitation on what you will do, you put a limit on what you can do.”

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“True success is overcoming the fear of being unsuccessful.” Thanks to his meticulous record keeping, I retrieved Mr. Ambrose’s handwritten results from the 1934 Wayne Prep football team. Under his leadership the team went 0-8. They were shut out in all but one game.

The team tallied merely six points the whole season, while his opponents scored 237 points against them.

Photo: Michigan Runner archives

I knew Mr. Ambrose for just 10 percent of his life. He knew me for 25 percent of mine. For the past 10 years, I was granted a glimpse of what it was about him that brought you here today. In the few moments we have together, my words can touch only the surface of what you all cherish in your hearts.

room schoolhouse. When it was cold, he would haul coal to feed the furnace.

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

“The will to win is not worth a nickel, unless you have the will to prepare.” Prepare he did. As I scoured Mr. Ambrose’s handwritten and manually-typed notes from the 1930s, it was evident that he was pouring himself into gaining the knowledge he needed to succeed.

Kermit Ambrose Mr. Ambrose’s life began hard, like others in the American West characterized in John Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath.” However, somewhere between working the unmechanized, horse-powered farm and mastering his school lessons, Mr. Ambrose discovered sports.

His life would never be the same, and neither would ours.

“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” In high school and college, he played football and basketball, and may have dabbled in track. Track was not his first love; it was football. He engaged a cobbler to affix cleats to his work boots so he could have proper footgear for football.

Upon graduating from high school in Pierce, Neb., Mr. Ambrose attended college at Nebraska’s Wayne State Teachers’ College.

While there, he assumed a role of player-coach for many of the school’s athletic teams, earning honors at the conference level in football.

“The most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the things you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. It is the first lesson that ought to be learned.” — Thomas Huxley. In 1929 Mr. Ambrose took the helm of his first classroom. While attending college he simultaneously taught in a rural, one|

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On three-hole punched notebook paper, he retyped long articles, notes and bits of wisdom gleamed from a multitude of sources. Headings such as “About a Good Sweat” which states, “Every young and healthy human being should have a good sweat every day; it will make you feel like a million dollars.” Articles on eating that suggest, “Without getting all messed up with technical details about proteins, calories and so on … plan out a well-balanced diet,” and, “Try to learn to like all vegetables … Don’t be a crank about your diet.”

“What I am to be, I am now becoming.”

Although most of his notes from this period are on blocking, tackling, passing and guarding, buried within these archives was a single paragraph on how to run the mile:

“Try to get started fast enough to get a good position on the pole just after you come out of the first turn. As a general thing, it is good racing tactics to run in third or fourth position until the end of the third lap. Then, if you can, move up to second place on the back stretch of the final lap. Start your sprint just before you go into the last turn. From then on, it’s a case of running as fast as you can right down to the finish of the race.”

In this one snippet we catch a glimmer of what would be Mr. Ambrose’s passion and legacy. But that would have to wait. America was at war. Duty called.

“There are things bigger and greater than you.” Like many of the “greatest generation,” Mr. Ambrose left the comforts of home to

take up the nation’s call against fascism. Using his scientific background, he served as a meteorologist for the Army Air Corps in Northern Africa and Italy. He was part of a small team sent to desolate outposts to record and report weather conditions to personnel on the air fields below, ensuring safe takeoffs and landings.

Maine High School: the athletic director had replaced the varsity football coach. The new football coach advised Mr. Ambrose that he would honor the former coach’s commitment for one season, but he had been promised that thereafter he would get the best line coach available.

Translation: “It ain’t you, Kermit.”

“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.” The selection of a new head football coach in suburban Chicago was quite possibly the most significant hire in the history of Michigan cross country and track and field. Mr. Ambrose was not going to return where he would not be valued. He let it be known among his fellow U of M master’s candidates that he was in the market. Someone knew someone who was aware of an opening at a suburban high school with a funny name in the hamlet of Birmingham, Mich.: Ernest W. Seaholm High School.

Ironically, the same corps his skills served to protect nearly cost him his life. Mr. Ambrose recounted that a transport plane he took was so beat up that, upon making a harrowing landing in Casablanca, the plan was grounded.

Among his favorite wartime memories was guarding German and Italian prisoners of war aboard a ship from Europe to the United States.

He recalled how the Italian soldiers were just happy that their role in the war was over. They played checkers with him. Mr. Ambrose decided they were no longer his enemies but merely young men similar to himself thrust into arms.

Maybe this early experience with Italian POWs was the root of his special friendships with coaches Lou Miramonti and Tony Magni.

I can only assume Mr. Ambrose also taught at the school because during our in-depth interview seven years ago, all he talked about was his coaching — football, that is.

“Our aspirations are our possibilities.”

Football was huge in post-World War II America. Schools had multiple teams separated by age and size. As a new teacher in the school, Mr. Ambrose was assigned to head the junior varsity and freshman-sophomore squads, and to serve as line coach for the lightweight varsity squad. Although he also coached track at Maine High School, he invested his heart and soul into those football teams.

His insight, preparation, and dedication were noticed. Before long, the head coach for the heavyweight varsity team told Mr. Ambrose that the following fall he would bring him up to be the line coach for the highest level of varsity football.

Mr. Ambrose’s dream was becoming reality.

He was getting closer to becoming a head football coach for a high school varsity heavyweight team. That summer he headed to the University of Michigan (“U of M”) in distant Ann Arbor, Mich., to work on his master’s degree, and then return in the fall to pursue his destiny on the sidelines of the gridiron.

“No one ever lost their eyesight by looking on the bright side of things.” While at the U of M, Mr. Ambrose received a letter from

Living by the same philosophy he would expound to generations of future athletes, Mr. Ambrose threw himself into preparations and building his knowledge base. He borrowed, acquired and stole every idea, strategy and nugget of expertise he came across. He became a sponge soaking up information from publications, college coaches and peers. He refused to allow his ignorance of the sport to keep the student athletes in his care from reaching their full potential.

The next dozen years witnessed a new era in Michigan high school cross country and track. Mr. Ambrose’s Seaholm teams went on to win 95 of 112 dual cross country meets. He led his teams to nine regional titles, two state championships and two runner-up finishes. He never finished below seventh at the state meet.

He coached 23 all-state athletes. Pure dominance!

The reign of terror to teams unfortunate enough to compete in the Ambrose era found no refuge in springtime either. His Seaholm Maples took 94 of 100 dual track meets between 1952 and 1967. They placed in the top five three times at the state meet.

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

“In order to succeed we must first believe we can.” After the war and an honorable discharge, Mr. Ambrose found himself in Chicago. There he had a relative with an available room. Within two days of his arrival, and with one suit of clothes and his credentials, he chased a lead and landed a teaching job at suburban Maine High School.

is yours, and no one can take that away. The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination.” In 1954, in his forties, Mr. Ambrose was learning a new sport. He was now the Seaholm cross country coach.

Some would say he was lucky. Mr. Ambrose used two quotes on the subject of luck. “Success is simply a matter of luck; ask any failure.” “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more of it I have.”

The success of Mr. Ambrose’s teams had nothing to do with luck. They had to do with his infectious enthusiasm, positive mental attitude, attention to detail and near-fanatical emphasis on preparation. I found a list of 23 separate exercises for his cross country teams to complete before they started their workouts. His teams won because they were willing to do what others would not.

Kermit Ambrose starts an indoor track meet.

“Mister Meant To had a comrade named Never Do. Have you ever chanced to meet them? Did they ever call on you? These two live together in the House of Never Win. I’m told it is haunted by the Ghost of Might Have Been.” Around 1952, while Mr. Ambrose was sitting in the Seaholm athletic director’s office discussing his prospects to coach football, basketball, track and baseball, he saw a group of boys running in sweat clothes. Realizing it was not track season, he inquired for what those boys were training. The A.D.’s response sounded like a foreign language to Mr. Ambrose.

He had never heard of cross country.

“Never be satisfied with your present accomplishment. The power to succeed or fail michiganrunner.net

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“The principal reason that one athlete succeeds and another fails lies in the degree of personal motivation.” “All things are difficult before they are simple.” As one of his athletes stated, “He would give you a vision and convince you. t sounded so simple!”

“There is always room at the top.”

“There are three kinds of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened.” Mr. Ambrose was not selfish with the know-how he acquired in building his teams; he wanted to impart it without restraint. His great concern was that other schools with uneducated coaches were not affording their cross country runners the opportunities to achieve.

In 1957 he connected with Jack Boughton,

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

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Bruce Waha, Norm Badar, Don Sazima and Bob Parks to launch an association of track coaches to offer educational clinics and share knowledge among fellow coaches. (Please forgive me if I missed any names of the organization’s founders.)

Though he had accomplished a lot, he had more to give.

Confident that MITCA was on solid ground, Mr. Ambrose turned his concentration to track and cross country officials. There seemed to be much lacking in knowledge base, consistency and training options for those responsible to officiate cross country and track and field meets.

From the humble beginning of meeting in classrooms, the seeds of the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association were planted. This organization today has hundreds of state coaches gather to hear Olympians and nationally-recognized coaches and speakers present on cross country and track. MITCA was, and is, so grateful for Mr. Ambrose’s leadership that its most prestigious annual award bears his name, the Kermit Ambrose Award.

Mr. Ambrose played a key role in joining forces to form the Association of Track Officials of Michigan. So distinguished was this organization that now it is hardly acceptable to host a meet at any level without an ATOM-certified officiating team. He and others from earlier days soon were called upon to officiate at NCAA and AAU meets. A number of the procedures and

“Of all the words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been.” By 1967 Mr. Ambrose was on top of his game. He was one graduating class away from his most recent state championship cross country team, and one summer away from having a former athlete of his run in the 1968 Olympic Games.

MITCA was firmly established, not only as an association for cross country and track coaches, but also as the benchmark for Michigan high school coaching associations for individual sports. The future was bright for him and the Seaholm Maples. Little did he know, the true test of his character would be revealed that spring.

Thirty years later, Mr. Ambrose cut a handful of disruptive high schoolers from the track team for skipping practices. After parental involvement, a school administrator told him to reinstate the athletes. Mr. Ambrose refused.

There was an ultimatum.

By example, Mr. Ambrose gave us another lesson. The man we refer to as “The dean of Michigan high school track and field” voluntarily ended the high school coaching career he loved so much rather than compromise his principals. Seaholm never again achieved the prominence that it had.

“Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.” In his mid-fifties it would have been understandable if Mr. Ambrose had simply served his remaining career in the classroom, then retired to assume the role of a spectator. This was not to be.

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Among them was future world-class runner Jeff Drenth of Charlevoix. Mr. Ambrose and Jeff enjoyed a unique bond. He celebrated Jeff’s successes and never got over Jeff’s death from heart failure following a training run at the Athletics West facility in Eugene, Ore. When we cleaned out Mr. Ambrose’s apartment, practically every room had a photo of Jeff in it. Mr. Ambrose cared exceedingly about the people in his life.

“Enthusiasm is the propelling force necessary for climbing the ladder of success.”

Well into his nineties and even past the age of 100, Mr. Ambrose continued to teach us lessons. He always took time for young athletes.

As his chauffeur to various meets and events, it was common for me to have to wait while the co-founder of MITCA, two-time state championship coach and discoverer of an Olympian, spent 20 minutes listening to a chubby seventh-grader’s detailed account of how he ran an 800 at an intramural track meet.

Just when I thought I could bring the car around, Mr. Ambrose had the poor youngster doing side-straddle hops, jumping jacks, high knee lifts and the famous SIM drill. This was customarily followed by a reminder that “the only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.”

I am now ashamed of my impatience during those times. Perhaps I was the one who had the most to learn from Mr. Ambrose in these “coaching sessions.” Lessons that had nothing to do with running.

Photo courtesy of Walt and Cara Drenth

Mr. Ambrose wrote in his 1930s notebook, “The coach should at all times have a well established code of rules which he should thoroughly explain to the squad. Then he should see that the code be carried out to the letter. Violations of the training rules should be severely dealt with, and it is often wise to suspend a star performer from the team, rather than have the army-like discipline impaired … Far better and more lasting results can always be obtained by making an example of one of his men who needs to be shown.”

way.” Mr. Ambrose’s focus on preparation, discipline and an eye for detail made him a great organizer and official. His true passion, though, was helping young people achieve their potential.

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

More than his credentials, accomplishments and awards, Mr. Ambrose will be remembered most for his kindness and character.

Jeff Drenth “When we cleaned out Mr. Ambrose’s apartment, practically every room had a photo of Jeff in it.”

rules formulated by Mr. Ambrose have become the standards in cross county and track and field officiating at all levels.

“You can’t turn the clock back to do the things you failed to do when you should have done them. Life does not operate that

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Here was a man who would recite poetry in lieu of using profanity. Here was a man would always leave room for dessert. Here was a man who didn’t want to move into an assisted living center because of the “old people” there. Here was a man who would never let you pick up the bill for breakfast, and for whom you had to use pay-atthe-pump quickly before he could maneuver his walker into the gas station to pay for your fuel.

Here was a man who would make sure you left with a grapefruit whenever you visited.

But most of all, here was a man who gave of himself freely and unselfishly. That is perhaps the greatest lesson he ever taught. Have we learned it?

“If it is to be, it is up to me.” I love you Kermit. Farewell my friend.

- MR -

Kermit Ambrose: 101 Years of Teaching, Inspiring His dedication helped state high school athletes become All Americans and Olympians in college and beyond. As one of those athletes, the news of his death at age 101 brought back memories to me.

I first met Kermit when I started running cross country in ninth grade at Pontiac Central High School. “Get in line, take your sweats off and be ready to go!” he was bellowing into a horn. Who was this?

Kermit had a distinct voice you could hear two miles away without a horn. I can hear it now, almost 40 years later.

Once you got to know Kermit, you could not forget him. I continued to see him start meets that fall and again during track season in the spring.

I took part in AAU walking races that summer, then went to his famous Wolverine cross country camp in northern Michigan. My high school cross country coach drove the team up there and introduced me to Kermit. When told that I had raced walked at AAU meets, he said, “You gotta have strong legs to be a walker.” He obviously knew his track and field events, because he was right on the money there.

Cross country camp was a riot. There were about 60 guys there from different high schools and Kermit ran it like it was boot camp.

He got us up at the crack of dawn to do stretching exercises with the counselors. Then we headed out on 10-mile runs as he drove along and encouraged us, even though it didn’t always sound like that. We’d have lunch, rest a bit and then do a late-afternoon workout.

After dinner came campfire time. Kermit’s stories never stopped. “The most important 10 two-letter words are, ‘If it is to be, it is up to me,’” he told us. I say that to myself and others now all the time.

He would tell us about runners who were on the edge of greatness, partied on the night before a big meet and lost. He told about athletes who made it through engineering school thanks to the perseverance they had learned

through running every day.

Kermit had stories to tell every night, some funny and some serious, but all meant to teach us something.

Lights were turned out at 10 p.m.

When a couple guys broke curfew, he had them run in the dark with his headlights behind them; it became a long night for them.

Kermit made it all happen at those camps.

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

K

ermit Ambrose lifted Michigan cross country, track and field to the best in the U.S.A. He inspired thousands of people with his love of athletics. Not a day went by when he wouldn’t help a person who needed something.

By Gary Morgan

Kermit showed up at my high school graduation party. He always told stories about how he went to former runTony Mifsud and Gary Morgan look over some of Kermit ners’ graduations, wedAmbrose’s memtos on display at his funeral service. dings, reunions, Christmas parties and anything else — and they were true. It race walk. Kermit called out to me and we showed how he cared about people, and how peotalked about things that had happened through ple cared for him. the years. I wish now our talk had been longer.

He sent me a Christmas card with a letter each year telling all the things he had done that year. He must have sent at least 100 such cards each year.

I would visit Kermit at his apartment across from Royal Oak High School. There were always pictures of Michigan high school track events laying around. He was generous, always taking me out to eat.

As I continued my walking career and went to the U.S. championships, Kermit always was there to watch. When I made the Olympic team, he sent me a beautiful card of congratulations.

I remember going to the 90th birthday party thrown for him by the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association. Someone drew out a name from the 50/50 raffle and said it all goes to Kermit, which it did. He was grateful and laughed about it.

I last saw him six years ago at the USATF Michigan indoor track meet at Eastern Michigan University, where they had a 3000-meter michiganrunner.net

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Kermit, an overachiever, was a World War II meteorologist, then a teacher and coach at Birmingham Seaholm High School, where his teams won two state titles and honors too numerous to mention. For 21 years he organized the Wolverine cross country camps. He helped start MITCA and a group that trained people to become track meet officials.

Kermit was much more than his accomplishments. He truly loved people, especially athletes who wanted to strive for excellence.

At the memorial service for him, I spoke to his great niece from Council Bluffs, Iowa. I always wondered why he talked about going there; now I knew: that’s where he had family.

“I just knew Kermit as our lovable uncle,” his great niece said. “I had no idea he had done all this.”

There will never be another man like you, Kermit. We will miss you.

- MR -

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

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Running Shorts with Scott Hubbard

K

ERMIT. My first meeting with Kermit Ambrose was similar to that of many others over many years — he yelled at me.

The setting was Yost Fieldhouse on the Scott Hubbard University of Michigan campus in winter 1969 — yards from Ferry Field, where Jesse Owens set four world records in 1935. Yost was the first all-purpose sports facility of its kind, built in 1923 at the behest of U-M football coach Fielding Yost. It housed the basketball and track and field teams until 1973. For my first track meet as an Ann Arbor Huron High School junior, I was entered in the mile run and came late for check-in.

When I arrived, the guy organizing the runners’ lineup was already past my projected time, so, innocently, I brought that to his attention. He immediately lit into me, with raised voice asking, “Where have you been? I’ve been lining everybody up for five minutes.”

I sheepishly apologized, didn’t bother with an excuse and he asked my time. When I told him, he instructed me to find the guys around my time and get in line. Then he resumed his seeding job. I had met Kermit and nothing would be the same afterward.

Wanting to make amends for my transgression and caught up in the excitement of my first track meet, I went out too fast and died to a slow time.

Later, chagrined, I talked the race over with my coach, Kent Overbey, in his first season there (Kent still coaches at Huron, cross country now). Kent told me the guy lining up the runners was a long-time official.

As the indoor season wore on, my teammates were equally struck by this loud, takecharge man. After our cross country team won the Class A Lower Peninsula Finals in November ‘69, we unanimously voted to ask if Kermit might be our banquet speaker.

He agreed and we were tickled that this engaging man spent time with us. We regarded him as the proverbial busy, intriguing uncle whose bark was well-meaning and sincere, not meant to belittle or punish.

Over the next 40-plus years, I grew to ad30

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

mire and value the man for all his quirks, quips and devotion to the sport. I’m one among thousands who feel that way.

Kermit passed away at age 101 in Bloomfield Hills on Feb.24. He never married, yet left an oversized family of friends who held him in the highest regard.

Born Jan. 6, 1911, Kermit grew up in Pierre, Neb., a tiny farming town in the northeast side of the state. New Mexico and Arizona weren’t states yet, the Titanic had yet to set sail and American women couldn’t vote back then.

Kermit had to leave home and board in a neighboring town to attend high school, where he played football and basketball. He liked to tell the story that after high school, a friend passing by his home said he was headed to college and asked Kermit if he would like to join him. Minus that, Kermit might not have gone to Wayne State Teachers College, 15 miles away, spent a lifetime working with kids and earned induction into the WSTC Hall of Fame in 1966.

His first teaching job was in 1929, where he made $2.50 a day instructing youngsters in his hometown’s one-room schoolhouse. During the Depression, he taught and coached football and basketball.

Kermit served during World War II as an Army Air Corps meteorologist, spending time in Scotland, Morocco, Iran and Italy. After the war, he taught in Illinois and Wisconsin before moving to Detroit, where he sold real estate. He earned his master’s degree from U-M and started substitute teaching. Soon he hooked on at Birmingham Seaholm High School in 1952.

When a cross country coaching job opened at Seaholm that fall, I don’t know if Kermit was urged to take it, showed interest on his own or a combination. At any rate, seeds were planted for running career that lasted 60 years.

Kermit coached cross country and track at Seaholm from 1952 to 1967 and retired from teaching sciences in 1977. His 1959 and ‘63 cross teams won Class A state championships.

Well into his 90s, he could recite the names and places for all seven runners on both those squads.

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

Trivia: What was the men’s world record for the mile run in 1911?

Kermit Ambrose acknowledges the crowd at NCAA Division I Indoor National Championships, 2010. (author of “Bowerman and the Men of Oregon”) as marathon Olympians. Shorter would win in Munich, Moore was fourth and Bacheler finished ninth, still the best U.S. team showing ever.

Kermit also coached shot putter Jack Harvey, who went on to star at U-M and became men’s track coach for the Wolverines in the mid1970s.

In 1959 Kermit helped form the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association, an organization devoted to coaching education and instruction. It was called the Southeast MITCA the first year before being renamed MITCA. It holds a track clinic each January, with a cross country clinic added in November 1973. The Kermit Ambrose Award, MITCA’s highest honor, is given each year to a cross country coach who has made major contributions to the sport. He served as MITCA newsletter editor for many years.

One of his future stars was a 6’6”-plus guy who Kermit didn’t think was serious about coming out for cross country. In short order (no pun meant), Jack Bacheler became the the team’s No. 1 man, then went on to star at Miami of Ohio.

In 1972, Kermit began as director of the Wolverine Cross Country Camp, located on Old 27 two miles north of tiny Wolverine and 38 miles south of Mackinaw City. He remained director for 21 years, until he was 81, watching as the number of boy and girl campers grew to fill the old schoolhouse and lodge.

Still on a rising path, Jack became a 1968 U.S. Olympian in the 5000 meters. Four years later, after moving to Florida and helping establish the Florida Track Club, he joined Yale University graduate Frank Shorter and Kenny Moore

He’d arrive early to mow paths and set up cones. Each day was devoted to a particular workout, with the 5-5-5 being the most demanding. Campers would run as far as they could for five minutes, rest and repeat, then

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michiganrunner.tv

I wrote a piece about Kermit in the 1980s for Runner’s World magazine. I went to his Royal Oak apartment to talk with him, and was both unnerved and delighted to see stacks of old running programs, mementos, meet results, newspaper articles, magazines and other relics. It was overwhelming! The collection was an extension of who he was and what brought him joy.

He was a regular visitor to the NCAA Division 1 indoor track and field championships, officiating at many in their original home in Detroit. Later he traveled to them with other Michigan coaches.

He also attended just about every U.S. Olympic track and field trials, beginning in the ‘70s. One of his favorite pictures was of him and then-high school superstar Jordan Hasay at the 2008 trials. He was the oldest spectator and she was the youngest competitor. He remained an official, even after his 100th birthday.

Kermit put a lot of miles on his car, traveling to so many meets. He was known as a lead foot, scaring more than one passenger. At age 92, he drove solo to Dayton, Ohio, and the Mideast high school cross country meet. There, he invited me to dinner (my son, Jeff, was on the team) and scolded some of the Michigan team members for not wearing warmer clothes. Kermit, bless his heart, was given to offering pointers spontaneously — always teaching.

I was honored to be invited to his 80th, 90th and 100th birthday parties — along with a couple hundred other fans and friends of his. I have a photo occupying a prominent place in my living room of us working at an indoor meet at UM, when he was a mere slip of a lad at 95.

From 2005 to 2010, Kermit helped me conduct the awards ceremonies at the Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals. He was always first to greet and congratulate the top 30 award winners in each class. I think I have the coolest job in the world as the meet’s emcee and it was great fun to think of him as my overqualified “wing man.” It was a relationship I’ll forever treasure. Members of the audience loved chatting him up and he enjoyed the exchanges.

Before the 2010 awards ceremonies and two months prior to his 100th birthday, I asked Mark Uyl from the Michigan High School Athletic Association office if I might lead the audience in singing “Happy Birthday” to Kermit. “By all means,” was Mark’s reply. I thought it would

The Huron Relays were renamed the Kermit N. Ambrose Huron Relays following his retirement as director. After the 2011 meet, where he helped pass out hip numbers to the runners, he treated about Centenarians Kermit Ambrose (center) and Red Simmons (right) are 10 of us to dinner. Re- honored with a joint birthday celebration, January 2011. member now, this is a 100-year-old man. I believe he had his make a point. He could be, and usually was, customary dish of ice cream for dessert. humble. He was a genuine personality and presence, unique, an ol’ country boy from the I last saw Kermit at the Holly Invitational rural Midwest. high school cross country meet last September, still giving back to the sport. He appeared frail I’ll leave with you with a phrase thousands and was being assisted in his awards-presentaheard Kermit share over the years: “If it is to be, tion duties. But he recognized me and had, once it is up to me.” This was a MAN. RIP, old friend. again, shown up to get a job done.

The Kermit N. Ambrose Huron Relays were held March 24. As announcer, I made sure to say a few things about the man and his passing before action started.

I went to the visitation for him in Clawson (where his funeral was attended by an overflow crowd the next day) and four hours never passed so fast. It was wonderful to see and talk with so many others who thought the world of Kermit. Lots of photo albums, memorabilia and such to look through. I was pleased to see a video playing that included the YouTube “Happy Birthday” serenade from 2010.

Answer: American John Paul Jones ran 4:15.4 in Cambridge, Mass., in 1911.

- MR -

Michigan Runner TV An Interview with Kermit Ambrose http://michiganrunner.tv/2002kambrose

Next to the Great Man laying in his casket was a blown-up picture taken in winter in the mid-1980s. It showed six runners on a snowy road south of Charlevoix. Featured was Jeff Drenth, then of Athletics West, who had grown to revere Kermit, mostly via interaction at Wolverine Camp. Sadly, Jeff died at age 24 and now the two are joined in a better place.

It could be argued Kermit was Michigan’s “Most Interesting Man” of high school cross country and track and field. It’s hard to say what you’d recall most after meeting him: his medium-height, stocky build with a large, round face and glasses, topped by a balding head with brown hair brushed back in wings at the temple; or his voice. Or both. When he spoke, his comments seemed measured, balanced, to-the-point and his volume varied from soft-spoken repartee to a dull roar used to michiganrunner.net

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Photo by Art McCafferty

Also during the early ‘70s, Kermit took over directing the Huron Relays, one of the country’s oldest indoor high school track meets, held at Eastern Michigan University. He directed the huge, two-day meet into his early 80s. His retirement from teaching allowed him greater time to refine and define his activities. He had an exterior that could appear gruff but was imbued with care and detail.

be fun, timely and in front of “his people” — folks who could appreciate the man and his history. I was right. Before the afternoon ceremonies, somebody caught the singing on video and put it up on YouTube.

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

rest and repeat. They would do that twice during their week at camp.

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

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Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

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michiganrunner.tv

State Prep Athletes Excel at MITS Meet

Michigan Indoor Track Series Final, Ypsilanti

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

By Grant Lofdahl

YPSILANTI (2/25/12) — If anyone attending the Michigan Indoor Track Series State Championships had doubts about the health and vitality of track and field in Michigan, those doubts were erased.

In a packed-to-the-rafters Bob Parks Fieldhouse at Eastern Michigan University, hundreds of state qualifiers ran, jumped, threw, hurdled and vaulted to meet records and national rankings in one of the deepest and most talentladen MITS state meets ever.

Among the brightest stars at the championships was Cindy Ofili, who was named track athlete of the meet after winning the 60-meter hurdles in a blazing time of 8.43 seconds.

Ofili, a senior from Ann Arbor Huron, is the younger sister of World Indoor silver medalist Tiffany Ofili Porter and will follow her sibling to the University of Michigan. She outraced Laticia Sims, Quenee Dale and Sami Michell in a field full of MHSAA state hurdle champions.

“I think I did OK,” said the modest hurdler, who also ran in the 4x200 and 4x400 relays. “I don’t think I did that great in the (4x400), but I was happy with my 4x2 and the hurdles. It feels really good, I’m just happy to finally show what I’ve been waiting to show. I think my mental preparation was good and my coaches helped me a lot.”

60 meter hurdles champion Drake Johnson (in white) is pictured at the January 5, 2012 M.I.T.S. meet in Ann Arbor.

Also enjoying outstanding success was Detroit Country Day’s Brittany Mann, who won the shot put (40-8.5) and weight throw (544.5), both by wide margins. Mann, a University of Oregon recruit, was named girls’ field event athlete of the meet.

Back on the track, Ali Wiersma, looking to defend her 3200-meter title from 2011, ran away from the field to win in 10:40.56 after anchoring the Crystal Lake Track Club to a win in the distance medley relay.

“I did just about as well as I was hoping for,” said Wiersma, a senior from Allendale who is headed to Michigan State University. “In the distance medley I was pleasantly surprised that we won. In the 3200 it would’ve been nice to have broken 10:34 (the meet record), but I’m really happy to have a PR already. I was concerned by how hard the race went out, but it slowed down and I took the lead. It hurt really bad toward the end.”

Another fine time was turned in by Detroit Cass Tech senior Kyra Jefferson in the 200meter dash. The University of Florida-bound sprinter cruised to victory by more than a second in 24.31, one of the best times in the country all season.

The 60-meter dash was a much closer affair michiganrunner.net

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© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

60 meter hurdles champion Cindy Ofili (l) & Tiffany Ofili Porter

Nathan Chapman (bib 41), 1:57.32, barely edged Alex Wesche, 1:57.37, for the 800 meter championship.

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

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1600 meter run champion Connor Mora, 4:18.70

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

Aubryn Samaroo out-jumped the rest in the high jump as she cleared 5-5, while Hannah Sailar was the lone pole vaulter over the 12foot mark with a 12-1 clearance. Sami Michell nearly eclipsed 18 feet in the long jump, while Sherry Wan was victorious in the triple jump.

800 meter run champion Lauren Burnett, 2:14.10

200 meter dash champion Kyra Jefferson, 24.31

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

In the relays, the Spirit of Pre Track Club dominated the 4x800, while Motor City TC crushed the 4x400 competition with a quick 3:55.64 clocking. New Breed TC easily won the 4x200.

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

The middle distances saw dominating wins from Anna Jefferson in the 400 (57.02) and Lauren Burnett in the 800 (2:14.10). In the 1600, Grosse Pointe South freshman Ersula Farrow raced to a big lead, but another talented freshman — Kenzie Weiler of Cedar Springs — made things interesting in the final lap as she sprinted the last 200 meters. Farrow held on for a close 5:06.25 to 5:06.67 win.

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

as Sekayi Bracey edged Berrion Berry, 7.71 to 7.73 in near photo finish.

1600 meter run champion Ersula Farrow, 5:06.25

60 meter dash champion Kyle Redwine, 6.85

2012 Michigan Runner Race Series

34

Corktown Race, 5K, Detroit - March 11 Martian Invasion Meteor 10K, Dearborn - April 14 Borgess Half Marathon, Kalamazoo - May 6

Plymouth YMCA Father's Day 1 Mile, Plymouth - June 17 National Cherry Festival 15K, Traverse City - July 14 Steve's Run 10K, Dowagiac - July 28

Fifth Third River Bank Run 25K, Grand Rapids - May 12 Dexter Ann Arbor 10K, Ann Arbor - June 3 Brian Diemer Amerikam 5K, Cutlerville - June 9

Crim Festival of Races, 10 Mile, Flint - August 25 Ringside Fitness Marquette Marathon - September 1 Mackinac Island 8 Mile Road Race - September 8 Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon - October 21

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

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michiganrunner.tv

Š Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

versity of Missouri, powered away from the field to win by nearly five seconds in 9:21.64.

Michigan All-Stars TC was second in both sprint relays. Dearborn TC won the 4x400 and finished a close second to Red Tide TC in the distance medley relay.

“I picked it up this year and didn’t really get the hang of it until last week,� said Norman of the weight throw, which was won by Tyrus Conley. “I was pretty happy with second overall. In the shot, I just switched to the spin from the glide. I was just hoping to get around 58 feet and threw a PR of 59-9, so I’m very happy. I did hit 60 (feet) but I scratched.�

In the 4x800, Red Tide’s bid for two victories was dashed by the West Michigan Harriers.

Led by Cedar Springs junior Connor Mora, the Harriers ran away with the win and just missed breaking the 8:00 barrier. Mora sped to an individual win as well when he pulled away from the 1600-meter field with a time of 4:20.45.

3200 meter run champion Evan Chiplock (bib 42), 9:21.64, leads Jeff Bajema (bib 7) and Tanner Hinkle.

Š Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

On the male side of things, Kyle Redwine Edged Berkley Edwards to win the 60-meter dash, 6.85 to 6.88. Redwine, an Auburn Hills Avondale senior, was named boys’ track athlete of the meet as he also competed on the winning 4x200 relay and third-place 4x40 relay for Maximum Output TC.

In the field events Cadillac senior Riley Norman just missed the 60-foot mark in the shot put with a winning put of 59-9.75 and also placed seconds in the weight throw.

Other field event winners included Steven Bastien in the long jump, Ryan Schroeder in the triple jump, Dan Emery in the pole vault and Harris Edwards III in the high jump.

PM Page 1 “My (1600) time wasn’t exactlydodge what Ipark 2012_dodge park 4/9/12 -2:50 MR wanted it to be, but going into the race I just wanted to try to win it,� said Mora, who also won the Gazelle Sports Elite Mile the previous weekend at Grand Valley State University and led off the 4x8 for his team at EMU. “It was a fun race. I don’t usually run first (leg), so it was a lot different.

It was nice starting out with a big pack and opening it up a little bit for the rest of the team.�

Other track winners included Austin Sanders in the 200, Jason Ervin in the 400 and Nathan Chapman in the 800. The 60-meter hurdles saw Ann Arbor Pioneer’s sub14-second 110 hurdler Drake Johnson fly to the win in 7.85, while the 3200 featured an impressive front-running performance from Mr. Cross Country 2011 Evan Chiplock 3200 meter champion of Saginaw Heritage.

Wiersma, 10:40.56 run fundsAli 2012_twelfth 4/11/12 9:51 AM Page 1 Chiplock, bound for the Uni-

Run & Walk For Funds

Northport • Saturday, July 7 9 am: 2 Mile Run • 9:30 am: 5K &10K Runs • 9:45 am: Walk All events benefit American Cancer Society Leelanau County Unit $20 Entry Fee, $25 Race Day • T-Shirts to first 200 Plaques • Medals • Location: Historic Depot Northport

Contact:

George W. Anderson, Race Director 310 West Third St., Northport, MI 49670 (231) 386-5188 • gwanderson@chartermi.net

sixth horizontal template_sixth horizontal 2/6/12 11:02 AM Page 1

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Kids Fun Run Races

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Your start and finish will be cheered on by 30,000+ spectators. Trophies awarded to the top male and female in the 5K Run, 5K walk, and 8 Mile Race and to the top male and female Masters runners in the 5K and 8 Mile Race.

Medals awarded to the top two finishers in each age group for each event and to all Kids Fun Run participants.

1SF SFHJTUFSFE QPTUNBSLFE CZ "QSJM t 1SF SFHJTUFSFE QPTUNBSLFE CZ .BZ 3BDF EBZ SFHJTUSBUJPO t 3FHJTUFS POMJOF BU XXX BDUJWF DPN For more information visit www.almahighlandfestival.com PS QMFBTF DBMM +JMM 4BOESP

All participants will receive a free one-day pass to the World-famous Highland Festival grounds (a $15 value). michiganrunner.net

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Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

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running fit template_running fit template 4/9/12 4:26 PM Page 1

May - June 2012 Event Calendar Tue, 5/1/12

Hanson Speed Session -Tuesdays

training

Sterling Heights

(586) 323-9683

hansons-running.com

Tue, 5/1/12

Renegade Run

3MR on obstacle course

Shelby

(586) 532-1300,

shelbyrunclub.weebly.com

Wed, 5/2/12

Run Fit 5K

5KR, 1MR, kids run

Novi

(734) 929-9027

www.runfit5K.com

Thu, 5/3/12

Hansons Group Run - Thursdays

Royal Oak

(248) 616-9665

hansons-running.com

Thu, 5/3/12

Kids Run Club Race

5KR, KR, 1KR

Shelby

(586) 532-1300

shelbyrunclub.weebly.com

Thu, 5/3/12

Lifetime Fitness Kids Race

5KR, 3KR, 1KR

Shelby Twp.

(586) 532-1300

shelbyrunclub.weebly.com

Fri, 5/4/12

Mason State Bank 5K

5KR/W, kids run

Mason

(517) 676-0500 greatlakeschampionship.com

(734) 657-0214

runningfit501.com

Sat, 5/5/12

Addison Panther Road Race 5K Run/Walk

5KR/W

Addison

(517) 917-6205

addisonxc.com

Sat, 5/5/12

501 Running Club 20 Miler

20MR, 10MR, 5MR

Ann Arbor

Sat, 5/5/12

Berkshire Proud Dad’s 5K

5KR/W

Beverly Hills

Sat, 5/5/12

Blossomland Run for the Buds

5KR/W, kids run

St. Joseph

(269) 982-8016

blossomtimefestival.org

Sat, 5/5/12

Child Advocacy 5K Run

5KR, 1MR/W, kids run

Alma

(989) 463-1422

linkforfamilies.org

Sat, 5/5/12

Chuck Keegan “Race for the Kids”

5KR, 3KW

Clarkston

(248_ 623-5631

Sat, 5/5/12

Cinco De Mayo

10KR, 5KR/W

Flint

Sat, 5/5/12

Cinco de Mayo Run Walk

5KR/W

Saginaw

(989) 992-9007

cincokrun.com

Sat, 5/5/12

Columbia Community Fitness Center 5K

5KR/W, 1MFR

Brooklyn

(517) 592-4570

runningfoundation.com

Sat, 5/5/12

Family Services & Children’s Aid 5K

5KR/W

Jackson

(517) 787-7920

fscarunforfun.org

Sat, 5/5/12

FIDO 5K Fun Run @ Bark for Life

Dexter

(734) 834-3454

relayforlife.org

Sat, 5/5/12

Fly Like An Eagle 5K

5MR/W, 1/2MFR

Belmont

(616) 887-7203

assumptionbvm.com

Sat, 5/5/12

Heart & Sole

10KR, 5KR/W, 2 MR/W, 13.8MB

Chelsea

(734) 475-4157

chelseaheartandsole.com

Sat, 5/5/12

Huron County Memorial Airport 5K

5KR/W

Bad Axe

(989) 269-6511

Sat, 5/5/12

Kentucky Derby Dash to Benefit Camp Casey

5KR/W, 1MR/W

Milford

(248) 705-2780

camp-casey.org

Sat, 5/5/12

Miles for Mason

5KR, 1MFR

Waterford

(248) 935-2469

milesformason.weebly.com

Sat, 5/5/12

Mind Your Health Run/Walk

5KR, 1MW

Petoskey

(231) 347-0740

www.norcocmh.org

5KR/W

momrace.org

Sat, 5/5/12

MOM Charity 5K Run/Walk

Sat, 5/5/12

MORC’s Miles for Smiles 5K Run/Walk

Sat, 5/5/12

O’Connor’s Nacho Ordinary Run Rally

36

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

3MR

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michiganrunner.tv

(248) 855-9609 berkshiremiddleschool.webs.com

tritofinish.com/events

Royal Oak

(248) 376-4666

Clarkston

(248) 276-8007

Rochester

(248) 608-2537

yourpaceormine.com

May - June 2012 Event Calendar Sat, 5/5/12

Pigeon River Classic

13.1, 10K, 5K, 1MR, kids run

Clintonville, WI

(715) 701-0360

Sat, 5/5/12

Silver Trails Run Wild 5K / 10K

10KR, 5KR

Jeddo

(810) 982-9529

Sat, 5/5/12

SMOC Orienteering Meet

orienteering

Pinckney

Sat, 5/5/12

St. Gerard 5K

5KR/W

Lansing

(517) 668-8219

Sat, 5/5/12

St. Paul Spring Tune-Up

5KR/W

Flint

(810) 239-6200

Sat, 5/5/12

TGIS Spring 5K Run

5KR

Gaylord

(989) 370-0934

gaylordxc.blogspot.com

Sat, 5/5/12

Tom Broughton Memorial 5K Fun Run / Walk

5KR/W, 1MR

West Branch

(989) 345-5363

westbranchvet.com

Sat, 5/5/12

Tulip Time Run

10KR, 5KR/W, 1K kids run

Holland

(616) 396-4221

www.tuliptime.com

Sat, 5/5/12

USA 24 Hour Championships - Day 1

24 hour run

Cleveland, OH

Sat, 5/5/12

Weidenbach Walk/Run Family Event

5KR/W, 1MFR/W

Harrison Twp.

(586) 755-9100

mgadetroit-easternmi.org

Sat, 5/5/12

Wildcat 5K

5KR/W

Oxford

(810) 955-4630

signmeup.com/76433

Sat, 5/5/12

Willow Duathlon

5KR/ 20KB/ 5KR

New Boston

(231) 546-2229

3disciplines.com

Sun, 5/6/12

Burns Park Run

10KR, 5KR, 1MFR

Ann Arbor

(734) 945-8132

burnsparkrun.org

Sun, 5/6/12

Cinco De Mayo Run

5KR, 1MR

Detroit

(313) 570-4803

motorcitystriders.com

Sun, 5/6/12

Dash for Destiny 5K Run/Walk

5KR/W, 1M kids run

Birmingham

(248) 203-9841

jlbham.org

Sat, 5/5/12

Team Playmakers 20 Mile Marathon Training Run

20MR/W

greatlakesendurance.com

bwcbsa.org michigano.org

Lansing

gaultracemanagement.com

(517) 349-3803

usatf.org

Sun, 5/6/12 Kalamazoo Marathon / Borgess Run 26.2, 13.1, 5K, 5K Judged RaceW, 1 MFR, kids run Kalamazoo (877) 255-2447 borgessrun.com Sun, 5/6/12 Mississauga Marathon 26.2MR, 13.1MR, 5KR, 1MR Mississauga, ON (905) 949-2931 mississaugamarathon.com half page horizontal template_half page horizontal 4/9/12 4:05 PM Page 1

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Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

37

Sun, 5/6/12

Mississauga Marathon

10KR, 5KR

Mississauga, ON

(905) 949-1910 mississaugamarathon.com

Sun, 5/6/12

Relay for Life 5K

5KR/W

Lansing

(517) 664-1343

Sun, 5/6/12

SJ5K

3MR/W, 1MR/W

Canton

tinyurl.com/d6emnxc

Sun, 5/6/12

Special Dreams Farm 10K Run and 5K Walk

10KR, 5KW

Shelby Township

(586) 381-9863

Sun, 5/6/12

USA 24 Hour Championships - Day 2

24 hour run

Cleveland, OH

Wed, 5/9/12

Doozie’s Ice Cream Fun Run/Walk Series

5MR, 3MR, 1MR

Mt. Pleasant

Thu, 5/10/12

MAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships - Men & Women track and field

Mt. Pleasant

Fri, 5/11/12

Big Ten Outdoor Track & Field Championships - Men & Women

Sports and Fitness Expo

Expo

track and field

Madison, WI bigten.cstv.com/championships/

(616) 040-9888

53riverbankrun.com

Fri, 5/11/12

Starker-Mann Epic Weekend

1MR (jr), 5KR

Gaylord

(231) 546-2229

3disciplines.com

Fri, 5/11/12

Grand Rapids

relayforlife.org/lansingmi

specialdreamsfarm.org usatf.org

(989) 772-0323

edzone.net/~mphsstr/ mac-sports.com

Sat, 5/12/12

501 Running Club Group Run

10MR, 5MR

Ann Arbor

(734) 657-0214

runningfit501.com

Sat, 5/12/12

5K Race for Diabetes

5KR, 1MW

Tecumseh

(517) 265-0216

promedica.org

Sat, 5/12/12

Berkley Run

10KR, 5KR, 1 MR

Berkley

(248) 506-8194

motorcitystriders.com brandonlibrary.org

Sat, 5/12/12

Bookin’ It For Your Library

5KR/W, 1MR

Ortonville

(248) 892-2762

Sat, 5/12/12

CASA Light of Hope 5K

5KR/W

Monroe

(734) 457-9180

(616) 771-1590

Sat, 5/12/12

Dances with Dirt - Gnaw Bone

50MR, 50KR, 26.2MR, 13.1MR, 10KR 100K relay

Nashville, IN

(734) 929-9027

danceswithdirt.com

Sat, 5/12/12

Fifth Third River Bank Run

25KR, 10KR, 5KR/W, teams

Grand Rapids

Sat, 5/12/12

Fitness Is Life Fun Run

5KR/W, 1MR, kids run

Sault Ste. Marie, MI (906) 635-5055,

Sat, 5/12/12

Forsports & Marysville HS Relay for Life

5KR/W

Marysville

(810) 364-7161

Sat, 5/12/12

Glio-Blastoff 5K Fun Run/Walk

5KR/W

Ypsilanti

(586) 468-4814

Sat, 5/12/12

Hometown Hustle

5KR/W

Rochester

(248) 726-3126

Sat, 5/12/12

Howard Hill Hustle

5KR/W, kids run

Kalamazoo

(269) 501-7042

howardhillhustle.kcsa.org

Sat, 5/12/12

Mesick Mushroom River Run 5K

5KR, 2KW

Mesick

(231) 885-1200

mesick-mushroomfest.org

Sat, 5/12/12

Michigan Society for Respiratory Care Fun Run 10KR, 5KR

Westland

(866) 989-6772

michiganrc.org/events/

Sat, 5/12/12

Mission 5K / 10K

10KR, 5KR/W, 1MR/W

White Lake

(248) 431-6516

raceservices.com

Sat, 5/12/12

Mustang C

1MR, 1/2MR

Clio

(989) 583-4407

everythingclio.org

Sat, 5/12/12

Northbound 5K and Trail 1/2 Marathon

13.1MR, 5KR

Grayling

(989) 348-8558

xcskishop.com

Sat, 5/12/12

One World One Future

5KR/W

Bay City

(989) 450-8944

oneworldonefuture.org

Sat, 5/12/12

Parcel for the Park

10KR, 5KR/W, kids run

Davison

(810) 653-4618

parcelforthepark.com

Sat, 5/12/12

Path of Life 5K

5KR/W

Lansing

(517) 482-5856

hannahshouselansing.org

Sat, 5/12/12

Road Racing at Lake St. Clair Metro Beach

5KR, 2MW

Harrison Twp

(248) 627-6619

Sat, 5/12/12

Run 4 A Reason

10KR, 5KR/W

Ferndale

(248) 943-2411

Sat, 5/12/12

Run for a Cure 5K

5KR/W

Lansing

(517) 420-3622

playmakers.com

Sat, 5/12/12

Run for Recovery

5KR, 1MW

Port Huron

(810) 966-7809

gaultracemanagement.com

Sat, 5/12/12

Run Like a Mother

10KR, 5KR, 1MW

Harrison Township (586) 420-7670

active.com

Sat, 5/12/12

Spring Snowman 5K Run/Walk

10KR, 5KR/W

Brighton

(734) 780-5854

erichartwellfoundation.com

Sat, 5/12/12

Starker-Mann Epic Weekend

Triathlons & Duathlons

Gaylord

(231) 546-2229

3disciplines.com

Sat, 5/12/12

Sylvan Lake Shuffle

5K R/W, 1K FR

Sylvan Lake

(248) 343-1774

sylvanshuffle.com

Sat, 5/12/12

Take a Breath for PH and Get Moving for MS

13.1MR, 10KR, 5KR/W, Kids

Dewitt

(517) 281-6197

runningfoundation.com

Sat, 5/12/12

Vicksburg Hearty Hustle

5KRW, 1MFR, kids run

Vicksburg

Sun, 5/13/12

BBHCK Bolles Harbor Trot 5K Run/Walk

5KR/W

Monroe

(734) 735-5493

Sun, 5/13/12

For Women Only 5K

5KR/W

Ypsilanti

(248) 767-9123

www.aatrackclub.org

Sun, 5/13/12

Ready, Set, Fly 5K

5KR/W, 1MR/W

Ann Arbor

(734) 213-1033

champsforcharity.com

38

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

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michiganrunner.tv

(269) 321.1022

53riverbankrun.com www.jklschool.org

braincancer5k.com

getoutandlive.me

vicksburgcommunityschools.org

bbhck.weebly.com

May - June 2012 Event Calendar Sun, 5/13/12

SMOC Orienteering Meet

orienteering

Chelsea

(734) 834-2201

Sun, 5/13/12

Starker-Mann Epic Weekend

Triathlons & Duathlons

Gaylord

(231) 546-2229

michigano.org

Fri, 5/18/12

5K Anchor Run & 1 Mile Fun Run

5KR/W, 1MR/W

Portage

Fri, 5/18/12

Advance Packaging 5000

5KR/W, Kids Run

Jackson

(517) 788-9800

Fri, 5/18/12

YMCA Healthy Kids One Mile Fun Run

1MFR

Portage

(269) 324-9622

www.kzooymca.org

Fri, 5/18/12

YMCA Wyandotte River Run

5KR/W, 1 MR/W, kids run

Wyandotte

(734) 282.9622

everalracemgt.com

3disciplines.com michianatiming.com playmakers.com

Sat, 5/19/12

501 Running Club Group Run

12MR, 10MR, 5MR

Ann Arbor

(734) 657-0214

runningfit501.com

Sat, 5/19/12

5K Run for Hope

5KR

Marysville

(810) 364-7084

hopeendeavors.com

Sat, 5/19/12

ABC Challenge Walk

up to 10MFR/W

Bellaire

(231) 264-9843

antrimcountyhightea.org

Sat, 5/19/12

Angels’ Place Race

10KR, 5KR/W, 1MW

Clarkston

(248) 625-7859

angelsplacerace.com

Sat, 5/19/12

Associated Charities of Lenawee County Charity Chase

Adrian

(517) 265-7255

www.thecharities.org

Sat, 5/19/12

Autism Society of Michigan 5K

5KR/W, 1/2M kids run

Lansing

(517) 882-2800

autism-mi.org

Sat, 5/19/12

Book’n Trilogy

10KR, 5KR/W, kids run

South Lyon

(248) 437-6431

bookntrilogy.com

Sat, 5/19/12

Bruce Clifton 5K Run

10KR, 5KR, 1MFR

Clarkston

(248) 625-7859

angelsplacerace.org

Sat, 5/19/12

Diamonds & Dirt Women’s Adventure Run

4MR, kids run

Rochester Hills

(248) 320-5705

jeffwatters.com

Sat, 5/19/12

Fenton Tiger Run 5K Run Walk

5KR/W

Fenton

(810) 591-2608

fenton.k12.mi.us

Sat, 5/19/12

Grand Rapids Urban Adventure Race - Spring Edition

Sat, 5/19/12

AAA Race for Life

10KR, 5KR, 1MFW

plymouth 2012_half page horizontal 4/9/12 3:00 PM Page 1

10KR, 5KR, 1MW

Westland

5-6MR, 12-16MB, 1-2Mcanoe Belmont

(734) 335-0338

aaarace4life.com

(616) 460-9331 grUrbanAdventureRace.com

Plymouth YMCA Fathers Day Run

Sunday June 17, 2012 Downtown Plymouth

A Michigan Fathers Day Tradition for 33 years!

Kids 1/4M Fun Run, 1M Run, 1M Walk 5K Run, 5K Walk, 10K

PLUS Cash Prizes!!!

MDG Triple 10.3M - start times allow all three races!

Run the 1Mile!! 2012 Michigan Runner Race Series v v

USATF Certified Course is flat and fast!

2010 Women’s Masters 5K National Record

Register NOW!! at www.active.com www.ymcadetroit.org/plymouth Cindy Morency - 734-453-2904 Proceeds support the YMCA’s ”Strong Kids Campaign”

Voted a “Best Race in the USA”, www.seriousrunning.com

michiganrunner.net

|

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

39

Sat, 5/19/12

Great Michigan Race

4.5MR/W

Rochester

(248) 924-5995

greatmichiganrace.com

Sat, 5/19/12

Healing Hands

5KR/W

Flint

(810) 230-6492

gaultracemanagement.com

Sat, 5/19/12

Heels for Meals

10KR, 5KR, 1MR

Constantine

(269) 377-9772

runsignup.com

Sat, 5/19/12

I Gave My Sole for Parkinson’s Walkathon & 5K 5KR, variable W

St. Clair Shores

(248) 433-1011

www.parkinsonsmi.org

Sat, 5/19/12

Kent County Girls on the Run Celebratory 5K

5KFR/W

Kentwood

(616) 204-4267

www.kcgotr.org

Sat, 5/19/12

Laingsburg Lions Festival

5KR/W

Laingsburg

(989) 862-9700

runningfoundation.com

Sat, 5/19/12

Lory’s Place Run, Walk, Rock

5KR/W

St. Joseph

(800) 717-3812

www.lorysplace.org

Sat, 5/19/12

Lumber Baron 5K Run

5KR/W

Whitehall

Sat, 5/19/12

Midland Community Center’s Dow Run/Walk

10KR, 5KR/W, 1MR, kids run Midland

Sat, 5/19/12

Miles for Mia Memorial 5K Run/ Walk

5KR/W

Brighton

(586) 413-1400

milesformia.com

Sat, 5/19/12

Musical Miles, Op. 3

10KR/W, 5KR/W, kids run

Port Huron

(810) 984-2671

musicalmiles.info

Sat, 5/19/12

NAS Grosse Ile Duathlon

Du: 5KR/ 20KB/ 5KR

Grosse Ile

(231) 546-2229

www.3disciplines.com

Sat, 5/19/12

New Balance Girls on the Run 5K

5KR

Lawton

(269) 621-3143,

vbcassdhd.org

Sat, 5/19/12

North Brothers Ford/Westland 5K

5KR/W

Westland

(734) 421-1300

www.northbros.com

Sat, 5/19/12

Redneck Run

5KR/W

Levering

(231) 537-2832

northernoutfit.com

Sat, 5/19/12

Runnin’ With the Law 5K

5KR/W

Grand Rapids

(616) 340-1673

michianatiming.com

Sat, 5/19/12

Save the Manatee Run

5KR, 2 MW, 1MR

Harrison Township (586) 783-6729

everalracemgt.com

Sat, 5/19/12

SMOC Orienteering Meet

orienteering

Middleville

(231) 796-0737

michigano.org

Sat, 5/19/12

SolesforCardio

5KR/W

West Branch

(989) 343-3694

tollfreefoundation.org

Sat, 5/19/12

SPCA Doggie Dash

5KR/W

Kalamazoo

(269) 344-1474

spcaswmich.org

Sat, 5/19/12

The Kite Network 5K Run & Walk

5KR/W, 1MW

Dexter

(734) 604-1961

thekitenetwork5k.com

Sat, 5/19/12

TriAncilla

Tri: 500ydS/ 11MB/ 5KR

Plymouth

(574) 936-8898

ancilla.edu/Triancilla/

Sat, 5/19/12

USA Masters 8 km Championship

8KR

Williamsburg, VA

Sat, 5/19/12

Viking Shocker

8KR/W, 5KR/W, kids run

Fairgrove

(989) 23906308

active.com

Sat, 5/19/12

Wheatlake Caner & Wellness Walk & 5K Run

Big Rapids

(231) 250-5285

spwcenter.org

Sat, 5/19/12

Oaklawn Hospital Hospitality Classic

10KR, 5KR/W, 1 MFR

lumberbaron5k.blogspot.com (989) 832-7937

Marshall

(269) 789-8134

,greatlakesgreatraces.com

oaklawnhospital.org

usatf.org

Sun, 5/20/12

Dan Langdon Memorial Run

5KR/W, kids run

Bath

Sun, 5/20/12

Dragon Dash

8KR/W

Lake Orion

danlangdonmemorialrun.com

Sun, 5/20/12

I Gave My Sole for Parkinson’s Walkathon & 5K 5KR, variable W

Northville

(248) 433-1011

www.parkinsonsmi.org

Sun, 5/20/12

Komen Southwest Michigan Race for the Cure® 5KR/W, 1 MFR

Kalamazoo

(877) 566-3679

komenswmichigan.org

Sun, 5/20/12

Livonis Stevenson Spartan 5K Fun Run

5KR/W, 1MFR

Livonia

(734) 748-4909

shsboosterclub.info

(248) 391.0304

oriontownship.org

Sun, 5/20/12

Making Tracks for Celiacs

5KR/W

Grosse Pointe Shores (734) 634-5391

www.celiacwalk.org

Sun, 5/20/12

New Balance Girls on the Run 5K

10KR, 5KR, kids run

Ypsilanti

girlsontherunsemi.org

Sun, 5/20/12

Race For Your Memories

10KR, 5KR/W

Milford

(734) 712-5640 (248) 996-1060

Sun, 5/20/12

Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon & 10K

26.2 MR, 13.1 MR, 10KR

Cleveland, OH

Sun, 5/20/12

Run Penguin Run 5K

5KR/W

Harrison Twp.

Sun, 5/20/12

Shiawassee County New Balance Girls on the Run 5K

Sun, 5/20/12 Sun, 5/20/12 Sun, 5/20/12

5KR, kids’ run

raceforyourmemories.kintera.org

(800) 467-3826

clevelandmarathon.com grahampenquins.webs.com

Owosso

(517) 282-0970

gotrshiawassee.org

Stony Creek “Back to the Beach” Half Marathon & 5K 13.1MR, 10KR, 5KR/W The Qualifier 26.2MR, 13.1MR

Shelby Twp. Midland

backtothebeachraces.com (989) 415-3120 greatlakesgreatraces.com

The Run for Windy

5KR/W, kids run

Saginaw

(989) 921-2563

swanvalley.k12.mi.us

Augusta

(419) 829-2398

eliteendeavors.com

Sun, 5/20/12

XTERRA Last Stand Triathlon / Duathlon

Triathlon or Duathlon

Tue, 5/22/12

Millennium Park Run

6MR, 3MR, 3MW 1.5MR, Kids Grand Rapids

(616) 406-7441 grandrapidsrunningclub.org

Wed, 5/23/12

Challenger 5K

5KR/W, kids run

(517) 548-6375

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Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

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michiganrunner.tv

Howell

runningfoundation.com

May - June 2012 Event Calendar Thu, 5/24/12

Greater Kalamazoo New Balance Girls on the Run 5K

Kalamazoo

(269) 491-2663

Thu, 5/24/12

NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships

Pueblo, CO

(507) 646-3749

ncaa.com

Thu, 5/24/12

NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships

Claremont, CA

(920) 424-1034

ncaa.com

Fri, 5/25/12

NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Preliminary Round

Alma Highland Festival Ann Arbor Marathon 20 Miler

8MR, 5KR/W, kids runs 20MR, 10MR, 5MR

Jacksonville, FL

(502) 852-5151

ncaasports.com

Sat, 5/26/12

CHC Foundation 5K & Girls on the Run 5K

5KR/W

Coldwater

(517) 279-5414

runningfoundation.com

Sat, 5/26/12

GOTR Trail Run Half Marathon/ 10K/ 5K

13.1MR, 10KR, 5KR

Mt. Pleasant

(989) 317-5889

michiganhalfseries.com

Sat, 5/26/12

Island Lake Triathlon - Spring

Triathlons

Brighton

(734) 845-7559

elementevents.com

Sat, 5/26/12

John Laurin Memorial 5K Run/Walk

5KR/W

Carney - Nadeau

(906) 639-2512

uprrc.org

Sat, 5/26/12

K5K Kalamazoo 5K

5KR/W, kids run

Kalamazoo

(269) 978-2437

k5k.us

Sat, 5/26/12

Lisa’s Run

5MR, KR

Alpena

(989) 354-2378

(231) 436-5664

mackinawcity.com

Sat, 5/26/12

Miles for Missions Run / Walk

4MR, 2MR/W

Jackson

(517) 914-3181

miles-for-missions.org

Sat, 5/26/12 Sat, 5/26/12

Sat, 5/26/12

Sat, 5/26/12

Fruitport Old Fashioned Days Run

Mackinaw Memorial Bridge Race

5KR/W

10KR, 5KR

Alma Ann Arbor

Fruitport

6 MR

Mackinaw City

girlsontherunkazoo.org

(989) 463-4122 almahighlandfestival.com (734) 369-2492 runningfit501.com

(231) 865-3551

fruitportlions.com

Sat, 5/26/12

Run for the Harvest

5KR/W

East Tawas

(989) 362-2300

tawasnewhope.com

Sat, 5/26/12

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure®

5KR/W1MFR1 Mile FR

Detroit

(248) 304-2080

karmanos.org

grosse ile ad12_grosse ile ad06 2/7/12 11:48 AM Page 1 cheesetown 2012_third square 4/9/12 3:49 PM Page 1

8K Run • 5K Run/Walk 1 Mile Fun Run Grosse Ile High School Little Stars 1 Mile Start: 8:30 am 5K Start: 9:00 am; 8K Start: 9:05 am

May 28, 2012 • 8K & 5K courses are certified • Open, Master, Grandmaster, and Senior Grandmaster • 3 deep age groups for registration info call Total Runner (734) 282-1101 www.islandroadrunners.net

online registration

active.com

• Colorful sweatshirt • Spectacular course • Best goody table in Michigan

michiganrunner.net

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Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

41

Sat, 5/26/12

Thumb Run Pat Kellerman Memorial

10KR, 5KR/W

Bad Axe

(989) 269-8272

barc-mi.com

Sat, 5/26/12

Traverse City State Bank Bayshore Marathon

26.2 MR, 13.1MR, 10KR

Traverse City

(231) 941-8118

bayshoremarathon.org

Sat, 5/26/12

Tri_Cities Family YMCA Kick Off to Summer 5K 5KR/W, 1MFR/W

Grand Haven

(616) 842-7051,

tcfymca.org stonesouppromotions.com

Sat, 5/26/12

Two Rivers Meet

15KR, 10KR, 5KR/W

Elkhart, IN

(574) 293-1683

Sat, 5/26/12

X-Tri Stony Creek

Triathlon & Duathlon

Shelby Township

(231) 546-2229

Sun, 5/27/12

Bill Compton Support Our Troops 5K

5KR/W, 1MW

Walled Lake

3disciplines.com downtownwalledlake.org

Sun, 5/27/12

Sailing Thru the Shores

5KR/W

St. Clair Shores

(586) 771-2587

www.scsfunrun.org

Sun, 5/27/12

Seahorse Challenge Triathlon and Duathlon

Triathlons, Duathlon, 5K

Climax

(231) 546-2229

3disciplines.com

Sun, 5/27/12

Wild West 100K, 50K, and Relay

100KR, 50KR, relay

Lowell

(616) 260-2669

wildwest100k.4t.com

Mon, 5/28/12

Big Foot Challenge

8KR, 5KR/W, kids’ run

Dansville

Mon, 5/28/12

City of Burton Memorial Day 5K

5KR/W

Burton

(810) 744-1062

runburton.com

Mon, 5/28/12

Disabled American Veterans (DAV) 5K

5KR/W

Petoskey

(231) 838-5591

runffordav.org

(517) 889-5182

dansvilleathleticboosters.com

Mon, 5/28/12

Hartland Memorial Day Run/Walk

10KR, 5KR, 3KW

Hartland

(810) 626-2301

hartlandrun.com

Mon, 5/28/12

Hubbardston Memorial Day 5K Run/Walk

5KR

Hubbardston

(269) 929-6434

hubbardston.org

Mon, 5/28/12

Jenison Ambucs Memorial Day Race

5KR/W, 1MFR

Jenison

(616) 457-1168

signmeup.com

Mon, 5/28/12

Lest They Be Foregotten Memorial Day

10KR, 5KR/W

Webberville

(517) 749-7947

runningfoundation.com

Mon, 5/28/12

Memorial Day 5K Run/Walk

5KR/W, 1MFR

Pinckney

(734) 878-3407

peoplesefc.org

Mon, 5/28/12

Memorial Day Run

10KR/W, 5KR/W, 1/2MFR

Bloomingdale

(269) 214-8195

Mon, 5/28/12

Novi Memorial Day Run

10KR, 5KR/W, 1MR/W

Novi

Mon, 5/28/12

Run to Climax

7KR , 2MW

Climax

8KR/W, 1 MFR/W

Mon, 5/28/12

Memorial Day 5K Run/Walk & 8K Run

8KR, 5KR/W, 1MFR

Grosse Ile

(734) 282-1101

everalracemgt.com

bdalecards.org novimemorialdayrun.com

(269) 626-8611

msu.edu/~weessie2/climax/

Tue, 5/29/12

Grand Prix Shakedown

Detroit

(313) 965-1110

Wed, 5/30/12

Greater Lansing Honor Roll Track and Field Meet

Lansing

(517) 927-2373

Wed, 5/30/12

LBW (Lakeside, Breton, Wealthy)

East Grand Rapids

Thu, 5/31/12

Greater Lansing Junior Honor Roll Track and Field Meet

Okemos

(517) 349-3803

playmakers.com

Thu, 5/31/12

Swartz Creek Challenge

5KR/W

Swartz Creek

(810) 659-6493

riverbendstriders.com

Fri, 6/1/12

AlphARace

extreme obstacle race

Midland

Sat, 6/2/12

4th and 1 5K Run/Walk

5KR/W

Lansing

(517) 896-9888

Sat, 6/2/12

5K4TJ

5KR/W

Okemos

(517) 381-9051

Sat, 6/2/12

AlphARace

extreme obstacle race

Midland

Sat, 6/2/12

Beatty-Daly Challenge

5KR/W, 1MR

Lapeer

(810) 358-2193

Sat, 6/2/12

Boy/Girl Quest Run

5KR/W

Jackson

(517) 315-1367

fitnesscouncil.org

Sat, 6/2/12

Cowboy Trail Run

5KR, 1MFR

Augusta

(269) 731-4471

cheffcenter.org

Sat, 6/2/12 Sat, 6/2/12

Dexter to Ann Arbor Kids Run Dodge Park 5K Run & 1 Mile Run/Walk

kids run, distances vary by age Ann Arbor 5KR, 1MR/W Sterling Heights

(248) 396-4936 (586) 446-2700

dexterannarborrun.com sterling-heights.net

Sat, 6/2/12

Double Time Tri

Tri: 400yd S/ 11.5MB/ 5KR

Three Rivers

(269) 978-2437

www.doubletimetri.com

Sat, 6/2/12

Feets of Enduraqnce for Hands of Hope

5KR/W

Mt. Clemens

(734) 255-2786

handsofhopeoutreach.org

Sat, 6/2/12

Filthy 5K

5K obstacle R, kids run

Delta Township

Roscommon

Sat, 6/2/12

1/2MR,3/4MR, 1MR

Hero Rush Obstacle Race

5K adventure

Marshall

grandprixshakedown.org playmakers.com egrtrack.com

gaultracemanagement.com

www.4thand1.org runningfoundation.com gaultracemanagement.com

(410) 872-9303

active.com

filthy5k.com

herorush.com

Sat, 6/2/12

Hilltop Manor’s Fun Walk/Run

10KR/W, 5KR/W

Sat, 6/2/12

Infiterra Sports Spring Fury Beginner

6 hour sprint adventure race Waterford

(231) 233-4736

infiterrasports.com

Sat, 6/2/12

Infiterra Sports Spring Fury Elite

8 -10 hour adventure race

Waterford

(231) 233-4736

infiterrasports.com

Sat, 6/2/12

Kalamazoo Mud Run

5K adventure

Kalamazoo

(269) 343-4522

kalamazoomudrun.com

42

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

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michiganrunner.tv

(989) 701-0071

May - June 2012 Event Calendar Sat, 6/2/12

Kohl’s Michigan Mile and Kids Super Sprint

1 MR for kids 12 and under

Lansing

(517) 364-8141

Sat, 6/2/12

Miles for Meals 5-10K Run and Walk

10KR, 5KR/W

Milford

(586) 924-4682

sparrowhealth.net milesformealswo.org

Sat, 6/2/12

Oak Apple Run

10KR, 2MR, kids run

Royal Oak

(248) 541-4502

oakapplerun.org

Sat, 6/2/12

OLV Victory Race

5KR/W, kids run

Northville

Sat, 6/2/12

OPC Fun Run / Walk

5KR/W

Rochester

(248) 608-0247

olv-victoryrun.com opcseniorcenter.org

Sat, 6/2/12

Run for the Cure

5KR/W, kids run

Caro

(989) 551-2185

5krunforthecure.com

Sat, 6/2/12

Shawnee Run for a Wish 5K Fun

5KR, 1MR/W

Macomb

(586) 723-6831

active.com

Sat, 6/2/12

SHS 5K

5KR/W, fun run

Hudson

Sat, 6/2/12

St. Patrick Shamrock Festival 5K

5KR/W

Brighton

5KR/W

sacredhearthudson.org/shs-5k.html (810) 229-9863

goracego.com

Sat, 6/2/12

Ticker Trot for Cardiomyopathy

Oakland Twp.

(248) 953-2779

tickertrot.com

Sat, 6/2/12

Visiting Nurse Association & Blue Water Hospice River Run 10KR, 5KR, 3MW

Marysville

(810) 982.8809

www.vnabwh.com

Sat, 6/2/12

Yankee Springs Trail Run

52.4MR, 26.2MR, 13.1MR,

Middleville

(616) 706-6308

yankeespringstrailrun.com

Sun, 6/3/12

Bass Festival Run

5KR/W

Mancelona

(231) 587-5044

cismancelona.org

Sun, 6/3/12

CHOK YMCA International Bridge Race

10KR

Sarnia, ON

(519) 336-9622

runningroom.com

Sun, 6/3/12

Hawk Island Triathlon

Tri: 400 meter S/ 16KB/ 5KR Lansing

(517) 374-5700

www.hawk-i-tri.com

Sun, 6/3/12

Pink and Blue United for a Cure 5K

5KR/W

Shelby Twp

(586) 382-5919

stjohnprovidence.org

Sun, 6/3/12

Racing for Recovery Half & Sprint Triathlon

Triathlon & Duathlon

Monroe

(231) 546-2229

www.3disciplines.com

Sun, 6/3/12

Dexter to Ann Arbor Run

13.1MR, 10KR, 5KR, kids run

Ann Arbor

(248) 396-4936

sixth vertical template_sixth vertical 4/9/12 4:08 PM Page 1 third square template_third square 4/11/12 9:57 AM Page 1

michiganrunner.net

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dexterannarborrun.com

Michigan Runner - March / April 2012

43

Sun, 6/3/12

We Can Do It Women’s 5K

5KR/W

Okemos

(517) 899-5211

runningfoundation.com

Sun, 6/3/12

West Branch 2 Mile Fun Run Walk

2 MR/W

West Branch

(989) 345-1498

westbranchrunning.com

Tue, 6/5/12

Hanson Speed Session -Tuesdays

training

Sterling Heights

(586) 323-9683

hansons-running.com

5MR, 3MR, 1MR

Wed, 6/6/12

Doozie’s Ice Cream Fun Run/Walk Series

Mt. Pleasant

(989) 772-0323

.edzone.net/~mphsstr/

Wed, 6/6/12

NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships

Des Moines, IA

(541) 346-4461

ncaa.com

Thu, 6/7/12

Hansons Group Run - Thursdays

Royal Oak

(248) 616-9665

hansons-running.com

Thu, 6/7/12

YMCA Retread Run/Shoes for Kids

8KR, 5KR/W

Flint

(810) 659-6493

riverbendstriders.com

Fri, 6/8/12

Denny’s Run

5KR/W

Freeland

(989) 573-0396

runsignup.com

Fri, 6/8/12

South Church Family Fitness 5K

5KR/W, kids run

Lansing

(517) 322-2000

runningfoundation.com runningfoundation.com

Sat, 6/9/12

Ally Brunk Memorial 5K

5KR/W

Potterville

(517) 627-3715

Sat, 6/9/12

Art & Orchard Festival Fun Run

10KR, 5KR

Washington Twp.

(586) 752-6543

Sat, 6/9/12

Baraga County Lake Trout Festival

13.1MR, 5KR

L’Anse

(906) 524-4797

laketroutfestival.com

Sat, 6/9/12

Big Mac Shoreline Scenic Bike Tour

25MB, 50MB, 75MB, 100MB

Mackinaw City

(231) 436-5574

mackinawchamber.com

5KR/W

Bridgeport

(989) 624-9149

race-mrm.com

(269) 963-9622

Sat, 6/9/12

Sat, 6/9/12

Brian Diemer Amerikam 5K

5KR/W, 1MFR, kids’ runs

Bridgeport Just Run/Walk

Sat, 6/9/12

Cereal City Classic

10KR, 5KR/W, kdis run

Battle Creek

Sat, 6/9/12

Dirty Dog Dash

3MR

Boyne Falls

Sat, 6/9/12

Flirt with Dirt

10KR, 5KR

(616) 295-1073

Cutlerville

Sat, 6/9/12

Franklin Community Center 5K

5KR/W

Franklin

Sat, 6/9/12

Hartford Strawberry Run

10KR, 5KR/W, 1MFR

Hartford

Sat, 6/9/12

KAR Summer Track Series

track meet: 100 - 3KR, relay

Kalamazoo

ymcabattlecreek.org dirtydogdash.com

(734) 929-9027

Novi

runflirt.com

(248) 470-7746 (269) 621-3651 (269) 369-6957

diemerrun.com

kregerhouse.org hartfordstrawberryrun.com

kalamazooarearunners.org

Sat, 6/9/12

LCCA’s Run Against Drugs

10KR, 5KR/W

Howell

(517) 545-5944

runningfoundation.com

Sat, 6/9/12

LifeRUN

5KR, 2KW

Portage

(269) 345-1740,

pregnancychoices.com

Sat, 6/9/12

LifeWalk 2012

9KR, 2MW

Greenville

(616) 225-2265

Sat, 6/9/12

Ludington Lakestride Half Marathon

13.1 MR, 10KR, 5KR, 1MFR

Ludington

(231) 357-8867

ludingtonlakestride.com

Sat, 6/9/12

M-22 Challenge

25KB/ 2Kpaddle; 2MR

Glen Arbor

(231) 883-5936

m22challenge.com

Sat, 6/9/12

Mackinac Island Lilac Festival 10K

10KR/W, kids run

Mackinac Island

(810) 487-0954

runmackinac.com

Grand Rapids

Sat, 6/9/12

Nora Bradshaw Memorial Grace Race

5KR/W

Sat, 6/9/12

North Country Trail Relay

75.6M relay, 6 runners, 15 legs Brethren

Sat, 6/9/12

Open Door Julie Run

10KR, 5KR/W

Commerce Twp.

(616) 233-0441

cradlesofgrace.org

(616) 786-2945

www.nctrelay.org

(248) 366-3300 opendooroutreachcenter.com

Sat, 6/9/12

Ortonville Creekfest Run/Walk

10KR, 5KR/W, kids run

Ortonville

(248) 467-1739

brandonschooldistrict.org

Sat, 6/9/12

Run 2 Read

10KR, 5KR/W

Shelby Township

(586) 286-2750

r2read.com

Sat, 6/9/12

Run Against Drugs

10KR, 5KR/W

Westland

(734) 224-2202

justsayrun.com

Sat, 6/9/12

Sprint & Splash at Lake St. Clair

5KR & kayak, 5KFR/W, paddleboard

Sat, 6/9/12

St. Joe’s 5K Run, 2 Mile Walk

5KR, 2MW

Pewamo

(989) 981-6656

pewamo5k.tripod.com

Sat, 6/9/12

The Capitol Bancorp 5K for JA

5KR/W, 1MR

Lansing

(517) 267-4604

capitolbancorp5k.com

Harrison Twp (586) 469-1551

sprintandsplash.com

Sat, 6/9/12

Tri-for-Life Race for Chase

10KR, 5KR/W, kids run

Millington

(989) 213-5714

donatelifetriathlon.com

Sun, 6/10/12

Big Fish Triathlon, Duathlon, Sprint

Triathlons or duathlon

Hadley Township

(231) 546-2229

3disciplines.com

Sun, 6/10/12

Big Mac Shoreline Scenic Bike Tour

Ride across the “Mighty Mac” Mackinaw City

(231) 436-5574

mackinawchamber.com

(616) 805-3059

Sun, 6/10/12

Grand Rapids Triathlon

Tri: sprint, olympic or 1/2 ironAda

Sun, 6/10/12

Homes for Hope Women’s Only Olympic Tri

tri: 1500mS/ 24.9MB/ 6.2MR Holly

Sun, 6/10/12

Run for CHUM Half Marathon and 5K

13.1MR, 5KR, kids run

Dansville

(517) 589-5252

runningfoundation.com

Sun, 6/10/12

“Run Like Mike” Rutka 5K

5KR, 2MW, kids’ dash

Ann Arbor

(734) 369-2492

runlikemike.org

44

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

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michiganrunner.tv

grandrapidstriathlon.com

tritofinish.com/events

May - June 2012 Event Calendar Sun, 6/10/12

Save Our Sports 5K

5KR/W, 1MFR

Sterling Heights

Sun, 6/10/12

Summer Fun & Run

5KR/W, kids run

DeWitt

Tue, 6/12/12

Ann Arbor Track Club Summer Mini Track Meet 100m - 3200m

Tue, 6/12/12

Catholic Central 10K Relay Run

Wed, 6/13/12

uticasos5k.com

a

(517) 827-9660

runningfoundation.com

Ann Arbor

(734) 769-9105

aatrackclub.org/races

Grand Rapids

(616) 204-4504 grandrapidsrunningclub.org

Grand Ledge Summer Recreation Track & Field track meet-all comers

Grand Ledge

(517) 627-9076

playmakers.com

Wed, 6/13/12

Hanson’s Half and Full Marathon Training Program

Royal Oak

(248) 616-9665

hansons-running.com

Wed, 6/13/12

Human Race

5KR

Mt. Pleasant

(989) 772-0323

edzone.net/~mphsstr/

Thu, 6/14/12

Strides for Life 100 Mile Run

25MR, 50MR, 75MR, 100MR

Holland

(616) 396-5576

stridesforlife.com

Thu, 6/14/12

The Dalmation Run

5KR/W, 1/4MFR

Clio

(810) 487-0954

gaultracemanagement.com

Fri, 6/15/12

Kids’ Klassic & Pump ‘n Run Life

1KFR, weight lifting

Kalamazoo

(269) 343-0747

kalamazooklassic.com

Fri, 6/15/12

Run for Los Ninos Riverview Church

5KR/W

Holt

(517) 694-3400

runningfoundation.com

Sun, 6/10/12

Waterloo Triathlon / Duathlon

Triathlon, Duathlon

10K track relay

Grass Lake

(419) 829-2398

eliteendeavors.com

Fri, 6/15/12

USA Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships - Day 1

Bloomington, IN

Sat, 6/16/12

A Day in the Village 5K Run/Walk

5KR/W

Stockbridge

(517) 851-8222

usatf.org stockbridge.net

Sat, 6/16/12

Back to School 5K

5KR/W

Charlotte

(517) 449-4491

playmakers.com

Sat, 6/16/12

Beat the Grandma 5K Age/Gender Graded Race 5KR

Grand Rapids

(616) 260-2669 beatthegrandma.mysite.com

Sat, 6/16/12

Beaumont Health System / Sola Life & Fitness 5K 5KR/W

Rochester Hills

(248) 841-2460

rochesterhills.org

Hartland0312_Hartland 2/13/12 11:35 PM Pagesixth 1 vertical template_sixth vertical 4/14/12 3:24 PM Page 1 sixth vertical template_sixth vertical 2/7/12 1:54 PM Page

Hartland Memorial Day Run/Walk

May 28, 2012 Presented by Hartland Insurance Agency

8:00 am • Hartland High School • Awards for Runners, Walkers & Masters • A ChronoTrack timed event • Benefits Hartland High School Athletic Programs Register: active.com Web: www.hartlandrun.com Contact: Hartland Athletics (810) 626-2300

michiganrunner.net

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Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

45

Sat, 6/16/12

Beet Feet Rotary 5K Walk/Run

5KR/W

Sebewaing

Sat, 6/16/12

Camelback Run

4MR, 2MW, kids runs

Fremont, OH

Sat, 6/16/12

Charyl’s Run2BFit

5KR/W, 1MR/W

Brighton

(810) 632-4778

runningfoundation.com

Sat, 6/16/12

Clothing Optional Run

5KR/W

Union City

(866) 321-4710

turtle-lake.com

Sat, 6/16/12

Deighton Foundation Run/Walk

15KR, 5KR/W

Milford

Sat, 6/16/12

Dirty Feat Adventure Race

biking, canoeing, running

Lansing

(517) 281-9516

dirtyfeat.org

Sat, 6/16/12

FCA Big Run for the One

13.1MR, 5KR/W, 1MFR

Allegan

(231) 357-8867

bigticketfestival.com

Sat, 6/16/12

FCA Big Ticket Festival of Races

13.1MR, 5KR/W, FR

Ionia

(231) 357-8867

Sat, 6/16/12

Higgins Lake Sunrise Run

13.1MR, 10KR, 1MR

Roscommon

Sat, 6/16/12

Hurt the Dirt Trail Race

15MR, 10MR, 5MR, kids run

Ada

Sat, 6/16/12

Johan’s TriFest

Triathlon:1.5KS/40KB/10KR Hopkins

(616) 261-9706

www.johanstrifest.com

Sat, 6/16/12

Joshua Spalsbury Memorial Comet Chase 5K

5KR/W

Grand Ledge

(517) 627-2034

5kcometchase.com

Sat, 6/16/12

Kalamazoo Klassic

10KR, 5KR/W, 5KFW

Kalamazoo

(269) 343-0747

kalamazooklassic.com

Sat, 6/16/12

Lakeview Vitality for Life Race

5KR

Lakeview

(989) 287-1296

lcwellnesscenter.org

Sat, 6/16/12

Lech Lecha Triathlon

tri: 600ydS/ 10.4MB/ 2.1MR

Grandville

Sat, 6/16/12

Mecosta County Youth & Family Center 5K Run 5KR/W

Mecosta

(231) 972-7129

Sat, 6/16/12

Michigan Brewing Company Beer Run

5KR/W

Webberville

(517) 521-3600

michiganbrewing.com

Sat, 6/16/12

MWCAA Corporate Cup Relays

10KR, 5KR/W, field, relays

Southfield

(586) 731-0153

www.mwccr.org epicraces.com

Sat, 6/16/12

Sat, 6/16/12

Sat, 6/16/12

Canton Liberty Run

10KR/W, 5KR/W, 1MR/W

Cheesetown Challenge

5 MR, 2 MR/W, kids run

Glen Arbor Solstice Half Marathon & 5K

13.1MR, 5KRW

Canton

(989) 883-3003 (419) 334-5906

(734) 929-9027

Pinconning

barc-mi.com

fremontrunningandfitness.com

cantonlibertyrun.com

(989) 879-5617

cheesetownraces.com

deightonfoundation.org

Glen Arbor

active.com

(231) 715-1406

(989) 415-9116

enduranceevolution.com higginslakesunriserun.com hurtthedirt.com

(616) 893-3701

lechlechatriathlon.weebly.com

Sat, 6/16/12

Open Water Practice Swim

choose distance

Grass Lake

(734) 678-5045

Sat, 6/16/12

Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital Fit for Life

5KR, 1MR/W

Pontiac

(248) 338-5718

Sat, 6/16/12

Potter Park Zoo Wild One Children’s Mile

kids 1MR

Lansing

(517) 702-4733

potterparkzoo.org

Sat, 6/16/12

Run 2 Save Our Youth

10KR/W, 5KR/W, 1MR/W

Westland

(248) 207-0190

saveouryouthtaskforce.com

Sat, 6/16/12

Run for a Cause

5KR/W, 1.5MR/W

Ada

(616) 460-9443

run4acauseada.com

Sat, 6/16/12

Scott Merfeld Memorial March

Hillsdale

(517) 439-5101

Sat, 6/16/12

Spring Lake Heritage Festival 5K Run/Walk

5KR/W

Spring Lake

(231) 638-0730

slheritagefestival.com

Sat, 6/16/12

Summer Solstice 5K Fun Run

5KR

Sault Ste. Marie, MI (906) 632-8109

summersolstice5k.org

Sat, 6/16/12

SuperkidsTry MotorCity

Triathlons

Detroit

3disciplines.com

13.1MR

(231) 546-222

Sat, 6/16/12

USA Half Marathon Championsips

Duluth, MN

usatf.org

Sat, 6/16/12

USA Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships - Day 2

Bloomington, IN

usatf.org

Sat, 6/16/12

USA Mountain Running Championships

7.6MR

Pinkham Notch, NH

usatf.org

Sat, 6/16/12

YMCA Sunrise Run

5KR, 2KFFW

Port Huron

(810) 987-6400,

bluewaterymca.com

Sun, 6/17/12

Father’s Day Run 4 Trails

5KR

Fort Wayne, IN

(260) 436-4824

veepraces.com

Sun, 6/17/12

Michigan Campmeeting 5K Run/Walk

5KR/W

Alma

(517) 316-1500

everalracemgt.com

Sun, 6/17/12

Motor City Triathlon

Triathlons

Detroit

(231) 546-2229

3disciplines.com

Sun, 6/17/12

Pellston 5K Trail Run @ Nubs Nob

5KR

Harbor Springs

(231) 333-3707

pellstonschools.org

10K, 5K, 1 M, Triple, Kid

Sun, 6/17/12

Ann Arbor Marathon, Half Marathon, 5K

26.2MR, 13.1MR, 5KR

Sun, 6/17/12

Plymouth YMCA Father’s Day Run

Sun, 6/17/12

Run for the Ribbon 5K for Prostate Care Awareness

Sun, 6/17/12

The Rainbow Run

Sun, 6/17/12

USA Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships - Day 3

46

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

5KR/W

5KR/W, 2KR/W

|

michiganrunner.tv

Ann Arbor

Plymouth

(734) 213-1033

champsforcharity.com

(734) 455-2904 ymcadetroit.org/plymouth

Huntington Woods

(586) 443-4272

miurunfortheribbon.org

Ferndale

(248) 542-2160

rainbow-run.com

track and field meet Bloomington, IN

usatf.org

May - June 2012 Event Calendar Sun, 6/17/12

XTERRA Torn Shirt Triathlon /Duathlon

Triathlon & Duathlon

Brighton

(419) 376-9496

eliteendeavors.com

Wed, 6/20/12

Flushing Evening 5k Run/Walk

5KR/W

Flushing

(810) 487-0954

riverbendstriders.com

Wed, 6/20/12

Grand Ledge Summer Recreation Track & Field track meet-all comers

Grand Ledge

(517) 627-9076

playmakers.com

Wed, 6/20/12

Triceratops Triathlon & Kids’ Clinic

Tri: 1/2MS/ 12.4MB/ 5KR

Brighton

(734) 929-9027

runtrextri.com

Wed, 6/20/12

Twilight Run

5KR/W

Lansing

(517) 702-0226

runningfoundation.com

Thu, 6/21/12

U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field - Hammer Time

Eugene, OR

usatf.org/events/2012/OlympicTrials-TF

hammer throw

Fri, 6/22/12

Hansons 3 Mile Cross-Country Race

Fri, 6/22/12

Meijer State Games of Michigan- Governor’s Family Fun Run

Fri, 6/22/12

U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track and Field - Day 1

Sat, 6/23/12

Antioch’s Get Healthy Now 5K Run/Walk

Sat, 6/23/12

Beach Wellness

Sat, 6/23/12

Cadillac Team Marathon

Sat, 6/23/12

Carls Family YMCA Cheetah Chase Kids Tri

Sat, 6/23/12

Cazz Daze 5K

5KR/W

Sat, 6/23/12

Binder Park Zoo Cheetah Chase

3 MR

Shelby Township

(586) 323-9683

hansons-running.com

East Kentwood

(616) 233-3564

stategamesofmichigan.com

Eugene, OR

usatf.org/events/2012/OlympicTrials-TF

5KR/W

Lansing

(517) 327-0967

runningfoundation.org

10KR, 5KR/W, kids run

Bay City

(989) 684-7675

barc-mi.com

4 x 6.98MR laps

Cadillac

(231) 884-2420

tinyurl.com/7zp5neu

Triathlon: S/ 2MB/ 1/2MR

Milford

(248) 685-3020`

ymcadetroit.org/carls

Casnovia

(616) 520-1081

michianatiming.com

5KR

decathlon, 10,000mR

5KR/W, 1MFR

Battle Creek

(269) 979-1351

binderparkzoo.org

Sat, 6/23/12

Charlevoix Marathon

26.2M, 13.1M, 10KR, 5KR/W

Charlevoix

(248) 446-1315

goodboyevents.com

Sat, 6/23/12

Concord Classic 5K Run/Walk

5KR/W, 1/2 M Kid’s Run

Concord

(517) 524-6995

playmakers.com

michiganrunner.net

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Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

47

Sat, 6/23/12

Curt Knierim Memorial Run/Walk

8KR, 5KR/W, 1MW, kids run

Newberry

(248) 259-7898

curtknierimmemorial.com

Sat, 6/23/12

First Try Triathlon

tri: 300ydS/ 9MB/

Linden

(810) 701-8625

active.com

Sat, 6/23/12

Get Your Bearings 4 Hour Sprint

4 hour sprint adventure

Brighton

(231) 233-4736

infiterrasports.com

Sat, 6/23/12

Glenda’s Glide 5K Run and Walk

5KR/W

Auburn Hills

(248) 370-9353

auburnhills.org

Sat, 6/23/12

Lobster Crawl

5KR/W

Monroe

Sat, 6/23/12

Max’s Race

5KR/W, kids run

East Lansing

(517) 204-3257

maxsrace.com

Sat, 6/23/12

Meijer State Games of Michigan 5K

5KR

East Kentwood

(616) 233-3564

stategamesofmichigan.com

Sat, 6/23/12

Muddy Watters, Bump & Run Trail Series

4MR, kids run

Rochester Hills

(248) 320-5705

www.jeffwatters.com

Sat, 6/23/12

Portland St. Patrick Parish Festival 5K Run

5KR/W

Portland

(517) 927-2226

Sat, 6/23/12

Red Cedar 5K

5K/W

Williamston

playmakers.com

Sat, 6/23/12

Ryan’s 5K Run at Westview Orchard

5KR/W

Washington Twp.

active.com

Sat, 6/23/12

Keyes Peak Trail Marathon

50KR, 26.2MR, 10KR, 1MR

Florence, WI

(715) 701-0360 greatlakesendurance.com lobstercrawl.weebly.com

playmakers.com

Sat, 6/23/12

Solstice Run

10MR, 10KR, 5KR/W, Kids

Northville

(248) 345-6168

solsticerun.org

Sat, 6/23/12

South Beach Triathlons

Triathlons

South Haven

(231) 546-2229

3disciplines.com

Sat, 6/23/12

St. Mary’s Run, Walk, for Health

10KR, 5KR/W, kids run

Saginaw

(989) 907-8000

stmarysofmichigan.org

Sat, 6/23/12

The Militants Run

13.1MR, 10KR, 5KR

Mt. Pleasant

(989) 317-5889

michiganhalfseries.com

Sat, 6/23/12

Tri Kids Triathlon

Triathlons

Grass Lake

(734) 678-5045

epicraces.com

Sat, 6/23/12

U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track and Field - Day 2

Sun, 6/24/12

Anyone Can Tri

Triathlon, Duathlon

Mount Clemens

(231) 546-2229

Sun, 6/24/12

Clawson Freedom Run

5KR

Clawson

(248) 435-4232

clawsonruns.com

Sun, 6/24/12

Grand Haven Bone & Joint Bear Lake Tri & Du Triathlons & Duathlon

North Muskegon

(616) 843-1808

bearlaketrianddu.com

decathlon, 100mh, 100m Eugene, OR

usatf.org/events/2012/OlympicTrials-TF

Sun, 6/24/12

Hansons Group Run

training

Lake Orion

Sun, 6/24/12

Linden Summer Happenings

5KR, 1MR

Linden

Sun, 6/24/12

Stepping Out to Cure Scleroderma

5KR, 2MW, 1MR kids run

Royal Oak

(248) 595-8526

scleroderma-mi.org

Sun, 6/24/12

Tri Goddess Tri Women’s Only Triathlon

Tri: sprint, mini sprint;

Grass Lake

(734) 678-5045

epicraces.com

Sun, 6/24/12

U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track and Field - Day 3

Sun, 6/24/12

Waterfall Trail Runs

Mon, 6/25/12

U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track and Field - Day 4

Tue, 6/26/12

Forest Hills Eastern High School Track Meet

Tue, 6/26/12

USA Youth Outdoor Track & Field Championships - Day 1

Tue, 6/26/12

Zeeland Zoom

Zeeland

(616) 748-5906

feelthezeel.com

Wed, 6/27/12

Grand Ledge Summer Recreation Track & Field track meet-all comers

Grand Ledge

(517) 627-9076

playmakers.com

Wed, 6/27/12

USA Youth Outdoor Track & Field Championships - Day 2

Arlington, TX

Thu, 6/28/12

St. Stan’s Polish Festival Road Race

Thu, 6/28/12

U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track and Field - Day 7

Thu, 6/28/12

USA Youth Outdoor Track & Field Championships - Day 3

pv, dt, lj, sp, 400m, 100m Eugene, OR

5KR tj, hj, jt, 800mR

100m - 2MR

5KR/W

5KR/W pv, dt, sc, 5000mR

Fri, 6/29/12

Hansons 3 Mile Cross-Country Race

Fri, 6/29/12

U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track and Field - Day 8

3 MR

Fri, 6/29/12

USA Youth Outdoor Track & Field Championships - Day 4

heptathlon, sp, sc

(248) 616-9665

3disciplines.com

(810) 701-8625

hansons-running.com lindensummerhappening.org

usatf.org/events/2012/OlympicTrials-TF

Lagro, IN

(260) 436-4824

Eugene, OR

usatf.org/events/2012/OlympicTrials-TF

Grandville

(616) 250-4309 grandrapidsrunningclub.org

Arlington, TX

veepraces.com

usatf.org

usatf.org

Bay City

(989) 280-7692

Eugene, OR

usatf.org/events/2012/OlympicTrials-TF

Arlington, TX

race-mrm.com usatf.org

Sterling Heights

(586) 323-9683

Eugene, OR

usatf.org/events/2012/OlympicTrials-TF

Arlington, TX

hansons-running.com usatf.org

Sat, 6/30/12

Caledonia Kilt Klassic 5K

5KR/W

Caledonia

(616) 406-9766

kiltklassic.com

Sat, 6/30/12

Firecracker 5 Mile Run

5MR/W

Gladstone

(906) 399-7044

gladstonemi.org

48

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

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michiganrunner.tv

May - June 2012 Event Calendar Sat, 6/30/12

Gale’s Gym Summer Series Race One

5KR

Edmore

Sat, 6/30/12

Gene Bednarowski 5K Cherry Run/Walk

5KR/W

Watervliet

(989) 427-4348 (269) 449-8735

thtiming.com

Sat, 6/30/12

Haul for Health and the Kardinal Kicker

10KR/W, 5KR/W, kids run

Onaway

(989) 627-6849

onawayhealth.com

Sat, 6/30/12

Heart of Michigan

10KR, 5KR, 1MFR

Lansing

(734) 213-1033

champsforcharity.com

Sat, 6/30/12

Race and Remember

5KR, 2MW, 1MW

Detroit

(313) 578-6269

active.com

Sat, 6/30/12

Reeds Lake Run

10KR, 5KR/W

Grand Rapids

(616) 949-1750

www.reedslakerun.com

Sat, 6/30/12

Rock the World 5K Obstacle Race

5K obstacle

Grand Ledge

Sat, 6/30/12

Run/Walk BOOM!!!

5KR/W, 1MR/W

Huntington Woods

Sat, 6/30/12

Third Coast Relay - CANCELLED FOR 2012

Sat, 6/30/12

U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track and Field - Day 9

Sat, 6/30/12

USA Youth Outdoor Track & Field Championships - Day 5

Arlington, TX

Sat, 6/30/12

Visser Family YMCA Buck Creek Run

Grandville

rocktheworldrace.com (248) 541-3030

ci.huntington-woods.mi.us

ThirdCoastRelay.com heptathlon, 20kRaceW, hj, tj 5 KR/W, kids runs 10K, 5K, Splash ‘n dash, Tin Man

Eugene, OR

usatf.org/events/2012/OlympicTrials-TF usatf.org (616) 890-5978

Sat, 6/30/12

Whitmore Lake Races

Sun, 7/1/12

U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field-Day 10 110mh, 200m, 20kRaceW, jt, lj, 400mh, 1500mR, 200m

Whitmore Lake

- MR -

visserfamilybuckcreekrun.com

(734) 449-8655

everalracemgt.com

usatf.org/events/2012/OlympicTrials-TF

Eastpointe 2012 Ad_Eastpointe Ad 4/11/12 6:13 PM Page 1

julie run 2012_sixth horizontal 4/14/12 9:15 PM Page 1

Eastpointe Lions Club 5K Run / 1 Mile Fun Run

Sunday, August 5, 2012 8:30 am

Location: Kennedy Park on Stephens Rd. (9 1/2 Mile Rd.)

Entrance fee includes: T-shirts • Age Group Medals

Contact: Kim Lubinski (586) 899-4076 • schobiek@aol.com

The Julie Run/ Walk-5K & 10K 19th Annual Benefit for Open Door Saturday, June 9, 2012 – start at 9 a.m.

Walled Lake Northern High School 6000 Bogie Lake Road, Commerce, MI Call: (248) 363-6128. E-mail: gordonchiro@gmail.com Register: at www.opendooroutreachcenter.com (Visa or Mastercard required.)

Honorary Co-Chairs: Andrea vonBehren of Body Language Fitness & Yoga Center and Rod Meloni, Business Editor WDIV-TV4 Corporate Sponsors: Quicken Loans & Fathead.com Gordon Chiropractic, P.C.

sixth horizontal template_sixth horizontal 4/9/12 4:11 PM Page 1

The ALDEN RUN

On beautiful Torch Lake

Saturday, July 28, 2012

10K & 5K run and 5K walk on scenic, sanctioned xc courses.

*NEW* Registration & Packet pick-up area!

Helena Twp. Community Center located at the traditional Run start line

Registration and information: Steve Kershner PO Box 444, Alden, MI 49612 (231) 377-7319 • skikersh@aol.com

aldenrun.com

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running fit template_running fit template 4/9/12 4:27 PM Page 1

Featured Future Events Sun, 7/1/12 Wed, 7/4/12 Wed, 7/4/12

Independence Aquathlon & Open Water Swim Ann Arbor Firecracker 5K Firecracker 5K

2KR/ 750m S/ 2KR 5KR/W, kids run 5KR

Sat, 7/7/12 Sun, 7/8/12 Sat, 7/14/12

Run & Walk for Funds Ann Arbor Triathlon / Duathlon Dances with Dirt - Devil’s Lake

10KR, 5KR, 2 MR/W Northport Triathlon, Duathlon Pinckney 50M, 50K, 26.2M, 13.1M, relay Baraboo, WI

Sat, 7/14/12 Sun, 7/15/12 Wed, 7/18/12

Port City Run Clark Lake Triathlon & Duathlon Pterodactyl Triathlon & Kids’ Clinic

5KR/W, 1M Triathlon, Duathlon Tri: 1/2MS/ 12.4 MB/ 5KR

Frankfort Clark Lake Brighton

Sat, 7/21/12 Sat, 7/21/12 Sun, 7/22/12

501 Running Club Art Fair Run Atwood Stadium Run/Walk Crosstown Kids Triathlon

training run up to 16M 10KR/W 5KR/W, kids run distances vary by age

Ann Arbor Flint Howell

(734) 657-0214 (810) 238-5981 (517) 546-0693

Sat, 7/28/12 Sat, 7/28/12 Sat, 7/28/12

Alden Run Grand Island Trail Marathon & 10K Steve’s Run

10KR, 5KR/W 26.2 MR, 13.1MR 10KR, 5KR/W, 1 MFR/W

Alden Munising Dowagiac

(231) 377-7319 www.aldenrun.com greatlakesendurance.com (715) 701-0360 (269) 782-1210 swmich.edu/fireup/stevesrun/

Sun, 7/29/12 Sat, 8/4/12 Sun, 8/5/12

Women’s Only Triathlon & Dri-Tri The Legend Half Marathon, 5 & 10 Mile Trail Run Eastpointe Lions Club Ox Roast Run

Triathlon, Duathlon 13.1MR, 10MR, 5MR 5R/1MFR/W

Sylvania, OH Laingsburg Eastpointe

(419) 829-2398 (734) 929-9027 (586) 393-6292

Wed, 8/8/12 Sat, 8/11/12 Sat, 8/11/12

Red Carpet Run 5K Crystal Lake Team Marathon Heart of Detroit

5KR, 26.2 M Relay 10KR, 5KR, 1MFFR

West Bloomfield (734) 929-9027 redcarpetrun.com Beulah (231) 930-4222 crystallakecommunitybusinessassoc.com Detroit (734) 213-1033 champsforcharity.com

Sat, 8/11/12 Sat, 8/11/12 Sat, 8/11/12

Run Thru Hell Sylvania SuperKids Triathlon / Duathlon Tahqua Trail Run

10 MR, 4.8 MR varies by age group 25KR, 10KR, 2KR

Pinckney Sylvania, OH Paradise

(517) 702-0226 (419) 829-2398 (715) 701-0360

greatlakesendurance.com

Sun, 8/12/12 Wed, 8/15/12 Thu, 8/16/12

Sylvania Triathlon/Duathlon T-Rex Tri & Kids’ Tri Bauman’s Charity 5K

Triathlon, Duathlon Tri: 1/2MS/ 12.4 MB/ 5KR 5KR/W, kids runs

Sylvania, OH Brighton Flint

(419) 829-2398 (734) 929-9027 (810) 238-5981

eliteendeavors.com runtrextri.com riverbendstriders.com

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Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

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Howell (517) 546-0693 howellrecreation.org Ann Arbor (734) 213-1033 a2firecracker5k.com Beulah (231) 930-4222 crystallakecommunitybusinessassoc.com (231) 386-5188 (419) 829-2398 (734) 929-9027

eliteendeavors.com danceswithdirt.com

(231) 352-7698 frankfort.k12.mi.us/PortCityRun/ (419) 829-2398 eliteendeavors.com (734) 929-9027 runtrextri.com runningit501.com werunthistown.com howellrecreation.org

eliteendeavors.com www.runlegend.com www.eplcoxrun.org

runningfoundation.com eliteendeavors.com

Featured Future Events Fri, 8/17/12 Sat, 8/18/12 Sat, 8/18/12

Howell Melon Run Farmington Run for the Hills Somerset Stampede

10K, 5K, 1M, kids, melon roll 10KR, 5KR/W, 1KFR, Teams 13.1MR, 5KR/W

Howell Farmington Somerset Center

(517) 546-0693

howellrecreation.org

(517) 914-3181

somerset-run.com

Sun, 8/19/12 Sat, 8/25/12 Sat, 8/25/12

Running the Rails Crim Festival of Races Playmakers Classic Triathlon

10KR, 5KR/W 10 M, 8K, 5K, 1M, Kids tri:S/ 13MB/ 4MB

Ypsilanti Flint Holt

(937) 763-1089 (810) 235.3396

runsignup.com www.crim.org

Sat, 9/1/12 Fri, 9/7/12 Sat, 9/8/12

Labor Day 30K Run & 10K Walk/Run Run Woodstock - Day 1 Run Woodstock - Day 2

Sun, 9/9/12 Sun, 9/9/12 Fri, 9/14/12

Great Prostate Cancer Challenge St. Mary Mercy Hospital 5K Spartan Invitational

Sat, 9/15/12 Sat, 9/15/12 Sun, 9/16/12

Grosse Pointe Run 10KR, 5KR/W John Rogucki Memorial Kensington Challenge 15KR, 5KR/W Run Wild for the Detroit Zoo 10KR, 5KR, FW

Grosse Pointe Farms (800) 299-5007 Milford (248) 685-0043 Royal Oak (248) 336-5735

active.com www.aatrackclub.org detroitzoo.org/runwild/

Sat, 9/22/12 Sat, 9/22/12 Sat, 9/22/12

Dances with Dirt - Hell Park 2 Park Half Marathon and 5K Sault Area Chamber of Commerce Chase

Pickney/Hell (734) 929-9027 Holland (616) 399-9190 Sault Ste. Marie, MI (906) 632-3301

danceswithdirt.com park2parkrace.com www.saultstemarie.org

Sat, 9/29/12 Sat, 9/29/12 Sun, 9/30/12

Vasa Trail Run 25KR, 10KR, 5KR Team Playmakers 20 M Marathon Training Run 20MR/W Brooksie Way Half Marathon 13.1MR, 5KR/W

Traverse City Lansing Rochester Hills

(231) 932-5401 (517) 349-3803 (810) 235-3397

runvasa.xom playmakers.com thebrooksieway.com

Sun, 9/30/12 Sat, 10/6/12 Sat, 10/6/12

Playmakers Autumn Classic 8K Fall Colors Bridge Race Red October Run

8KR/W, 1MFR, 1/2 M FR 5.4MR/W 10KR, 5KR/W, 1M kid’s run

Haslett Mackinaw City Wayne

(517) 349.3803 (231) 436-5664

playmakers.com mackinawcity.com

Sun, 10/7/12 Sun, 10/7/12 Sun, 10/14/12

Betsie Valley Run Fall Fest Frolic Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon

13.1MR, 10KR, 5KR/W, kids 10KR, 5KR/W, 1MFR 26.2 MR, 13.1MR, 5KR, kids

Thompsonville New Boston Toronto, ON

(231) 378-2000 (734) 282-1101

betsievalleyrun.com everalracemgt.com

Sun, 10/14/12 Sat, 10/20/12 Sun, 10/21/12

Wild Life Marathon Mercantile Bank Run Thru the Rapids Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon

26.2MR, 13.1MR/W, 5KR/W, kids Concord

10KR, 5KR/W 26.2 MR, 13.1 MR

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids

(517) 392-8250 (888) 909-2267

wildlifemarathon.org runthrutherapids.com

Sat, 10/27/12 Sun, 10/28/12 Sat, 11/10/12

Headless Horseman 5K Wicked Halloween Run Original Ann Arbor Turkey Trot

10KR, 5KR 10KR, 5KR/W, 1MFR 10KR/W, 5KR/W, 1MFR

Howell Plymouth Dexter

Sat, 11/10/12 Sun, 11/11/12 Sat, 11/17/12

Walt Disney World Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend 13.1MR Roseville Big Bird Run 10KR, 1MR/W, 4KR Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis 10KR, 5KR, 1/4M kids run

Lake Buena Vista, FL Roseville (586) 445-5480 Bloomfield Hills (248) 269-2895

disneywinedinerun.com roseville-mi.gov arthritis.org

Thu, 11/22/12 Thu, 11/22/12 Sat, 12/1/12

Fifth Third Bank Thanksgiving Turkey Trot Smoke the Turkey 5K Holiday Hustle

Detroit Sylvania, OH Dexter

(313) 247-4149 (419) 841-5597 (734) 929-9027

detroitturkeytrot.org eliteendeavors.com www.runholiday5k.com

Northville Holly Detroit

(248) 269-2895 (248) 328-3200 (313) 886-5560

arthritis.org runlikethedickens.com belleislefunrun.com

(248) 880-3852 farmingtonrunforthehills.com

(517) 349.3803

playmakersclassictri.com

30KR, 10KR/W, kids run, 30KB Milford 100MR, 100KR Pinckney 50M, 50K, 26.2M, 13.1M, 5M Pinckney

(248) 685-7580 (734) 929-9027 (734) 929-9027

www.laborday30k.com runwoodstock.com runwoodstock.com

5KR/W, kids run 5KR/W college and high school x-c

(248) 336-3189 (734) 655-1593 (517) 432-5510

tinyurl.com/6qwlwdo stmarymercy.org playmakers.com

50MR, 50KR, 100 K Relay 13.1MR, 5KR 26.2MR, 13.1MR, 10KR

10KR, 5KR/W, kids run 5KR 5KR, 1MR

Sat, 12/1/12 Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis - Northville 5KRW, 1/4M kids run Sat, 12/8/12 Run Like The Dickens and Tiny Tim Trot 10KR, 5KR/W, Tiny Tim Trot Mon, 12/31/12 Fifth Third New Year’s Eve Family Fun Run/Walk 5KR/W, 1MR/W

Rochester Livonia East Lansing

(313) 586-5486 oakwood.org/redoctoberrun/

(416) 944-2765

torontowaterfrontmarathon.com

(616) 293-3145

(517) 546-0693

(248) 345-6168

(734) 213-1033

grandrapidsmarathon.com

howellrecreation.org

wickedhalloweenrun.com

a2turkeytrot.com

- MR michiganrunner.net

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Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

51

by Tom Henderson

M

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

ore things I don’t get:

• Running races with cell phones in your hands. Unless, that is, you are a transplant surgeon waiting to hear about that kidney on ice about to land at the local airport. I know younger folks are literally addicted to whatever chemical thing goes on in the brain from keeping those thumbs working their cell phones, but jeez, can’t you put ’em down for at least 3.1 miles?

game won by the Wings 7-2 in a great display of passing. As I watched the game, he watched his cell phone, posting updates to Facebook and eagerly awaiting responses. He’d be posting about the game while not watching the game and having to catch the goals on replay on the TV screen in our suite.

I know, it’s the modern world. I oughtta get used to it.

• Running with earbuds. I’ve been wondering about this since the Walkman era, so it’s not new.

If you’re in the city, why in the world not be as attuned as possible to the sounds of traffic and possible danger, especially with all those texting-and-driving folks veering around?

If you’re off somewhere nice, on the trails at Bald Mountain State Park or in the Sand Lakes Quiet Area near Traverse City, why not just run through the woods and listen to the sounds of nature?

I took one of my young colleagues and fellow runners to a RedVertical Wings game March, MRSub0311_Sixth 2/6/11in 9:52 PMa Page 1

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* Subscription pays for 6 print or online issues. great lakes sports publications 4007 Carpenter Rd., #366 ypsilanti, mi 48197

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Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

Recently, I was on a forest trail, a March day that seemed more like June or July, a wide assortment of birds near and far going crazy.

There was a big woodpecker assaulting a tree, this amazingly loud hammering that seemed impossible for a bird; something had set an owl off in the distance; I recognized a cardinal nearby and lots of other chirps and whistles.

Everybody was excited by the weather.

And here comes this guy, listening to his music, head down, oblivious. Didn’t hear me or the dog approaching, didn’t hear the natural symphony around him. His loss.

• Running with your back to traffic. I’ll never forget one of the leaders of the Tampa Bay Roadrunners dying in the mid-1980s after he was running along the shoulder of a road, with traffic, and was hit in the head by the extended mirror of a truck. Why trust traffic when you can run at it and jump off the road if you have to?

• Or running in dark clothes at dawn or dusk.

I was heading to an early morning meeting in Farmington Hills in late winter, a gloomy morning with a light rain falling. As my car went over a short hill, there was a runner in a dark gray outfit that perfectly matched the morning, nearly invisible, in the street.

• Or running the same boring route in your neighborhood day in and day out. People lose their interest in running and blame the running. It’s not the running, it’s the running in the same crappy places all the time. Sure, I spend more time than I’d like running the same cou|

michiganrunner.tv

ple of routes in Grosse Pointe when I’m pressed for time, but week in and week out I make the effort and carve out the time to run in cool places.

Yes, I’m spoiled by not having too many demands on my time. But even when pressed, I’d much rather spend an extra half hour driving each way to a cool destination, like the Bridle Trail in Northville or Bald Mountain in Auburn Hills, than just driving home, parking the car and running around the neighborhood on the sidewalk.

• Or not running on grass and dirt when you can. One of my routes includes two miles on Windmill Point Drive in Grosse Pointe Park, on a grassy median that is kept mowed and is as smooth a grassy surface as you can find. The dog and I run on the grass. A few others do too.

But 90 percent of the walkers and runners there run in the street.

There’s one woman I see a lot, with kind of a gimpy, limpy stride that looks as if she has knee pain. Every time I see her go by, I wonder: Why wouldn’t you run on a soft surface when there’s one just two feet to your left or right?

• Never running on trails in the woods. I’m always amazed when I meet runners, we talk about places to run and they say they never run on trails. Never thought about it, aren’t interested.

One of the pleasures of living in Michigan is no matter where you are, even in the middle of Detroit, you’re just a short drive away from some trail in a beautiful setting. I spend a lot of my work time in Ann Arbor, and the city is filled with runners battling traffic and exhaust who have no idea that a mile from the heart of downtown you can be on trails in Bird Hills Park or the Barton Nature Reserve.

I spend a lot of time running in the Bridle Trail in western Hines Park, a trail Randy Step introduced me to 27 years ago. I’ll run up and down the hills, over pastures and through the woods on that four-mile loop and catch glimpses periodically of all the other runners running on the blacktop bike path along the road that bisects the park.

You’d rather run on blacktop along a busy road than be on a trail in the woods?

Fringe benefits to the Bridle Trail: a monster cherry tree at one end that is loaded with cherries in the summer, and mulberry trees at

the other end whose branches bend low with fruit in June. There is nothing better on a hot, early summer day than cresting the hill under the biggest mulberry tree on the trail and stopping with the dog for a few minutes while we gobble to our hearts’ content.

• Running a lot but never racing. Another of my colleagues runs a lot but thinks races are stupid, except for the occasional marathon.

“Why would you pay money to run?” he asks.

Inside the lodge at the finish line, runners are greeted with fresh-made hot chili and cornbread. ~~~

A

thing I do get: How wonderful it was running in 80-degree sunshine in March.

Funny spring, eh? On March 10, we awoke to two feet of snow at the old schoolhouse in the woods. A few days later it was 55 and pouring rain. A few days later it was 88, an all-time March high in Traverse City.

Hmmm, let’s see: It’s a chance to run with people and be social. It’s a chance to compete.

You can assess your fitness. If it’s a Run Thru Hell 2012_Run Thru Hell 08 charity event, you can run for a good cause. It breaks up the routine of day-to-day training. It’s fun. It’s painful. It’s a great reason to get up earlier than you might otherwise.

It was interesting, running five miles one day through the Sand Lakes Quiet Area. Bright sun, low 80s, shorts and t-shirt, forest trails clear of snow for the most part, but trails on the southern shores of the lakes still hidden under five to six inches of snow.

It was great along the lakes for the dogs, unused to the heat. They’d come to the snow and start rolling and leaping around and eating their fill. And then it was off into more bright sunshine and heat.

- MR -

2/14/12 12:16 AM Page 1

RUN THRU HELL

• Why more people don’t do snowshoe races. Randy Step and Jeff Gaft get a huge turnout for the Bigfoot 5K and 10K each January in Traverse City, but other races are lucky to get a few dozen. There’s no more gut-busting fun than trying to climb a long incline in fresh snow.

Kathleen, Maddie and I do every one we can.

A new one this year that was a blast? The 5K in February at the Brengman Brothers at Crain Hill Vineyard in the Leelanau Peninsula, a fundraiser for the Traverse City West cross-country team. It snowed about five inches in the days leading up to the event, but it was crystal clear for the race — a cobalt sky and pure white snow as we ran a two-loop course up and down hills through rows of vines.

4.8

AND

10 MILE

FOOT RACE

Saturday, August 11, 2012 - 8:00 am Sponsored By: Pinckney Running Club Entry Fee: $20 Pre-Registration - received by August 4, 2012. $30.00 Late Registration. Pre-Registration Fee Waived for all Runners 70 years of age or older - Excludes On Line Sign-up.

Awards: Trophy to overall Male and Female, overall Master Male and Female, overall Grandmaster Male and Female, overall Senior Male and Female, and first 7 places in each age group. Awards will not be mailed or delivered.

Location: Hell Creek Ranch on Cedar Lake Road at Patterson Lake Rd. Camping Available (734) 878-3632.

(This phone number for camping only.)

Age Groups: (male & female) 14 & under, 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 3539, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74, 75-79, 80-89, 90-over.

CAUTION: Be aware there will be vehicle traffic on the roads at all times.

ATTENTION RUNNERS: Please do not park on Patterson Lake Road. Come early and use the parking lots (3).

Please use the Porta Johns; do not use the race course or the neighborhood. Please be considerate of the neighbors.

Another great but under-attended snowshoe race? The YMCA Kayo-Went-Ha Camp 5K and 10K in February. A lack of snow nearly turned it into a pair of running-shoe runs, but a few inches fell Friday night and things were copacetic on race day.

Too bad only 40 or so came out, the numbers likely down this year due to a lack of snow this winter.

The first half of the 5K is nearly all uphill through deep forest — tough, tougher and toughest — followed by a great downhill surge to the finish. The 10Kers do the route twice.

Photos: Frog Prince Studios

The classic course was followed by lots of food and generous awards. Maybe 60 ran or walked it this year.

Register Online: www.gaultracemanagement.com

michiganrunner.net

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Information: (734) 878-6640

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012

53

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

54

Michigan Runner - May / June 2012 © Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

© Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

Splash ‘n’ Dash Indoor Triathlon Howell, February 19, 2012 20 minutes each: swim, bike, run

Photographs by Carter Sherline / Frog Prince Studios

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