Some folks like to eat locally. They spend hours perusing nearby farmers' markets, recycled shopping bags in hand, searching for the perfect organic green pepper to use later in their vegan chili. Or perhaps they pull into their driveway one evening and have heart palpitations over the CSA box parked on their doorstop.
Me? I prefer to run locally.
I'll spend hours on Run Michigan, credit card in hand, searching for the perfect Saturday 5k. Sometimes, I find my heart palpitating when I pull into the driveway, reach into my mailbox, and emerge with a handful of race information cards.
While this Great Mitten State offers up its share of fabulous road races for every runner, certainly no race tops The Crim.
Now entering its 36th year, the Crim is well-known in the Michigan running community. Besides the world-famous (seriously, it's pretty big) 10-mile race, the Crim also offers an 8k, 5k, and 1 mile race along with a Teddy Bear Trot for the wee ones. Charlotte will definitely run that next year.
Last year, a record-setting 10,371 people participated in the 10-mile race alone, with another 6,000 or so competing in the other distances. Not too shabby.
This will be our (my, husband Kevin, and friend Kevin) fifth year running the race. Pretty sure that calls for an extra post-race beer.
The past years have looked something like this:
2008: Just happy to be done with my first double-digit race and still wearing non-wicking A-line undershirts, apparently.
2009: PRs all around. Beers and a scary rendition of "YMCA" to follow.
2010: We ran, we had more beer, we danced with the random woman who was wearing gold loafers. Gold. Loafers.
2011: The Crim Crew expands to 11 friends (some not pictured and/or born) and we leave another 10 miles behind.
With The Crim, you come for the race and stay for the beer. Along the way, be sure to:
- Stop for a beer and a Krispy Kreme at the notorious Cashew Point, a bar near mile 4 that will be celebrating its final year as a Crim landmark
- High five the drunk college kids as you run through the Kettering University campus
- Leave some guts behind on the Bradley Hills
- Lust over the Miller Road mansions during mile 6
- Stand next to one of the Kenyan elites at the after-party and offer him or her a green card in exchange for some free coaching/running tips
There surely is something to be said about pounding pavement on your home turf, supporting local economies and all of that.
Anyone else running the Crim this year?
How do you support your local running community?