Leading up to this year’s Crim 10-miler I questioned how I could write another post about the race that wouldn’t be repetitive since the August 22 race would be my ninth time running it. Well, I didn’t have to worry about that because this year’s race was anything but routine!

The early wake-up on Saturday morning was especially rough this time around because I’d gone to a Brandi Carlile concert the night before and got about four hours of sleep. I do that to myself all the time though and once I got moving I was okay. As I made the 45-minute drive up to Flint, I saw lightning off in the distance. I knew that rain could be a factor but didn’t think it was supposed to storm until later. I was hopeful that it was still early and would be out of the way when it was time to race. 

I parked in my usual lot to the north of the race site by 5:30 and walked down to the conference center to pick up my bib and shirt. While race morning pickup has always been fine in the past, the pre-race emails really pushed people to come to the expo a day or two before the race and only pick things up the morning of if necessary. I understand wanting people to attend the expo and avoiding long lines the morning of the race, but I went to the expo once and it really wasn’t worth the time or gas to drive 90 miles round trip to Flint two separate days.

I got to the conference center at 5:45 and breezed right through packet pickup without any wait at all. I’m glad I “risked it” and didn’t make the extra trip.

In the past I’ve usually taken the long walk back to the car to drop my shirt and relax before doing a warm up jog back down. This time I brought a bag to leave at gear check so I could stash the shirt there and save myself the extra trip. I hung out inside the conference center for a little bit and saw Infinite Multisport friend Leon. He was the first of many friends I would see throughout the morning. The race typically draws somewhere around 5,000 people for the 10-mile distance, plus there are also 5K and 5-mile options, so I always see lots of people who I know.

The race was supposed to start at 7:00 so I headed out to gear check and the porta potties about 45 minutes before that. I’ve experienced long lines in past years and know that I need to leave plenty of buffer to make sure I get to the start on time. However, as I was waiting for my turn I heard an announcement that we were going to have a half-hour weather delay and now the race was due to start at 7:30. We were told to go to our cars, parking decks, or somewhere else to take shelter.

There was some light rain at that point and I got a text from my friend Charles who said he was hanging out with friends in a parking deck across from gear check. As I headed there, I found a few more Infinite teammates!

I found Charles who was chatting with people from a Rochester running group. The rain picked up so everyone stayed dry hanging out around the parking deck. The start of the race was pushed even later, and after talking with people for so long, it didn’t even feel like I was still about to run a race.

When it seemed like we were on track to race, I thought I’d go back to the routine of trying to hit the bathroom a good 30-40 minutes before the start. I found that a lot of people had gathered under the awnings of buildings. Then another delay came and I decided I’d just go back to my car.

I happened to skip the race one year when the weather lead to a late start. A bunch of friends talked about how that messed up their fueling, so I’ve kept that in the back of my mind and try to always be prepared with enough to eat and drink in case of a delay. By this point I determined that I wanted to eat another bar and get some water, so that’s why I hiked back to the car. The rain was pretty light at that point and I wouldn’t have minded running in those conditions. Lightning was the cause of the delays though.

Thinking that the race would finally start at 8:30, I did a half mile warm up jog back from my car and lined up at the porta potties yet again, restarting my routine with every delay. I saw my friend Cristian from work who was probably one of the few people who benefited from the delay. He had called me earlier to say that he was running late and didn’t know if he was going to make it. That’s when I told him about the delay and informed him that he had plenty of time.

We were waiting in line when we learned the bad news. We were in another delay and now all of the people in the 10-mile race would run the 5-mile race instead. We would start at 9:00, which was two hours later than the original plan. I feel like I’m a better endurance runner and tend to prefer the longer distances. I wasn’t thrilled that running a 5-mile race meant that I’d feel like I should push the pace faster than I wanted to. At this point I pretty much dropped any expectations for the day and felt a bit of indifference toward the whole situation. I was thankful that we could still run and knew there wasn’t anything else we could do to work around the weather, but I still wasn’t thrilled about having to cut the distance in half.

Since there was still no rush to get to the start, I kept finding and chatting with people I knew, including Scott. It wasn’t raining at that point and clearly the lightning didn’t feel like an immediate threat because we didn’t bother to shelter anymore.

Eventually I knew I needed to do another warm up jog because it had been long enough since my first one that I was getting cool and stiff. Cristian and I went for my second half mile, made a final bathroom stop, then parted ways as I headed to my spot in the starting corral.

It’s amazing how many friends I find every year even in such a large crowd. It seems like I usually find Lindsay, and we crossed paths while waiting to start. I realized since we’d be running a shorter distance, I should probably try to run faster than my original bib assignment and moved up right by the 7:30 pacer.

The wheelers started at 9:00, then the 30-year+ racers, the elites, the first wave, and about 10 minutes later I FINALLY started the race two hours later than planned. I’m not sure how many people had originally signed up for the 5-mile race but all of those people started with the people who had planned to run 10 miles. The start is always congested so I don’t know if it really mattered. I tried to hang by the 7:30 group, but as usual, there was a combination of losing them in all of the weaving and maybe not having the speed they had either.

I really try to run the tangents the best I can because I always end up with extra distance on my watch at the end of races. It’s pretty tough when the roads are wide, it’s so congested, and there are walkers and slower runners mixed in. If they were off to the sides of the road that would be one thing, but some of them were scattered all over. I’d be flying along and come up on someone and have to dodge around real quick. It was also hard to aim for tangents when I really didn’t know where the 5-mile course would take us. Stretches of it were the same as the 10-mile so plenty of the course was still familiar.

Pretty much every year I see Lee out on the course, and that still held this year. I cheered for him as I ran past and was in awe of his 39th running of the race!

I kind of arbitrarily decided that maybe I’d be good to aim for 7:30 pace even though I haven’t been doing speedwork and wasn’t sure if I could hold it. It’s been so warm and humid this summer that I’ve failed to do anything very fast. I’ve mostly maintained mileage and endurance. Within the first mile I could feel that my face was pretty warm. I think it was in the 60s which shouldn’t have been too bad but I know it was humid too. It was for the best that I didn’t have to tough it out for 10 miles. For my best Crim race I actually averaged 7:20s. Conditions and everything else came together that year though. Had I tried to hang on to 7:30s for 10 miles, it could have gotten ugly this time.

Since the course was a bit different I didn’t get to see some of the usual landmarks like a woman bouncing on her trampoline or a guy doing karaoke. There were still people offering Jell-O shots and other spectators along the way. No Bradley Hills this time around! We did get some rolling hills around Kettering University, a stretch we don’t hit during the 10-mile race, and I definitely slowed down during the fourth mile. That was the point when Cristian cheered for me as he cruised right by. It was great to see him running so strong!

The last mile of the course was very familiar and it was nice to see the police vehicles flashing their lights right before our final turn.

In the last straightaway, I could see Carlo, a friend from my days in the GM Running Club. Another thing that seems to be consistent about this race is that Carlo and I will end up running by each other at some point. This time it happened to be right before the finish. I didn’t have a whole lot of energy for a strong push but I just barely made it past him! We always seem to be somewhere around a similar pace.

When I hit the bricks just before the finish line, there were a couple guys doing a wheelbarrow – one guy holding the legs of the other guy who was trying to walk along with his hands. It was clear that it was pretty rough on those bricks. There’s always something entertaining to see at this race!

I also happened to see Dave from RunMichigan.com off to the side. He’s always there to cover the race and I had seen him a few days beforehand so we both knew the other would be there. I’m glad I looked over at the right time because as usual, my favorite picture from the race came from RunMichigan. They’re local runners who support the local running scene so I like to support them and purchase a shot when it turns out nice like this.

When asked how I did during this race, I didn’t really know how to respond. I’ve only done 5 miles (an 8K) once and I was coming back from an injury, so I don’t have much to compare it to. Knowing that I have run a faster pace for the full 10-mile Crim course made me feel like I should have had more potential for five miles, but it all depends on the conditions and how my training has gone.

I ended up with a time of 38:36 and was seventh in my age group, so I’ll consider that to be pretty good. Crim is one of the races that is a part of a corporate challenge between GM, Ford, and Stellantis, so my age group placing will help our team. Stellantis had a couple teams of runners and I was on the Dodge Chargers team. The top five highest ranking runners score for the team, and my team had a 1, 5, 7 (me), 14, and 14. Sometimes it takes weeks to get the final results. I did my part though!

I much prefer the pace my Garmin provided versus what the race recorded! My watch makes it look like I actually DID manage around 7:30 pace. I talked to a few people who ran around a quarter mile long so it wasn’t just me. In fact, when I mapped the course to find the elevation, it came up as 5.2 miles. None of it really matters that much in the end, but it still made me feel better thinking that I ran a pretty solid pace.

One thing about a 5-mile race versus a 10-mile race is that friends of all kinds of paces came in a lot sooner! I was able to catch up with a bunch of friends afterward. That really is one of my favorite parts of Crim. I happened to catch Cristian again and congratulated him on his speedy run.

I started to drink a bottle of chocolate milk and saved a granola bar for later, but opted out of pizza this year. When I went past the pizza tent at 8:00 and the pizza was already out, I decided right then that it was not for me! I don’t know how long it had already been out and knew it would be another couple hours by the time I got there. The weather may have delayed our start but probably didn’t delay the arrival of the pizzas!

I was chatting with Charles when Sue, an Infinite teammate, came over and asked if I was going to breakfast. Leon had tried to organized a meet-up and people were especially up in the air because of the delayed start. Sue, Charles, and I decided to give it a shot and headed out.

Only the four of us made it to breakfast at the Westside Diner, which was maybe a 10-minute drive. We had fun hanging out so I’m glad we went.

This year’s race was definitely an experience. Everyone I talked to was adaptable and really didn’t complain though. What can you do when you get a crappy weather day? You just have to adjust and be glad that it wasn’t completely cancelled. It was funny that so many of the people I talked to said they’d have to do a long run the next day since we got cut short. That’s how us runners think! Next year will be the 50th running of the Crim so here’s hoping things turn out much better for that big day. I’m sure I’ll aim to be there for my 10th Crim!

– Janet

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