Third annual Chip River Run racers brave cold weather, flooded river
Not even a flood could stop these runners.
The third annual Chip River Run was held at Island Park in downtown Mount Pleasant Saturday on a chilly morning.
Due to the flooded park, nearly all of the routes and runners had to be re-directed from the Main Street entry gate to City Hall’s parking lot, where the registration tents and information could be found.
Shivering runners gathered around the tents to quickly memorize which routes they would be taking due to the last-minute changes, which were now north of the original routes. Runners were given the options of running a 10 or 5K or two half marathons divided into two parts.
This was also the first Michigan Half Marathon Series held by Central Michigan University's registered student organization Club Running.
Scott Cooke helped promote Club Running's name to further reach the Mount Pleasant area and gain the interests of runners in the area.
“I’m not running,” the Bloomfield Hills senior said, adding that he was there to volunteer. “Club Running teams up with this race every year.”
Because of the park’s wet conditions and confusion among the runners, the start of the event had to be delayed until 9:15 a.m., and out of the 200 runners registered for that morning, only about 100 were present.
However, that did not stop Midland residents Laura Leboeuf and Adrienne Bowman.
“We picked up running last year,” Leboeuf said. “And we’ve just been going with it ever since, and this will be our second 5K together. We’re pretty excited ... This is actually colder than the first one we ran in November."
Bowman said they've been training for the event and braving the cold temperatures since late 2012.
“We started running last November, and we casually kept it up over the winter,” Bowman said.
At about 9:45 a.m., the first wave of runners reached the finish line which was located on Broadway Street, where every runner was welcomed with cheers.
Tents were also relocated across the street in the Broadway Health Services' parking lot, which was full of complimentary water and bananas for the runners to rehydrate at the end of their races.
