CRIM 2007 8K--Love it

Finish Time: 50:58

Waving to people, giving high fives, pumping my fist in the air, yelling with delight, thanking all of the supporters….yes, the Crim is my favorite race. But let me start with Friday night.


The Tornado

I left work at 4pm, my normal time on Fridays, and headed west to US-23. Normally, I would be heading to Lansing but I was staying the night with Yi who lives in Grand Blanc. As I neared Kensington, I received a call from Joey.



“Holly, the weather is really, really bad here.”

“Hmmmm….it’s beautiful here,” I replied.

“There’s reported tornados in Eaton County.”

“What?! No way!”



We hung up the phone and I called my sister. “Are you calling about the tornados?” she asked. Actually, I wasn’t.



I turned onto US-23 and called my step-sis, Fawn, who lives in Charlotte (part of Eaton County). There was no answer so I left a joking message about how I hoped she was taking cover from the tornados. We hung up when I got another call from Joey. “We’re going to the basement,” he said. I was floored. I mean, Lansing doesn’t get tornados. I tuned the radio to Channel 6 is Lansing and listened to the coverage. Rob Dale was giving updates on where the tornado was tracking. Cavanaugh….Miller….Cedar Street…Jolly Road…Dunkel…Hagadorn…Meridian Mall…



As I was flipping out and calling my relatives to make sure they were okay, I suddenly realized the ominous cloud which had appeared to my left, just west of me. It hadn’t been there a minute before but it was traveling fast. I called Yi and told her I was almost to her house, just crossing the Shiawassee River and going through Fenton. When I arrived, the tornado sirens were going off. I remembered my little joke to Fawn about hiding from the tornados. I remembered all of the dreams I’ve had about tornados. I was intrigued and made Yi stand outside with me to watch.



The rain picked up so we went inside to watch the news. Another storm had formed and was over downtown Flint. The Crim runners at the pasta dinner were running to take cover. The TV showed weird, white clouds. Yi and I went to the front of the house. The storm had just arrived. Lightening, thunder but mostly rain and wind. I thought about going to the basement and as I was watching out the window and thinking about it, the clouds became white and looked really funny. That was the only time I got scared and told Yi we should go to the basement. We stayed about a minute and went back up.



The storm went by fast. Little did we know the destruction which had occurred in Fenton, near the Shiawassee River. No one was seriously hurt which was a blessing.



Joey and Jenny arrived later than expected and we headed downtown to the Crim Expo. It was held offsite from the Crim this year. I’m so thankful we got our packets settled up that night. We also had a lot of fun getting massages, trying on sunglasses sampling food. We headed back home and Mama Sun had dinner waiting for us. I filled up on her noodles and veggies but because I’m sensitive to my pre-race meal, I made my noodles and marinara also. Meeeegan showed up as we were going to bed and I think my head hit the pillow around 11pm or so.



The CRIM

We woke up at 5 AM, got out of the house after Peter arrived around 7 AM and headed downtown. We found a spot which was right off of the 5K course and walked a mile or so down to the start line.



SO MANY PEOPLE. It was crazy. Almost immediately, a woman approached Yi and told her she liked Yi’s shirt. Yi was wearing the RivRunner shirt with Hebrews 12:1 on the back. The woman, a Christian, said she had come to Flint by herself last night and was at the Crim alone. Last night, she prayed and asked God to help her find some Christians to hang with before the race. There we were. The girls, including our new friend, went into the pavilion to find a potty. Our new friend needed a drink of water. Somehow, inside of the craziness at the pavilion, we were separated. Yi, Jenny, and Megan continued to wait in the long line while I went to find our new friend. She was no where I could see. I did find Tiffany and Brett, though, which really made me happy. I told Tiffany the story about losing the Christian woman and briefly described her to Tiffany.



People started lining up for the 10 mile so I went back to find Yi in the potty line. They had opened the upstairs bathrooms so we all headed up there. That was when I saw Dale and Kurt. I chatted with them and waved at Tiffany as she stood across from me, looking down at the passerbys on the first floor. She suddenly said, “Holly! I see her! Your Christian friend!” I couldn’t believe it. I raced over and looked down at the first floor just as the woman disappeared from view. I raced downstairs to try to find her. Tiffany yelled directions to me from above. Finally, I grabbed the woman’s arm.



“There you are! I’ve been looking for you. What is your name?”

“Marilyn,” she responded.

“Follow me,” I said, “Yi is upstairs in the restroom.”

“I really, really need to find a drink of water,” Marilyn said. “The race is about to start. I need to keep searching for water.”

“I don’t know why, but you need to follow me upstairs,” I said as I just turned around and went back up the escalator. She followed and as soon as we reached the top, I saw a drinking fountain. She got her drink and then we rushed Marilyn and Yi to the start line.



It had started raining as the race started. Jenny and Peter decided to go to the car to get an umbrella. Joey, Megan and I went upstairs to of the pavilion to hang out and so I could use the restroom. We saw Tiffany again so we sat on the floor for awhile and talked. Joey sat down on a table that did not want to be sat on. He came flying toward me as I stupidly tried to catch him. That didn’t work and then I couldn’t quit laughing. He is so accident prone. As we were getting ready to go back downstairs, we saw a guy sit down by the glass wall near the escalator. He was wearing a Save Darfur shirt. I struck up a conversation with him and then noticed his 10 mile bib number.

“Oh no!” I said.

“Oh yes,” he responded. “I missed the race.”

We comforted him and assured him he would be fine running the 8K. Still, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him as I thought back to last year. After a brief freak out when Joey left his brand new phone upstairs, we went back downstairs, met up with Jenny and Peter and then headed down to the finish line. We arrived just as the first dude crossed in like 46 minutes or so. We cheered for Grant from Playmakers and then for Eric Stuber. We headed back down to the 8K start line when I had a moment of freaking out.



“I need to go to the tinkle bank,” I announced. I was 15 minutes after 9. We discovered a long line at the upstairs restrooms but waited in it. Megan and I got in and quickly came back out. That was when we briefly saw Tami, took a picture and headed out to the start line.



Ahhhh…the start line. Walking up to it between the gates and on the bricks felt so awesome. Having the tall buildings on either side of us made it all so enormous. We prayed, we sang the national anthem and then we were off!



I had a great start and felt strong as I ran down Kearsly. I waved to the band as I passed by and made my first turn. Immediately, I felt a pain in my toes as if a blister was forming. I kept going, though. It was all so much fun. Pumping my fist in the air, high fiving the spectators, smiling, yelling thank you…I was having the best time.



And then I turned down Bradley Street and saw the hills…the dreaded Bradley hills. Crap.



I took a deep breath and went for it. I blasted through the first two and then yelled….really loud…"whoo-hooo!” The runners around me laughed. The spectators clapped. I was on such a runner’s high.



I saw the Smile FM van (Lansing’s Christian radio station). I yelled out, “God bless you, Smile FM!” The man next to the van chased me down to give me a pen. “No thanks,” I yelled back, “I’m already saved.” He told me to take it anyway so I clipped it to my shirt. Somewhere along the way, I spotted a man who looked...well, I suspected he was homeless. Of course, my own father was once asked if he needed a ride to the mission downtown as he walked home from the store...so I could have been wrong about this guy. I ran over to him and extended my hand. Surprised, he extended his and fived me as I passed by. Too cool.

I saw a little boy sitting on his front steps. I waved to him and became excited yelling “Good job! Keep running!” He was so cute. I passed a woman and saw her bib #. “Ohhhh…you’re a 10 miler,” I said. “You’re almost there!” I tried to encourage her and other runners. The crowds encouraged us the closer we got to the finish line.



Just before I hit the bricks, I saw some 10 milers walking on the sidewalk toward me. “You’re almost done!” the guy yelled. I smiled. “Hey, what are you listening to?” he asked.

“Rehab by Amy Winehouse,” I yelled.

“Great song,” he said as he was probably reading the Bible verse on the back of my running shirt.



As I was rounding the final corner, I saw the wedding taking place in the Playmakers tent. I smiled, hit the bricks, and took off. A light mist formed as I high fived the boy scouts lining the way. I crossed the finish line and felt good about my time. How could I not? I acted like the whole race was for me as I princessed waved to the crowds.

The rest of the crew met up and as it down poured, we decided to head back to Yi's for pizza. Problem was that the 5 mile walk was taking place on the road we needed to use to get out of town. Megan, Jenny, Peter, Joey and I stood at the edge of the parking lot and became the spectators, cheering the walkers on. It was awesome being on the other side of the whole Crim thing.

Finally, we left and made it back to Yi's. I pulled my sock off and saw the root of my pain. Apparently, and yes, this is a little gross, but apparently, my toenails were too long and dug into their neighboring toe's skin causing them to blister and bleed. Sick. Yes, I'm a runner.

I love this race. Next year…the 10 mile!