Fifth Third River Bank Run

Saturday, May 14th was the annual Fifth Third River Bank Run, a 5K (3 mile) race through downtown Grand Rapids. There was also a 25K race, but USMC RSS Grand Rapids didn't participate in that so I won't be talking about it.

I woke up at 05:00, and got dressed and shaved and headed down to the Recruiting office and joined my fellow poolees in getting ready for the event (pinning the numbers to our backs and attaching the tracking chips to our shoes. Everyone was supposed to arrive in our red shirts and black shorts, but some didn't have these. At about 07:00 the 27 poolees and 6 marines packed into 3 vehicles and headed to down town Grand Rapids to a parking lot about a mile from the start. We then got into formation and double timed down to the starting line in the pouring rain calling cadence, when we ran past a large group of people, they started cheering and clapping. We then stood in formation for about thirty minutes until the race started.

We stood at attention for the National Anthem, and when the race finally started, we ran in formation along the route calling cadence. Overall it was a lot of fun, and we finished in about 34 minutes, when you run in formation, you run at the slowest guys pace. No one fell out during the run, or on the way back afterwards.

It felt good to hear people cheering for us, we all know that there are people who support the Military, but its great when there are so many of them cheering for the Military.

The only thing that would have made it better is if the other branches had represented themselves there and run with us. It would have been fun calling cadence back and forth with them. Maybe the other recruiting offices were there and we just didn't see them, I don't know.