The Niles Frigid 5k is held on the 3rd Saturday of January in Niles, Mi. It is a small town race with low flare and not much in extras as far as swag. It is a simple, small town race and I like that.
Packet pickup was from 10-8 on Friday and then a couple hours before the race at a bike shop just a block away from the finish line. Parking was pretty easy to find on race day and was right by the finish line. A negative (and it's not a big negative) is that you had to walk between a quarter and half mile to the starting line from where you park. But really, we are runners, we can walks little or include it in your warm up.
The race started from the boat launch parking lot in town and headed south along the riverine a gravel road. Most winters this would be snow covered but the day before the race, temperatures were in the 40s which melted all the snow and then froze over night making it very slick in a lot of spots. Also the melted snow left a lot of pot holes in the gravel road as well. Just had to watch your step.
The course was out and back basically with the first half being on a gravel road and the second half being on a icy bike path. Yeah, it may have been slippery, but it's also January in Michigan. That's kind of what you get this time of year. The view of the river along the finishing stretch made for nice scenery.
Swag: everyone who registered on time received a nice looking red tshirt with the race logo. Nice looking shirt but not a fan of Polly/cotton blend. Also if you registered early enough, you got personalized bibs.
The awards were also nice and original for age group winners. Top 3 in each age group received a snow flake medal with the race logo on it.
Overall it was a pleasant experience and a great small town event!