We seem to have developed a pattern in our family where we run for food ;-), and paczki was deemed worthy enough to make the trip into Detroit--our furthest drive for a family race yet. That was even before the kids learned this isn't a typical early race--the start time is 10 am--great for a family run.

Getting there was easy, parking a little less so. An extra volunteer or two directing traffic would have been a bonus. We tried parking in the shopping mall, and found that the rows dead-ended, making for fun 12 point turnarounds while cars piled up behind you doomed to the same fate. We wound up parking in a large business parking lot nearby, and I'm not sure there's where we should have been, so I'll have to study up a bit more on parking alternatives for next time around.

We'll also have to decide if we want to make the trip in twice to pick up packets early. The line was long for race day packet pickup, and by the time we got our shirts, we didn't all get the color shirt we registered for. Granted, this didn't spoil the fun for anyone--the fun part was picking out the "flavor" of shirt on the race registration form: blueberry, chocolate, or surprise. (The kids were curious if this related to the flavor of packzi you'd get in the end; there wound up being MANY flavors of paczki to chose from!)

Pre (and post) race there was also polka to enjoy, though we were busy huddling in a tent trying to stay out of the wind. Perhaps the wind helped the boys to PR--they both crushed their previous times, shaving off a few minutes each. (It's also a nice flat course.)

Post race, paczki is provided by New Martha Washington Bakery & New Palace Bakery, and there's also local beer from Motor City Brewing Works. One of the funniest points of the run was turning the last corner to the finish line, where a volunteer urged us to hurry because they were almost out of beer. ;-) I hope they were well stocked, because there was quite a line to the beer tent!

After the finish, the boys were excited to chose their paczki though one of them inadvertently wound up with a surprise flavor (maybe they had consolidated boxes because of the wind?). Any paczki is a good packzi though, and he survived. ;-)

Another bonus of this race is that it raises money for the Hamtramck DDA - $7,500 since 2013. It's always nice to know a race is giving back to the community! All in all, we had a great time at this race and would enjoy running for packzi again!