Friday's Featured 5k of the Week - Kankakee Area YMCA 5k

The Kankakee Area YMCA 5k has unique blend of neighborhood and park paths making for an enjoyable run with ever changing scenery.  This race is traditionally held in July.

The race starts in the back parking lot of the YMCA, where runners have about a one block sprint towards a tight turn and then onto the neighborhood streets.  A little nuance here is the runners briefly have to trek across a grass berm/island from the parking lot onto the street.  A nice beginning area as friends and family have a great viewing location for the start - and eventually the finish.

The course heads north and winds through the neighborhood, some westbouund, some northbound streets.  This neighborhood is filled with subtle hills throughout, the type a runner doesn't really "see" at first, but halfway up the hill, realizes they've been running an incline.  At the northern end of the neighborhood the course enters Perry Farm Park.  The course doesn't utilize all of the Perry Farm paths, as other races have, but rather enters, makes a loop, and exits in the same place.  The loop consists of primarily open prairies with one wooded area midway through (which on a hot July morning is quite welcome).  There are hills in Perry Farm Park, but this portion is relatively flat.

The course then re-enters the neighborhood and winds its way back towards the finish line.  The return course feels primarily downhill the entire time, which is a nice was to wrap up a race.  The course then heads back to the parking lot for a nice sprint past friends and family to the finish line (finishing the opposite way as they started).

At the end there is a large tent for refreshments and awards.  This is a nice course which provides a trip through an older - and quiet - neighborhood and also a nice park - best of two worlds.   Kankakee River Running Club administered the start/finish line, which is nice because they supply a digital clock which can be seen during that final sprint to the finish line - always a great motivator!