The Odawa Institute is sponsoring a Message Run and Marathon.
The First Annual Three Fires Message Run and Marathon is composed of four basic marathon races, the marathon with men and women categories, mixed relays with two-person teams and three to five-person teams, and of course our own version the Anishinaabe Marathon or Message Run. What’s a message run? Long ago messages were sent by runner from village to village. These runners carried a small stick from one village to the next passing the message and the stick along to the next messenger. Our histories tell us of runners being sent as far as the Cree nation near the Rockies. Our rendition of the marathon relay has no limit on the number of runners on each team, nor does it matter how many times each runner carries the message. The only rule we have is the stick and the message must go from one village to the next. Message teams can run for fun, to raise funds for their charity, or title of the fastest team.
This is a Fund Raising Event
The Institute raises funds to conduct a variety of cultural activities throughout the year. Please take a moment to check out our website. This year one of our goals is to make 75 high quality flutes for kids. We never charge money for kids activities.
Run one of the newest and oldest paths in Michigan
Don’t confuse the Little Traverse Wheelway with new. The Wheelway follows one of our oldest paths, the old BlackBird Path, named for the Harbor Springs Post Master Andrew J. Blackbird. The path is actually older than Andrew but his name stuck for us. Others call it the Wheelway. We believe this is the prettiest 26.2 miles on the planet and invite all traditional marathoners and marathon relay teams to come and join us. We are providing ChampionChip timing through GreatLakes ChampionChip. The timing is for the overall time, we do not have mats for split times this year but do plan on having a clock at the halfway point. All races will be started at the same time. Relay teams will have to pass one chip from the start to the finish for an official time. If your team is running for fun enter the message run with an unlimited number of runners.
Festival by the Bay
During the 2006 Festival by the Bay in Petoskey Michigan we gave over 250 rides in the jiimaan (canoe). This year we hope to give over 300 rides. We are the booth with all the life preservers and fry bread. If you would rather paddle than run please grab a paddle and jump in.
We are not afraid of bad weather.
We are not afraid of good weather either.
It doesn’t look like this everyday, but always feels like this in Petoskey.
Please join us at the Festival by the Bay, August 17, 18, 19, 2007