A Fit City?

The Racers
Originally uploaded by Apocaplops

If there's one thing I've been struck by in Lansing, it's that the city seems serious about physical fitness. We have a few great bicycle shops - Riverfront Cycle and Velocipede Peddler - and a great fitness store as well - Playmakers. There are many events in the summer geared towards the fitness-crazed among us, from triathlons to 5K races to half-marathons.

Today was the running of the Capital City River Run, which includes both a 5k and a half-marathon. For those not in the know, that's a little over 3 and 13 miles, respectively. This year attendance skyrocketed to 2,000 from last year's 900 because the city has done a good job promoting it in the outlying communities. My wife and a friend had been training for the 5k, and I was lucky enough to have the morning off from work, so I joined them down at the Lansing Center, to take photos of course. Not that I can't run, but given the choice I'll grab the camera any time.

Races like this start in the morning, and this time of year that means the light can be iffy for people shots. If I were doing it again, I would have used an on-camera flash for fill lighting to balance out the deep shadows. You really need a digital SLR to get the best out of the situation - having a zoom lens and quick shutter response is helpful - and you can change your settings on the fly to get different effects, like the blurred runners pictured above.

I'm starting to really enjoy taking photos at events like this. I could see myself covering events for a small local paper, although I don't know if my preferences in photography would totally intersect theirs. Perhaps I should take a class...