When the city built an overpass over State Road 46 and State Road 11 and eliminated that intersection last year, it meant the Mill Race Marathon course would need an adjustment not far from its beginning.
While runners previously headed west across the bridge on Third Street and turned around at Second Street, that no longer is an option. So now, runners will run up the ramp to the overpass, then turn around at the top and head back on Second Street.
“We now have a hill,” race director Randy Stafford said. “It’s in Mile 2. Most people probably won’t even feel it that early in the race.”
That change is the biggest among a few other subtle adjustments to the course. Most of them were planned for the 2020 race, which ended up being canceled because of COVID concerns.
This year’s event is scheduled for Sept. 25. As in previous years, it will feature a full marathon (26.2 miles), half marathon (13.1 miles) and 5K (3.1 miles).
The first change to the course will be in the first mile. After turning left off Washington Street on to 11th Street, runners will turn left on Jackson Street instead of going through the roundabout to Lindsey Street. Instead, they will go south on Jackson and turn right on Eighth Street for one block to Lindsey Street, where they will go south to Third Street and west across the bridge.
When runners return from the overpass and cross the Stewart Bridge heading back into town, they will turn left on Brown Street, then right on Fourth Street, then right on Jackson, then left on Third.
“With adding distance up the ramp on the bypass, we’re shortening it downtown,” Stafford said. “After that, everything is the same until State Street.”
Heading southeast on State Street, runners previously had turned north on Brooks Street, but now will go on to Coovert Street and go north to Indiana Avenue, where they will proceed to the west.
After that, the course remains the same.
“A good portion of it is the same,” Stafford said. “There’s just a couple of spots where we had to make adjustments to get the distance right. Everything is added and subtracted in the first eight miles. That keeps the marathon and half marathon where we stay pretty common.”
All race courses begin and end on Washington Street just north of Sixth Street.
“We knew where the big changes were going to be,” Stafford said. “The little change in the first mile where we’re going down Jackson instead of through the roundabout, it added 80 meters to the course. That 80 meters allowed us to keep the starting line where it is now, as opposed to putting it south of the east leg of Sixth Street, which would have put our medical tent before the finish line, and we didn’t want that. There were little adjustments that we just had to figure out.”
