Carla Clark | For The Republic Marilyn Moor walks through the wind and rain to register and pick up packets during the Mill Race Marathon Free Expo and Packet Pick-up at the Commons, Columbus, Ind., Friday, September 27, 2024
The previous Mill Race Marathon and half marathon events on the last Saturday in September have been contested under dry conditions.
That could change this year. Forecasts are calling for rain today as remnants of Hurricane Helene move northward.
“One year, it started raining at 2 (p.m.), and we had three marathoners still on the course,” race director Randy Stafford said. “Other than that, it’s been dry. Two years ago, it rained up until about 7 (a.m.), but then it quit, and we had a beautiful day.”
Stafford said a decision on whether to delay or cancel the event would not be made until shortly before the scheduled 7:30 a.m. start today.
“There might be some delay, or it could cause us to cancel the event, but that’s something that we would look to the people in the city that are monitoring the weather for us and would have recommendations there,” Stafford said. “The one thing that we really are going to look for is lightning. If it’s wind or just rain, you can run in that.”
The marathon and half marathon likely would have to start before 8:30 a.m. to avoid being canceled.
“It would have to go off in the morning because we can’t tie up all of the roads all day,” Stafford said. “We have a fairly short window in the morning where we would have to make that decision. If we delay, it would have to be a short delay.”
Stafford said if the race is started and lightning is spotted, it would not be restarted. Runners would be advised to take shelter at one of the locations along the course. Shelter locations along the race routes are listed in the Mill Race Marathon Guide.
“At that point, we’re done,” Stafford said. “Anybody that’s still out there, they can go to a shelter. We will pick them up if they want to get picked up and bring them back to the site and give them their finisher medals. There’s no way to reopen the course once we send everybody to shelter.”
The Mill Race marathon, half marathon and 5K races have seen steady increases in participation since they were canceled in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The full marathon was canceled in 2021, but since then, the total number for those three Saturday races have increased by 250 to 300 runners each year.
“It’s been in that 250-300 runner range every year since 2021,” Stafford said. “Once we got to May, we were seeing our numbers increase, and we were expecting to be above where we were last year. At this point, we’re in the 10 percent range higher than last year, which is a big boost. It gets us within a couple hundred runners of pre-COVID for the Saturday races.”
As of Tuesday, 244 were registered for the full marathon, 1,275 for the half marathon, 1,283 for the 5K. Another 930 were registered for Friday’s Kids Fun Run.
“We’re recovering from COVID,” Stafford said. “People are starting to really engage again. It’s taken a couple of years for some people to get comfortable again and get back into their exercise routines.”
Stafford said the Mill Race committee’s 10-day out prediction from last week was 239 for the full marathon, 1,336 for the half marathon and 1,594 for the 5K.
“We are on track to be above what we are predicting,” Stafford said.
Last year’s men’s and women’s marathon winners are both entered again this year. Cory Kirkham is the defending men’s champ, and Sheridan McKinley was the women’s winner. Defending men’s half marathon champ Curtis Eckstein also is returning for that race.
This year, the 5K will be recognized as the RoadRunners Club of America Indiana state championship race. Awards will be presented to the top 40-and-over, 50-and-over and 60-and-over men and women.
The Mill Race was the half marathon RCA championship event in 2021.
“We bid on the half marathon as a regional event, and they said, ‘Would you be interested in the 5K for Indiana?’” Stafford said.
Stafford said the last half marathoners should be finished by 11:30 a.m. After that, all streets will be reopened except Fourth Street, Washington Street between Eighth and Third streets, Fifth Street between the two alleys on either side of Washington and the two blocks of Seventh Street between Jackson and Franklin, all of which should reopen around 4:30 p.m. Franklin Street from Seventh to First Street should reopen around 2:30 p.m.
Complete race information is available at millracemarathon.com
Stafford said any decisions regarding the status of the race would be posted on the Mill Race Marathon and Facebook and Instagram pages and will be announced at the race site.
“This is unusual,” Stafford said. “This is the 28th year, we’ve had a Mill Race event — 12 years of the marathon, and before that, 16 years of the Mill Race Race — and this is the first year that we’ve had a real threat of rain during the event. So we haven’t had to do this type of planning before.”
