What a Magnificent Mile!
By Dan • May 25th, 2008 • Category: Blog
[Results] [Photos] The first year for the Springfield’s Magnificent Mile covered a grueling one mile stretch on 6th Street in the Historic downtown Springfield, IL. The race drew around a hundred runners from central Illinois. The heats went off at 3 minute intervals by age group.
The temperature was in the mid 60s and a SE wind was at our backs. The course was marked at each 1/4 mile. This really helped for pacing yourself. The first half of the race was flat to a slight downhill. The 1/2 mile mark then took a moderate incline, with a swirling wind, which felt more like a headwind.
The 3/4 mark couldn’t come soon enough.
The street flattened out and the finish was in sight. People covered the finish line cheering as we crossed the timing mat. There was water readily available and They even had free pizza and soda from the “Pizza Machine” bus.
A very exciting and quick race!
I also want to mention the race t-shirt (sleeveless Sports Science) wins the best race shirt of the year. It is a lightweight wicking shirt, with a small front logo, that is not overbearing. I would encourage more races to have a similar t-shirt.
Tell us about your Magnificent Mile, comment below.
Ya, it was a little strange running down a 4-lane wide street with 5 people. Cool nonetheless. It was nice having the timing chip so you know exact times and don’t have human error or variability. That was an unexpected bonus.
I, too, expected to run about a 6:00 pace secondary to feeling like the road is slower than the track (I ran a 5:51 (PR) at the Sizzling Mile last year) and not doing much speedwork. So I was surprised to finish with a PR of 5:37 and finish in 12th place overall.
Seeing the clock at the finish line reading 08:33 was a little discouraging. I didn’t take my Garmin knowing I just had to go as hard as possible so I never really knew my pace and wasn’t sure of my finishing time. I closed to about 2 steps behind Dan at the 3/4 mile mark thanks to Alex T’s cheering but when Danoh dropped the hammer I couldn’t keep pace. With the swirling winds and slowing for the final 1/4 mile I was just hoping to break 06:00.
This was a cool event so I hope more people attend next year. Where else can you see Ann Gaffigan and Bryan Glass compete against each other?