The Mill Race Marathon will have a new route this year for all three of its races.
The most significant change for the marathon and half-marathon will come at the start of the race. The change was necessary after Louisville & Indiana Railroad and CSX officials could not guarantee that trains would come through Mill Race Park.
Several runners were delayed early in the 2014 event when a train came through Mill Race Park. Since then, the railroad has agreed to ensure that trains weren’t present until after the runners had exited the park, but 2018 was the final year for that guarantee.
“We can’t take it though the park anymore, so the whole course is replanned,” race director Randy Stafford said. “I honestly don’t know whether there’s been an increase in train traffic or not, but they just wouldn’t commit to it.”
The start for the Seventh Annual races now will be a half-block farther north on Washington Street. unners still will turn on 11th Street toward Mill Race Park.
The marathon and half-marathon routes now will go down Lindsey Street along the east edge of the park, and will go out Third Street across the bridge and loop back around on Second Street across the Robert Stewart Bridge. To gain back they distance they lost by bypassing Mill Race Park, runners will go up Brown Street to Eighth Street, then back down Jackson Street to Third Street to get back on the old course route.
“With the downtown change, you can see them go up Washington, then you can go three blocks to the west and see them run down Lindsey, then come back a block and see them go up Brown, come back one more block and see them go back down Jackson, then go two more blocks to the east and see them at the 4½ mile on Franklin,” Stafford said. “So you can see somebody four times in the first two miles and then see them again at 4½ miles.”
Another change comes near the seven-mile mark, where runners will turn off State Street north on Brooks Street to Indiana Avenue. They’ll go west on Indiana, and instead of turning on Gladstone Avenue, they’ll continue to Mapleton and go up to Five Corners where McKinley, Hope, Mapleton and Cherry Streets all come together. They’ll go past Foundation For Youth to Seventh Street, then at Central, get on the Hawcreek People Trail from Seventh to 17th, then rejoin the original course at 17th and Hawcreek Drive.
The marathon and half-marathon courses will continue follow the same path for the first 12 miles. At that point, the half-marathoners will head south on Lafayette Avenue past Donner Park, and the marathoners will head north.
The 5K course will again begin north on Washington, but instead of turning left into Noblitt Park, runners will go right and make a loop around Donner Park. The course will wind through some streets south of the park before heading west back to Washington Street.
The start and finish line for all three races will be at Seventh and Washington.
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Mill Race Marathon veteran Alex Contreras once again will be hosting free training sessions three times a week for 17 weeks, beginning on Saturday morning.
For the next seven Saturdays, runners can meet at 7 a.m. at YES Cinema to hear a speaker discuss a running-related topic. The speakers are the same as last year. The group run then will begin around 7:45 a.m. After the first seven weeks, the group run will begin at 7 a.m. in front of White River Running Company on Fifth Street.
Beginning next week, runners also can meet for speed workouts at 7 p.m. Tuesdays at Central Middle School and for tempo runs at 7 p.m. Thursdays on the People Trail just west of Parkside Elementary.
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This year’s Mill Race Marathon, half marathon and 5K will be Sept. 28. To register, visit millracemarathon.com
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