2009 Belle Isle New Year’s Eve 4 Mile Race

Who: Me
What: 4 Mile Race
When: New Year’s Eve 2009,
Where: Bell Isle, Detroit Michigan
Why: Darn good question

The Belle Isle 4 mile race celebrated it’s 40th anniversary this year which must put it up there for one of the older races in the Detroit area. The activities such as packet pick up, restroom and then after race result posting along with food and drink are all held in the Belle Isle Casino… which apparently hasn’t been updated since the first year of the race. It is no longer really a casino, just a building with two floors and various rooms. It if truly was an active casino at one time, it was certainly small compared to modern day casinos such as Motor City or the MGM. According to the article below it was at one time an operational casino.

Wikipedia entry on Belle Isle.

An article published by the Friends of Belle Isle which lists the attractions of the island.

It is actually a nice place to visit during the summer, although as most venues in Detroit, it may not the the safest place to be on a hot summer night. The various attractions on the island unfortunately show their age, and also reflect the current financial situation of the city of Detroit.

One comment on the casino, the referenced article mentions the casino was built to take advantage of the cooling breezes before air conditioning was invented… well that certainly is true! This year, as last year, the weather was chilly, wet and with a brisk river breeze!

“The 2009 Belle Isle New Years Eve 4 Mile race Photo Album is complete!”

The official bib number.
The Holiday Hustle 5K 2009 bib.

The days activities include a one mile run, a four mile run/walk and a four mile race. I am always impressed by some of the one milers, mainly kids under 12 (I think) some run some pretty good times. There are pictures available for purchase, which you don’t have to do, but there are a lot of good shots taken of the race you might like to see, including the kids run. These include some of a friend that ran the race, but not me… but I have my own photographer(s).

This also has to be one of the flattest races you could imagine. The island can’t vary more than a few feet in altitude at any point. The “adjusted” track from the Garmin FR 305. The track is adjusted in SportsTrack software by updating the gps points against an official topographical map with the altitude.

The course.

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As was mentioned race day was wet and blustery! Earlier in the afternoon it was still fairly nice, not sunny but at least warmer and drier. Just before race time a light drizzle started and that seemed to cool everything down rapidly. Nothing like last year’s conditions though!

The race grew quite a bit since last year with about 400 more runners registered this . Maybe because the race is seeing a little more advertising and publicity. Last year I only heard about it by noticing a flyer at the Detroit Turkey Trot race. No web site was found on it, maybe a few of the running web sites listed it, but in general it was a secret race. This year it was on several of the news channels the day before, and can be found via Google or other search engines. Also, and I think a BIG plus is this year had online registration! Prior years required a paper entry from be completed and mailed in, then either verified via email or trusting they got it and you just showed up and hoped your packet was ready. There is no early packet pick up, everything is done the day off the race. Notice to late comers… you can register right then fairly painlessly if you suddenly decided to come out and freeze your tuskus with the rest of the crazies.

Last year they gave each participant a wooden plaque, this year was a medal.
..

The online stats listing was published pretty quickly after the race.
The official final stats.

    • …. and this breaks down into these numbers for the race:
    • a) 4 Miles
    • b) finished 338 out of 813 overall in the 4 mile. (Top 41.5%)
    • c) finished 10 out of 30 in my age group – M60-64. (33.3%)
    • d) finished ? out of ? men. (No data given)
    • e) had a 8:50 pace, and a 35:18.8 total chip time.
    • f)

You can see the full details on the running stats web page.(Index) or this specific race.

    h) had a great time – which is always the goal right?… Right!

Until the final resolution is kept,

George