Tag Archives: toejammers

2009 Belle Isle New Year’s Eve 4 Mile Race

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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.
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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

Detroit Turkey Trot 10K 2009

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The Detroit Turkey Trot for 2009 has come and gone. Although as of right now the results have gone into some digital never-never land. They were there, I got screen shots, went back to check on some other runners and now nothing is available. (Update about 8:30 pm they came back.)

I have to hand it to those people that are willing (and able to) run the entire race in these outfits

This is always a fun race to be part of. Many people come in costume, and there are awards for the best ones. In the photo album you will see some of them, but the photographer felt some of the best were not captured. I have to hand it to those people that are willing (and able to) run the entire race in these outfits, even if it is “only” the 5K. Some look very hot, others just physically difficult to actually run in.

“The Detroit Turkey Trot 10K 2009 Photo Album will be posted when it is complete!” It’s ready now!

This year we managed to avoid the hour long wait in line to get into a parking garage by bypassing all the cars waiting to get into Cobo Hall parking structure. Instead we went directly under Cobo coming out of the tunnel a couple blocks away and went straight to a garage by the Renaissance Center. While that was great, we were now quite early! We hiked over a couple blocks to Cobo Hall and hung out getting some coffee and using the bathroom and keeping warm. Oh, did I mention it was 36 degrees with about a 30 mile per hour wind. Brrr… I had checked the temperature before leaving home and thought I would be okay with a regular shirt and shorts along with arm warmers, gloves and a head band. If I had known about the wind I would have added tights to that list. Since I didn’t have them I ended up leaving the warm up pants on for the race. Ended up okay, legs did get a little warm, but maybe better than to cold and stiff.

The Detroit Turkey Trot 2009 flyer.

The official bib number.

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As last year the place was packed! With 14,000 people registered they ended up with 12420 finishers! A lot of people crowding into the same space, both indoors and on the course.
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So… after the race was over, without a PR unfortunately, we found each other in the hoards of people in Cobo Hall basement… remembering this year to take cell I phones! (I even wore the SPI Belt to carry my cell phone for after the race!) We took our walk back to the parking garage, where being early had gotten a close parking place, and got into the car, started it up and pulled out into the aisle… where we sat for over fourty five minutes before we moved even one car length. Seems they opened the exit above us, and every car in the parking garage from the higher decks got through the one exit booth before our floor did. Finally after one hour and twenty minutes we were able to pay our money (which included an hour time @ $4.00 waiting to get out) and hit the road for home again. While I felt I ended up higher in the overall and age group standings the time was a couple of minutes off my best effort to date. Maybe the warm up pants slowed me down, or maybe I just have been doing to many “easy runs” and absolutely no speed work in months. The final stats from Active.com web site are below.

The official final stats.

    • …. and this breaks down into these numbers for the race:
    • a) 10 kilometers = 6.1 Miles
    • b) finished 3456 out of 6579 overall in the 10K.
    • c) finished 24 out of 68 in my age group.
    • d) finished 2284 out of 3511 men.
    • e) had a 10:01 pace, 1:00:14 total chip time.
    • f)

You can see the full details on the running stats web page.

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

Until the final gobbler is gobbled,

George