The forecast for the 28th annual St. Albert 10-Mile Road Race is: expect the unexpected.
“With this race it’s either hit or miss with the weather so anything can happen on Sunday,” said race director Mark Fraser. “Some years it’s just been crazy snow or 15 degrees and sunshine and people that registered for this race pretty much know this can happen. They’re kind of like ‘Hey, bring it on. We’re racing in it anyways.’”
The weather report is dicey for the 9:30 a.m. start time. A sloppy track is expected, with snow on tap for Saturday and the possibility of more precipitation Sunday morning with the temperature dropping below the zero mark.
It’s looking a lot like 2008, when it was -10 C at start time, but with the windchill it was -18 C. At times the heavy snowfall was so bad runners had trouble identifying the grain elevators on Mission Avenue.
Last year the temperature was around 4 C and most of the snow that fell the morning before the race had melted on the streets.
Fraser, however, isn’t worried what Mother Nature has on tap for the 10-miler.
“There are a few fair weather runners, like in any race, that might look out the window in the morning and say ‘not today’ but overall I think we’ll have a good turnout as far as who is registered and who actually shows up,” he said. “I’m hoping to hit 500. I don’t think I will but 450, 460 is still a good turnout and if 400 just turn out because of the weather that’s still a lot of people.”
Online registrations closed Thursday night, with 451 entries processed for the 10-miler and 22 for the second annual six-kilometre fun run.
Walk-up registrations will be accepted today during race package pickups at the Tech Shop, 11419, 104th Ave. in Edmonton, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“I’m hoping to get a couple dozen more walk up registrations over the weekend,” Fraser said.
Last year 554 runners registered for the 10-miler and the six-km run.
The largest turnout in race history was 976 in 1998.
“It’s a big race. It’s been around for 28 years. People use it as kind of like their first big race of the year. A lot of people look forward to it,” Fraser said. “There are so many races around to choose from and especially for some of the elite racers you can’t do every single race obviously but this one, for a lot of the elite people, it’s the race they like to do.”
Crossing the snow-covered finish line last year were 425 runners – 236 males and 189 females – in the 10-miler and 17 completed the race in under one hour.
The 2012 champions, Taylor Murphy of Edmonton and Shannon Maisano of St. Albert, will not defend their titles Sunday.
Murphy’s winning time was 54 minutes and one second and Maisano was the top female at 63 minutes and three seconds for 24th place overall.
The course record of 50:46 was set by Matt Norminton of Edmonton in 2007 and the fastest female time of 54:36 was clocked by Aster Demissie of Edmonton in 2005.
The first male and female to break the course records will pocket $300.
The fastest male and female will also be awarded $500, the second fastest male and female pocket $300 and the third fastest male and female get $100 apiece.
Timex watches will also be presented to the fastest three males and females and the top three finishers in each age-group category will also receive awards.
The 10-miler is hosted by the St. Albert Road Runners and Triathlon Club and is part of the provincial Timex road race series.
“We’re proud of this race and we hope to continue putting on a good race in the years to come,” Fraser said.
This is his first year as the race director but has never run the 10-miler.
“I’ve always been out of town this time of year but when I was asked to be the race director I rearranged my schedule to do it,” Fraser said.
The rolling course features two uphills and two downhills as it winds into a figure eight through the Sturgeon River valley and the Lacombe and Grandin neighbourhoods.
The most punishing stretch is after mile seven going up Sir Winston Churchill Avenue and Levasseur Road.
The last mile and a half drops 120 feet towards the finish line behind Grandin Park Plaza.
“I’ve always wanted to run it, and I’ve run portions of the route a lot of times, but it’s just never worked out for me so maybe a couple of years down the road I will,” said Fraser.
His goal for Sunday is to put on the best race possible for the runners.
“I’d like to see things run smoothly and everybody have a good race and are happy they came out,” Fraser said. “As for the weather, I’m not too concerned about it. The people that are working with me on this race have done it for many years past so they have experience as far as that goes.”
A strong and loyal volunteer base will keep the 10-miler on track.
“If nobody volunteers nobody races is the quote we like to use in our e-mails when we gather people,” Fraser said. “Volunteering is a tough thing because everybody wants a piece of your time but we always have more than enough. People always come through at the last minute. In the last couple of days I got several emails saying we want to volunteer and what can we do.
“My appreciation goes out to every single one of the volunteers.”
