The Landrex St. Albert Road Race is picking up the pace towards its online registration deadline as the weather heats up for the April 17 event.
Runners have until April 14 to enter the historic 31st annual Tech Shop 10-miler and the second annual Sturgeon Valley Athletic Club 10-kilmometre and Active Physio Works five-km races through www.zone4.ca.
“We’re sitting at around 150 but generally speaking if the weather stays nice we tend to get a lot of people registering in the last week or two,” said race director Joel Maley. “Hopefully we get it up to 350 prior to the race.”
As of Monday, 107 runners were confirmed for the 10-miler, 24 for the 10 km and 15 for the five km.
“Historically with the numbers in the years when we have good weather leading up to the race they tend to be higher than in other years when we’ve had the forecast of snow or not so great weather for running. Hopefully, if it stays like this the numbers will climb up,” Maley said of the road race, hosted by the St. Albert Road Runners and Triathlon Club.
Elite runners who meet certain standards for the 10-miler will receive free entry or a registration discount.
“It’s to get more of the fast runners to come out,” said Maley, noting the elite competitors don’t peak for the 10-miler but try to fit it into their training schedule.
Last year 108 males and 131 females completed the 10-miler, compared to 192 males and 134 females in 2014.
The 10 km featured 32 male and 21 female finishers and the five km, which replaced the six-km race the previous two years, consisted of 29 males and 30 females.
Last year’s road race, formerly known as the St. Albert 10-Mile Road Race, unveiled a new start/finish line on Sir Winston Churchill Avenue in front of the St. Albert Curling Club, the race day venue headquarters.
The 10-mile route was also switched around, with the runners covering the southern loop first - summiting the Heartbreak Hill portion on Sir Winston Churchill instead of tackling the mile seven section towards the end in past races - before hooking up to the north loop by turning left off Levasseur Road for the downhill descent on Grandin Road to St. Anne Street for the original first section of the race that crosses the Perron Street Bridge before swinging left onto Mission Avenue.
The 10 km, a condensed version of the north section of the 10-miler, and five km runners go the opposite direction than the 10-milers from the start line.
The 10-miler begins at 9:30 a.m. and five minutes later the 10 and five km races commence.
“The race as it stands for this year will be virtually identical to last year. There are only two slight differences. Last year at the start in front of the curling club we only had one lane and this year we have both lanes so it’s safer for the runners,” Maley said of the 10-miler. “We found it was just a bit too congested. People were walking in the actual lane cars were driving in so between the start (of the 10-miler) by the curling club and Riel (Drive turnoff) we’ll have both lanes. The traffic heading I guess west on Sir Winston Churchill will actually be on the south side of the road for that little section.
“Another thing is because construction has started at the south section of St. Anne there only two lanes available at this point so the city is going to close off St. Anne just to make it once again safer for the runners.”
The feedback Maley received from last year’s changes was positive.
“It was actually really good. It was the first year I was the race director, so I was kind of new to it, and I made a few changes from my perspective as a runner. They were changes I thought that were necessary to make sure the race was safer for people,” he said. “The 10-miler was a bit more of a historical race and more and more we’re seeing people prefer to run a half-marathon, marathon, five K and 10 K, so the 10-miler is kind of I wouldn’t say it’s a dying race but it’s not a common race anymore so it was important for us to make the changes last year that would allow us to incorporate a five kilometre and 10 kilometre course without having the courses actually cross each other.”
The 2015 top male and female finishers were Dusty Spiller (53 minutes and 17 seconds) of Red Deer and Emily Setlack (59:34, 10th overall) of Cold Lake in the 10-miler, Matt Setlack (32:37) of Cold Lake and Jodi Nesbitt (39:33, 10th overall) of Red Deer in the 10 km and Luke Hanson (16:47) and Abby Wilson (19:42, ninth overall) of St. Albert in the five km.
Spiller was the fourth King of the Road winner in four years and Setlack was the sixth multiple winner of the fastest female crown in the 30-year history of the 10-miler and first female to repeat since Tara Struyk of Edmonton in 2010.
Spiller moved to the sunshine coast and is not expected to defend his title and Setlack will forgo a three-peat bid to compete in the Vancouver Sun Run on the same day as the 10-miler.
Maley’s goal for the road race is two fold.
“Promote the city to the runners and provide a good running venue for the runners to enjoy what the city has to offer,” he said. “For the runners, what I’m looking for is to provide a good race that they enjoy and have a good time and at the end of the day that is the objective.”
Volunteers are also needed for the road race. Last year more than 70 individuals helped make it a success by volunteering in a variety of capacities prior to the day of the event and before and after the races.
So far, 52 volunteers had signed up as of Monday.
For more information, contact Calli Stromner at [email protected] or visit www.starrt.wildapricot.org.
FAST TRACKS: The registration record for the 10-miler is 976, set in 1998.
The inaugural 10-mile male and female winners in 1986 were Dennis Colburn, a five-time champion, at 54:12 and Anne Galloway at 58:54.
The 10-mile course record of 50:46 was set by Matt Norminton in 2007 and Aster Demissie established the female record of 54:36 in 2005.
