Galesburg Road Runners Club : Railroad Days 5K & 10K Race

The Galesburg Road Runners club put on a grand Railroad Days June 28. Perfect weather brought out 192 runners. The registration crew of Donna and Barb Slaton worked feverishly to keep up with the increased registration. Teresa Thompson and her family helped passed out tee shirts. Shirley Allen gave packets to the pre-registered runners. Patty Gustafson was everywhere getting equipment and volunteers ready.

Doug Slaton organized the start/finish line. Starting at 7:15, the race, ran around Hawthorne Centre and out to Costa Drive. After looping around Costa Drive 5K runners returned to the finish line on Carl Sandburg Drive. The 10k runners ran out around Lincoln Park and back.

There are a few small hills in the park. The most difficult hill on the 10k is on the curve just after the lagoon and right at the Route 150 entrance to the park. I have always called this heartbreak hill because if you have not paced yourself right it seems to hit you here and your split times drop off dramatically. My goal is to keep the same pace through the race and not drop after heartbreak hill.

Running down the long straight away you can see the finish line up ahead in the distance urging you on to the final sprint. Jack Cunningham and Bob Richardson longtime volunteers and club members worked taking numbers and pulling tags. Leslie Wilt and Barb Slaton, also long time volunteers, calculated the race results by taking the tags and putting them on the results board in order, then matching the times to each runners bib number. All are very hard jobs requiring a lot of work. Mike McGraw won the 10k in 33:11 J.T. Mc Carthy was only 20 seconds behind him in second place. Tauwon Taylor won the 5k in 16:18. Galesburg Railroad Days 5K & 10K race results

Patty Gustafson, race director, and Teresa Thompson passed trophies to runners who placed in their age groups or overall winners. Everyone who finished was a winner.