A new view of Summit Avenue

Summit Avenue is a special place in the Twin Cities running scene. When Jack Moran was creating the first Twin Cities Marathon course in 1982, he wanted to represent the best running routes in Minneapolis and St Paul. Summit Avenue was an obvious choice, for its status as a favorite training route as well as its race history dating back to the 1973 St Patrick's Day Mini-Marathon point-to-point five-mile.

I'm the race director of the event that evolved out of that 1973 race. We've had the stability of having the same course since 1991, which is a luxury most races will never know. This year, we hit a snag. Our 40-year host, the University of St Thomas, had a schedule conflict. They have established a partnership with Special Olympics, which would take all their parking and indoor space for our race weekend. That's not as bad as when the Lake Street Bridge closed a week before Get In Gear was to send 6,000 runners across it, but it's not what a race director likes to hear.

What to do? I made a few quick calls, and did some course mapping using the USATF mapping tool. I was already making some changes to the event, most notably an official name change to IRISH RUN SAINT PAUL to make clear our St Paul roots. Why not try something even more bold, and change the course? The one thing I don't like about the traditional course was that the start for the 8K was three long blocks from the finish line and HQ. If I made a change, could I fix that problem?

The answer was yes, with a little tweak. Instead of the finish line at one end of Summit Avenue, the new route would have it more in the middle of a true loop, with turnarounds at either end. I quickly looked at the map and saw that the obvious place to make that work would be a start/finish near Ramsey Jr High School. I called St Paul Schools, and indoor space was available on March 24. I did another online map and it worked perfectly, with the start and finish both within 1/2 block of Ramsey Jr High, and each other. Everything would be nice and compact.

When I saw the elevation chart, I was happy to see that the first mile would now be downhill, reversing another mild negative in the old course. Plus, all the participants would come back past the start area at about 1.25 miles in both the 5K and 8K. That's a big win for spectators, and also made adding a water stop simple.

Ok, it looked good on paper, but how would it run? I gave it the sneaker test, and was smiling the whole way. The route, though 95% identical to the old route had a fresh feel. The downhill start felt awesome. I could imagine the energy of passing crowds of spectators at the start/finish area shortly after the first mile, and I got a lift in my stride. On the way back, I imagined as I crested Summit near Snelling, that I could see the finish line two downhill-blocks away. What a finish! I imagined a Billy Mills sprint to the end.

With ace USATF course-certifier Rick Recker able to complete the new measurement, all systems were go. On Sunday, March 24, 2013 a new era begins. When the horn sounds and IRISH RUN SAINT PAUL springs to life, I'll be looking for the smiles on the faces of runners and walkers. A jewel has been polished, and in its new setting shines again. I hope you'll join me to celebrate.

Check out the course maps here:
Irish Run Saint Paul 5K route

Irish Run Saint Paul 8K route

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