7 Minute Miles

2009 Stillwater Marathon, 20-Mile, Half and 12K


Decided that it’s better late than never, so here is a post about the inaugural Stillwater Marathon, 20-Mile, Half Marathon and 12K that was held on May 24, 2009. The next edition will be held on Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 7AM.

My friends from Texas visited to run the half with me and they were a little upset with the hills (although they were fine with the weather, which was much drier and cooler than Houston).

All races started just south of downtown Stillwater on highway 95. The various distances broke off at different points, but the half marathon course went south about five miles before turning west, then north and back into town. There were large hills at the southern most point of the course and when we crossed over highway 36, but they weren’t too bad. I heard the biggest hill was on the second half of the full marathon course, which also looped north of town.

The half and the full had two different finish lines: the full marathon finished in Lowell Park, which is right next to the river downtown, while our race finished on the top of the hill overlooking downtown (Pioneer Park). We had to walk down the hill to get to the busses that took us back to Stillwater High School, but that wasn’t a big deal.

Speaking of the busses, there was no parking allowed in downtown Stillwater, so you had to ride a bus from one of the designated parking areas located off of highway 36. I thought this would be a pain, but this part of the inaugural year was well planned and operated very smoothly. In fact, the only things that didn’t really go well were the start of the expo (people just weren’t ready) and the actual start of the races (people didn’t know where to go and it started late).

Our group of three ran together and had a good run (2:25). This was the first half for my two friends and aside from the “last mile was worse than childbirth” comment, I think they enjoyed it. Future races are already being planned by both, so I think it was an overall positive experience.

Here are the top three runners for this year’s full and half:

2009 Stillwater Marathon – Men

  • 1, Pete Hoyem, 28, Stillwater, MN, 2:50:32 (6:31 pace)
  • 2, Steve Kalina, 28, Andover, MN, 2:51:46 (6:34)
  • 3, Collin Anderson, 21, Mahtomedi, MN, 2:53:00 (6:36)

2009 Stillwater Marathon – Women

  • 1, Jessica Mike, 26, Minneapolis, MN, 3:09:06 (7:13)
  • 2, Kristi Trussell, 25, St. Paul, MN, 3:22:39 (7:44)
  • 3, April Cole, 24, Roberts, WI, 3:23:04 (7:45)

2009 Stillwater Marathon Stats:

  • Number of Finishers – 461
  • Number of Females – 142
  • Number of Males – 318
  • Average Time – 4:14:30

2009 Stillwater Half Marathon – Men

  • 1, Andrew Boldt, 23, Stillwater, MN, 1:13:06 (5:35)
  • 2, Bart Johnson, 23, Minneapolis, MN, 1:14:04 (5:40)
  • 3, Daniel Carlson, 47, White Bear Lake, MN, 1:14:38 (5:42)

2009 Stillwater Half Marathon – Women

  • 1, Susanna Emond, 25, Minneapolis, MN, 1:23:47 (6:24)
  • 2, Terri Emond, 25, Madison, WI, 1:27:44 (6:42)
  • 3, Katie Morrissey, 23, Fridley, MN, 1:28:32 (6:46)

2009 Stillwater Half Marathon Stats:

  • Number of Finishers – 898
  • Number of Females – 534
  • Number of Males – 364
  • Average Time – 2:06:44
Originally published by DK on July 14, 2009 at 3:05 pm in Friends, Longform, Running


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