Race Name: Riverbank 12 km
Race Location: Fredericksburg, VA
Number of Years Finished: 10
Years Finished: 1996 to 2005
Best Finish Time (Year): 51:49 (1996)
Course Description: This was a double loop course.
The race started on Caroline Street, going Northwest, near the entrance to Old Mill Park.
After going under the Falmouth Bridge, the course turned left on Woodford, left on Hanson, and then left on Jeff Davis Highway.
After crossing the Falmouth Bridge, the course turned left down into Falmouth Bottom and onto River Road.
After running the entire length of River Road, the course turned right to cross the Chatham Bridge and then turned right on Sophia Street.
At the end of Sophia Street, there was a left turn onto Pitt Street and then a right onto Caroline Street.
Runners started a second loop once we got back to Old Mill Park. At the end of the second lap, runners made a right turn into Old Mill Park and ran on the entrance road to the traffic circle at the end.
What makes this race a special memory: Until 2018, this was the last race allowed to use River Road. Kevin Breen was the race director and wanted to rekindle the loop course used with the July 4, 1976, 10 km race.
The race was usually held one week before JFK. I used this race as a last longish run before JFK and never ran hard enough to require a long recovery. Either I didn’t run hard or was in better condition. 15 to 25 years will take a toll.
In the early years, I remember chasing down Karl Sondermann. He wore a shirt with a slogan on the back, “If you can read this, I’m beating you.” I didn’t have to read the shirt very long.
I considered this a flat course. Others would disagree with that massive hill on River Road. I know that the amount of time gained on the steep downhills never compensated for the time lost going up.
A couple of the early race shirts had runners going across the Chatham Bridge. The artist included profiles of local runners. I’m one of the portrayed runners.
In the summer before the 2005 race, there was a significant accident on Interstate 95. Traffic backed up for up to 20 miles in both directions. All of the roads in the area were overcrowed to include Jeff Davis Highway, Lafayette Blvd, Blue Gray Parkway, Deacon Road, and Leeland Road.
This issue happened on a weekday afternoon.
Because of this incident, VDOT decided that River Road could not be shut down early on a Sunday morning. They didn’t want the bad press, even though flooding of the Rappahannock River regularly closed the road.
You can’t fight city hall. So, the Blue-Gray 1/2 Marathon and Riverbank 12km needed to stop using River Road.
In 2005, the 12km race used a course that stayed in the City. We had to do a quick measuring job and made a small error that created an 11.97 km course. Oops.
After 2005, organizers no longer held the Riverbank 12 km because of the in access to River Road.
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Over the years, I’ve run 140 different races and finished some of them multiple times. To some, this is not a large number of various events. Over the years, I’ve had some memorable races and have been able to rank my favorite races. If I couldn’t visualize the course and remember how I felt, I moved a race down my rankings.
Other races on my list