Race Name: John Robbins 8 km
Race Location: Fredericksburg, VA
Number of Years Finished: 17
Years Finished: 1994 to 2007 and 2012 to 2014
Best Finish Time (Year): 33:27 (1997)
Course Description: This was a keyhole course, meaning an outbound leg, a loop, and a return. Over time, the start location, finish location, and the initial and final leg route were modified.
I liked the course starting in the Pratt Clinic, now Quarles Building, parking lot on Fall Hill Avenue, and finished on Fall Hill Avenue at Maury Street.
The initial outbound leg went northwest on Fall Hill Avenue to Bunker Hill Street. Turning left from Bunker Hill Street, the course went southeast on Washington Avenue to the Kenmore Mansion.
Looping around the median to head northwest on Washington Avenue to Mary Ball Street. Turning left from Mary Ball Street, the course went southeast on Kenmore Avenue to Mortimer Street.
This point is where the keyhole portion started. Turning right from Mortimer Street, the course went northwest on Littlepage Street to Madison Street, Franklin Street, and Fitzhugh Street.
Turning left from Fitzhugh Street, the course went southeast on Sunken Road to Sylvania Street. Sylvania Street goes to Kenmore Avenue.
The left on Kenmore Avenue gets the runners to the end of the keyhole loop. The final inbound leg reversed the outbound course to the finish on Fall Hill Avenue.
This course was one of the infamous zig zag courses of Fredericksburg. The straight line distance between the Start Line and Sunken Road is about ½ mile, which was great for spectators.
The course was not closed to traffic, making for an interesting finish on Fall Hill Avenue. At least we were running against the traffic pattern.
There were two significant hills on the course, where Washington Avenue goes up to the mall section. These hills were at .7 and 3.7 miles on the course. Fortunately, we came back down those hills at 1.3 and 4.3 miles.
What makes this race a special memory: John Robbins was the first president of the Fredericksburg Area Running Club and a liver transplant recipient. He was the first liver transplant recipient to complete a marathon after not finishing a marathon before the transplant.
In 1993, he founded the Organ Donor Awareness 5km as a cross country run at Pratt Park. In 1994, he moved the event to the roads below the college.
April is Organ Donor Awareness month. So, the race usually had fast, pleasant early morning spring weather conditions.
In fall 1993, John took the initiative to organize the local running community with group runs that became FARC. I met John at the first organizational meeting at the YMCA in November 1993. John wanted to find people to join in runs.
After John passed away in December 1998, the YMCA renamed the race the John Robbins 8km.
Even with a couple of hills and many turns, the course was flat, fast, and fair. The spaced hills made for an easy recovery, and you can make up more on the way down than lost on the way up.
I remember grinding the hills by increasing turnover.
At about mile 3.5, you can see the faster runners flying down the hill and then observe those in front and behind you as you go around the Washington Avenue Mall. You can decide how hard to run the last mile, catch, or keep away.
I didn’t know until I finished. Being early in the race season, I had many runners pacing off me, which I enjoyed knowing I was running at a consistent pace.
This race is the only one longer than 2 miles, where I recorded a sub-6-minute mile split. Yes, from mile 4 to the finish is 29 meters short of a mile. I enjoyed seeing the five on that split on my watch,
The 4-mile mark was just before the turnaround at the end of the Mall. You can see which runners you might be able to pass and kick in just before the turn.
Coming past the Kenmore Mansion, the flat road helps with a fast final mile, and flying down the hill gets a higher maintainable speed to Bunker Hill Street.
After the final two turns, it’s all out on Fall Hill Avenue, running the tangents, hoping no cars were coming, to the finish.
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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