Illinois Valley Striders Half Marathon

This post will be a post about the race only; I’ll save my social/political posts for the next one.

I worked the Illinois Valley Striders Half Marthon today. The race took place in the hilly Springdale Cemetery at the foot of Glen Oak Park.

Some random thoughts and observations:

Here is a rouges gallery taken before the race. Jim Henkins, Larry Jeffries, Jim McEntyre and Steve Foster. Steve has had a rough 10 months; he is fighting inoperable pancreatic cancer (diagnosed last November). Chemotherapy has kept the tumor from growing any more than it had, but it is still large enough to cause physical pain.

To think that a year ago, he was doing these. Larry and Jim are triathletes; Jim has an Ironman distance triathlon coming up next weekend hence he was doing the relay.

Bob Corbett and Fran Garcia before the race.

Paul Kelley (ultramarathon runner) around mile 1.

One of the faster runners (second or third place) about half way into it.

One of the faster women runners.

A pack moves past the tombstones.

These ladies are happy because they have only 1.2 miles to go and are heading downhill.

This is the hill that they are running down; this is a relay runner (two person teams) heading down that hill.

I have a few more photos here; some aren’t that good.

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