Featured Running Event of the Week - The Blood Run

A Halloween Themed 5k which takes place on a mixture of Historic Route 66 and Historic Route 30 (Lincoln Highway) in Joliet, IL.  The race takes place in early October and includes a costume contest and a kids sprint.  The shirts are..........red, of course!

The start/finish area is just outside of the Historic (and wonderfully ornate) Rialto Square Theatre. It also happens to be about 1.5 blocks away from the Joliet Area Historical Museum/Route 66 Museum.

The route starts towards Historic Lincoln Highway (Route 30), where it heads East past the Minore League Baseball Stadium of the Joliet Slammers and historic Joliet Central High School, before heading under I-80, and just slightly out of the downtown district and into a residential district.  Runners then make a loop through the residential district and then intersect the course, where some of the fast runners will encounter the walkers and more leisurely runners, making for a fun exchange of "you got this" and "good job".

The course heads back north, and thanks to one-way roads, ends up on Route 30 again (after crossing Route 30).  The course follows this historic route for a while before heading north on Historic Route 66 for quite a distance.  The route turns to continue the oddly shaped circular-ish path, and begins to run parallel to the Des Plaines River for a while and past one of the Joliet casinos, which actually had some valets cheering on the runners. 

The route then makes a couple of turns and runners, thanks to one-way streets, are back on Route 66 again (but not the same road as before).  The route then, for the first time, with less than mile to go, leaves the city streets and moves to the sidewalk to complete the event.  This movement from the larger streets to the sidewalk does not cause any congestion, as most of the field is spread out during that final mile or so.  The runners the go directly past the front door of the Route 66 Cafe before one final turn and completion just outside the Rialto Square Theatre.

Over 90% of the route takes place on downtown streets, which are left open for traffic (except at the start/finish area).  The remaining 10% is in a residential district and the final 1/2 mile or so on sidewalk.  Even though this takes place on "live" streets, there is ample Police presence, which will hold traffic as large groups of runners cross various intersections.  Cars are able to proceed during the period breaks in running groups, which naturally occurs in these events.  To my knowledge runners never had to stop for vehicles.  The traffic control workers were spectacular - and also encouraging to the runners.  The race takes place early on a Saturday morning, and thus traffic is at a minimum.

This is a great race for those who are interested in running on historic byways - as 50% of the race (or more) traverses Historic Route 66 and Historic Route 30 (Lincoln Highway).  It also passes by historic buildings, such as the Rialto and Joliet Central.  It is also a great race for those who enjoy running on "city" streets as opposed to residential streets.  And for the vast majority, this is a very flat and fast course.