New route brings excitement to race

This year runners head south on Broadway

The eighth annual Journal Jog is coming up fast.

It will feature good competition, both a 5K run and 3K walk and a great way to see Lorain.

And this year, participants will see Lorain a new way as a new course is revealed due to road construction on the traditional course.

Yes, gone — at least for a year — is the tried-andtrue Journal Jog route that brought runners past Lakeview Park and around City Hall on West Erie Avenue.

Instead, runners will be treated to more of Broadway, mixing some familiar sights of the old route (Black River Landing and Palace Theater — at least the back side) with new places a bit further south on the Avenue (the fire department, Lorain County Health and Dentistry, Scorcher’s).

So how exactly does this new course work?

It’s actually straight-forward.

The 5K race, which starts at 9 a.m., will start and end at the Black River Landing.

Races will head south on Black River Lane, which turns into West Eighth Street. Runners will take a left onto Broadway and head south until the Broadway-Elyria Avenue split.

Follow Elyria Avenue until West 20th Street, where a right turn will be made.

A right on Livingston Avenue is followed by a left on West 17th Street.

Follow West 17th until it connects with West 15th Street — which is practically a U-turn. If you hit Long Avenue, you went too far.

Keep on West 15th until you hit Broadway and take a left. Follow Broadway back until West Eighth Street, where the final turn — a right one — is made.

Then sprint down Black River Lane to the finish line. Got that? Good. And, as simple as the 5K quite run route is, the 3K walk is even easier.

At 9:05 a.m., walkers start their race in the same place as runners, following the same route.

The difference comes at West 16th Street, where walkers will turn around and head back the way they came to Black River Landing.

It’s as simple as that.