Main Street comes alive with first Princeton Mile

Colin Mickow warmed up with Jake Gillum before Saturday’s inaugural Princeton Mile Race and found out one thing real quick.

“He’s fast,” Mickow said.

Indeed he was. Gillum set the pace with a blazing time of 4 minutes, 7 seconds up Main Street to claim the $1,000 prize that went to the winner of the new Princeton event.

Mickow, a Princeton native and highly accomplished marathon runner, was second in 4:15, and Bureau Valley grad Elijah House of Sheffield third in 4:30. House later ran the Belmont Mile Race in Riverdale, Iowa, on Saturday.

Gillum, who was the 1,600-and 800-meter champion as a senior for Metamora in 2017 and ran for ISU, was happy to take part in the first Princeton Mile Race.

“It sounded like a pretty cool opportunity, had a little prize money. We had a pretty good group from ISU up here,” he said. “It was a lot of fun to just come and stride out on the road in front of a pretty good crowd the whole time. There was good energy, at the start especially, and as you came to the finish you could see it the whole way.

“Makes for a fun Saturday.”

Gillum joked that looking up and seeing an incline at the finish on North Main wasn’t necessarily fun to see.

A distance coach at ISU, Gillum used the opportunity to pick Mickow’s brain for distance training.

“I was talking to Colin warming up. He’s a marathoner and a pretty legit dude,” he said. “That was pretty cool racing a guy like that and having the kind of career I’m trying to have.”

It seemed like old times for Mickow, a 2008 PHS graduate, who used to train on the streets of Princeton for the Tigers cross country and track teams and later for the University of Illinois. He approached the finish line near the tracks under the cheers of his mother, Mary, who lives just down the street on Elm Place.

“It was good to see everybody. It was a fun event. It was cool to run down Main St.,” he said.

Mickow, 35, has made his name running marathons, finishing sixth at Chicago in 2021, competing for Team U.S.A. in the 2022 World Athletics Marathon Championships and placing 22nd at Boston this year. The last time Mickow had compete in a mile race was in college in 2012, so it took some adjustment.

“So this, I’m at my threshold basically at the start of the race. Usually, I ease into a pace and I settle in,” he said. “This, I’m just going all out the while time.”

Mickow said running at Boston this year was an “awesome and challenging race.”

Claire Fuhlhage, an Olathe, Kansas, native who transferred to run at ISU from 2021-24, topped the field for the elite women’s division, also claiming a $1,000 purse. She also said she heard about the race from the running club in Normal.

“I work at Often Running (Store) in Normal, and Mitch Hobbs recommended the race to me and said they said they were looking for some women to show up,” Fuhlhage said. “I decided I would go and added a little race to the schedule, and it was a lot of fun.

“It was a nice little course. Good, friendly people. Donuts are always a win. Can’t complain.”

The event attracted grandfathers and grandsons, Dennis Nink and Parker Nink, 16, of Princeton, grandfathers, Tom Marquis, 68, of Princeton, and granddaughters Reya, 9, and Wrynn, 7, of Urbana, and Claire, 10, of Chillicothe as well as mothers, Rachel, and daughters, Avery and Alexandra Waca, fathers and childen such as Justin, Carson, Mia and Hudson Bullington and Garey and Lauren Driscoll, all of of Princeton.

“It was fun. Get to run down Main St. There’s only two teams you get to to do that, the Z Tour for one of the routes, and now this. It was great,” Dennis Nink said.

Nink who was the top finisher in the 60 and older division, said he had no notion trying to keep up with Gillum and Mickow.

“I was just trying to keep up with my grandson and maybe close to my other friends,” he said.

Race director Michael Stuzke of the Princeton Chamber of Commerce Board said the event was a big success and plans to make it bigger and better moving forward.

“Just very pleased. We’ve had some really nice comments from runners and spectators that gave us enough energy coming out of this first annual one to begin planning for next year,” he said.

Stutzke said he would like to increase sponsorships for the race next year to provide cash prizes for the second- and third-place finishers in the elite division along with the winners.