Draper Mile 2007: Results

The 2007 Draper Mile was held Friday, August 3, in Blacksburg, VA. The Draper Mile is a one-mile road race held in conjunction with the Downtown Blacksburg’s Steppin’ Out Festival. The course, along Draper Road, is mostly downhill, with the finish in the middle of the street festival. There were two heats of the mile run: a “Race” for elite runners and an “Open Run” for anyone aged eight or older. Preceding these two mile runs was a 300-meter “fun run” for kids.

For the two mile runs, there was a total of 228 runners. (The total in 2006 was 196 runners.) Results are presented in two forms: a listing of overall finishers and their times (HTML format), and a listing of categories (open, masters, grand masters, and super grand masters) and age groups (PDF format).

The following article was posted at milestat.com that evening:

Friday evening's Draper Mile in Blacksburg had two of Virginia's best racing head to head in the downhill mile event. Blacksburg's Peter Dorrell clocked in at a 4:07 win, while Radford's Nathan Brame was just behind him in third at 4:10. A fast downhill course, which is known to produce mile times on the road superior to athlete's bests on the track and this year's race was no exception for two pre-season favorites for state titles this fall in Dorrell and Brame. Dorrell's time breaks the old age group record for 17-18 males of 4:08 and improves 15 seconds from his 2005 Draper Mile time. Brame won the race in 2006 in 4:12 and dropped two seconds off his time this year in a third place performance.

Accompanying the article are photos of Dorrell and Brane taken by Jesse Hutcheson. Other photos he took are available for viewing and/or purchase at two URLs: Photos from the “Race” are at http://jhutchphoto.exposuremanager.com/ and from the “Open Run” are at: http://jhutchphoto.exposuremanager.com/g/dmor07.

Prize money and gift certificates were provided for overall winners and for first through third places in each age category with support received from East Coasters, Pizza Hut, Bollo's, Blacksburg Striders, Mish Mish, and RunAbout Sports. In its 26^th year, over 40 volunteers helped behind-the-scenes including Beth Howell, Arthur Snoke, Steve Miller, Paul Farrier, Aaron Goldstein, and Ellen Rabun and many others who handled the finish, results, chutes, standards (finish line banner), and James DeMarco, Jack Henke, Paul Farrier III, Maarten Van Gelder with the start of the races. Many others helped including Meg Kurdzioleki who ordered and picked up shirts and mugs, and Ellen Rabun who got the bibs (race numbers). See the links on the page for results, the Draper Mile Web site, pictures, etc.

Erik Olsen, Race director