Highway 2 Bike Path

Good news!  The bike path along the Highway 2 section of the course may be widened after this year.  See the Lincoln Journal Star article.

The congestion along the Helen Boosalis Trail has long been a concern to the Lincoln Track Club.  We have monitored the congestion at the 10K split by using the timing mats to know how many runners go across at any given time.  Below are the graphs from the last four years.  The graphs show how many runners cross the mats each minute.  The goal is to keep the number under 180 per minute (or 3 runners per second). 



Entries capped at 6,500

Entries capped at 8,000

Entries capped at 10,000



Entries capped at 10,000

In 2009 and 2010, a narrowed start line was used to try and spread out the runners.  In 2011 and 2012, in addition to the narrowed the start line, the runners were started in stages (we paused the start for a minute or two after every 1000 or so runners had started). 

Runners are encouraged to line up by pace with the fastest at the front and the walkers in the back (volunteers hold up pace signs in starting area).

The flow on the bike path in 2012 was the pretty good except for one spike.  Here’s a YouTube video from 2012 that shows the runners on the Hwy 2 bike path.