Fleet Feet Liberty Mile brings top runners back to Pittsburgh streets

The pace will be quick as runners of all ages will take to the streets of Downtown Pittsburgh on Friday evening for the 10th annual Fleet Feet Liberty Mile.

Under the direction of P3R (Pittsburgh Three Rivers), the Liberty Mile returns to a live start this year and is the first road race of its kind in Pittsburgh since the EQT 10 Miler the first week of November in 2019.

More than 1,300 runners are set to compete.

“We are super excited to see people back at a live start line,” said Troy Schooley, P3R CEO. “With this being the 10th year of the event, and we have a record number of people registered, the response was really overwhelming. It shows that during covid, we have found a lot of new runners who took up the sport to stay active and keep moving.”

The 2020 Liberty Mile was virtual as the covid pandemic didn’t allow for in-person racing on the Pittsburgh streets.

The Liberty Mile event is Pittsburgh’s only nighttime downtown road race. More than $28,000 in total prize money is on the line for the 22 confirmed pro milers.

The races will feature seven men’s runners who own sub-four-minute times. There are four sub-4:30 runners on the women’s side.

Road closures in and around the race routes begin at 6 p.m. and continue until 9 p.m.

The first race heats begin at 7 p.m. with a One for Fun for all ages, first-time runners and recreational runners included, and leads up to the pro women and pro men races at 7:55 and 8:05 p.m., respectively.

The winners of the pro mile races each pocket $5,000.

The Downtown course will take runners along Penn Avenue to 11th Street, then onto Liberty Avenue and Grant Street and back onto Liberty Avenue to the finish line on Sixth Street.

Course records will be on the line.

The men’s course record is 3 minutes, 59 seconds, and the women’s record is 4:32.

A $2,000 bonus will be awarded to those who surpass either record.

Among a competitive field of pro-miler runners are Craig Engels and Shannon Osika. Both of the Nike Elite Runners placed fourth in their respective 1,500-meter runs at the Olympic Trials last month in Eugene, Ore.

The elite field also includes Ohio’s Colby Alexander, a 2016 Olympic Trials finalist and member of the New York City-based Empire Elite Track Club. He owns a 1,500 personal-best of 3:33.65, the fastest among all of the pro milers.

Peters Township graduate Nick Wolk, school record holder in the 5,000 meters at Pitt, and Anna Shields, who won 10 NAIA national titles and earned 15 All-American accolades at Point Park, are local elite runners who will be after top finishes, along with Pitt graduate and Panthers distance standout Nathan Sloan.

“The excitement in our (P3R) office this week has been off the chart,” Schooley said. “We are looking forward to seeing all the runners who stuck with us through the pandemic. We’re expecting pretty good weather. It should be a great time.”

The first Elite Derby will have participants assigned to an elite athlete to cheer on during the pro miler. If their athlete wins, they also will win prizes.

The virtual heat option remains for this year’s event. Race officials said racers in the U.S. and internationally are running a virtual race.

P3R stresses that they have worked closely with their partners at UPMC to ensure all of the participants will be safe while running.

Masks will be required of all runners in the start-line corrals with social distancing not able to be done with hundreds of participants in such close quarters. The masks are permitted to be removed 30 seconds before the start of the race.

For more information on this year’s Liberty Mile, visit libertymile.org. Race registration is still open.