1 day til race day; daily entries wilt in the heat; packet pickup today at Cyclery; set up today at the course

Superintendent Dr. Ed Hightower, who is the official race starter for Mud Mountain XV, surrounded by Edwardsville runners. Photo/Tom Atwood

Today pre-registered runners can pick up their Mud Mountain t-shirts and race bibs at The Cyclery, 2470 Troy Road in Edwardsville. Also, starting at 7:30 a.m., volunteers will begin setting up the course for tomorrow's event.

The continuing hot weather seems to be taking its toll on race entries. Yesterday 36 signed up for Mud Mountain XV, compared to 57 last year on this date. Hopefully more will take advantage of the registration and packet pickup today at the Cyclery.

Here's the breakdown so far:

Entries received yesterday: 36 (11 mail in, 25 online)
2010 online entries: 218
2010 mail-in entries: 251
2010 total to date: 469

Last year ----------
Entries received one year ago yesterday: 57 total (a single day record), including 48 online (new single day record), and 9 mail in
2009 online entries: 264 (new record)
2009 mail-in (and other) entries: 196
2009 total to date: 460
2009 final total: 684

2008------
2008 online to date: 135
2008 mail-in to date: 211
2008 total to date: 346
2008 final total: 567 (485 5K entries, 82 fun-run entries)