A Little History...

For those of you new to the Travail, and those of you who never knew (or cared), here is how it all began:

In the Fall of 2006, Terry Ashby and I were running quite a bit in the James River Park System. Probably during one of our 'Full Loop + Forest Hill' runs, which was taking us just over 2 hours, we thought it might be fun to do a race of that distance - totally on the trails.

Of course, several discussions nailed down the particulars; one of which was to make it harder - and longer - than our infrequent 11-12 miler. Hence the addition of a second loop in the FHP. Reversing directions between laps was discarded due to logistical confusion. Around this time, we met with Woody Elliott at Capital Alehouse to see if the idea would fly amongst local trail runners. He seemed to think it would, so we started finalizing the plans.

Above all we wanted to avoid being sued. Running singletrack is a different animal - as you probably already know - than the usual 'training team' kind of runner that likes to sign up for longer distance runs. In order to discourage that kind of participant, we devised "The List." This was our answer to registration. The first emails went out to friends we knew already did trail runs and ultramarathons. Those initial invitees spread the word to parties they felt would be interested. The other way to avoid litigation was to keep this from being a 'race.' This was the same as a 'Thursday Night Run' from the VA Museum; just once a year.

And to make it more fun for the casual runner vs. the hard core runner, we threw in time bonuses. Finding Mardi Gras beads out on the trail benefitted the back-of-the-packers. If you finished at a certain position, you were given a five minute bonus; if you were in the top finishers, getting the beads did you no good. We also gave a little exposure to local business by incorporating the Crossroads Coffee shop on Forest Hill. They were about 150 yards off course, but stopping for a coffee gave you an 8 minute time boost. To expedite this, I purchased the coffee ahead of time to be put aside only for runners - who needed no money - to grab & go.

With the added lap of FHP and the usual finish time of our 12 miler, I figured runners would be finishing no faster than a 2:30. What happened in fact was I almost didn't get back to the finish before Mark Junkermann. He did miss getting on Buttermilk at 22nd St. and ended up running the JRPS access road to Reedy Creek, which I figured saved him no more than 5 minutes. So we removed his 10 minute time bonus for finding the 'every runner eligible' feathered beads. So, with Mark's finish time in the upper 1:40s, and the final finisher coming in around 2:50, I was blown away. I had figured people would be out there pushing 4 hours. This was a testament to our way of recruiting participants I think.

I remembered a James River Scramble training run prior to XTERRA one year where a few people who had no business running 6 miles, let alone doing it off-road, got lost. One guy even took off at his own pace, leaving a minor-aged daughter to fend for herself. I brought up the rear and still never found her. I think she just gave up at 22nd St. and cut back across Belle Isle instead of going out to the Visitor's Center. We definitely didn't want that kind of episode in our event.

I think it all came off without many problems; some folks missed a few turns in Forest Hill Park, and 1 or 2 went up through Maymont instead of turning under the Nickel Bridge in the home stretch (which I didn't mark, thinking that everyone knew of the fence-line trail along the canal). If anyone has any different memories, straighten me out!

Travailers Unite

Hello to you all! Welcome to the Trail Travail Blog. This site will be for contestants, volunteers and spectators of the 25K. Last years participants are invited to share their experiences.

I want to know what your likes and dislikes from last year (no whining about difficulty!). How can we make Forest Hill Park easier for those who aren't familiar with it's labyrinthine course? What post-run party supplies do we need/not need? And what about swag? Some of you are bound to have a hook-up to get custom singlets (or T-Shirts), beer cozies, pint glasses or whatever sounds cool. Maybe you want to design the logo (I will take forever trying to pick something that is both cool and printable).

So anyway, let's fire this blog up and start counting down the days until February 2nd, 2008's 2nd Annual Trail Travail!