I had a chance this afternoon to get out and run the course that we'll be using for the Salomon & Smartwool Spring Trail Running Series, which kicks off tomorrow. Once again, Eli has done a great job of putting together a fun and challenging course. It's a great tour of the trail system as you'll hit a good mix of carriage roads, single track and even a cruise by the cabin. Not to mention all the white trilliums. They are definitely in bloom. Great stuff.

Here's how the course is going to go:
We have the traditional start in the courtyard and out through the tunnel. From there, head right around Geepers and through the second tunnel. Careful through here as it's a bit muddy in the tunnel. Next is the easiest part of the course: Down the Sluice and right onto Clementine. You follow Clementine all the way to Dragon Corridor, and your first short uphill as you pass the Peabody River. Through here is where you'll start to see the trilliums. Don't spend too much time sniffing the daisies, so to speak, because as you start up Dragon you quickly bear left onto your first piece of single track. It's all been carriage road to hear, but now you're really trail running. You run on the single track parallel to Dragon until you hit Wishbone Slip. Don't underestimate this section because it's a short, but it's all uphill. Take a right onto Wishbone and back onto the carriage roads. Then a quick left up Dragon. And, I do mean up. Climb all the way to Whiplash, the longest section of single track on the course. Weave your way through Whiplash until it spits you back out onto Dragon. Then it's up, then down, then up, up, up to the Cabin at Great Angel Station. You'll be able to catch your breath briefly on short downhill after the Cabin, but then you climb all the way to Wilding. Wilding isn't quite single track, but it certainly isn't carriage road. You need to keep your wits about you. Remember all thay climbing? It's time to head back downhill. Take a right on Great Grumpy Grade. I saw a young bull moose here today, but I can't promise he'll be there to cheer you on tomorrow. Now it gets a little tricky. You stay on Grumpy all the way to intersection 8. Take a right here onto Hiccup, but you don't stay on Hiccup for very long. There's a sneaky little peice of single track on your left. Take it onto the single track behind Caddidlehopper Cabin, which I'm petitioning we call Pinball Alley. It's a short section that bumps you back out near where you went in, but there's no time to reminisce because you take a right and onto the grass near the Mountain Bike Skills Park. The Skills Park may seem like a good idea, but stay straight and straight down the last hill and back onto the carriage road past Mt. Nowhere. You're in the final push now, but that push is straight up the Sluice. Well, not all the way up, as you take a right up the steep hill through Moose Meadow. At the top, you bear left around the fence, cross the carriage road, and around "Eli's Bump"—he loves this little peice of trail. Up and over and back onto the Geepers Loop. Focus on the tunnel now as it's all uphill to the finish through the tunnel and into the courtyard. Phew. That was a tough run.

Did you get all that?

Don't worry if you didn't. Eli will have the course marked to perfection as always. The long course comes out to 3.5 miles, and you'll be happy it's not 3.6 There are also short and mini course options, which will incorporate some of the same pieces of the long course. Great kid options. Personally, I'm going to run the mini course, but tell everyone I ran the long course. I better get some rest.

See you tomorrow!

- Ryan

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