Gunpowder Falls 50k FatA$$

Mark, Sharlene and I headed up north of Baltimore to the Gunpowder Falls state park for a low key 10-mile loop race. Mark & Sharlene just wanted to do 20, but this was the last good training run for me before Masochist! I had forgotten how incredibly pretty the course is.

Miles 1 - 3ish
From the parking lot, you head through a couple miles of rolling fern-covered hillsides, with a little creek winding past. Then you cross the road that goes into the park and head up a slightly inclined forest road, past some archery ranges. A fun descent is followed by some more climbing, then a footpath by the river, going upstream. You want to look at the Gunpowder but it's just rocky enough to make you keep your eyes on the trail.

Miles 3 - 6ish
The extremely well-stocked aid station is just after you cross a bouncy bridge, in a parking lot. Even though it was a fata$$ it was better stocked than Promise Land! You then do a lot of climbing, through deciduous forest, over a couple of creeks, and through a powerline area. I saw some really pretty little blue butterflies here. Next you descend on a paved road, probably less than a mile, until you turn right back along the river for about a mile. You return to the aid station again.

Miles 6 - 9.?? (so apparently it's not a true 50k, but it's still hard!)
From the aid station, you cross an iron bridge, then run along the riverside downstream. Here it's really grassy but pretty flat running. You finally get to York road, scramble up the embankment (because the frontrunners kicked over a hornets nest on the trail) then run across the bridge on a scary road where cars go fast. Back into the woods, returning upstream, but you head up the hill into the deciduous forest, with more ferns. When there was a nice breeze, yellow birch leaves would cascade from the trees - ahhh, fall! If only it wasn't 85 degrees! Once you drop down to the river, and pass an ampitheatre thing on the left, you are really close to the bathroom and the looooong paved path back to the parking lot.
Repeat 3x!

I did much better than I thought - maybe heat training from Baker, maybe because the course is a little short, but I came in at 6:13! Two years ago I ran the course in something like 6:58. I was able to keep moving pretty well, and concentrated on running the upslopes even if I didn't feel like it. Sharlene and Mark ran their 2 loops and both were happy to have nice runs and their injuries didn't act up.

Serge Arbona won in something like 3:55. Mark saw a snake (next to my foot) and I saw a snake (frantically trying to get out of my path on the trail!).

Then Sharlene, Mark & I went to the super-mega Wegman's for some celebratory food and coffee!