the Way of the Turtle

LEATHERMAN'S LOOP REGISTRATION CLOSED
Wednesday, January 4, 2009

Wow. Registration for the 2009 Leatherman's Loop 10k trail race opened at 12:01 AM yesterday and closed 16 hours later with the race limit of 900 runners reached. I suspect there are going to be a number of disappointed runners who got closed out of this year's race; fortunately, I wasn't planning on doing it this year because I'm hoping to be in Richmond, VA, that weekend at the National Duathlon Festival. (Last year I squeaked my registration in shortly before the limit was reached, 33 days after it opened.)

One of the negatives of the increased interest in trail running is how quickly some of the races fill up, when there's a limit imposed by the nature of the course or even just the organizers wish to keep the race field manageable. Another negative is how crowded the courses can get... in many cases trail races are held on singletrack and the first few miles can be major traffic jams. That's been one of my dislikes at Leatherman's since I ran it again in 2005 (and one of the reasons I don't intend to run it every year) and I see races like the Albany Running Exchange's Hairy Gorilla Half Marathon and Squirrelly Six Miler developing the same problem. It's really a mixed blessing... having lots of new folks on the trails is good for the longevity of the sport... but there are times when this grizzled old trail turtle misses the days of being one of the few oddballs out there running through the woods.

In any case, as I read through various the articles on the Leatherman's Loop website (they've posted a wonderful series on the other parks and preserves in the Westchester area, in addition to info directly related to the race) I once again found myself thinking back to the three times I've run the race... and I find myself thinking not about how frustrating it is to be on a trail packed with people for the first 2-3 miles but how much I love running that course. There's just something about it that resonates with me... maybe because it was one of the first trail races I did, maybe because it's a wonderful set of trails, I really don't know, but I did find myself wishing a bit that I was going to be there in April slogging through the mud and sloshing through the stream crossings... I really think I want to try to get down there some time this year and run, even if it's not for a race.

JMH