View of the Zumbro 100 start/finish from the West Scenic Trail.
Headed down to the Zumbro River Bottoms to help out and cheer for my buddies running the Zumbro 100 Mile trail race last weekend. In it's third year, there were about 23 runners and 50 volunteers. Weather turned out to be excellent and the trail was in near perfect condition - just a few spots of snow and mud.
Located in the Richard Dorer State Forest, this is a gem of a trail in the bluff country of south eastern Minnesota. The course consists of 5 laps of a 20 mile loop through some beautiful country. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll just shut up and post a few.
View of start/finish area from the top of the West Scenic trail early in the loop.
A little further down the West Scenic trail.
Running through a tunnel of trees shortly after leaving the West Scenic Trail.
On the gravel road between aid stations 1 & 2.
Second place finisher Matt at the tail end of the Ant Hill trail on lap 2.
Along the gravel road between aid stations 3 & 4.
Pine Trail Overlook, shortly after leaving aid station 4 and less than 3 miles from the end of the loop.
Rail Road Bed Trail - almost home!
New course record holder, Adam early in his third loop.
Women's course record holder, Susan running strong after 40 miles.
Congratulations to all of the runners who toed the line - you are an inspiration! Thanks to retiring RD's Larry & Colleen and new RD's John and Cherie for putting on a world class event!
3 comments:
Great photos. Wow, that looks like some serious elevation in the third picture! Quite a view. Very nice!
Thanks for volunteering down there. Somehow, the pictures don't reflect the way I felt when I ran that course - wasn't it just up and down those cliffs?
Jean, it's a nice climb to the top of a bluff right off the bat - then you get to run along the ridge line for some awesome views overlooking the Zumbro River valley.
Steve, if I remember correctly, you ran Zumbro the first year in 2009, but not 2010? These pictures show trails that weren't even part of the course in 2009 because of a bridge being rebuilt ;) The 2009 course was actually much flatter because of the short 6 mile loop that has since been replaced with a much hillier section. Don't worry, Ant Hill is still part of the program!
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