» Odyssey Trail Running Rampage (40, 26,13,6 miler)

Event Info
Discussion

The Odyssey Trail Running Rampage will bring in Fall with four great trail running races, The Trail Six-Miler, The Trail Half Marathon, the Trail Marathon, and the 40 mile Trail Ultra. All of these great races are part of the 2014 Trail Runner Trophy Series . These trail races will give athletes the opportunity to run on some of the best trails in the Southeast at a gorgeous state park nestled in the mountains of VA, Douthat State Park. Get together with family and friends this a weekend at Douthat State Park which has a lot to offer, hiking, mt.biking, paddling, fishing, and relaxing.

The Trail Half Marathon, the Trail Marathon, and the 40 mile Trail Ultra race courses will be a loop format which will offer challenging uphills, fast downhills and beautiful views at multiple points on the trail. Racers will run along creeks with waterfalls and through Rhododendron covered tunnels engulfing the trails. A loop will have a total elevation gain of 2700’ over 13 miles, the majority of which will be gained in the first four miles.

The 40 mile Ultra will entail 3 laps; the Marathon 2 laps; and the Half Marathon 1 lap. There will be 1 aid station on top of the mountain, at the cabin overlook, at mile 3.5 with water only and 2 fully stocked aid stations at miles 9(mile 1 for the Six Miler) and 11.25 (mile 3.5 for the Five Miler) of each loop. They will have HEED water, flat cola, potatoes and salt, banana halves, and pretzels at each station. Ultra and Marathon runners will be able to stage supplies at the finish of the loop.

The Six Mlie Trail race will be a single loop with a few challenging uphills, but mostly rolling terrain. This loop will have almost 1000′ of elevation gain. This race will incorporate the last four miles of the other three event’s loop with the addition of the Tobacco Hollow Ridge Trail at the start.

The loops for all the events are a little long by 0.3 +/- miles (more plus). There will be no extra charge for the bonus miles!

Why the loop format? The loop preserves a little piece of history. The half-marathon loop was designed as part of the Odyssey Off-Road Iron –distance Triathlon, in which competitors capped off 2.4 miles of swimming and 112 miles of biking with the trail marathon of two 13.1mile loops. Numerous requests for the option to skip the swim and bike and to “just” run the loop led to creation of the Trail Running Rampage events.