The New River Trail is a converted rail trail along the New river in Western Virginia and is one of the Virginia State Parks. Along the 57 miles of the trail it passes through Shot Tower Historical Park which you can see from Interstate 77. Just a few miles downriver it also passes through Foster Falls which is now a part of the NRT St Park. In the past when I used to travel to work in West Virgina I would occasionally stop at Foster Falls where I have run and biked on the trail and once I kayaked the falls. It is a beautiful area and a wonderful place to visit so I was excited when a couple of years ago when Annette Bedknosky, an ultrarunning friend announced she would be directing a race on the trail.
I'll never forget the first time I met Annette several years ago at the Promise Land 50k when she was just beginning to run ultra's. I was sitting under the picnic shelter with the Finkles and a couple of other friends. Most of the runners had already gone to there tents for the night when Annette walked over and said she wanted to hang out with the "cool people". Of course since then she has become one of the top lady ultra runners in the country winning many races including the Western States 100. She is a terrific person and a pleasure to be around and I look forward to finally get a chance to run her race.
My training has been going very well and with the forecast for nice Autumn weather with the start in the 40's I should run well. I am planning to go for a 50k pr. I doubt I have too many chances left to get pr's at 50k so at least this course should give me n opportunity to go for it.
Karla the Marathon Princess and Lisa The Mountain Girl will be making the trip with me. Hopefully Karla can pr in what will be her 3rd 50K and the way Lisa has been running lately I expect her to get her first ultra finish and do it well. I'm also excited that I will get a chance to see a lot of my other ultra friends that I have been missing a lot the past couple of years.
Annette's Blog.
Race website.
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