2018 Willis River 21k / 35k / 50k

I'm a big fan of Dan Pulskamp's races. When he announced on his Virginia Adventures LLC Facebook page he was assuming directorship of the Willis River 50k trail race I signed up almost immediately. The race would be put on as an old-school fatass event. Meaning there would be no entry fees, no race shirts and no medals. Fine with me. Each runner would donate some food for the aid stations. Dan asked for small donations to cover miscellaneous expenses such as insurance. We had to pay the $5 parking fee.

When I arrived at Bear Creek State Park near Cumberland, VA at 7:30 it was a chilly 31 degrees. I met Jeff L. and his wife in the parking lot. When I signed in Dan told me this wasn't going to be a "concierge" event like the Night Train 50k was. He said this would be a "masters level" technical trail run. Somehow I had it in my head that this would be another "rail trail" event. An easy, mostly flat run on a path where there used to be railroad tracks. Wrong.

The Willis River

I met Craig R. right before the pre-race briefing.

Craig and Jim Selfie

The Trail Head

I enjoyed the course a lot due to its variety. A good portion was lightly travelled single track through woodlands and along the river. The trail was marked with single white blazes. You really had to pay attention to stay on course. Well at least I did. I was running solo about 70% of the time. Every so often there would be a double white blaze indicating a major change in direction. Dan and his crew had also put up some white confidence streamers where the trail might be confusing.

On the Willis River Trail

One of several icy stream crossings

Probably the most fun for me was the stream crossings. There was no way to avoid getting your feet wet, unless you searched for a better location upstream or downstream. I think most of us just blasted through. After the first time it was no big deal.

Omar asked me to photograph him crossing the stream

There were some pretty decent hills. My Garmin battery died at mile 17, but going by some other's posts there was about 1,900 ft. of climbing in the 35k option.

There was a dirt road section which was a nice relief from the technical single track.

And there was a section that had been recently logged. I wish I had taken a photo. There was no shade there and it looked like a foreign, muddy war zone.

The green reminded me spring will come

The course was an out and back. On the way out there were some shaded areas that still had quite a bit of snow. I figured I would get some pretty photos on the way back. But no, it had all melted by then.

For most of the way back there were three women together just far enough behind me that I could hear them but couldn't see them. Finally, with about two miles to go they passed me. I think I was the last 35k finisher and my time was about 6:30.

I really enjoyed this event and highly recommend it.