Cabin Fever Trail Races
Webster, NY
- 10 Miler, 5 Miler
- Trail (Unpaved)
- Official race website
Get out of the house and enjoy the gorgeous pine tree filled trails of Webster Park Winter Style! The short course will be approximately 5(ish) miles, the long course will be approximately 10(ish) miles (2 loops of the short course). The final course distance will depend on trail conditions on … MORE
Find Nearby Lodging (hotel, rental, etc.):
Lovely Winter Hike
This is a winter trail race that takes place in the trails of Webster Park. I did this last year as well. It is a pretty tough course and the … MORE
This is a winter trail race that takes place in the trails of Webster Park. I did this last year as well. It is a pretty tough course and the weather is generally a challenge. Last year it was snowing during the race. This year luckily while the trail was full of snow and ice, it was a lovely day for running (or in my case mostly hiking) in the high 20s. This is produced by Yellow Jacket Racing and I got my packet at the store before the race. Packet also included a long sleeve yellow cotton shirt and some powerade gummies along with bib. There is race day parking as well. The start area is set up nicely with a big start arch and music. It was manually timed but this is not a PR course. If weather was good this would be a typical above average difficulty trail race but with the usual winter weather it is very difficult. This year without the active snow it wasn’t as bad but it was still tough with lots of snow and ice. Given that I am recovery from an injury and have very little experience with running in the snow since last winter wasn’t too snowy and I was injured most of this winter I mostly hiked this race. I was impressed because at one point I was the last racer and they had one of the YJR owners hike in the back with us to make sure everyone was safe and no one got lost. I ended up passing a few people at the end but still got cheered on even as one of the last racers. At the end you also get a water bottle and bag of snacks. There is an option for a 2 loop 10 miler as well but I do not enjoy the snow enough for that. Overall this is a good challenge. It is not my favorite race since I don’t like running/hiking through snow but it was more enjoyable without active snow. I added an extra sneaker from my last year review given the attention to detail for the back of the packers. Again this isn’t one I would go out of my way for but will do if I am in town.
Dashing through the Snow
This is a winter trail raced produced by Yellow Jacket Racing in Webster Park just outside of Rochester. There is an option for a 5ish mile short course or a … MORE
This is a winter trail raced produced by Yellow Jacket Racing in Webster Park just outside of Rochester. There is an option for a 5ish mile short course or a 10ish mile long course which is running the short course twice. I chose the short course since I wasn’t sure how the weather would be and have a whole bunch of hiking, trail running and a marathon coming up next week so didn’t want to overextend myself. While this race has been happening before covid, this year “cabin fever” seemed like a very appropriate race name as this was one of the first races held in Rochester in 2021 and I think most of us have a little cabin fever right now. Packet pick-up was recommend at the store the day before but could also be done morning of race. Packet included bib and a decent long-sleeved, grey non-technical shirt with the race name. This year the race had a 1 hour rolling start with the long course starting a half hour earlier than the short course. Weather race day was terrible. It snowed overnight and was snowing quite hard during the race. I think the rolling start was the only start really possible as it would have been hard to put markers in the snow where to stand for a group start like YJR has done for other races. I started at the beginning of my time window which made the unexciting start slightly more exciting. This race was rough. I definitely regret writing I would rather run in snow that the thunderstorm I had in Florida. While the snow definitely was safer, it was tough. I had only done winter trail running on hard, packed snow so running through soft, powdery snow is a new experience. I think running or dashing as my title states is a little bit strong of a word to describe the forward movement I was doing which was more like trudging through the snow. Also it takes a lot of energy to keep any sort of running form so I did some hiking in the snow. I am normally a fast walker and hiker but I have very little experience hiking in fresh snow so I was super, super slow. This race took nearly twice as long as my trail 5 miler PR and was over twice as long as all my road 5 milers and was even longer than one of my road 10 milers. The trail itself actually wasn’t too tough. The total elevation was around 350 feet which isn’t bad for trails and there weren’t many steep hills. The slow race was all due to the snow which is like running in sand, but colder and more painful. On the positive side, the course was extremely well marked and when I took a second to forget how miserable I was trudging and looked up the trail was absolutely beautiful with the snow falling. The worst part of the race was the end. The entire course would be pretty runnable without snow until this steep area at the end where you have to grab roots to get up. That was tricky especially since I had a handheld water bottle that I had to toss up to the top to use my hands to climb. I then trudged to the finish line where the RD greeted the finishers and gave a bag of snacks which also had a bottle of water and a non-alcoholic beer from athletic brewing company. I’ve missed the YJR snacks and my house is getting low on snacks since they supplied most of my snacks for the fall. Also I am so happy I chose the short course as I did not want to do that a second time. I don’t have any complaints about production of the race but this was a miserable experience with the weather. I do think it would be a nice race if the weather was good but this is winter in western NY. Would I run this race again? Probably only if the weather was better but honestly once travel is back to normal I think I’d rather fly to a race in Florida and risk running in a thunderstorm.