The silver lining to deciding to stay in Rochester this Thanksgiving instead of traveling was I got to do Yellow Jacket Racing's final race of the year. This race was … MORE
The silver lining to deciding to stay in Rochester this Thanksgiving instead of traveling was I got to do Yellow Jacket Racing’s final race of the year. This race was designed to be a cross-country course for older runners to relive their high school glory days or for younger runners whose cross country season may have gotten cut short due to covid to run another race. It was on what was described as a “classic” cross country course so I assume it was a course used for cross country meets in Rochester. Race was organized so runners started based on gender and graduating high school year which was a really fun way to do the small groups. Each group was 20 runners or less to fit social distancing guidelines. My dad was in town and did this race too. His group of the oldest men went first at 10 and my group of the 90s and 00s graduating females went at 11:30. You picked up packet and had health screening morning of race. I thought it might be boring with a long time between my dad and my waves but the course was designed so the runners were visible for most of the race and it was fun to watch the different races in between. A little before 11:30 I lined up with my group. There were X’s 6 feet apart at the start. The first short section maybe 1/4 mile or so was on grass but I was happy that only a short section was on the grass. There was then a small road section and then trail for about 1.5 to 2 miles. The trail was not too technical. A few roots and rocks and some mud as it has been rainy but nothing crazy. I had trail shoes which were helpful with the mud but my dad didn’t and he was fine. The hard part of the trail is there are two killer hills, one just before 1 mile and 1 kind of in the middle. Other than these 2 hills the rest of the course is relatively easy. After the trail there is a longer stretch on road followed by a bit on grass and then a painful uphill finish on grass. After crossing the line you get a bag of food and a water bottle. There isn’t a medal but participants get a finisher ribbon with the race name. There is also a shirt you can pay for. This race was only $15 so not much swag was not a big deal. I thought the course was a lot of fun with the mixed terrain and was nicely challenging. It reminded me of a shorter version of the Regal Beagle last week. I also liked this course more than the somewhat similar Roots n Road course I did at Mendon earlier and I was a couple minutes faster. I had a solid time for the course. Again my pace was inbetween a road and a trail pace. I thought the groups by age and gender were fun and there were lots of people wearing their old cross country uniforms. This was a lot of fun. I hope they bring it back as I would definitely do it again.
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Relive those awkward high school years
The silver lining to deciding to stay in Rochester this Thanksgiving instead of traveling was I got to do Yellow Jacket Racing's final race of the year. This race was … MORE
The silver lining to deciding to stay in Rochester this Thanksgiving instead of traveling was I got to do Yellow Jacket Racing’s final race of the year. This race was designed to be a cross-country course for older runners to relive their high school glory days or for younger runners whose cross country season may have gotten cut short due to covid to run another race. It was on what was described as a “classic” cross country course so I assume it was a course used for cross country meets in Rochester. Race was organized so runners started based on gender and graduating high school year which was a really fun way to do the small groups. Each group was 20 runners or less to fit social distancing guidelines. My dad was in town and did this race too. His group of the oldest men went first at 10 and my group of the 90s and 00s graduating females went at 11:30. You picked up packet and had health screening morning of race. I thought it might be boring with a long time between my dad and my waves but the course was designed so the runners were visible for most of the race and it was fun to watch the different races in between. A little before 11:30 I lined up with my group. There were X’s 6 feet apart at the start. The first short section maybe 1/4 mile or so was on grass but I was happy that only a short section was on the grass. There was then a small road section and then trail for about 1.5 to 2 miles. The trail was not too technical. A few roots and rocks and some mud as it has been rainy but nothing crazy. I had trail shoes which were helpful with the mud but my dad didn’t and he was fine. The hard part of the trail is there are two killer hills, one just before 1 mile and 1 kind of in the middle. Other than these 2 hills the rest of the course is relatively easy. After the trail there is a longer stretch on road followed by a bit on grass and then a painful uphill finish on grass. After crossing the line you get a bag of food and a water bottle. There isn’t a medal but participants get a finisher ribbon with the race name. There is also a shirt you can pay for. This race was only $15 so not much swag was not a big deal. I thought the course was a lot of fun with the mixed terrain and was nicely challenging. It reminded me of a shorter version of the Regal Beagle last week. I also liked this course more than the somewhat similar Roots n Road course I did at Mendon earlier and I was a couple minutes faster. I had a solid time for the course. Again my pace was inbetween a road and a trail pace. I thought the groups by age and gender were fun and there were lots of people wearing their old cross country uniforms. This was a lot of fun. I hope they bring it back as I would definitely do it again.