This is a half trail half road race in Mendon Ponds Park produced by Yellow Jacket Racing. This is my second year doing this race. Last year I did the … MORE
This is a half trail half road race in Mendon Ponds Park produced by Yellow Jacket Racing. This is my second year doing this race. Last year I did the 3 miler. This year I was also on call but as I am more used to running on call now I chose the longer 5 miler. Packet pick-up was offered the day before or the morning of the race. I got it before. It had the bib which is a different color for each distance and there is a cotton shirt. It is the same design as last year but a different color. This year is denim blue. It’s a fine shirt but nothing special. This year there was a mass start at 9am which made it a little more exciting. However it was pouring rain during the race. As the name suggests this is a mix of road and trail. It starts on about 1/2 mile of road, then a little under a mile of pretty flat not too technical trail then another bit on road then at the half way point it gets kind of crazy with a big hill. For the 3 miler once you are up this hill you are done with hills but for the 5 miler after the hill there is a downhill section then the 3 and 5 mile courses diverge and you go up another hill for the 5 miler. After this there is a bit of downhill trail. Then more road then the same annoying last mile mostly on grass. Course is extremely well marked with signs, pink flags and volunteers at most intersections. This year with the rain it was super muddy so there was a lot of puddles to avoid. Otherwise most of the trail is pretty well maintained. Trail shoes were very helpful today with the mud but not completely necessary. You are cheered on by the RD at the finish line and given a water bottle and the same old snacks I am sick of. I now have the world’s largest supply of Famous Amos bags of mini chocolate chip cookies to hold me over if I ever have to self quarantine. My time was slow because I had to take a few phone calls so hard to judge. Overall I liked the 5 miler more than the 3 miler. It is definitely tougher as the extra trail portions they added was tough but the additional 2 miles were either trail or road so the grass portion is a much lower percent of the race compared to the 3 miler. This is a fun course if you are a hybrid road/trail runner like me or if you are curious about trail running. I’m sure I will do it again.
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Roots 'N Road 'N Mud
This is a half trail half road race in Mendon Ponds Park produced by Yellow Jacket Racing. This is my second year doing this race. Last year I did the … MORE
This is a half trail half road race in Mendon Ponds Park produced by Yellow Jacket Racing. This is my second year doing this race. Last year I did the 3 miler. This year I was also on call but as I am more used to running on call now I chose the longer 5 miler. Packet pick-up was offered the day before or the morning of the race. I got it before. It had the bib which is a different color for each distance and there is a cotton shirt. It is the same design as last year but a different color. This year is denim blue. It’s a fine shirt but nothing special. This year there was a mass start at 9am which made it a little more exciting. However it was pouring rain during the race. As the name suggests this is a mix of road and trail. It starts on about 1/2 mile of road, then a little under a mile of pretty flat not too technical trail then another bit on road then at the half way point it gets kind of crazy with a big hill. For the 3 miler once you are up this hill you are done with hills but for the 5 miler after the hill there is a downhill section then the 3 and 5 mile courses diverge and you go up another hill for the 5 miler. After this there is a bit of downhill trail. Then more road then the same annoying last mile mostly on grass. Course is extremely well marked with signs, pink flags and volunteers at most intersections. This year with the rain it was super muddy so there was a lot of puddles to avoid. Otherwise most of the trail is pretty well maintained. Trail shoes were very helpful today with the mud but not completely necessary. You are cheered on by the RD at the finish line and given a water bottle and the same old snacks I am sick of. I now have the world’s largest supply of Famous Amos bags of mini chocolate chip cookies to hold me over if I ever have to self quarantine. My time was slow because I had to take a few phone calls so hard to judge. Overall I liked the 5 miler more than the 3 miler. It is definitely tougher as the extra trail portions they added was tough but the additional 2 miles were either trail or road so the grass portion is a much lower percent of the race compared to the 3 miler. This is a fun course if you are a hybrid road/trail runner like me or if you are curious about trail running. I’m sure I will do it again.
Roots 'N Road 'N Grass????
I like the concept of this race, part trail and part road, and was very happy Yellow Jacket Racing (YJR) was able to produce this race this year and especially … MORE
I like the concept of this race, part trail and part road, and was very happy Yellow Jacket Racing (YJR) was able to produce this race this year and especially happy they added an extra day and extra spots since I hadn’t originally signed up for the race since the original date was last March. I chose the 3 miler because I was on call this weekend and had to round in the hospital after the race (and after a shower of course). Like all YJR events I have done this race was impeccably, carefully, and safely produced. The corral system was the exact same as for the Shoreline Half marathon. Only production issue is the direction link on the race website didn’t take me to the right place but when I googled Stewart Lodge I got right there. This is at Mendon Ponds Park which is my favorite place in Rochester for trail running and hiking. The first mile was pretty nice. It was about half a mile of mostly gradual downhill, fast road racing. Then there is about a half mile of non techinical, pretty flat trail. The second mile is where the fun begins and by fun I mean about half a mile of more technical stuff starting off with what pre-covid would have been a very intimidating hill for me but after these trail races I’ve done on ski mountains was nothing to me…okay it wasn’t nothing I did hike instead of run a bit of it but I wasn’t intimidated by it. Then there is some more technical downhill sections which are quite fast. It is helpful to have trail shoes for this section as there are some rocks and roots but if you don’t have trail shoes just be careful on this section. The technical section is quite short so not worth getting trail shoes for this race alone. After the technical trail you are back on the road for about another half a mile. This part is mostly slight inclines and declines. It felt like there was more up than down but nothing to bad. It got kind of hot by now and the road wasn’t very shaded so that was the most difficult thing about this section (although heat shouldn’t be a problem in March when the race usually takes place). The final mile is where the fun ends and my least favorite part of the course. It was mostly all on grass and most of it slight uphill. I have learned that I do not really like running on grass. I got paged and took a call on an uphill section that seemed particularly annoying to run on and just walked it. I do have to say though the grass and the course were very well marked. I feel like the last mile was kind of a cop out mile to make the mileage fit exactly. I would have preferred a more interesting 3ish mile race on more real trail instead even if the distance wasn’t exact. You are then back on the road for a very short section for a downhill finish. I am enjoying the smaller city running culture and the RD now knows who I am and cheered me on as I crossed the finish line and gave a personal cheer to most of the other runners as they crossed as well. My time wasn’t great mostly because I answered a page during race but even though it was slower than all but one of my 5Ks, this was technically another PR for me as it was my first 3 mile race. For swag, you get a nice, cotton T-shirt and a bag of prepackaged food at the end. There is no medal. I love medals and keep all my medals even for 5Ks but to be fair I don’t really need a medal every time I run a 3 to 5 mile race. The race was also pretty cheap so while there wasn’t a ton of swag, the swag seemed fair for the price. Overall I loved the trail, liked the road, and disliked the grass. This is a good race for those curious about trail running but not yet ready to make the commitment. Difficulty would depend on your experience. I would have found this race quite difficult 6 months ago before covid forced me to learn the joys of trail running but it is probably quite an easy race for an experienced trail runner. As I am somewhere in the middle I rated its difficulty in the middle. Personally I’d kind of prefer a fast road race or a technical trail race but the mix was fun (without the grass). It wasn’t my favorite course but I did like the first 2 miles and I’d do it again if I didn’t have other plans and would choose the 5 miler if I weren’t on call.