The Webster Trail Classic will take place in three neighboring parks in Webster, NY. Each park has a different style of trail building so each offers a unique running experience. It is an excellent trail system that we have been so lucky to get permission to use. Thank you to …
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The Webster Trail Classic will take place in three neighboring parks in Webster, NY. Each park has a different style of trail building so each offers a unique running experience. It is an excellent trail system that we have been so lucky to get permission to use. Thank you to the Town of Webster, Friends of Webster Trails, and the Genesee Land Trust.
The race will start and end near the Park View Lodge on Holt Road in Webster Park. The course will stick to the west side of the park. Those running 10 miles will use a connector trail leading to Whiting Road will give runners access to the Whiting Road Nature Preserve. Those running 3.5 miles will return to the finish through the south portion of the park.
Whiting Road Nature Preserve:
WRNP is a beautiful park with a widely varied trail system. Runners will cover open fields, wooded single track, bridges, and the most elevation changes on the course. A connector trail will lead runners to Pellet Road and the Gosnell Big Woods Preserve.
Gosnell Big Woods Preserve:
The last of the three parks is one of the highlights of the course. The Big Woods Trail is one of several old growth forests we will pass through during the race. We have been given special permission to use this section of trail by the Genesee Land Trust, the holder of the permanent conservation easement. After running the beautiful section we will loop the Big Field and return to Pellet Road via the Meadow Trail. The course then returns to WRNP and Webster Park on the way to the finish.
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Laid Back Race. Nice People. Nice Trail
This is a trail race produced by Trails ROC and proceeds go to help improve the trails around Rochester. The start in Webster Park where I have done a couple … MORE
This is a trail race produced by Trails ROC and proceeds go to help improve the trails around Rochester. The start in Webster Park where I have done a couple other trail races. There is a 3.5 mile option and a 10 mile option. The 3.5 mile option is just in Webster Park whereas the 10 miler option goes through 3 different parks. While the 10 miler sounds really cool, I was on call this weekend so stuck with the shorter race. There was not much pre-race communication just an email sent pretty late Friday night. Packet pickup was the morning of the race and just included the bib. There was no swag but that’s fine for a race like this. It is a smaller race with about 100 total participants with about 70 doing the 10 miler and 30 doing the 3.5 miler. The whole race was extremely laid back and the people from Trails ROC were very nice and encouraging of athletes of all abilities. This is manually timed and the 10 miler starts at 8am and the 3.5 miler at 9am. We started by some Trials ROC flags and they made a few race announcements and we went. Course was pretty nice. It was a typical relatively tough trail race through the woods. Course was marked very well and it would be hard to get lost unless you weren’t paying attention at all. There was a lot of hills and roots to maneuver around but no killer hills or crazy technical areas. Definitely a tough race but very doable. You definitely want trail shoes if you have them. If you don’t be careful. The trail is pretty like all the trails in Rochester though I don’t think this is the prettiest park. I think I used all my speed yesterday. I mean this was obviously going to be a slower race but I was slower than I expected. I at least finished under an hour. There is no time limit though so this is very walker/hiker friendly. Some folks took over 3 hours for the 10 milers so no pressure to be fast. At the finish line the Trails ROC people cheered everyone on and gave high fives. There was some store bought mini muffins, donut holes and cookies and a cooler with water. Enough to hold me over until after rounds. Overall this was a solid race. If you like laid back trail races this is a good choice for you. It was a nice and tough but doable course. Everyone involved was very nice. This isn’t one I would plan around but I’d do it again if I were in town and if I didn’t have to be on call I would probably do the 10 miler. I’m sure it’s tough but it’d be fun to run through the different parks and as I said before there’s no time limit.