Alan Yueh's Staging Area

Plenty of water / electrolyte stations (although it might have been nice to have a porta-potty or two at miles 5 and 10, instead of the pit toilet (?) at about 15.) Awesome enthusiasm from the locals.

This is a gorgeous run. When you hear “West Virginia,” you think “mountains.” Well, the Greenbrier River Rail Trail is almost pancake flat — a 1% downgrade over the last 26 miles. The first quarter-mile runs through the town of Cass with a couple of minor hills that helps spread out the relatively small field, instead of dumping over 150 runners immediately onto a double-track rail trail. So you’ll find a lot less zig-zagging and playing “participant pinball” trying to get around folks who are under your pace.

The scenery is gorgeous, as you run alongside the River. You’ll hear birds, rapids, an occasional car, but mostly just the sound of running shoes on crushed limestone, autumn leaves, and soft dirt. At times, you’ll have a steep forest or a rocky cliff on one side. The river is on the other side of you, and could be across a grassy meadow or just a foot or two away from one of the “tracks.”

Running through Sharp’s Tunnel is quite a treat: I’ve done this section of the trail on a mountain bike and needed a good lamp. But when running (at least at my velocity), my eyes adjusted and I didn’t need any additional illumination. However, the race production crew kindly placed lights about halfway into the tunnel (which is a curved dogleg) to assuage any fears. And the tunnel lighting crew didn’t shine any lights into runners’ eyes and thereby obliterate the illuminatory assistance.

Regular road shoes are fine — unless it were really rainy for days in advance, there’s no need for trail shoes. In fact, the last few miles are on paved asphalt. And my knees immediately noticed the difference between the unpaved trail for the majority of the race and the asphalt!

Please note that this is nowhere near being a “spectator friendly” race. The number of places where the rail trail intersects a road, and getting to most of them requires nerves of steel and proper planning time-wise. We vacation in the area regularly, and even with our knowledge, the day before, we pre-scouted almost all of the possible places to be for fans, and discarded most of the possibilities. Many places were not realistically possible to get to by car before runners would get there, while other locations were the equivalent of “fire roads” with little or no place for opposing traffic to pass. (And I’m sure that GPS mapping software could easily maim or kill somebody with their brain-dead algorithms.)

So, for those who are more introverted runners (or triathletes?), this could be the ideal marathon for you. The aid stations are nicely placed — how do they get the locals there so early in the day? — and race production team is superb.

The race is also ideal for the person who mainly wants a race for the [very low] entry fee and isn’t looking for the hottest tribute rock band or 12 different kinds of gel or the name-brand socks and technical shirt in the swag bag. This is a course for runners seeking a PR / qualifying time or just wanting to run in nature and are comfortable with (or desiring) great miles, uncrowded and quiet.

The time of the year for this race is almost perfectly aligned with the changing of the foliage color. It certainly is perfect for the weather: cool at the start, warm middle and end.

The surrounding area is great for nature-tourism. There are historical locations (Nobel-prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck’s birthplace is here), geological interests (spelunking / caving), nature and science (National Radio Astronomy Observatory and a subartic tundra in the Cranberry Glades and two fish hatcheries), as well as other exercise/athletic activities (hiking, bicycling). There are even two golf courses nearby. Lots more to do, but I don’t time to list, let alone detail, them all.

This area is also called “Almost Heaven.” If you slow down and look around, you’ll discover that truth (as we did some 30 years ago).