Were you brave enough to chance that the race might be cancelled last night? If so, you were treated to an incredible sunset over the Catskills and some cool fog on Undercliff. Oppressive heat subsided after the storm and the kids races were able to be run normally and the adult race went off without a hitch. I don’t think there could have been a better late July evening in the Shawangunks.

First off an update on the Series Awards for this year. To receive a wonderful handmade ceramic mug at the end of the series you need to achieve at least 4 points over 2 or more races. Please check the attached document to see if you have reached this level already. Those in bold have already met the requirements.
https://shawangunkrunners.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-Summer-Series-Awards-Week-3.pdf

Results for last nights race are available at:
Adults – https://shawangunkrunners.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-NPXCS3-Results.pdf
Kids – https://shawangunkrunners.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/NPXCS3-Kids-Results.pdf

Next week is the final race in the series “Lou’s Run” to be held at the Spring Farm Trailhead in Mohonk Preserve. This 4+ mile run will take you through grassy paths, single track and a super fast downhill finish on carriage road. Reminder that if you ran the Mohonk “Bridge 2 Bridge” Run this past spring you are allowed free entry into Lou’s Run.

Thanks to all who came out last night!
Christopher

Tonight is the 3rd race in the New Paltz XC Summer Series. The race will be held starting at the West Trapps Trailhead in Mohonk Preserve. The race is a 4.7 mile loop on Undercliff / Overcliff. Parking is in the West Trapps Trailhead parking lot with overflow parking in the Mohonk Preserve Visitor Center Parking. Parking on Rt 44/55 is illegal and you can get ticketed. Please do not park on the side of Rt 44/55 as it causes issues for both the Mohonk Preserve and Shawangunk Runners and we certainly don’t want you getting ticketed or towed.

A note about the weather for tonight. Temperatures should be in the mid 80’s around 6 o’clock with it feeling like low 90’s. There’s currently a 50% chance of storms after 8pm. Please keep this in mind for tonights race. There will be water at the start/finish and half way through the course at Rhododendron Bridge.

Please remember to bring back your bib from previous weeks. Day-of registration starts at 6pm with the kids races (.5/1 mile) races going off at 7 and the adults as soon as possible after.
Update: Kids races will be shortened to .25/.5 because of the heat tonight

See you tonight!

Nothing brings more wonderful thoughts than to go for a nice slow run through fields of blueberry bushes with the sun shining down. The feeling of floating over the grass and shoving handful after handful of delicious blue berries into my mouth. Never do I think of snakes, bears, rain or lightening. Last night of course brought some of these things to 182 runners who braved the chance of some intense thunderstorms.

The race started with some dark clouds in the distance but a hope that we would be spared the worst. Of course, for those who did run, we didn’t totally miss the storms but we did miss the worst of them. Some torrential downpours and wind turned a hot and sticky evening into a fun filled puddle stomping romp around Minnewaska State Park. The evening ended with a clearing sky and a beautiful rainbow. I’d have to say it was a pretty memorable evening for all those who came out. Hope you enjoyed it!

Kids Results | Adult Results | Point Standings after Week 2

Next week we move to Mohonk Preserve. The race starts at Trapps Bridge Trailhead and runs either direction on Overcliff / Undercliff. The race is 4.7 miles on carriage roads. Important: there is no parking on the side of Rt 44/55. Overflow parking will be at the Mohonk Preserve Visitor Center. If you park on the side of the road you may get towed and also it may stop us from being able to run at this location in the future. Please carpool to save parking spaces.

Current weather forecast is a high of 91 with a chance of thunderstorms.

Also Roger Kopps photos from the finish line at Summer Solstice are available at: https://flic.kr/s/aHskD2dxXC

Last nights kickoff to the Summer Series couldn’t have gone much better. I know there were some problems getting to Minnewaska because of accidents but I hope it didn’t take away from your enjoyment of the evening. Weather was absolutely amazing for this time of year and I can see from finish times that it helped you all run a little faster than in past years. We had 205 finishers in the 3 mile run, 15 in the kids 1/2 mile and 17 in the kids 1 mile.

Kids Results
3 Mile Results

Course Map and Elevation from 2016 Patterson’s Pellet Run

Next week we return to Minnewaska State Park for the beautiful, delicious and challenging Blueberry Run. Remember to bring back your bib from this week as it’s used for the entire series. There may be some fun public shaming if you forget it but we’ll take care of you and write up a temporary one for the race.

See you next Monday!

P.S. Currently the weather looks to be mostly sunny with a high temp of 89. Plenty of time for that to change but figured I’d give you a heads up 🙂

Exciting that our first race in the cross country series starts tomorrow night. A change this year is the first race will be at Minnewaska State Park. Patterson’s Pellet is an ~3 mile run on carriage roads which brings you up Millbrook Mountain Carriage Road to this interesting geologic feature where it’s perched atop the cliffs above Palmaghatt Ravine. A fun fact about Patterson’s Pellet is that it’s a glacial erratic. They’re simply rocks that were picked up by the glaciers during the last ice age. When the glaciers melted some 12,000-10,000 years ago in the Hudson Valley, the rocks entrained within the ice simply dropped out.*
* Notes taken from Hudson Valley Geologist

Kids Races (1/2 & 1 mile) start at 7pm | Adults immediately following

Reminder that Minnewaska State Park charges a $10 per car entry fee so save some money and parking spots and car pool if you can.

Google Map Coordinates: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Minnewaska+State+Park/@41.7306536,-74.2548726,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x89dcdf75cd22fec9:0x27e26df1a48a5981!8m2!3d41.7328922!4d-74.2279243

FEES FOR SERIES: family $30.00, individual adult $20.00; child/high school/college runners $10.00.*
FEES PER NIGHT: adult $10.00; kids $5.00.*
* No fee for paid 2016 Shawangunk Runners Members

Registration is still available till about noon on the day of the race. Registration will close until the next day but there is registration on site. If you can please register online to save some time when you get to the event for both yourself and the volunteers.
Online Registration: http://www.areep.com/online_reg/registration.php?eventID=783

If you want to bring a pre-filled out form you can print it here:

Click to access shxc2016-1.pdf

Perfect temperatures, low humidity and a slight breeze all followed by a beautiful sunset. I’m not sure we could have asked for a better June evening at Minnewaska last night for the Summer Solstice 14K Trail Run. We had another record turnout with 361 total runners and Minnewaska did an amazing job making sure everyone got parked. We hope you all had a fantastic evening as we all did as well. Just want to give a huge thank you to all the volunteers who make the race possible.

Results – https://shawangunkrunners.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2016-Summer-Solstice-Results_v1.pdf

Pictures were taken but it’ll take a little while for those fine photographers to go through and edit the pictures. I’ll add links to the 2016 Races page once they are up and try to put out another post about it.

If you enjoyed running this type of course we have our Summer Cross Country Series starting on the 11th of July. A series of 4 races plus a fun run ranging from 3 to 4.7 miles at Mohonk Preserve & Minnewaska on Monday Evenings. If you’d like to come please pre-register to make things easier for both yourself and volunteers each night.
Details can be found here: https://shawangunkrunners.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/shxc2016-1.pdf

At the race last night Lauren Voorhes from the Alzheimer’s Association was handing out flyers for a possible entry into the NYC Marathon if you join their team and fundraise. Please find more information here (MarathonFlyerRevised) if you are interested.

Thank you again to everyone and looking forward to seeing many, if not all, of you at the Summer Series races.

Christopher

SUMMER SOLSTICE 14K TRAIL RUN
The weather seems to say it’s Summer and we have just 23 days till the Summer Solstice Trail Run. Things are coming together and we have the BIB’s, Finishers Item and Age Group awards ready to go. I’m going to assume the weather is going to cooperate as well.

Registration numbers are 70% higher than last year and we expect things to continue. We have a cap of 400 and we ask you to register early to make things go more smoothly the night of the race. I personally ask you to register early to save me some stress the night of having to put in lots of registrations into the computer.

Registration is still just $15 (plus processing fee online) | Day of is $20
You can register online at the following link: http://www.areep.com/online_reg/registration.php?eventID=769
You can also mail in a registration: https://shawangunkrunners.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2016-Summer-Solstice-Registration.pdf

THE BERNIE STAHL ONTEORA MILE
While I have you attention I’d also like to mention another wonderful race, The Onteora Mile, coming up on Friday June 10th at 6:15pm on the track at Dietz Stadium in Kingston, NY. Nowadays the mile doesn’t get the same amount of attention from runners as it used to but it’s a fantastic distance to really get to see how fast you really can run. All proceeds from the race go to the Onteora Runners Scholarship Fund and that helps local students. There are multiple heats so runners of all paces are welcome. If you can’t run come out and cheer on some of the local runners as they push themselves to their limits. Registration is just $10.
Registration Flyer