Stumpy’s Marathon: A 10 year old’s birthday party

In the process of training for the impending Vermont 50, John and I have completed several organized trail races. There are definite advantages to entering races, even if you are just doing the race as a training day. For example, the excitement of a race day along with running in a completely new place can help break up the monotony of training. I just love the feeling of waking up on a race day morning, and the excitement of wondering what’s around the next bend in the trail.

Another key advantage is aid station support, which means you don’t have to carry all of your nutrition, or run in loops to return to a stash hidden on the route somewhere. When you are looking at a training schedule that calls for 5 and 6 hour runs, this aid station support is no small matter.

And, of course, races bring with them other athletes, which means we have the opportunity to learn new tricks, and enjoy the community atmosphere.

The most recent of these race/training runs was the absolutely FREE Stumpy’s Marathon, starting from the Middle Run Natural Area, in the Newark, DE area on September 12. This event was organized by the Trail Dawgs, with whom we had previous experience, having run their PHUNT 50k in January of this year.

Turns out, this race is a celebration of Stumpy’s birthday. He began it several years ago (I want to say 10 years – but don’t quote me on that one) with some of his friends. Year after year, more people started showing up. For this year’s race, I would say there were about 150 people – not too shabby for a rainy Sunday morning.

Despite being free, this race offered some great race amenities and schwag. There were well-stocked aid stations about every 6 miles. If you ever do a free trail race, sometimes called a “fat ass”, it is good etiquette to bring a donation for the aid stations – water, pretzels, cookies, coke, etc. In addition to the donations made by the runners, the volunteers also brought goodies, like homemade chocolate chip and molasses cookies.  Can I tell you how delicious that chocolate chip cookie was at mile 17? It’ll make you want to run 11 more miles, which is a good thing, because that’s how many miles I had left at that point.

In addition to the baked goods, the aid stations were dripping with all the typical fare you would expect at an ultra run: goldfish, pretzels, Swedish fish, m&m’s, potato chips, fruit, water, and more. As we approached the second aid station, I commented to John, “Don’t the aid stations at ultra and trail runs remind you of a 10 year old’s birthday party?” The only thing missing is the ice cream.

In addition to the fantastic support, as we crossed the finish line we received–from Stumpy himself–a finisher’s coffee mug, a toy compass, and the much anticipated finisher’s rock. As an added bonus, this marathon turned out to be 28 miles – so we got an extra 1.8 miles of bang for our buck.

As a training run, we couldn’t have asked for a better experience. It was raining, which teaches us to deal with the elements. It was well-supported, which keeps us from having to carry monster packs of rations to support a 5-6 hour run. There were plenty of friendly people, which was a welcome break from the solitary confinement of much endurance training.

The course was mildly technical, with relatively minimal elevation changes. This was a relief because after the technical challenges of the Appalachian Trail and then the Labor Pains race, our bruised tootsies needed a break from boulders and roots.

If you are in the mid-atlantic region and you are looking for a low-key, laid back, but well-supported experience, I highly recommend Stumpy’s Marathon, which is always held the same weekend each year. Additionally, the Trail Dawgs put on a bunch of great FREE trail runs of varying distances throughout the year. Check out their website here.

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