Photo Credit Scott Rokis
Greetings Runners,
With the last few Afton spots being claimed last night, and less than two weeks to go until race day, I wanted to check in and extend you an early welcome to the race. I will, as usual, be sending out our final / week-of ‘2024 Afton Trail Run, Runner Welcome’ email, with final updates and more next week, but I wanted to share a handful of things with you prior to that…
Afton is on Saturday July 6 2024. As always, if your plans have changed and you can no longer make it to the race, there is no need to contact us. We will know you are not running if you do not show on race day.
Now is a good time to study up on the Afton race website – everything you need to know about getting to the race, the distance you are running, and the race course can be found there.
VERY IMPORTANT PARKING DETAILS. It is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that you understand how parking works for the Afton Trail Run. Most participants will park at Afton Alps and will have a 15 to 20 minute walk up to the race start. Detailed information is available via the 25KM and 50KM race info pages and a recap of the information is available HERE https://www.aftontrailrun.com/parking/
We have been out weed whipping and clearing trails at the park over the last few weeks. Even with all of the rain this spring, the trails are in good shape. We are not expecting any trail issues or flooding impacts come race day. We will keep you posted if anything changes / develops.
While we are getting the itch to get back to t-shirts for the event giveaway, we still have not done everything we want to do with hats. Over the Fall and Winter we spent a ton of time designing, from the ground up, what we think is the perfect running hat. It hits on all the technical features you want in a running hat; breathable, lightweight, crushable and stowable, while still maintaining enough shape to look great. All runners and volunteers will receive this good looking hat. We ordered some extra so if you want to pick up an extra for crew, friends or family, you can. A preview of some of the other Afton merch that you can purchase on race day can be found HERE.
—-
Another project we undertook over the winter is something we have wanted to do for a very long time. We are excited to introduce and offer for sale these super cool Afton Trail Run course map and elevation chart art prints. We are producing these prints with a close friend of ours, in his local shop. Each print starts its life as a full sheet of plywood that we are going and picking up, transporting, ripping to size, routing, sanding, printing, packing and transporting to the race(s).
These are being printed with super durable UV inks, on high-quality pieces of 1/2″ baltic birch plywood. Please note that plywood has a lot of character – kind of a contemporary / industrial look. Each print will have its own unique variations of wood grain, and ‘imperfections’ (character). Please note that race courses are subject to change over time, with temporary or permanent reroutes. As a result the race route, elevation, distances and data represented on the print is not meant to be empirical / may change slightly over time. Over time we will update the artwork that we use to print these representing any significant course changes that end up becoming permanent.
17″W X 11″H Afton Trail Run course map $45, elevation chart $45, and 8.5″H X 11″H RSR logo art print(s) $30 each. Place your order by Wednesday July 3 at 11:59PM and we will have your map / chart (s),ready for you to pick up on Saturday at Afton weekend. We will only have time / material to produce 75 orders – so this is on a first come first served basis. We accept cash, check, PayPal and Venmo on race weekend.
If interested, you can place your order HERE https://forms.gle/i4sCymDXGsrMnBpX6
FYI, in the future we hope to get to the point where we will stock a few of these and have them available on our website for purchase as well, but expect them to cost about $10 more due to packaging and shipping.
—-
Photo Credit Mike Wheeler
Remembering Bob Frawley. The Minnesota trail and ultrarunning community is mourning the loss of a very special person. Bob Frawley passed away on June 11th while running the trails at Hyland Park Reserve in Bloomington. Bob was the founder of the FANS 6/12/24 Hour Race, was planning to go for his 30th Voyageur 50 Mile finish this July, volunteered with us / RSR, and had participated in the Afton 50K ten times, including the inaugural race in 1994. A great remembrance was published in the Star Tribune HERE https://www.startribune.com/fans-ultramarathon-bob-frawley-running-courtney-dauwalter-harvey-lewis/600374792/
—-
As always, a huge thank you to the Afton Trail Run sponsors and partners. Please take a moment to click the link and check them out https://www.aftontrailrun.com/sponsors/
If you are not quite ready to get back to what you were doing, linger a few more minutes and get stoked for what’s to come (and maybe say a quick prayer for some sun!) https://www.aftontrailrun.com/photos-2023-highlights/
That is all I have for you today – thank you for your time. We can’t wait to see you all in less than two weeks!
Thank You,
John Storkamp
Race Director
Afton Trail Run