From the Promoters at Elk Creek
Elk Creek - Mar. 14th, Lebanon, MO.
Elk Creek is coming up this weekend - March 14. We have been working on the course for the last several weekends in the snow and cold and it looks like the race day temperatures will be much better than that - close to perfect. If you have never been to Elk Creek it is very rocky/gravely and is mostly unaffected by moisture. Parking is on a huge flat rock so getting in and out shouldn't be an issue.
The trail holds up well and has enough gristle that it seldom ruts up to the point that someone could get stuck. If it is wet, the fields could be soft but they are wide and all straight shots across them, so it should be easy to stay out of any ruts. With that being said, we rode the course two weeks ago and there was no mud to speak of. There was even some dust coming up by the end of the day. I would have called it just shy of perfect. It should be close to the same come race day.
This years course is slightly shorter than past years - about 10.5 miles this time. We have taken out some of the most used trails and changed things up quite a bit. The first three miles are 95% fresh cut and features a rocky downhill ravine that was simply "too cool" to not use. There is also some nice flowing trail and some of the same old technical rock sections that we always use.
The start will be a bit different than ever before and will have several grass track turns to sort everyone out before they get to the woods. No big creek section this year - too cold for that - so we'll run along the bank with a grass track section that is loamy/sandy and fairly high speed and FUN!
The Pee Wee courses - 2 of them - will be in a different spot than the last couple fo years. They will run next to each other so that parents can watch both courses at the same time. The bigger kids will have a long grass track and a couple of woods sections while the little guys will have ride almost entirely on a grass track. The check points will be next to each other. We're eager to get the season started and look forward to seeing everyone at Elk Creek.