Hi everyone!
How about that weather, huh??
Our goal with this race has always been simple: to create the kind of race we would want to be a part of. Every year, our racers have delivered, and this year was yet another example of what we’re capable of when we come together and believe in each other.
Over and over again this weekend, we heard you answer our call for community. You supported each other, you cheered each other on. Watching you all at the finish line, being present and sharing this experience with one another, was amazing. From our volunteers to your fellow racers to the horseback riders who shared the trail with you, we heard nothing but praise for how kind and gracious everyone was. Thank you for helping us create the sort of race that we can be proud of!
Across the four distances, there were 220 starters and 211 finishers – a truly impressive finishing rate for such difficult conditions! No matter how your day unfolded, we know that adventures were had, lessons were learned, and new plans began to take root. (Probably the plan to never do this again, because wow, that was hard! But now that a few days have passed, we bet you’ve started wondering again…)
Every single one of our 50K women’s training program participants finished, and we expected nothing less. This idea to have 50 Women Run 50K seemed so audacious when we first conceived of it, and having surpassed that goal twice now is both inspiring and validating. We knew you could do it! We knew that all it would take to see an equal share of men and women was an open door and a little nudge. It’s deeply fulfilling to stand at each start line and look out at all of you, knowing what you’ll be able to achieve. You just needed to take a chance.
Thank you, every one of you, for taking that chance: on yourselves, on each other, on us. Thank you to our phenomenal volunteers, who spent their precious time to be with us in the woods on such a special day. Thank you to our friends at St. Croix State Park for letting us come back year after year.
Extra special thanks go out to Coach Nora at Team Bird Training, who has helped us for two years now to make that start line look more like the communities around us, and Jeff (and team!), whose film we’ll be waiting for with much anticipation.
A couple of quick housekeeping notes:
- If you write up a race report to a blog we’d love to see it and share it on our race report page! Just send us a link and we’ll add it to our list: https://firetowertrailraces.com/race-details/race-reports/
- Race photos are shared here: https://firetowertrailraces.com/race-details/race-photos/
- Our Fire Tower Overachievers are here: https://firetowertrailraces.com/fire-tower-overachievers/
We hope that Saturday brought you as much pride and joy as it did us, and we can’t wait to see you all on the trails again soon!
Gratefully yours,
Jamison and Lisa
Fire Tower Trail Races 