ST. LOUIS – The 2016 Marmot Trail Run Series continues this week at Castlewood State Park for the second race of the month. Last week, nearly 240 runners tackled our first course. This week, we’ll up the mileage just a little bit. The big change, though, we’ll be a second climb.
Runners will start at the traditional race headquarters just past the Kiefer Creek Bridge before immediately crossing the street and heading along the south side of the creek for nearly half a mile. As they reach the section of trail normally used for our water crossing, they’ll make a U-turn and head up the backside of the Lone Wolf Trail up to its junction with the River Scene Trail high on the bluffs overlooking the Meramec River. We’ll avoid the steepest descents of this trail and head down the bike trail meeting up with where we started.
The course isn’t done yet. You’ll cross the road and hit our Clif Bar Nutrition Station for a quick energy boost before heading on to Grotpeter briefly followed by a left up the stairs at the Fern Glen Connector. This short and steep quarter mile will bypass the longer switchback we took last week, depositing us back on Grotpeter for roughly a half mile before you’ll make another left turn on the Midway/Office Connector for one of the fastest descents in the park.
Cross the road at the Ranger’s Station and hit the remaining two tenths of a mile to the creek and to the finish line!
The course map is below, including the elevation profile. We look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday!
