BALLWIN, MO. – The 5k and 10k courses for the Alpine Shop Castlewood Challenge Trail Run have been announced today, showcasing the wide variety of terrain that Castlewood State Park in St. Louis County offers.
The 5k trail will stay mainly to the North of Kiefer Creek Rd., and follow the Grotpeter trail in a counter-clockwise manner for most of it’s entirety, giving the runners one main ascent and descent over the course of the roughly 5k course. See the blue trail on the map below.
The 10k trail will head immediately to the southeast, along Kiefer Creek Rd., under the train tracks and turn right onto the trail to the River Scene Trail connector towards the staircase. Runners will tackle the stairs and then follow the Lone Wolf Trail down the back side of the park. Instead of crossing the creek like most of our trails during this summer’s Trail Run Series, we’ll follow Lone Wolf on the South side of Kiefer Creek back to – and across- the road and meet up with the start of the 5k trail. The 5k and 10k trails start the same and end the same on the Grotpeter. In between, however, the 10k trail takes a 1.4 mile detour on The Rollercoaster, the aptly named rolling section of trails near the Northern-most section of the park.
Pre-Registration is still available through Thursday, November 14, here. If there are still spots available, registration will be available before the race on Saturday, Nov. 16. Please note, we are under a strict cap of 150 racers by the park and do expect to sell out.
I very much enjoyed the Castlewood Trail Run sponsored by Alpine Shops. Hope this comment makes it back to the sponsors/Fleet Feet, etc. I am a veteran of over 1100 races over 35 yeas but have never raced in St. Louis, nor a “mostly trail” run… enjoyed it much. I was 3rd overall in 5K but lost probably 30 seconds due to getting lost on the trail twice (not understanding that the orange tape meant “don’t go here”!) Also my stopwatch had me at 28:21, while official time had me at 28:26- chip time. The young man who was given 2nd at 28:25 crossed the start several seconds before me, as I did not overtake him until halfway through the race… so I am puzzled as to why his time was 1 sec faster, given that I finished before him (a group of 4 or 5 of us sprinted to a great finish)… I was actually coming from the pavement, my 2nd (lost) error, and was sprinting from an angle, 100 yards from the finish… it was hilarious. Oh well, just thought I would add my comments… it was a good memory (Rod Phillips, Branson, 64). By the way, check out our run club here in SW MO: omrr.org