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Saturday 13 October 2007 Front Royal, VA  5K race at 8:30 AM 1 mile fun run at 8:35 |
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 (New course map & more accurate elevation profile posted on 4 October!) Both events are run on paved roads in western Front Royal. All roads will be open to traffic (although the Front Royal police will be blocking off a lane for us along Route 340/South Royal Avenue), so please use caution! The accurately measured 5K course begins at the front steps of the Luray Avenue School (formerly Warren County High School, now being renovated for use as a middle school). Heading down the hill from the school, you'll turn right onto Luray Avenue, then take a sharp right onto Lee Street, a left onto Prospect Street, and then a right onto South Royal Avenue (Route 340), staying in the right lane on South Royal (it'll be coned off for us). Mile one is on South Royal as you begin coming downhill towards the Criser Road stoplight. At the 7-Eleven, turn right onto Criser Road and head down, down, down towards the intersection with Luray Avenue. You'll continue straight through the intersection and immediately head up a short but steep hill as Criser Road becomes Kerfoot Avenue. Kerfoot is gently rolling for the next half mile, and then flattens out a bit as you pass mile two near the Skyline SoccerPlex and a bunch of new townhomes. About a quarter mile later, Kerfoot Avenue curves sharply to the right and becomes West Main Street, heading uphill past Randolph-Macon Academy and then quickly downhill towards the center of town. Way down at the bottom of the hill, you'll turn right onto Luray Avenue at St. John's Catholic Church. It's all uphill on Luray Avenue from here! Mile three is just past Bowman Park, and the finish is on Luray Avenue down in front of the school (just before Oak Ridge Court). If you want to do some pre-race studying, you can check out a large version of the simple course map above (the 5K route is in yellow, the fun run is in blue). And if you want to take an even closer look, we've got a detailed map in Adobe PDF format (336 KB). And here's a look at the elevation profile of the 5K course:  The miles will be marked; we're hoping to mark the half-miles too. Turns will be marked with chalk, arrows drawn in the road with flour, traffic cones, surveyor's flags, or some combination thereof. Since this is a rather low-key affair, we're not sure we'll be able to have a volunteer stationed at every turn... but most of the turns come early in the course, and once you turn onto Criser Road at mile 1.1, there's only one turn left (onto Luray Avenue at mile 2.9). The 5K course records are 16:31 (Kevin Shirk, 2004) and 20:27 (Ruth Riemenschneider, 2000). The noncompetitive and informal 1 mile family fun run/walk starts and finishes in front of the high school steps and heads out and back along Luray Avenue down toward the Shenandoah River. You can turn around at the marked half-mile point, or you can keep going for another 260 yards or so to pass under the Norfolk Southern railroad bridge and reach the |
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| The Festival of Leaves 5K Web pages are maintained by Karsten Brown. |
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