The 15th Dahlgren Heritage Rail Trail 50km was held on Saturday, August 5, 2023. I was the founding race director for this event. In 2016, we added an associated half-marathon race.
I last managed the 50km in 2020 and sold the events to Arsenal Events. They have organized the two races for the past three years.
So, why would someone want to run a 50km or half-marathon in the middle of the summer? The conditions make the 50km a challenge more than the distance. We called the half-marathon 3H hazy, hot, and humid and did not need to add any infrastructure. Anyone complaining about the heat only needs to look at the name.
Race participation has returned since the COVID shutdown. This year there were 260 registrants for the two races, the most in event history.
I plan to run the races I founded or managed until I can’t run anymore. For the past two years, I ran the 50km. Abiding by doctor’s guidance, I’ve stopped running ultras and stepped down to the half-marathon for 2023.
The Dahlgren Railroad Heritage Trail is privately owned and open to the public via a free permit. The trail is 15.7 miles long. Over the years, we used Caledon State Park and the western trailhead as the race venue.
Last year, Arsenal moved the start to the trail’s eastern end. This location takes advantage of the many hotels in restaurants in that area for out-of-town participants.
The King George Campus of the University of Mary Washington is close to the trail. Their parking lot was used for race staging. The Friends of the Dahlgren Trail cut a spur from the staging area to the actual rail trail. Additionally, about 200 meters of pavement was used at the start and finish to get to the spur. Getting to the 15.5-mile post was about .7 miles from the start.
I wanted to run relaxed and not take any chances of tripping. Any finish time would be good. I planned to walk for 2 minutes every 18 minutes. Since the aid stations were 3.3 miles apart, I wore my single-bottle belt with an initial mix of UCAN Energy. I drank every walk break and refilled with water at the turnaround.
I left Fredericksburg at 5:50 am. The weather there was 68 degrees with a 67-degree dew point. During the 40-minute drive, I went through three areas of dense fog. When I arrived in Dahlgren, the temperature had dropped to 65 with a 64-degree dew point. With the forecasted sunny skies, these tied multiple years for the best race conditions. By my expected finish time, the temperature would only rise 10 degrees.
I arrived as the 50km started and waited until they passed to pull into the UMW parking lot.
I wore my Nike Pegasus 37 trail shoes, shorts over compression shorts, my red FARC singlet, and a ball cap. Knowing that the local deer flies liked dark colors, I avoided anything blue from the waist up.
My legs felt OK on the pavement when the gun went off at 7:30 am. Once I hit the spur, my stride became choppy to avoid all the tripping hazards in this area. Once I got on the rail trail, conditions did not improve until reaching milepost 14.5,
I clicked my watch at every milepost that were 1/2 mile apart. To 15.5 was 8:19, then the miles to 10.5 were 11:45, 11:00, 11:35, 11:09, and 11:25. The final section to the turnaround was 9:18 for a first half in 1:14:40. During my outbound walk breaks, I had a group of runners pass me which I passed once running again. Around mile 4, the front runner came back at me; he was at mile 9.
I felt better on my return trip. I could see the trail surface better and pushed some. I was not passed and reeled in 6 or 7 runners. The initial split back to milepost 10.5 was 8:40, and the next 5 miles were 11:24, 10:43, 11:41, 11:22, and 11:11. Once I got to milepost 14.5, I knew the trail conditions worsened and hoped to stay erect. Still, I could maintain a good pace, and from 15.5 to the finish was 7:44. My second half was 1:12:51 for negative splits.
My finish time was 2:27:31, about 7 minutes slower than my February half-marathon on the trail’s western end. I placed 65th overall, 32nd Male, and third Male of four between 60 and 69.
For my third-place finish, I received a nice logoed carry bag.
The temperature at 10 am was 75 degrees with a 70-degree dew point. Most of the course is shaded. There was a noticeable difference when I was in the open sections. For the apocalyptic weather news we are receiving this summer, with “the hottest average world air and ocean temperatures,” the day was lovely and typical of summer in Virginia.
There were burgers, chips, cookies, soda, and beer post-race. I didn’t eat much but appreciated the soda and chips.
Thanks to Arsenal Events for managing this race and the Friends of the Dahlgren Trail for staffing the aid stations and road crossing.