Cloudland Canyon, Millinocket, Prairie Spirit Trail, Rock Candy Mountain + Savannah's Stone Stairs of Death

Races you'll love + some great running reads

Good Sunday morning, my friends! ☀️

Every day really is a winding road, isn’t it? Sometimes you make the right guess, and sometimes you’re wayyyy off. It seems I was the latter when I sent out Wednesday’s newsletter, which included this sentence about my plans for the months ahead:

And as we gear up for running this fall, I’ll be leaning away from lists of races and more into the types of posts I wrote this past spring, like the ones on Louie Zamperini, Teddy Roosevelt, Kara Goucher…

The response I heard from you was fast and fairly unanimous; you enjoy these and want to keep seeing them. And, you know what? That’s awesome to hear — they’re fun to research, and inspire me to dream about amazing places to run too. So, they’ll stay a part of each Sunday newsletter 🙌

I’m opening up this weekend’s issue to everyone; normally these are for paid subscribers only — if you’d like to become one, just click/tap this button and you can save 10% today:

If you’re a new reader, I look for interesting, scenic, challenging events across the U.S. and around the world and share them here every Sunday. As I hope today’s list shows, I look for races you probably wouldn’t hear of otherwise, that teach us something about the place where they’re run, and for places you can make an adventure of.

Have a great rest of your weekend, and if you’re running today I hope you get a great run in, in a place you love. Let me know how it goes!

Your friend,

— Terrell

---

Races you might love running

Rock Candy Mountain Run

Olympia, Wash. | Saturday, September 17, 2022

It’s just three and a half miles to the summit of Rock Candy Mountain, which lies in the Capitol State Forest just a short drive from nearby Olympia. But the vertical climb is 1,800 feet, which organizers say you’ll “run, climb, and probably shuffle along a variety of trails, from single-track to forest road, straight up … the coolest named hill in the area.” Once you’ve made it to the top, you get the relief of running the same course back downhill — one filled with “gnarly roots and rocks which will make anyone smile, or maybe cry” — to the bottom. Where you’ll turn around and run uphill again, over and over… for the next 12 hours!

$60 and up | Sign up here

---

Kansas Rails-to-Trails Extravaganza

Ottawa, Kansas | Saturday, October 29, 2022

A mostly flat and beautifully scenic run along the Prairie Spirit Trail, a 52-mile-long crushed limestone and asphalt trail built on the old Leavenworth, Lawrence and Fort Gibson Railroad here, and which passes by “small towns, shaded woodland canopy, scenic prairies alive with wildflowers, and running beside streams, rivers, neatly-tended fields and family farms.” The race offers six distances — 13.1, 26.2 and 50 miles as well as a 50K, 100K and even a 100-miler, which you’ll have up to 30 hours to finish. Organizers say it’s perfect both for first-timers and for experienced runners looking to PR.

$40 and up | Sign up here

---

The View 25K

North Bend, Pa. | Sunday, November 6, 2022

You’ll need to be ready for a seriously steep uphill challenge at this event, a modified version of another local event known as the “Hyner Challenge” thanks to a course that’s “set up to challenge each individual both mentally and physically,” with 3,000 feet of elevation gain over 15 miles. Organizers add that this race is for “serious” runners and hikers only; you’ll climb up hills through woods and out on wide-open mountain meadows, run splashing through creeks and down narrow mountain trails. It’s open just to the first 400 entrants, so don’t wait if you’re interested.

$45 and up | Sign up here

---

Cloudland Canyon Half Marathon

Rising Fawn, Ga. | Saturday, December 3, 2022

There are still a number of spots left in this stunning run deep into one of the most beautiful places in Georgia, the 3,500-acre Cloudland Canyon State Park — home “to thousand-foot deep canyons, sandstone cliffs, wild caves, waterfalls, cascading creeks, dense woodland and abundant wildlife.” You’ll run down inside its canyons for many of your miles, passing by waterfalls as you run over hills and alongside streams throughout. As the organizers say, “we can not reiterate how beautiful this course is!” (There will also be a 50-miler in addition to the half on Saturday, followed by a 50K and full marathon on Sunday.)

$85 and up | Sign up here

---

Savannah Stone Stairs of Death Race

Savannah, Ga. | Sunday, December 11, 2022

If you’re familiar with New York’s Empire State Building Run-Up — yes, it’s a run up all 86 flights of the iconic skyscraper, for a total of 1,576 stairs — then this might seem easy by comparison (but it’s not!). For this race in downtown Savannah, you’ll run up a staircase known as the “Stone Stairs of Death,” made up of “33 gnarly, steep steps on the western end of River Street,” organizers say. You can run for either one or two hours, completing as many laps up the stairs and a 1/3-mile loop as you can, and all profits are donated to charity. Why would you want to do this? “Good question,” they add, but note that “running these steps are about the best mountain training you'll get at low-elevation Savannah.”

$55 and up | Sign up here

---

Millinocket Half Marathon

Millinocket, Maine | Saturday, December 3, 2022

When the Great Northern Paper Mill closed here almost eight years ago, it left behind a town of some 4,500 people that prides itself as being “Maine’s Biggest Small Town,” grasping for answers on what to do next. The next year, a group of volunteers decided to do what only runners can do — raise the flag about what was happening the town by putting on a marathon and half, and attract as many as possible by making registration completely free. The only catch? That all runners who take part need to spend money in or contribute in some way to the Katahdin Region, a beautifully scenic area in central Maine.

Free | Sign up here

---

A few great reads

The Quiet Glory of Aging Into Athleticism. I’d bet this a common experience for many of you (including me!), as many of us didn’t see ourselves as athletes when we were younger, and probably resisted the label long into our adulthood, even when we were doing what athletes do. Give yourself enough time, however, and old ways of seeing ourselves can fall away, allowing space for new ones to take root:

“How is it, at age 41, that I feel like my body can do more — and that I can take more joy in it — than ever before? I’m not faster, but I’m more resilient. I’m not doing as many overall miles, but I feel stronger. I love it more, and more feels possible.”

72-Year-Old Runner Will Not Let This Race Go. Marge Hickman has finished the legendary Leadville 100 trail race 14 times, but the last time was over a decade ago. Since then, she’s had surgeries on her shoulders, her feet and had a plate inserted into her wrist. One might ask why, after all these years she still attempts to finish it every year; she says she can’t imagine life without it:

“Leadville’s been half my life… It’s in your face — the hand of the mountains just comes out and gets you by the heart and sucks you in… Yeah, I like to read books and stuff, but I’m a doer. My plan is to run on. If they cut my wrist band, I’m just going to keep going. I’m going to finish my race.”

One Minute Mastery: Boost Speed and Endurance in Sixty Seconds. I don’t try running drills very often, as I usually just run at my own natural pace and cadence, and find it difficult (impossible?) to do anything else. But maybe I just haven’t used my imagination enough. This drill, which consists of one minute hard, one minute easy, seems simple enough even for me to try.

👉 Also check out: This year’s best running apps, as tested by CNN editors.

---

Words to run by

“If enough of us keep trying, we'll get someplace.”

— Amelia Earhart

---

One last thing

Keep an eye on your inbox tomorrow, as we’ll be announcing a special new feature that I think you’ll love, will be a lot of fun, and help us share more as a community together. I’m really excited to launch it — you’ll just need our app to participate. To join, download the app below 👇