Carol's Fat Ass

Well, if anybody could take a joke about her butt, it was Carol, so we're going with the name without apology.

Date: Saturday, July 30, 7:15 AM.

Start Location: Klondike Park, St. Charles County between Defiance and Augusta.

Distance: 48K (because I turn 48 a week later). Easily shortened by skipping later loops or by joining when the run gets back to Klondike.

Entry fee: None (donations to Carol's Team accepted or you could chip in to Carol's Fund)

Shirt: None

Awards: None

Surface: 50% technical singletrack, 35% crushed gravel/dirt road, 15% paved.

Hills: Yes.

Pre-registration: appreciated, especially if staying for the BBQ. Easy registration form here.

Support: Unmanned water drops at 5, 10, 15 miles. Basic food and water on each 2.5-mile lap after that. Post race: Birthday BBQ for Eric. Start around noon. Burgers, brats, and cake provided. BYOB and a side/salad/sweet. Please, no gifts unless it's something we can all share.

Kids & significant others: most welcome at the post-race. It would be super great if a few extras were around to watch the supplies and Yaya during the run. Yaya is used to camping and shouldn't require much supervision. The supplies pretty much take care of themselves, but have been known to wander off if left unattended.

Camping: Available at Klondike Park. I have sites B9 and B10 reserved. First three folks to indicate they want to camp on the pre-reg can get in on that reservation. Otherwise, reserve another site through St. Charles Parks. The start/finish/post-race will all be at the picnic area right across the park road from the camp.

Alternate start: If you don't camp, you won't be able to get into the park until they open the gate at 7AM. Alternatively, you can park at the boat launch, which is about a mile and a half into the run and pick up the group there. Or, you could run the trail into the park and make it a full 50K.

Course: From the campsite, take the paved connector to the Katy. Katy to Matson (gravel), then up Matson Hill Road (paved/dirt) to the Matson Hill trailhead (5.3 miles, water). Run a full clockwise loop of the Matson Hill Trail (singletrack) to get back to the trailhead (10.2 miles, water). Go back to Klondike the way you came, but at the boat launch take the right fork of the trail to get to the park entrance off Hwy 94 (14.9 miles, water). Run the full length of the Hogsback trail (singletrack). Turn right onto the bike path (paved) and follow down the steep hill, through the conference center lot, and back to the start/finish (17.0 miles, food, water). Continue on the bike path to the 94 entrance and run Hogsback to the picnic area as before (19.6 miles, food, water). Do three more laps of the bike path/Hogsback (27.9 miles, food, water). Finally, head out on the western trails (singletrack): Powerline, Donjo, Strip Mine and a clockwise loop of Donkey Kong then back on Strip Mine, Donjo and Powerline (29.8 miles) and you're done! Course markings will be sparse; maps will be posted at the water stops. You can also download/print some good maps from GORC's website. Distances are close, but have not been measured to standards.