Thirteen years ago, some friends and I scouted out a five-mile course through Buckeye Woods Park in rural Medina County. The purpose was to hold a new free, fat-ass after-Thanksgiving ultramarathon run. Participants would run six such loops plus one more mile to make it to 50K, or cut that in half for 25K. Runners could also just show up and run as much or as little as they wanted.
And run they did. Folks came from all over to join the fun. Although there was no fee, we made them join the Medina County Road Runners in order to be official. The race was small and informal enough that I was able to act as Race Director yet also participate in the run. Eventually, I was able to hand those awesome RD duties off to others, but I've still (mostly) continued to run.
The race has continued to prosper, although there have been up and down years. I've managed to complete the 50K ten times (including the one Summer edition). Other times, I ran somewhat less than 50K, but once (and I'll never live this one down) missed the race entirely because I was traveling.
This year, 2023, we had a pretty good group. I'm glad to see the race doing so well!
Here are the results:
~ Dan Horvath