-
Hagerstown ,
Maryland,
United States - November
- 50 miles
- Road Race
- Event Website
John
Albany, New York, United StatesOverall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
2014 marks the 52nd running of the JFK 50 miler, the oldest ultra marathon in the country.
This race has almost every type of terrain. The first couple miles are on roads, straight up hill! About 1/2 the field will just walk the this section, not wishing to get too tired out for the rest of the race. In fact, the course goes up almost 1200 feet in the first 5.5 miles!
After this section, the race goes on to the Appalachian Trail for some VERY technical trail running, until 15.5 miles. Then comes the canal path! The next 27 miles are perfectly flat, on crushed stone, along the C/O Canal. Many people hate this section, but I personally love it.
You leave the Canal at mile 42 and hit the roads. The last 8 miles are on paved country roads, with lots of rolling hills. It's amazing, but you will actually like running up hills at this point. Just because your legs are so tired of running perfectly flat for so long!
The aid stations are amazing. Everybody working at them are incredible, and they always let you know exactly how far until the next aid station. In fact, there are stops every mile for the last few miles. Which is great -- you just run from aid station to aid station.