The first Urban Wilderness 50K runs a loop through seven parks on Saturday
A new trail race starts at the Gateway Park at 7:30: thirty-one miles and close to four thousand feet of climbing through the Urban Wilderness, with a 10K at nine for everyone else. Registration closes Wednesday night.
- When
- Sat Oct 10 · 50K at 7:30 AM · 10K at 9 AM
- Start
- Urban Wilderness Gateway Park · 1515 Tilson St
- Cost
- $86.50 for the 50K · $40 for the 10K · register at ultrasignup.com by Wed Oct 7, 11:59 PM
- Packet pickup
- Fri Oct 9, 4 – 8 PM at SouthSide Garage, 1014 Sevier Ave · race-morning pickup from 6:30
- The 50K
- A counterclockwise loop through seven parks and natural areas, Ijams Nature Center included · five aid stations
- The 10K
- A figure-eight to the top of View Park · one aid station
- Weather
- Sunny start, partly sunny and 82 by afternoon
Knox County has never had a trail 50K. It gets one Saturday morning, when the Urban Wilderness 50K leaves the Gateway Park at the end of James White Parkway at 7:30 and heads out on a thirty-one-mile loop that touches four city parks, a wildlife management area and three pieces of private trail land, Ijams Nature Center, the Drop Inn and the Helix trails among them. The organizers put the climbing at close to four thousand feet. A 10K leaves the same line at nine and runs a figure-eight up to View Park for the look at Chilhowee Mountain and the Smokies.
Where the course goes
The race's own description of the opening miles: a half mile of greenway to spread the field out, the first climb of the day up Red Bud, a descent through Rendezvous past the Drop Inn cabins, then into Ijams Nature Center for the rolling climbs on Burnett Ridge and Ross Marble and a gentle stretch through the Hickory Loop. If you are out on those trails Saturday morning, expect runners, and give them the line.
The practical part
Registration closes Wednesday, October 7, at 11:59 PM, and the race shirt deadline has already passed. Packet pickup is Friday from four to eight at SouthSide Garage on Sevier Avenue, which the race prefers to the race-morning line; bibs are also available at the start from 6:30 until fifteen minutes before each gun. Volunteers sign up through the same site.
