About 165 runners took to the roads of Fairy Stone State Park Saturday, Oct. 3, for the inaugural Fairy Stone 5K, with some participants sporting fairy wings for the occasion.
Runners traveled a 3.1-mile course through several areas of the park, including the campground and yurts.
“The idea for the race came from our secretary, no, treasurer of the Friends Group, Madeleine Saxton. She’s our race director,” said Friends of Fairy Stone State Park President Annabelle Sechrist.
Sechrist said Saxton began planning the event about a year ago, with the race scheduled around swim season and timed to give runners an opportunity to see the park’s changing fall foliage.
“We’re actually just using the roads throughout the park. It’s been measured out to start here, go up to our campground, and back down, and then through our yurts, and back here, and that’s right at 3.1 miles, you know, a 5K distance,” said Park Manager Adam Layman.
Park rangers helped guide runners along the course.
“This is amazing. We are blown away for this to be our first race ever, in the park with the Friends group. The mission of the Friends group is really to support the park in any way that we can. And bridge the gap between the community and the park. There’s a lot of people who have lived here their whole lives and don’t know about all the cool events that happen at the park, and this was one way to get a lot of people here, so we’re really happy about that,” Sechrist said.
The 5K is among several events planned at the park this fall.
“There’s going to be a trunk or treat later this month. There’s going to be the spooky hikes this month, and then next month, we’re going to have the holiday market on Small Business Saturday, and then we’re going to have Festival of Trees later this year in December all of those dates and details can be found on the official state park’s website,” Sechrist said.
Layman said organizers hope the 5K becomes an annual event and eventually grows beyond the race itself.
“We’re just grateful for the Friends group and their dedication to helping make Fairystone a better place for all of our guests. And we’re excited. Being the first year we’re doing this, we had an excellent registration number. I’m really excited about how many people are coming out. And looking forward to not only making this an annual event, but hopefully in the future, making it a full-day event,” Layman said.
