Shared by Justyn Cox/ Annette B. Bareford, as Guest Blogger.

What better way to celebrate National Public Lands Day than a run through Caledon State Park, September 27th 9:30a.m. - 11:30a.m.

Running through shady old growth forests

So now we have the name Howlin Coyote, and we have the idea of how we want the race to proceed. We chose the 10km distance because there were very few races of that distance locally.  We were already the only trail race on the Race Timing Unlimited calendar with the exception of another 15k in Fredericksburg, everything else was 5km or Half Marathon,  6.2 miles seemed great.  It would not overly stress out the staff with logistics and we could concentrate on the customer service aspects of the race. We chose to keep the race fee as low as possible.  There were races I ran annually because they were inexpensive and a good time. We wanted the "Coyote" to be like that.  We wanted good “schwag” for the finishers so we chose coins over medals. I knew that the most fun races had good music at start time, and lots of food afterwards.  Many local races put out bananas, oranges, and bottled drinks at the end of their race but I always remembered the races that put out real food along with the fruit.  We chose a signature dish: Chili! My park family is good with chili, and we know how to make lots of it!  The hardest thing to do however was the race shirt.  Good race shirts (technical materials) are expensive and we wanted to keep the race inexpensive, so we made the shirt an option.  Sammy chose a great logo and with his artistic eye made it into something the entire staff and volunteer group could be proud.

 Almost 100 runners take off

The Inaugural year of the Howlin’ Coyote was better than I expected.  At almost 100 racers we were already larger than most of the established local races!  We had very few race shirts left over, all the food was eaten, we had great comments from all the runners, and no one got injured or lost on the trails.  I heard many comments about the difficulty of the course (some said really hard and they loved it and others said too easy but still liked the race) but generally everyone was happy. The only complaint was I had miscalculated the distance of the race and missed a turn putting the final distance at 6.04 miles.  If you make a mistake measuring your trail race, better to make it too long versus too short! But we straightened it our before the next race! And we did add the Wiley Pup 1 Mile Kids Trail Dash, for runners from 5-13 years of age.

We are almost ready for year three of the Howlin’ Coyote 10k Trail Race and Wiley Pup Kids Trail Dash.  Autumn is a great season for races and the Caledon is gorgeous in late September.  I hope the weather behaves and the runners have fun.  One of these years I am going to run this race myself!  Thank you to Sasha and Roscoe for getting me started! 

Justyn Cox and the US Marine Corps EGA (Eagle, Globe and Anchor) Run

On a personal note from me (Annette) I want to thank Justyn for all his hard work, he is one of our best volunteers. Being married to the park manager and living in the park comes with some great perks but so many times spouses and families of staff get volunteered into helping with all kinds of things. I know my own husband Gary gets drafted all the time!  I have never heard Justyn complain about anything we have asked him to do. He always put his all into whatever it is with great enthusiasm! And thank you to the pups, (below) there is just way too much cuteness going on there!

Roscoe P. Coltrane in his backyard

If you would like to compete in the Howling Coyote Run please click here. To bring your kids out for the Wiley Pup Trail Dash please call the park (540)663-3861. Caledon State Park is located in King George County near Fredericksburg. Click here for a Google map