The 2010 Leatherman's Loop 10k Trail Run is scheduled for Sunday April, 25, 2010 at 9:00am.
Registration is closed for 2010 - the Loop is Full. If you want to get in touch click here.
Visit the official Loop carpool forum to offer or request a ride. Hope we can put some folks together for April 25th!
This is a comprehensive listing of Trail Races in the NY/NJ/PA/CT area for those interested in participating in more trail runs. (http://www.leathermansloop.org/index.php/site/comments/trail_race_listing_for_2010/)
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Loop Training Run #2: Sunday March 14th at 8am
Same day, same time, same place as last week. We had a great run last weekend. Rain or Shine! Hope you can come!
(Sunday 3/14/10, 8:00am - Upper parking lot of Lewisboro Town Park, off Route 35 in South Salem, NY)
PDF map of Ward Pound Ridge Reservation (top part shown above)
Monday, March 08, 2010
Training Run Report: Sunday March 7th
It was a fine day for a run at the reservation! At 8am Sunday morning five intrepid souls met at the upper parking lot at the Lewisboro Town Park to run the trails of the Pound Ridge Reservation. Note: next week - same time (8am Sunday 3/14!), same place, different run!
Virginia, Lee, Aarti, Rob, and Ciorsdan headed up the old ski hill towards the Rez. With week old snow crunching underfoot on this north facing slope the day was crisp and cool with the promise of warmer weather on the way. At the Deer Hollow trail intersection we headed east towards “The Wall.” Heading down the hill we encounter running partners Gerry and Christy. Gerry is a past Loop winner and Christy is training for a 50 mile ultra run! It felt like we were in very good company and checked in to the Loop circuit.
Further down we pass the Waccabuc River and then on to the old quarry sand hill known as “The Wall.” We take a run down it, intending to head straight back up. One of our group asks where the course comes out so we head to the bridge over the river towards the mud flats. The bridge was repaired (built?) many years back by Loop founders Tony Godino and Dave Cope. The river marks the boundary between South Salem (east) and Cross River (west). We turn around and head back up the sand hill, forgoing the mud flats for this day despite the obvious temptation.
At the top of the wall, we head left instead of right on the Deer Hollow trail, making our way further up the hill. The trail alternates between completely snow covered and completely clear, switching between winter and early spring depending on the exposure. Down on the other side, Boutonville Road comes up more quickly than expected and we rejoin the Loop course on the other side. The course follows along the Cross River which is crystal clear and flowing fast. We break out of the trees near Kimberly Bridge and cross the road again. We take a right on the Brown trail heading north, getting off the course once again but heading towards home with a few miles and some big climbs ahead. The slope of the brown trail here is almost like “the wall” except longer and without the shifting sand underfoot. At the bottom it is like a slow moving stream with lots of mud covering the trail. The downhill side is welcome and covered with more crunchy snow since we are on the north face again.
We join up with the Deer Hollow trail again as we cross briefly back onto the Loop course for a few hundred feet. Back past JT Farm on our right and up to the top of the Town Park hill under the power lines that separate the two parks. Back down the ski hill with no skis and to the cars and water.
All those present agreed to meet again and bring friends next week at the same time. Our pace was easy—if we have a few more runners we may split up to go at different paces. This run was just under 5 miles but we can work out a course anywhere from 2 to 6+ miles before heading out. Hope more folks reading this can join us! Respond at the website or via facebook. We will meet at 8am at the upper parking lot of the Lewisboro Town Park.
Link to Ward Pound Ridge Trail Map (pdf at site)
Ward Pound Ridge Reservation County Park Information Page
Friday, March 05, 2010
Groups at the Loop in 2010
A big part of the fun on Leatherman’s Loop day is the groups that come to participate. They range from families to work groups to causes. This year is no different.
They come with custom t-shirts, dressed up in suits and ties, or simply ride together. If you have any photos you’d like to share of your group, please send it to us at leathermansloop at gmail.com.
Below are some photos of groups:
Three generations of the Offermann family ran last year and are ready to go again this year!
Team Doug is running in memory of Doug Gorman.
The George C. Fund team is running in memory of George Chatzoupolous.
The Essex Running Club hails from Essex County, NJ.
The Barleycorn Athletic Club.
The Cool Runners:
Some other groups we know of are below - send us photos!
The Bimbler’s Sound team joins us from Guilford CT (and the surrounding areas) and has a great series of races up there each year.
The Montefiore team comes from Montefiore Medical Center in NYC.
If you are running (or have run) in a group at the Loop, shoot us a photo of your group/team in shirts or outfits and we will update this post with your photo.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Anyone up for a training run?
Doing part of the Loop course… runners choice! Reminder: This weekend! Sunday March 7th at 8am. Meet at the Lewisboro Town Park off of Route 35 in South Salem, NY. Park in the upper parking lot (overlooking the baseball field) as described in these posts:
http://www.leathermansloop.org/index.php/site/comments/lewisboro_town_park_trails_-_joining_up_with_the_loop_trails/
http://www.leathermansloop.org/index.php/site/comments/lewisboro_town_park_trails_-_joining_up_with_the_loop_trails_-_western_loop/
Both of these runs are about 4 miles and can be added to or subtracted from easily.
Once runners are there we can decide to take on the Western Loop (wet, with first stream crossing) or Eastern Loop (mud flats, the wall). We can also decide to run to the Old Field Preserve across the street as described in this post:
http://www.leathermansloop.org/index.php/site/comments/where_do_you_train_old_field_preserve. Old Field is mostly on a hill so not as muddy or wet but everything will depend on the weather in the days prior to the run!
Depending on how many folks show up we may split up to run at different paces. I will be in the slower group!
Post here in the comments (or on Facebook) if you are interested in this trail training run. Thanks! -Rob
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Loop Article in LoHud.com
Check the recent Leatherman’s Loop article in LoHud.com (part of the Journal News, Sunday February 14, 2010). Featuring a brief Q&A with Tony Godino.
http://www.lohud.com/article/20100214/NEWS02/2140309/1018/NEWS02/Leatherman-s-Loop-entering-its-24th-year
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Old Leather Man Talk at Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield CT February 21st
From 4-6PM on Sunday, February 21st, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT is hosting a talk featuring an an exhibition titled “Jeanne C. Finley & John Muse: Sleeping Under the Stars, Living Under the Satellites.” Author Dan DeLuca will also discuss his research and read passages from his book about The Old Leather Man.
From the site (http://www.aldrichart.org/events/?id=566):
In the nineteenth century, a wandering vagrant known as the Leatherman (due to his sixty-pound handmade suit) spent thirty years walking a 365-mile clockwise circuit every thirty-four days through towns in New York and Connecticut. The Leatherman is one of the local historical figures whose daily routines are examined in the exhibition Jeanne C. Finley & John Muse: Sleeping Under the Stars, Living Under the Satellites.
Join historian and author Dan DeLuca as he reads passages and tells us about the process of creating his book, The Old Leather Man: Historical Accounts of a Connecticut and New York Legend, followed by a book signing.
Lecture price is free for Museum members, $10 for non-members. You can register online to attend.
( ⇒ click here for full article...)Posted by leathermansloop on 02/13 at 06:07 AM
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Leatherman Featured on LCTV
Lewisboro Community Television (LCTV, local channel 20) is featuring two Leatherman programs in its current program rotation.
The two shows are “The Road Between Heaven and Hell” which is a 1984 documentary about the Old Leather Man produced by the Connecticut Humanities Council. It is around 30 minutes long. We posted an article about the documentary last year with links to the documentary on YouTube. The TV version quality is much better than the YouTube version but for those outside the local cable area the online version is worthwhile.
The second show is a video from 2005 of the Leatherman’s Loop 10k Trail Run from a runner’s perspective. It is about 5 minutes long and follows the documentary after about 10 minutes of the Lewisboro Rec Department update. The Loop video has been featured at this website for the last few years.
Program time and date details are here: http://www.acorn-online.com/joomla15/lewisboroledger/community/lctv-guide.html
Enjoy!
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Loop 2010 Registration Stats
Once again New York City leads in the number of Loop registrants. Ridgefield, CT is #2 by itself, but if you combine the various Bedford addresses (Bedford, Bedford Hills, Bedford Corners), they take over the #2 spot. Pound Ridge and South Salem rank 4th and 5th. Both Pound Ridge (Kimberly Bridge to water stop) and South Salem (mud flats through ‘the wall’) contain sections of the Leatherman’s Loop. Katonah, Brooklyn, Darien, New Caanan, and Stamford round out the top 10.
More than 70% of the Loop—including the start and end—is in Cross River NY which was tied for 24th in registrations. Cross River, South Salem, Goldens Bridge (#23), Waccabuc (#43), and Vista are all part of the town of Lewisboro NY.
Harrington Park and Wyckoff were the top NJ towns (tied at #38). There are nearly 300 different towns and cities represented by runners in the Loop.
Top states are NY, NJ, and CT. Together these three states accounted for 94% of the registrations for the 2010 Loop. Next was MA, then VT.
The surprise this year is in the #6 spot: Nebraska! No, this is not a typo—we are getting a visit from six members the Leatherman Family: Eric, Zach, Andy, and Daniel along with two significant others. They are not only our first registrants ever from Nebraska, they are also the first Leathermen since the late 1880s to run the Loop!
We will also have representatives from 15 other states plus a runner from the UK. Tennessee and Pennsylvania each have 3 runners. Washington, Maine, Kansas, and Illinois have two runners each. We have one runner registered from Wisconsin, Rhode Island, New Mexico Maryland, Louisiana, Washington DC, Colorado, and California. All total there are 21 states and two countries represented in this year’s Loop! That equals last year (with some different states) and is up 50% in state representation from 2008.
Friday, February 05, 2010
Registration Finished - On To Carpooling!
Registration is Closed. We have a long waiting list. Click the link at the bottom of this note or the top of the website to get your name added to the waiting list via the contact form. Chances are “slim to none” for entry off the list this year but we will put your email on our notification list for next year.
It has taken over a month but we have gone through and contacted runners we are aware of who tried on 1/1/2010 and were unable to register for technical reasons. We were not able to accommodate everyone but we did fit in a lot more people than we could have originally hoped due to the Pound Ridge Reservation’s willingness to work with us and expand the running field. Absent that, a lot more people would have been disappointed and unable to run this year. This was a massive undertaking as we fielded in excess of 1,200 individual emails and sent almost as many responses. Needless to say, this was not part of our registration plan for the Loop!
If you did not make it in this year we are sorry—but we can point you to many other fantastic trail races nearly every weekend in the tri-state area.
CARPOOLING—which we think is the most fun way to attend the Loop anyway—will be even more important this year. PLEASE try to come with more than one runner in your car! We realize it may be hard for some folks to do this but if you can it will help in so many ways. Last year we had a late effort at coordinating carpools that we think got a few people matched up.
This year you can visit the official Loop carpool forum: http://www.leathermansloop.org/index.php/forums/viewforum/6/ to offer or request a ride. You need to be registered as a leathermansloop.org website member (which is very easy to do) in order to post an offer or request. Hope we can put some folks together!
Other Miscellaneous Items:
If you would like to order a t-shirt, click here: http://www.allsportcentral.com/estore/index.cfm?EventID=21703. T-shirts will be available for pickup on the day of the Loop.
If you want to check your registration status, click here: http://www.allsportcentral.com/ec/events/entrants.cfm?EventID=21703 and search for your name.
If you have any questions, please contact us using the website form. We appreciate your help and patience!
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Continue the Mud into May!
You can continue the Mud into May with the Muddy Marathon (a 6.55 mile loop) on May 1, 2010. Also has 1 Loop and 2 Loop options. (http://sites.google.com/site/xxctrailseries/winter)
From the website: (http://sites.google.com/site/xxctrailseries/muddymarathon)
The trail course is 6.55 Miles with over 1600’ of elevation gain and loss which begins inside Craigmeur Recreation Complex, running through wooded paths, old ski trails and open fields. It then transitions through non-blazed trails into the woods to meet up with the Four Birds Trail. It follows this Trail up the ridge and for approximately 2 miles before switching over to another non-blazed path in a return route to Craigmeur. The course will be marked with flour, survey flags and live volunteers. 2 water / aid points, one approximately at 1.8 miles and the second at approximately 5 miles. There is also food and aid at the start finish area.
Random fact: The race is in Newfoundland, NJ which is featured in the independent film “The Station Agent.”
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Bimbler’s Bash 10k Trail Run
Our friends in Guilford, CT host a great trail run called the Bimbler’s Bash 10k in early April each year. The upcoming Bimbler’s Bash will be held on April 11th, 2010. Mark it on your calendar to have a muddy April Trail Month!
Seven time Loop winner Kerry Arsenault is a Guiford resident and one of the organizers of the Bash. Many members of the Bimbler’s Sound running group make the trek down each year to run in the Leatherman’s Loop. Look for them with their distinctive logo shirts!
If you get really ambitious, the group sponsors an Trail Race in October called The Bimbler’s Bluff 50k. That’s a lot of trail!
Working Through Interrupted Registrations
The registration from this point forward is an ‘invitational’ style registration. Invitations have gone out to those runners who contacted us on registration day (1/1/2010) about problems they encountered during registration attempts while the registration was open.
( ⇒ click here for full article...)Posted by leathermansloop on 02/02 at 06:59 AM
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Loop T-Shirt History
We’ve collected a bunch of of logos and t-shirt designs from the Leatherman’s Loop. More shirts to be added later! Many of the t-shirts were designed and drawn by longtime loop participant and artist Tim Parshall. Last year the shirt was designed and painted by local artist and teacher Heather Kranz.
They are now in order from 2002-2009. Some years have multiple colors. The first image is from the course map display built by 20+ year loop runner Bill Bradsell.
We also know that there are a number of custom t-shirts that groups have made over the years especially for the Leatherman’s Loop. Groups or individuals who have crafted special t-shirts (or other garments) please send us your logo or a shot of your creation—either close-up or modeled by a member (or members) of your group.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
2010 Doug Wood 5K XC Trail Run and Fun Run
Two of our multi-Loop runners are the race directors of this Long Island Trail Run on the North Shore a few weeks before the Leatherman’s Loop. The run is put on by the Northport Running Club. (http://www.nrcrun.org)
The Wood Run is a spectacular way to shake off the winter fat. The race will draw both athletes and hikers looking for a challenge. Walkers are welcome. Doug Wood ran the Makamah Trails because of the wide variety of routes, views and wildlife. This venue has it all: Challenging trails, Fast straight paths, and a sprint finish at the Norwood School. Run it once and you will want to come back.
Benefit: The funds raised from this event will go to the Doug Wood Scholarship Fund. This annual award will be presented to a graduating male and female Northport High School athlete (chosen by the NHS director of athletics) to financially aide in their college goals.
Details:
2010 Doug Wood 5K XC Trail Run and Fun Run
Saturday, April 10th, 2010
Start 9:00AM, 8:30AM Fun Run
Location: Norwood Avenue School, Northport NY
Registration through Active.com
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