This weekend was our 8th annual Slim Pickins weekend. For the history of Slim Pickins, I recouped that on
Friday. This was the farthest NEO Trail had traveled for a weekend SP run. This occurred since we had been thrown out¹ of
Linn Run, our original destination. The Professor then said he would like to visit Great Seal State Park, which is the park where the
“Not Yo Momma’s” 100 Mile Race takes place in Ohio.
Rich and Kimba got 7 miles on the trails
at Great Seal Park on Friday, to do a bit of a recon before the others
arrived the next day. It was a bit of a challenge to follow the stellar
cartographers that ODNR employs to make maps for state parks in Ohio.
Blogger’s representation of sucky ODNR map
Really, the map was not much better than this.
We did have a nice cozy cabin, over at
Scioto Trail State Park, about fifteen miles away:
For the last few years, NEO Trail has been trying to get a cabin or a
hotel suite where all can gather after the run, break bread, chat, and
other “fairly normal” activities that we are known for.
None of the NEO Trailers had ever been to Great Seal State Park,
which made it a bit difficult to try and describe anything about it. In
fact, where we parked and started was where we thought the 100 mile race
started. We were in the wrong place! Tim Smith, from Middleton, parked
in the correct spot but still managed to find us down trail.
The Polish Surplus had just arrived in the midwest, or heartland, or
whatever you want to call the Buckeye State. It was a warm 15 degree at
the start of Slim Pickins.
We then ran over to conquer Sugarloaf Mountain.
Whew! That was a good climb up Sugarloaf!
Top of Sugarloaf
The guys ponder a cairn. We were doing our best to follow Rob
Carroll, the RD of the “Yo Momma’s” Race along with the ODNR map.
henceforth known as the “sucky map”. There was much stopping and
starting, not listening to the Professor’s navigation tips, and playing
on rocks. We did run into Rob Carroll, who helped show us where we were
on the map.
When we got to our water cache, where Aid Station Two is for the YM
race, it was much more runnable, and hence we did much more running.
It was soon figured out, with all our screwing around, and
compensating for the slowest runner’s pace (Kimba’s) it wasn’t going to
look like a second complete loop was going to happen. Kimba stopped
after one loop and drove The King, The Prof, and Slim over to the
farthest point south to run some more miles. Tim went on to climb
Sugarloaf Mountain and head home. It was nice to share trail with a new
runner-thanks Tim!
The Yo Momma’s course: this is a tough loop. We knew it would be
hilly, but there are a bunch of ups and downs and several big tough
climbs and descents. With the course being multiple loops, this is
indeed a challenging race. We agreed this race was much harder than
Mohican or Burning River.
There was also a run on Sunday morning. We woke up to first snow! We
again tried to follow a ODNR map, which didn’t quite pan out, but we
spotted the fire tower anyways.
We ended running almost five miles on Sunday back to the cabin, a
good way to shake out the kinks and muscles for the long drives home.
The best part about Slim Pickins is saying “see you in a couple of
weeks” as URINEO, our club Fat Ass at Mill Creek Park, is December 20.
Another good time had by all!
¹
we weren’t actually kicked out of Linn Run. We had
reservations, but the park decided to close the cabins down for cleaning
and renovation.
