Death by Staircase, Trail Community and Lifelong Friendships

 

The Beginning 

In order to discuss the origins of the Death by Staircase Trail Festival, I think it is important to start with the true origins of Mountain Dog Running. In 2015, I was running at Kinns Park a couple times a week and sometimes heading into the mountains on a day off after finding an interesting trail on google. I had spent a decent amount of time on trails and never seen a trailrunner before. 

On June 9th 2015, I got a strava comment from some guy, and after exchanging a couple emails, I got in this stranger's car one morning and headed to Moreau Lake State Park and the rest is history. 

I think newer trailrunners may not understand how much the trail running community has grown over the years. For years after this, I could count on one hand the number of trailrunners I saw on the trail; If you crossed paths, you would stop and exchange info because there were that few people with a shared interest.

To me, this was the driving factor of creating Mountain Dog Running. To bring like minded people together, in shared experience, to create new bonds. We may be wired a bit differently, but make no mistake, there are a lot of us. 
 

 

Death by Origin Stories 

After 2 Moreau Halfs and the first Grafton 15k, we wanted to mix up the palette with a different kind of event. Timed events usually involve looped courses, tasking runners with completing as many loops as they can within a given time limit. This replaces the sense of remote exploration and discovery usually associated with trails with more familiarity and hearth. A base camp to always return to, with familiar faces. 

Of course, where else to hold such an event other than the infamous Staircase of Death at Moreau Lake State Park! The original idea involved giving runners tokens at the top of the staircase to return with after completing a lap. This idea was scrapped due to fear of runners losing their tokens on the technical return trip, but evolved into our famous lap counting system!

 

The Vision 

Renaming the “race” to a “Trail Running Festival”, we envisioned an event bringing runners together, whether they were running 12 hours, joining a relay team or just showing up for a couple of laps and hanging out. It can be an all out sufferfest performance, a catered workout with great company or a casual run with friends.

Our “Fun Run” option allows the runner to complete up to 3 laps, starting at any time during the event. 

The 6 and 12 hour options allow both team and solo participation 

Our goal for the event is to both celebrate the connections made within the community, and form new ones.

 

Three Years of Death 

Death by Staircase has easily been the most fun for us to race direct. While most races only allow us to see a few runners beyond the start and finish, we get to spend the entire day with our runners and even run the course with them! 

Some highlights over the years include: 

Two 12 hour runners completing 12 loops(and one juuuuust missing it). That's nearly 47 miles and 12,000 feet of gain! 

A 12 hour runner ordering a pizza and taking a 2 hour nap mid race 

Multiple runners showing up in the afternoon to run a few laps after completing a different race in the morning 

Two 7 loop 6 hour runners(27 miles and 7000 feet of gain) 

And too many more to list! 

 

Call to Arms 

I’ll conclude this with some asks from the race directors. 

1) Join a team! We don’t get nearly enough teams signed up for this event, this is the most fun way to run and how we get to experience it every year. You get to run a super fun loop as hard as you want to, then rest, refuel, cheer and hang out until it's your turn to head out again! 

2) Volunteer! This is a challenging event to manage and we always need more help. The unique part about volunteering for this event is you get to participate as well! The race directors have put in nearly 20 miles and 5000 feet of gain over the course of the day while directing the race. Create a “volunteer team” to challenge the MDR team. 

3) Hit the trail and find some like minded people. This is a sport that often necessitates a lot of solitude, but camaraderie is just as necessary and you aren’t the only one with this crazy hobby.

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