Under the Radar Races: Many on the Genny

[Author’s Note: This article is the first in an 11-part series in AJW’s Taproom celebrating under the radar races.]

Every July, Letchworth State Park in Western New York state is residence to the Many on the Genny, a 45-mile path race that traverses the park and runs alongside either side of the gorge created by the raging Genesee River.

Letchworth State Park itself is a beloved park. Nicknamed the “Grand Canyon of the East,” it encompasses 17 miles of the Genesee River and was named America’s finest state park within the 2015 “USA As we speak” Readers’ Selection Awards.

The brainchild of race administrators Eric and Sheila Eagan, Many on the Genny is billed as:

“A 45-ish-mile path extremely utilizing either side of the well-known gorge in Letchworth State Park. With 90% of the course off roads, you’ll traverse singletrack, fields, foot bridges, and bridle paths. You’ll expertise stunning vistas, quad busting climbs, and most significantly a grassroots, group pleasant occasion. Within the type of old skool ultras, this race comes with a necessity for self-sufficient runners.”

Runners out on the Many on the Genny course. Picture: Ron Heerkens Jr

Regionally owned and operated by the nonprofit TrailsRoc group, all proceeds from Many on the Genny are donated again to the park to help path constructing and upkeep. As well as, Eric and Sheila cap the race at 150 runners and don’t enable pacers as they try to attenuate the impression of the occasion on the park trails. Lastly, your complete occasion is totally staffed by unpaid volunteers from the local people. It’s a tried-and-true grassroots occasion.

The Eagans grew up going to the park, and after a cross-country journey they’d deliberate was unexpectedly canceled, they determined to spend every week mountaineering and working each inch of the park. They invited members of the native path group to affix them for morning and night outings and had been amazed that folks got here to affix them every single day.

By the top of the week, Sheila exclaimed, “Ya’ know, there actually ought to be an occasion that may showcase what we simply noticed, the hidden trails, the key waterfalls, the highest of the gorge to the underside of the canyon, all of it.”

And with that, they went residence, taped collectively a map of the sections, and Many on the Genny was born.

Eric notes that, like all occasion, Many on the Genny will not be with out its challenges. There are distant sections of the park that usually want vital path work earlier than the occasion, because the gorge ferns develop like a rain forest in the summertime and overtake the path.

There may be additionally a dam for flood management, and there are occasions when the dam is closed, and elements of the course are submerged underwater. Lastly, there’s additionally little to no mobile phone protection, and in some locations the park police radios don’t even work, so the organizers and park officers must work collectively as a gaggle to care and be careful for one another.

I requested Eric what he most seems ahead to on race day, and he shared with me the occasion’s most unusual custom:

“We ask that all the runners write thanks notes for every of the 5 assist stations. The spotlight of the day for us is as every assist station closes down, they collect all the notes, they sit collectively, they usually learn the notes out loud. Individuals cry, individuals snicker, individuals smile. Runners will share how they overcame obstacles, how they stop consuming, how they’d a objective to make it to every assist station to provide thanks. New mothers have shared child tales, individuals have written poems, and even carried out for our assist stations. It’s a shifting a part of the occasion that we expect is particular and distinctive to us, and actually drives residence what this complete sport is about.”

A volunteer greets a runner at one in every of Many on the Genny’s implausible assist stations. Picture: Ron Heerkens Jr

Lastly, looking forward to the July 21, 2024, occasion, Eric notes that there are nonetheless just a few coveted spots out there on this yr’s race and registration continues to be open for many who need to expertise this really distinctive and particular occasion “beneath the radar.”

Bottoms up!

AJW’s Beer of the Week

This week’s beer of the week comes from Genesee Brewing Firm in Rochester, New York. One of many nation’s oldest breweries, Genesee launched Genesee Black Lager in 2018 and it’s excellent. Brewed within the basic European type of black lagers, Black is a daring, full-flavored lager with a crisp, refreshing end.