2023 TreeTops Event Guide

Let's talk about the Inaugural TreeTops Trail Race taking place at Dupont State Forest on Saturday, September 23, 2023.  

 Our Pre Event Guide video is a recording of our iDaph Events Podcast, and here we discuss what to expect on Race Day. We are excited to have special guests, Sara Landry - Executive Director of the Friends of Dupont and Allison Capps - Graphic Designer at iDaph on this podcast. Race Director, Daphne Kirkwood and Amy Silvers, Administrative Coordinator from the iDaph Team talk about the courses, packet pickup, parking, and more - along with many other important details.
 
 We look forward to seeing you at the trail race in Dupont State Forest in Western North Carolina soon! For more info about the race and Course Turn-by-Turn directions and maps, please visit our website here - https://idaph.net/treetops-trail-race

Transcript

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Hello, and good morning. Welcome to another iDaph Events podcast. I'm Amy Silvers, the Administrative Coordinator at iDaph Events, and I have with me Daphne Kirkwood. Our owner and race director, and we have two special guests with us today. We'd like to welcome Sarah Landry, the Executive Director of the Friends of DuPont and Allison Capps, our graphic designer here at IDAP events. Hi. Hey everybody. We're so excited to have two special guests. Today Sarah is going to talk to us about the festival what to expect there. And then Allison recently did a recon of the eight and a half mile course. And so we get to hear all the nitty gritty details about that. Stay tuned. This one's going to be a good one. Yes. So today we're going to talk about the sold out inaugural treetops trail races at DuPont State Forest coming up September 23rd. And the DuPont Forest Festival. Yes, we are so excited to be able to be part of the amazing DuPont Forest Festival that Sarah has been doing all these years and her team out at DuPont, we're just so honored to be able to have a race as part of the festival this year, and you guys have been so excited about it too. Registration filled up. Lickety split so fast. And so we've got a wait list and a lot of excitement and energy around this year. Yes. And we do typically have a charity or nonprofit partner for each of our events. And this event is in collaboration with friends of DuPont Forest. So they are our nonprofit for this 1. Yep. And so far we have raised with you guys giving money when you register online 406. Our goal is at least a thousand you guys, come on, you can give when you register. If not, I'm sure that you can give at the race too, but thank you guys for donating some so far, but we've got a little ways to reach our goal. Yes, and since we have Sarah on this call with us, she can probably tell us better than we can, what exactly is the mission of the Friends of DuPont Forest? Hi and thanks, and we are really excited to have Tree Tops as part of the festival this year. It's going to be really exciting. The Forest Festival started in 2018. We're gonna, we call it our 6th annual although we didn't have one in 2020, but we planned it. We're counting it. You counted it, yeah, of course. You know how that goes. We started it as a way to celebrate DuPont Forest and highlight all the ways that people use the forest. So it has all types of activities, from hiking tours to bike rides. Some family nature walks. Smokey the bear is gonna make an appearance a few times throughout the day. And we've got yoga will be out there. There's gonna be Yam will be leading a yoga class for kids and a yoga for community. So it really just highlights how everybody comes in and uses this amazing public land. And how, celebrate the amazing adventure that you can find there. We're anticipating that this year we'll have about a thousand people come to the festival, which is really exciting. It's grown year by year and yeah, and this year we'll have treetops there, which will make it even more exciting. Yes Daphne and I were there last year. We helped out with y'all last year and we loved seeing the festival unfold. We're excited this year for our a good bit of our runners to be part of it. What time does the festival start and finish? What's your schedule it starts at 10. We have some all day activity, all day drop in activities that are right there at guy on farm. And then the schedule starts right at about 1030 with some hikes, and it goes till three. So it's not too long but there's lots to see while you're there. And, yeah, and for those that aren't. Familiar. It'll be your folks are probably pretty familiar with guy on farm, but we'll be right off buck forest road as opposed to the parking lot. As far, I know last year there were. Vendor tent set up. There was some food. There was just some different community organizations that had tent set up. Will there still be that, that I've been at? Okay, cool. Absolutely. Yeah. We're going to have a whole bunch of vendors and those are the drop in activities. So we're going to have like Pizza Trailblazers will be there with their ponies. And and part of that. Part of the forest festival is teaching people how to be good stewards of the land. So sharing the trails, pack it in, pack it out using all those principles throughout all the activities. We'll also, in that festival area, we'll have some fly fishing demonstrations. There'll be a massage with with yam again. There's gonna be some wood carvers out there. And you can get all sorts of information about the NC Forest Service. Leave no trace and there will be face painting again. Oh, good. Yeah, that was well. Sorry, there will be to a few food trucks there. 1 dessert food truck 1 food truck. That's going to serve breakfast in the morning. I believe it's the greasy spoon and then we're also going to have the apple country string band. We'll be playing there as well. Playing some. Mount music which fits right in with the festival vibe. Awesome. Awesome. So the runners can do their run, finish, hang out for a bit and be part of the festival. And that's part of the reason that we did the schedule that we did. Once we have your schedule, we'll also post that up on our social media so folks can take a look at that too. So good timing because it just went up yesterday. I'm starting to, I'm starting to get it out. And one that I keep forgetting about, and I shouldn't because I'm the most excited about this, but we're gonna have Rocky the Hellbender on display. Yeah. Little kids will love, but yeah, it's so cool to have. And all these folks, they're leaders and partners in the community and they come out and they do this for free just to, to celebrate DuPont and to teach people how to be good stewards to our public lands. Yeah, I've never seen a hellbender live in person before. How cool. They're so ugly. They're cute. That's so awesome. Do you guys have any other questions for Sarah? I only have questions about the hellbender, but I'll ask the handler that day. I appreciate it. Cause I can tell you everything, but like their habitat, but I don't know a whole lot about them. You learn too. Awesome. Thanks Sarah for joining us. And if you want to hop off, we'll just continue chatting about the race and what the runners can expect. Great. Thank you guys. Have a wonderful day, and we'll see you at the festival. All right. Bye. All right. Daphne, let's start tell us about the different race options. Yeah, so we have an eight and a half mile route, a 5k, and a one mile fun run and walk that's untimed. Okay, great. Little variety there. Something for everyone. And let's talk about some of the fun stuff we have, like the swag. Everyone who registered before the deadline received a Tree Tops race shirt. I have one of those here. Super cool. Those are great. Love the design. Way to go. Allison. Yes. Super job. Allison. I love the color of these. The green one. Yes, I like green very much all finishers of every event get a succulent and then the eight and a half mile finishers get a gorgeous wooden finisher metal. I love that we got to use a natural material this time and that it really goes with the theme. I'm excited that they're wooden and that they're just natural, which is nice and fun and it's all themed. So Amy, tell us about, oh, do we have, do we still have treetop sweatshirts? Thanks. We do have the hoodies. I don't have one with me. They're packed up at the warehouse and ready to go for the event. But yes, they're like a steel blue color. They're beautiful. And we do have a few of those left. They were limited quantities and sizes, but we will have a few of those left. So yes. If you get there before the race to get your packet, just go ahead and buy one because they might not be there after. That's right. That's what you're saying. Yes. We do have plenty of new swag for the fall that's coming up and Tree Tops will be the first event that It's unveiled that so tell us what it is. Amy. Yes, we have the new brand new run Asheville spelled out. We did run a BL last season. We have run Asheville spelled out. We have bees with the and they're so cool because and I wish I would have grabbed one. They have the Asheville skyline on them. Super cool. We have the BoCo gear, Run Asheville hats. I think they have that same skyline, right? The Asheville skyline? It does have the Asheville skyline. It's a little bit different, but yeah. Yes. We have, and then we have for the Run Asheville logo, we have crew neck sweatshirts. Long sleeve shirts and short sleeve shirts. And yeah, this will be their first in person of it. And we know everybody's really going to love them. Yeah. I have a sneaking suspicion that the beanies are going to go fast. I think the colors are really good. And grab one, if you want one. That's all I have to say about that. And what's interesting is we got some of the BoCo hats, the running caps in a different design last year, and everybody who's worn them are like, This is the most comfortable running hat ever. And yeah, if you're looking for a running hat, these are just amazing. So they not only look cool, but they're great for running. So they don't slip and you can tighten, adjust them. The little flap goes in really tucks in really nicely. So they're nice. My favorite thing about the hats is I am a bad sweater. I, I sweat horribly and they actually dry and do the like dry fit dry quick as you're running. You don't finish with a sopping wet hat at the end. So that's what I like about them. And I like that they keep their form. Like I've washed mine multiple times because I was wearing mine in the rain, running in the rain. And they look, it looks exactly the same before I put it in the washing machine. So I love it. Awesome. I haven't run mine through the wash. I need it. Oh yeah, throw it in there. We have some other run local hoodies. Are they zip up? Still zip up ones that we have? Are they crew neck? I can't remember that run local hoodies that we have left are the pullovers the blue letters. Okay. And then free to run shirts. We've got some water bottles, magnets, decals. So all of that will be in our merchandise. So before or after the race, make sure and stop by and pick up some of those goodies. Awesome. All right. Let's talk about race weekend. What people can expect. Let's start with my little area packet pickup. Yeah packet pickup will be under the picnic shelter pavilion area. From 7 a. m. Until 9 45 a. m. And the reason it's so long is because the 1 mile doesn't start until 9 45. The 8. 5 mile starts promptly at 8. The 5 case starts at 8 30. And the one mile starts at 945. So don't show up at eight to run the eight and a half mile race. You will be late for the race and that won't work well at all. That's why we have an extended period of time, but really you need to be, if you're running in one of the events or walking, you need to have already been to packet pickup 30 minutes before the start of your race. That's a good. Time frame to keep in mind. Leave yourself plenty of time to get your stuff. There is no other pre event packet pickup. So 350 people are coming at once. It's going to be busy. The lines might be a little longer than normal. And so just, plan accordingly. Yes, yep. Yeah, with the not having the pre event packet pickup the day before, like we typically do. We'll have all everybody there at the same time. I'm picking up their things. So yeah, definitely plan ahead and allow a little extra time. Okay. Parking. What are what's the parking situation and the options for parking? Yeah. So we have a couple different parking scenarios. And some of it actually is going to depend on. The weather and what the weather ends up doing, because if it gets saturated out there it changes some of the parking availability. I was going to show my map here. Let me see if I can pull this up on the screen just so folks can see this. Share my screen. All right. Can you guys see this? Yes. Okay. Perfect. Oops. Go back. All right. Everybody will be coming in where my cursor is here off Sky Valley Road. And when you come in early in the morning, you're going to be directed to keep going down Sky Valley Road past the brand new Guyon Farm parking area. And you will come way down here and there's a little side road here where there'll be a course marshal, parking volunteer, and parking signs. And you will come down through the woods and then you will park up in this field. Once all of that gets filled we will move folks to park off of Buck Forest Road. And you will come in by the vendor area and park in this section. So those are the two main parking areas. The other lots are designated for the festival, not for runners and parking a guy on farms. The new parking area is the visitor parking for the guests that are just coming to DuPont that day. So there's no parking there for, The four runners for the event. So those are the couple parking areas. We highly recommend that you carpool. So meet your friend somewhere along the way, hop in, preferably a truck or an SUV. This is going to be parking on uneven ground. I would leave your sports cars at home. And minivans. And minivans! If you have that friend you can carpool with and they've got the Jeep or the SUV or the Ford F 150 hop in that vehicle because you're gonna be, parking on rocky, rooted, uneven ground even if it's raining, That's going to be the scenario. So it's not going to be a nice, pristine parking lot. We're in the woods. We've got a lot of people to park. So the more people you can cram in before you even get up to Sky Valley Road in your vehicle, the better. So the more you can help with that, the better. We'll be able to add participants for next year's event. So please take the effort. I know it's early in the morning, but please carpool with people. And then, yeah, let me see. And then if there is inclement weather, just follow our social media page, treetops, Facebook event page, our IDAF page. If you opted in for text messages, when you registered, we'll send out a text message. If something changes when it comes to the parking situation, inclement weather. In case we can't park out there at all, there will be a change. We're not going to go into all of that today, but just know that there are other things in the works. So make sure that you're tuned in. If the weather does look iffy or bad. And if you have not opted in for text messaging, highly recommend that you contact supported IDAF. net. So that we can change that on your registration because we all know people, you're not checking your emails. We know because of the questions that we're getting asked and we're not going to send you text message that is not necessary. We will not do that. So there you go. All right. Got it. Okay, we're part in the correct. Lots. And what's next? Yeah, so head over to Packet Pickup, get your things there'll be Port A Johns over close to where the restrooms are at. The restrooms will not be open. The new ones up there, if you've been up to Gaia, they're working on them but they are not supposed to be ready before the race, so there will be some Port A Johns up there. And then you can head over to the start area. All right. And just a reminder, when you do pick up that race bib, it goes on the front, not on the back on the front and secure it. A lot of times people tend to only put pins in the top. Make sure you have one on the bottom too, because sometimes when you're coming through, if the wind blows, it flops up your bib and then we can't see your number. So make sure you get those all four pins in there. Get that bib secured. All right. You covered restrooms. What about the start and finish line? They're located where? I'm going to show my screen again here so everybody can see this. Again, just to acquaint yourself, because this is a little bit of a different map. Can you guys see this? Yep. So Sky Valley Road is here. That's the way that you guys are coming in. This is that main Guion guest parking area, the area you won't be able to park. This is the primary parking for you. So that's what that looks like on this map. This is where the festival is at here. So on Buck Forest Road, the pavilion is right here for packet pickup. The start finish is right over here at this intersection. And it's the same start finish for each of the three races. Again, the eight and a half mile starts at eight, the 5k at 830, and the one mile starts at 945. Got it. Okay. All right. So let's talk about you. We know that we've got some personal experience here from Allison. Let's talk about the courses. Give us a little bit of background on the courses. Yes. Yeah, so I just wanted to reiterate. This is a trail race. I know for a trail race. Most of the events that we put on a road events. And this is a trail event. There's going to be a mixture of gravel roads, forest roads, dirt roads, single track. Bumpy trails. You get a nice mix of that with the events. The most mild event is the one mile. And that's intentional because kids and their parents usually do that one. And then the five K would be the second as far as the challenge level. The eight and a half mile. Is the most challenging and demanding. And Allison, why don't you tell us a little bit about the eight and a half miles since you ran it recently? Yeah. So the eight and a half mile, it is challenging. I would definitely suggest looking at that elevation chart, understanding where you are on the map and where the big climbs are and really. Setting out a race strategy for this one more than some road races. Just because you do have a large climb at the end. And talking from experience, I didn't save enough energy. But honestly it was. I was telling Daphne the other day as soon as I finished I texted her like this is the best trail course that I feel like we could have set out. It's, she did an awesome job designing the course to get you that good mixture of trail, road, Rest hills. I will say that this first climb in the first like you started about, I don't know, 0. 7 and then climb to just under two and that climb almost doesn't feel like a climb. It looks super scary on this map, but it's gradual and it's winding and you just the Trail there is soft and it's really well maintained trail I feel like the all the trails out there. I was super impressed with I felt like they're not Super rocky they're made for mountain bikers and for runners. They're not just like a bunch of bike Hills where people are going to come careening down at you and things like that, as there's some other trails around in the area that are like that. So I was really impressed with this trail. It's soft. It's nice. You do have to pay attention. It's not going to be not rooty, but it's not overly. I didn't feel as though it was overly technical anywhere. The, like I said, the climbs are gradual, even though they look scary. Now this one that Daphne's got her mouse on right here, that one's a little, that one's a little tough just because, but you've just come down a big one. I felt like the hardest one was at the end just because I was out of energy. And I would definitely encourage you guys to look at this as a half marathon or something similar, maybe like more of a 10 mile road run and bring the hydration and nutrition that you would plan on bringing for that. For this one. Because you are climbing, you are in a more dense environment. So it's it's going to be shaded because it's in the woods, which is super nice. But if it's humid, it's going to be real humid in there. So you might want to really think about your hydration and think about your nutrition and not get stranded out on well. One of the single tracks needing that when you have to get back to the aid stations. And you can just have it on you. I'm planning on wearing my whole pack during it. I'm going to be out there with you guys. So I'm excited about that. Love trail running and I'm super excited about this event, but it's a great course. It's beautiful towards the end where you're about to climb that hill. You get to hear the waterfalls. You don't see them, but you do hear them, which is really cool. We were like we're close to the falls and that's fun. Yeah, I don't know, Daphne, was there anything that you wanted me specifically to say about it? No, I think that's good. I think, we do have the 2 water stations. I'm showing them there on the screen and you'll hit those multiple times that information's on the event guide as well. But Allison said, if you have something in particular that you like to train with take your own, if you do, get into distress or you have a bad tumble, I've had ask Amy had a bad tumble on the trail and I. Was done. My knees were banged up. I got, messy. And so if you, if that happens to you, I would suggest you get to one of the water stations on Thomas Cemetery Road. We can always come out and pick you up if you need to be, but those are two great that intersect the road that you can go and you can see us, but, if live in the area and you want to go out and run the route, the Q sheet is on Ryba GPS. I'm showing it here on the screen on the left. So you can see what that looks like. So you can take that Q sheet, you can go out pre run see if you're ready, that sort of thing. That's what Allison was doing. The 5k. Let me just pull that up here. This is the 5k route. And so you run down Buck Forest Road, and then you turn at the water station on to Thomas Cemetery, and this is that hill that Allison said at the end for the eight and a half miles, the same hill for the 5K. You come back up to the water station and take a right on Buck Forest and end up there at the finish. So it's a very simple loop for the 5K 244 feet of elevation, so it's not. Easy but not super complicated. So it's a nice loop in the woods. And so that's what that looks like. So yeah, definitely acquaint yourselves with the maps. And if you are listening to this podcast and you're like, Oh, I don't know, maybe I bit off more than I can chew. You can always switch to the 5k. What's the deadline for that, Amy? September. September 17th at midnight. Yes. Sunday, September 17th. Yeah. There's no shame in dropping down to the 5k. The 5k is going to be a great event, a great run. And, you can always do the 8. 5 mile next year. But, this isn't an event that you can walk the whole thing. There is a time cut off of 1015. So you need to be jogging it. You need to be on the move on the eight and a half mile run. And with it being a thousand feet of climbing, it's definitely challenging. Yeah. I would suggest too, if if you have a Garmin that you can load the course into, I did that. And it was super helpful. I know we're going to have signs out there and everything, but there's always like a little bit of a second guess, especially if you get out there by yourself, because you are going to be more spread out in the trail. Definitely. Even if you need to email us to ask us how to do it, I can send you the instructions, but it was really helpful to have that on my watch. And I was like, okay, this way we're going, so yeah, we'll have arrows at all the turns. We'll have some course marshals out there. We'll have some sweepers walking behind the last runners. We'll have some lead bikers. We have people out there. You're not going to be alone in the woods. So if that's one of your fears don't have that fear because you will not be alone in the woods. Take things that you might need and have them on you. All right. And so we all know that you're famous for your stinker Hills, but with nearly 1000 feet of elevation gain that 8. 5 mile. Yeah. Yeah, I think both of them have some stinker Hills on there, but that's part of DuPont as well. It's part of trail running and we're not. Running on trails in Florida. We're running on trails and Western North Carolina. Absolutely. That's what makes trail running fun because you get to go down the hills. Anytime you can go down up, you have to look forward to the down eventually. Yeah, exactly. Okay. What about I know, obviously, the 8. 5 mile course would not be. But what about the 5k or the 1 mile are either stroller friendly and can dogs join in on any of the courses? I would say no for strollers for the five K and eight and a half mile, possibly for the one mile, but there are some roots and larger rocks on the one mile. I don't, it depends, on what kind of handy dandy stroller you have, because they have some that are machines like four by four strollers. But yeah, I think it would depend on the type of stroller you have. But definitely not for the eight and a half mile or 5k. I don't think that would be a good fit at all. And dogs, I believe there are no dogs allowed out there for the festival. I'd have to check on that, but I would recommend you just leave your dog at home. With all these people and stuff, it's tight squeeze and, adding the dog into that can just be really challenging and a safety issue. Gotcha. All right. And you mentioned the course cut off was 1015, so everyone will need to be done by then. How about music? You and I both love to run with our music and our headphones. What are we allowing headphones for this one? Yeah, I would suggest since you're in the trail and you're going to have people in front of you and behind you on the single track that you leave your headphones at home for this one. If you are just dying and absolutely cannot run without your headphones, put one in and keep the volume down because you don't want to miss a turn. You don't. Want to miss people coming up on you. Part of trail running is you got to have respect for the other runners and you don't want to take up the whole trail. You need to be able to yell out, on your left, passing on your left and be respectful of people. And once you have headphones and it takes you to a different world and don't get me wrong. I love listening to headphones when I'm in music, when I'm running, but on the trail and the single track, it's definitely tricky. All right, and you mentioned water stations about what mile markers can they expect to see those? Yep. Mile 3. 86. 8 and 8. 2 for the 8. 5 mile water station. And then the 5k is 1. 2 and 2. 7. All right. And Allison said, though, bring your own nutrition and hydration, carry a pack, a handheld, whatever, if you might want more. How about places for spectators to come and cheer? I know we love to have cheer zones. Is there a good spot somewhere along any of the courses? I would say the finish line is the best for this one. Just because of the nature of the trail and all the people that are going to be on it. It's best to just keep spectators off of the trails as much as possible to not be in the way. And to give all the runners room. Got it. All right. What about specific rules? Do we have specific rules in place for this? I think for all the races be nice and courteous and positive cheer on your fellow runners, it is a race, but we're all in this together and all out there to have a good time together. Just keep that in mind. And We're not the only ones that are going to be on the trail. So there might be some people out there earlier in the morning than when we get there and they're running or biking or horses are, share the trail. The event is not closed to our race and to the run. And be mindful of other people, be respectful of other folks using the trails and all of that. Respect will go a long way for us to be able to have this again. If you are carrying gels or packages of things, don't throw them out on the course, on the trail, like you might do for a running event, and we come and pick all that up for you. You're in the woods, and if there's, trash, if there's gel wrappers, if there's tops of gels on the trails, they're not going to like that. They're not going to want us to come back. Carry all of the stuff out with you that you bring in with you. And yeah, I think that a lot of that goes without saying, but I think it's important to mention to be mindful of that. Yes, very mindful. Okay. So you finished your run and you cross the finish line. What can we expect next? Yeah, grab your finisher succulent and enjoy that. Or if you did the eight and a half mile, you can get your medal and then go refill at the Hendersonville Community Co op Tent. They'll have snacks and some drinks available over at the tent that'll be next to the festival area. And of course, if you stick around till 10, it sounded like from Sarah, they're going to have some other food options too, so that you can go and buy some food if you want to. Yes. Okay. How about post race recovery? Who will be joining us to help out with that? Yep. Yoga massage will be there to do those post race massages and outshine physical therapy will be there. If you feel like you have an injury, they can do that screening for you. They usually will offer taping if you need some taping. But those are all, are both great tents to stop by and visit with them. You never know when you might need either one of those in the future. Yes, and undoubtedly there will be some kinks to work out. Allison, did you have any kinks to work out after you finished that eight and a half mile loop? I could have used a massage, that's for sure. I could just imagine running that and then you can go plop down on the table and get a massage. Like, how nice is that? Yeah, it will be very nice. I'm excited about that. They might I'll brush off with the towel first. Yeah. But, yeah, I didn't get injured. So that's good. Yeah, that's good. That's very good. Okay. What about results? Where can we find those? Yeah we will upload results as quickly as we can at IDAF. net. We are in the woods where Wi Fi and Internet is less than ideal. So we will do the best that we can as soon as we can to upload that. Online and we will do an award ceremony as well in the center of the festival area around 10 o'clock for the overall award winners for the 5k and the eight and a half mile. The age group winners will pick their stuff up directly from the merchandise tent area after we have done the overall. award winner announcements. Got it. Okay. And we have some really unique prizes this year. Yeah. It, they're Fleet Feet gift cards. And also if you don't stick around for the awards ceremony, you can pick those up at Fleet Feet the following week Tuesday 15 bucks. So we have gift cards for the top three overall masters as well first in the masters. And then we have for the overall male, female, eight and a half mile and 5k. We have some really cool custom made ceramic plaques and they're almost finished and we'll reveal those online, but they are. Beautiful. They're going to be such a memorable custom commemorative piece for this first year. So if you're fast it will be nice motivation for sure. Those things. And then we have some custom campfire mugs for the age group and for the other categories. So yeah, got some good stuff. And we will have a few extras of those campfire mugs at the merchandise tent because when you see them, you're going to want one. So we'll have a few extras for the those to sell. So awesome. Yep. And we have some very special and different awards. Thanks to one of our generous sponsors. Yeah. Outshine Physical Therapy, Sierra over there, Dr. Sierra Henshaw. She has donated some flowers and a voucher for a free 30 minute recovery session, which can include a sports massage, cupping, or dry needling. And she's donating those to the oldest runners, male and female, of both of the races that come in person. What a treat. So nice. That's such a sweet treat. Yes. Thank you, Dr. Henshaw. That is so cool to recognize the oldest runners like that. All right. We finished our race. We've got our succulent and our finisher medal. We've refueled. We've had the award ceremony. What's next? The festival! Yay! 10 to 3. Hang out and visit. Alright and be sure and stop by and see me. I'll be at the merchandise tent to check out all that cool swag we told you about earlier, the Run Asheville swag, Run Local swag. We can do cash and card, hopefully, if the service works out there. Bring some cash just in case. And then... Our sponsors did we cover everybody or who else do we need to mention? Asheville School is one of our annual partners and they are amazing and have supported all of our events this year and the last year and the year before and so we really couldn't do it without their support and want to thank them. Want to thank Fleet Feet. Fleet Feet goes way above and beyond to help support our events in so many different capacities. And so just so grateful and thankful for them. And then Jam Bar we will have some of the Jam Bars available at the race as well. So I wanted to thank them too. All right. Awesome. Anything else we need to add? How about the wait list? Yeah, I got a couple things that I was writing down as we were talking. If you're on the wait list, you will be notified two days prior to the event. So September the 21st, Thursday, September 21st by noon. If you are in the race and then you have to go in and register. So being on the wait list doesn't mean that you are in the race. In the race and registered. It just means you're on a wait list. Don't just show up at the race. If you have not actually signed up and paid money for the race, because we won't have room for you. And we don't want you to go through that hassle. So we will notify you. Another reason to opt in for the text messages is, we have notified some people on the wait list and we haven't heard back from them. They didn't opt in for text messaging. They haven't responded to emails. And we have no way to get ahold of them. So if you really want in the race, if you're on the wait list, opt in for the text messages so that we can know, otherwise we move on to the next person. And the list is pretty lengthy. The other thing I wanted to mention is as you're leaving the race, chances are there's going to be other cars coming in to the festival or to the one mile fun run. So please use caution. Don't go rip roaring around. Be patient leaving because it's going to be a very busy day at DuPont. Take your time and just be patient. And just watch for other cars and for what the volunteers are asking for you to do as you're exiting. All right. Sounds great. Anything else? Did you think of anything else for the course? You think we're good? I didn't think of anything else other than I did see a note on here that said, if the festival gets canceled for whether that doesn't mean that the race is canceled for the weather. So pay attention to our notifications only. And I think that's an important detail there because. People may not want to stand out in the rain for a festival, but we're fine running in it. It's rain. Yeah. Yeah. I mean we have certain thresholds established with the forest for continuing the run Possibly even changing the courses if we have to based on Run and the usability of some of the trails so we are going to do every Single thing possible to hold this race, regardless of whether on September 23rd, just know that we that's what we do. We've got your back. We know you're trained. You're ready. And yeah, that's a great point. Just because the festival might cancel their activities does not mean that the race has canceled. And hopefully we won't even have to come to that, yeah, like backup plans. Yes. All right. Thanks for joining us for today's podcast. We look forward to seeing everybody at the inaugural Treetops Trail Races in DuPont State Forest on Saturday, September 23rd. Awesome. Thanks everybody. Thank you.