Thacher Park Trail Running Festival

Thacher Park Trail Running Festival
5K · 10K · 13.1M · 26.2M · 50K

The Thacher Park Trail Running Festival is all about being on the trails for as long as or little as you would like. The event offers five race distances: 5K, 10K, 13.1M, 26.2M, and 50K. The event debuted on September 13, 2014 in conjunction with the Thacher Park Centennial Festival. In 2015, we expanded the event to use more of the park's trails providing even more opportunity to see all that the park has to offer. The event is held in conjunction with the Albany Running Exchange's Club Day. In addition to the five main races, there is also a half mile kids race held as part of ARE Club Day.

Event Informaton

Sunday, August 27, 2017

8:30 AM (All Races)

Thacher State Park, Voorheesville, NY
Click for map location of the main entrance to Thacher Park.

Course Descriptions

All races at the Thacher Park Trail Running Festival start and finish at the exact same location: Horseshoe II Pavilion. Additionally, all races start together at the same time (8:30 AM) with a loop around the grass field between Horseshoe II Pavilion and Route 157 before heading out to the trails on the 'north' side of the park (towards Hailes Cave Pavilion.) All runners are together through about 2K, where the 5K runners turn left while all other runners go straight.

The 10K, 13.1M, 26.2M, and 50K all run the first 6 miles together. At 6M, the three longer races go left to run along the escarpment trail, while the 10K runners bare right to head towards the finish area.

The 13.1M, 26.2M, and 50K continue on to the 'south' side of the park and complete a loop there. All three of these races run through the finish area at 13.1M.

The 26.2M and 50K runners then repeat the entire course again. The 26.2M and 50K runners come through the finish at 26.2M, with the 50K runners then going back out for a 4.9 mile loop.

Course & Park Maps

All Courses

Individual Strava course maps coming soon!

Volunteer Map - Coming soon!

Thacher Park - North Area Map
Thacher Park - South Area Map

Event Timeline

8:30am - All Races Start
9:30am - 5K Awards
9:45am - 10K Awards
10:30am - Half Marathon Awards
10:45am - Kids Race (~Half Mile)
11:00am - ARE Club Day Begins (Schedule)
12:30pm - Marathon Awards
2:00pm - 50K Awards
2:30pm - Time Cutoff for 50K Runners to begin last 4.9m (after this time, 50K runners are switched to marathon)
4:00pm - Cutoff Time for all Participants

Awards & Amenities

All participants who register by Friday, August 11, 2017 will receive a commemorative giveaway.

There will be prizes for the top 3 male and female finishers in each race.

Your entry also includes food all day (pancakes in the morning followed by a BBQ in the afternoon) as well as on-course water and other supplies (applicable to the longer races.)

The Albany Running Exchange & Club Day

The Albany Running Exchange (ARE) is a 1,000 member running club in the Capital District that hosts and supports many trail and road running events all throughout the year. A great way to check out the courses used at the Thacher Park Trail Running Festival is to join the ARE for their Summer Trail Run Series (STRS), a weekly non-race running event that spans from May to August.

The ARE's Annual Club Day is all about getting club members together to do something fun that involves other activities aside from running. Club Day activities include a kids race, team challenges (egg tosses, bat spins, puzzle races, etc.), and food.

Event Management & Timing

The Thacher Park Trail Running Festival is managed by ARE Event Productions, Inc., an event management and timing company that puts on many events at Thacher Park and area trails. Registration is done through ZippyReg, a subsidiary of ARE Event Productions.