Afton 50K

"Grand oaks and delicate prairie flowers grace the rugged, rolling landscape of Afton State Park outside the Twin Cities in Minnesota.  Trails traverse remnant and restored prairies, wind down deep ravines and rise up to the grassy ridgetops and bluffs overlooking the scenic St. Croix River." 

LPTRunner, Angela Barbera, reported that the trails were very reminiscent of ours at Lapham Peak (although the hills were stretched out over 25K instead of 7 miles).

Angela and Brad Birkholz both made the trip out to the Land of 10,000 Lakes.  They were rewarded with great trails, great people and AWESOME shirts!  The shirts are designed by race director John Storkamp and they are worth the trip just to snag one!  I haven't seen the 2009 version, but the 2008 is shown below...

Of course to wear the aforementioned shirts in good standing, you must first finish the race!  The 50k consists of two rolling 25K loops through forest and meadow.  There were 138 finishers on the day with Brad clocking 5:40:46 for 47th place and Angela running 6:15:59 for 76th.  

Official Results at:

 http://www.aftontrailrun.com/PDF_Files/Race_Results/2009_50K_Results.txt