Here We Go Wandering Again – Michael deLisle, KTC Trail Series Director

Due to the late publication of this issue of Footnotes, it’s only a few days till the kickoff of our 20th anniversary season of Knoxville Track Club trail racing. For the tenth time, runners will toe the line at the Wanderers Trail Race near the MacArthur Pavillion at the Woods of Maryville College for a January jaunt through its forested environs. It will offer a rerouted course due to construction of a new track and field complex on the campus. But it will fundamentally be the same course, with a few changes.

Wanderers has kicked off the season for us in every year (save 2021) of its existence at Maryville College. Prior to that, however, Wanderers wandered. Its first couple go-rounds were in 2005 and 2006 when it ran at Forks of the River in August. A few years after that, we ran a second race at Concord that we called Wanderers (because it wandered) at the end of the season.

But it was in 2012 that Tony Owens, who’d joined forces with us the previous year, and Kathy Smith, new to the trail committee, put their heads together and birthed a new race that would to this day serve as the leadoff hitter in our fabulous lineup of trail races. For the first few years, Wanderers was a four-miler before morphing to its current 5k distance and it drew a stunningly big turnout. In its first year it drew nearly 300 runners and has done so every year since, tallying the highest number of registrants in virtually every year of its existence.

In one of those first years, rain fell heavily on the course, creating an unavoidable seasonal creek that bisected the path partway through the race. I’d noticed a young woman at the starting line wearing bright new pink and yellow running shoes and grimaced to myself, fully expecting an angry, mud-covered gal approaching the finish line ready to cuss us a blue streak for ruining her shoes. Instead, she crossed the line grinning widely, shoes caked with mud, telling everyone within earshot that she’d never had so much fun in her life.

Part of the appeal of the Wanderers Trail Race is its suitability for newcomers to trail running. Much of the route is grass covered, any elevation gain barely noticeable. It is trail running’s version of “flat and fast.” Very few rocks and roots encumber the participant’s ability to remain upright and the short distance can be covered by nearly any runner. We fully expect another big crowd to sign up for the 2023 event and we’re looking forward to its arrival heralding the new season.

It is also the first race of the various multi-race bundles that we’ve offered the last several years. Runners can save big bucks signing up for either a nine-race or a twelve-race package deal (the nine-race excludes three of our longest events: Whitestone, Big South Fork, and the Norris Ultra). We also offer a nine-race super inexpensive package for the kiddos that costs barely three bucks a race! Such a deal !!! Registration can be completed smoothly on Runsignup.com

As always, we’ll provide a single high-tech short sleeve T-shirt for each runner. We ask that each runner only take one shirt per season (the same shirt is given out at each race). Trail Committee member Ken Lonseth worked long and hard on the design for the new shirt and we expect it to be extremely well-received. The reason we only present one shirt is so that our net profits—of which every penny is donated—can be maximized.

Those donations have been presented to various groups over the years to thank those whose help and cooperation allow us to put on our races. Recent recipipients included the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club, Ijams Nature Center, Cumberland Valley Trail Alliance, WatR of East Tennessee, Big South Fork Bike Club, Maryville College Cross Country Team, and the Friends of Norris Dam and Big Ridge State Parks.

It continues to be an exquisite pleasure steering this committee and offering such a wanderful, er, I mean wonderful slate of races to the East Tennessee trail running community.