Jim Craig of Angry Cow Adventures ordered up some grade A August weather for this morning’s Angry Cow Trail Run at Rock Creek Station Historical Area just east of Fairbury.  With race distances of 2 and 5 miles, a half-marathon+, and a 33 mile bout with ridiculousness.  This little gem of the Nebraska Game and Parks rec areas was never on my radar until Jim used his awesome trail race management skills to set up a pretty sweet 5.8ish mile loop through the park and some adjacent private land.  Why people would drive hours to other states to run when there are places like this right at home escapes me.

Rolled out of the crib at 6:15 and enjoyed a sublime sunrise along Hwy 77.  Got down to the park in plenty of time and saw the 33 milers begin their journey, props to them to sign up for a 50k type distance in Nebraska, in August.  Hung with some guys pre-race (Brian Kelley, Darin Schlake, and Austin McKillup) enjoying a rare 60 degree, low humidity morning.  Jim started us off with a simple “GO!” and away we went.

The course was comprised of wooded single-track, prairie single track, 4WD roads, horse trails, and prairie bush-whacking.  It was awesome.  The variety of terrain in this race was hands down the widest ranging I have run in quite some time.  Not to mention you were navigating through footsteps (should I say wheel tracks) of voyagers of the Oregon Trail. Old ruts, an original toll bridge, a Pony Express Station are all still present to remind us of the rich history of Nebraska.

Maybe one of the most unique features of this race course was a completely random ravine of limestone cliffs that border the namesake Rock Creek.  A couple of splashes and pushes through what we later figured out was poison ivy and runners made their way out of this surprising feature of the area.  No pics, but you would have to see it to believe it anyways.

The half marathon course ended up being closer to 14 miles than 13, but whatevs.  2 1/3 loops on this course was more than enough.  It is trail racing.  So who really cares that much.  If you are looking for some really, really well organized and really, really well marked trail races, look up Jim Craig.  These races are deserving of a bigger following.