Walker/North Country Races

Started with hassle free parking at the high school across the street. Easy race day packet pickup and you can wait before the race inside in the school. A real nice shirt was given for the race. Everyone was really friendly and it was laid back like most ultra races are. Course was on roads 20%, asphalt trails, dirt trails and grass trails. The trails were well marked. We did have trouble with a volunteer telling us to go the wrong direction at mile 2. Runners corrected us and the race director was at mile 12 to ask each runner how much farther they had run. He then tried to adjust the course for that runner to get back to 26.2. A first class move by the director and he was at the finish line to talk to all runners. A great person. The aid stations were well stocked and the volunteers were great. There wasn't a lot of places for spectators being mostly paths through the Chippewa National Forest. A real nice medal when you finished and you could go inside the school and take a shower before your drive home. They also have a 10K and half marathon distance as well. For a challenging course with great scenery you can't beat it. Low entry cost as well. Only 46 finishers so please run this race so I can at a later date. Hope they can economically keep running it. Thanks again to the race director and all the volunteers for a great running experience.

Not sure how much longer this marathon will last. But the town of Walker and race organizers put on a nice event. The shorter companion races are more popular. But the veteran marathon runner  the 50 to 70 year old codger set  enjoys this romp in the woods. The advanced ages of the marathon finishers and leaders are atypical. The trail is scenic and runnable, not technical, and the forest is full of fall colors. It doesn't get much easier than this  park near the starting line/finishing line of the race, sign up race day, and shower at the finish. If you need noise, music, cowbells and a lot of spectators hollering undeserved praise at you this is not the race for you. If you enjoy the peace of the outdoors, it's a great race. The spectators here are the volunteers who simply help runners. Nice.

I agree with the other comments on this site - this was 1/3 rough woods, 1/3 gravel road/trail and 1/3 road. It is much harder than a road marathon - my time was 4:48 instead of 4:25 I would've had on roads. I wish the medal had more details printed on it, but otherwise everything delivered as advertised. The scenery in the woods was awesome.