Chocolate Bunny 50k
Massanutten Mountains
211 East to Powell’s Fort Camp
Saturday April 10, 2004
Well, the 2nd Annual Chocolate Bunny 50k was a complete success. 24 runners and 5 crew persons deprived themselves of a nice warm bed and spent the night running around on the Massanutten, all in the name of chocolate. The weather was great, no one got lost (obviously I wasn’t running), no one got seriously hurt (ok, at one point Marty had a small tree protruding from her left knee and Roy had one sticking out of the palm of his hand but hey, they pulled ‘em out) and only a handful or so got sick. Oh yeah, and one almost DNF’d, but he was crew and it was alcohol related, so it really doesn’t count. And then there was that leaky tire thing too.
Anyway, Kevin Black of Woodstock, Va. led the run wire to wire and finished in a fine time of 6:50 and thus was awarded the coveted Speed Racer Chocolate Bunny. Amber Marshall, also of Woodstock, Va. made a late charge and just edged out Donna Anderson to take the Women’s Division in another fine time of 8:07. For her efforts, Amber was the proud recipient of 6-8? foil covered Chocolate Egg thingies. And boy were they lookin’ yummy. Congratulations to you both!
And of course, Congratulations to all of the runners who took on this noble challenge. I hope each of you had an enjoyable experience and gained or renewed the confidence in your ability to run in the mountains at night. If not, I hope you at least liked the chocolate.
Finally, its one thing to come out and run all night but to come out and crew all night takes some very special people. My deepest thanks to Linda, Mel, Peyton and Roger for your thoughtfulness and dedication to your fellow runners. It's been said after every event, but it always bears repeating; without you, these events do not happen. Thank you.
So if you missed the big fun at “The Tastiest Trail Run in the East” this year, we hope to see you next Easter. And somehow Russell Stover got wind of the 800% increase in attendance and now they’re talking sponsorship, promos, the works. I told them we think “The Dove Chocolate Bunny 50k” sounds a bit better.
Tom Corris