Instead of running the Afton Trail Races for the first time in many years, this year I was one of the race photographers.
The Afton Trail Runs 25K & 50K are hosted at Afton State Park annually on the first weekend in July. It’s notoriously hot and humid (this year was relatively cool with highs in the mid-80’s), with nearly 5000 feet in total elevation gain & loss on the 25K loop. A potential additional challenge this year was the air quality, since we’ve had hazy skies caused by wildfires in Canada for the last few days. Anyhoo, back to the photography…
I will be posting race images first on my North Woods Photos Facebook page, so if you want to see them as soon as possible, like my page 😉 At some point, they will probably be linked up to the race site. I’ve got almost 2000 images to process, edit, and upload, so hang tight 😉
I shot a short video of the 50K start before moving to the down slope of the Northern Hill, then up to the Campground, and finally for a short bit near the home stretch towards the finish. I was hoping to capture some of the scenery of the St. Croix River Valley in addition to the runners, but the increasing haze throughout the day may have scrambled my plans a bit. I tried to get photos of as many runners as I could, but I’m sure I missed some folks. I know that I missed some of the 25K runners while I was changing cards in one of my cameras – sorry about that. I’m not sure where Kevin or Todd shot, so hopefully they caught anyone I may have missed.
Here is the video of the 50K start:
Congrats to everyone who toed the line at this year’s Afton Trail Races 25K or 50K! It was a blast seeing you out having fun in the sun on the trail 🙂