The Tradition Continues!

The 2010 McNaughton Park Trails Runs will be held April 10-11, 2010, at beautiful (and challenging) McNaughton Park in Pekin, IL.



The Original McNaughton Park Trail Runs is scheduled for April 10-11, 2010. Former Race Director, Andy Weinberg is now a resident of Vermont where he has a whole series of races you can register for at  www.peak.com. McNaughton Park still holds a special place in his heart, and so he has created a race in its honor called McNaughton Park in Vermont; this race will be held on May 6-9, 2010, in the beautiful, green mountains of Pittsfield, Vermont. Having two races with similar names has caused a lot of chaos and confusion and we all apologize for this. We hope you can make it out to one of these wonderful races and wish you the best of luck with training!

Do you think Illinois is all flat cornfields? Wise ultra-runners will get some serious hill training in before coming to McNaughton Park! We don’t have mountains in Illinois ... just a few rolling hills with elevator shaft downhills guaranteed to warm your quads on a chilly April evening. Here’s how one satisfied customer described the terrain: ‘I now know why Illinois is so flat. They took all the hills that are supposed to be there and put them ALL into one spot in Pekin, IL ... and called it ‘McNaughton Park’.”

How about the view? One of our 2005 participants described it this way: “It’s one of the most scenic courses I know: Mostly singletrack, forest with some meadows, hills with beautiful valleys in between. Lots of flowers and wildlife. At dawn, when I came to the 3rd creek crossing, thousands of birds were singing, frogs were ‘talking’ everywhere, wild geese above me were chatting, and several Whitetail Deer crossing the trail.”

"... comparing the high altitude, long climbs of the Western mountains to McNaughton hills is like comparing being eaten by a shark vs. being eaten by a 1000 piranhas ... both are unpleasant ... just in different ways."