Survival of the Fittest (or Fattest?) on the W&OD Trail
Posted by Chap at 7/26/2008 9:43 PM and is filed under uncategorized 
Today, I ran in the annual Friends of the W&OD 10 kilometer road race. Thank you to the Friends who organized and staffed it all with volunteer labor. They do a great job. Thanks guys!
The W&OD course is the old railroad right-of-way through the heart of northern Fairfax County. The Northern VA Regional Park Authority owns and operates the trail, while Dominion Power maintains a right of way along the trail for its power lines.
From Vienna station, the course is a straight shot along the trail until it hits Hunter Mill Road, then back. The first mile is downhill and fast (I ran it in 6:53). Then everything slows d-o-w-n ...
The July heat was not as bad as last year's race but it was still about 90 degrees at race time. It really gets you on the way back. I survived and finished. I'll leave it at that. Of course, I was passed by about a half-dozen lithe youngsters on the last mile.
Thought of the day while staggering to the finish line: I notice that there are race categories by age ... how about weight? Like wrestling?
That may be my only chance to win a medal these days.
Dear Senator Peterson,
I am glad you had a great day on the W&OD Trail. It is a truly remarkable resource. It is estimated that there are 2-3 million users of the W&OD each year.
I wanted to correct the information about the ownership of the trail. The W&OD is owned and operated by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority and Dominion Power has an easement that allows them to maintain the power lines overhead.
The Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority bought the ownership of the property from Dominion Power in the late 1970's and developed the trail along the old Washington & Old Dominion rail bed. The W&OD passes through three Counties, one City and four towns making it the most regional of all of our regional parks.
More information on the W&OD Trail and the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority can be found on ttp://www.nvrpa.org/parks/wod/index.php
Thanks,
Paul Gilbert
Executive Director
Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority
Thanks Paul. You are correct and my mistake. I've corrected the post to reflect the ownership and ROW status. Again, thanks for allowing us to run the trail. My daughters and I also plan some bike expeditions later this year. P.S. Editorial comment (now that I have your attention): Can we start the race later in the evening next year, when it's not so hot? thanks again, Chap
Hi Chap. My race report (tag, you're it) is at http://runfairfax.blogspot.com/2008/07/quick-race-report-friends-of-w-10k.html
Hmmm.... we certianly could add Clydesdale and Athena classes. We just never thought of doing it before! Those are weight based classes and they are used in many foot races and in triathlon.
You had asked about where to send race comments...
Karl Mohle, W&OD Park Manager
-and-
Roger Neighborgall, President, Friends of the W&OD
Both are reachable at:
W&OD Trail Office
21293 Smiths Switch Road
Ashburn, VA 20147-6016
I'm sure Mr. Gilbert will pass the comment on to Karl and Roger, as will I. I'll send them an e-mail and tell them to read this thread on your blog.
Karl has suggested an early morning start for next year. If we start later in the evening, we risk leaving the slowest runners (and we do have a couple walkers) out in the dark. I'm guessing we don't want to have to have a time limit, because then we might have to turn away members of the community who want to participate but who might be cutting it too close to dark. And we figure in some wiggle room in case of delayed start for t-storm, etc. Summer afternoon and evening races often have slight rain delays.
The start time is definitely going to be a topic at our next Friends of the W&OD Board meeting on Tuesday evening, August 5th.
What do you think of an early a.m. start instead of a delayed p.m. one? We'd have to go out before the trail gets crowded. If we went out in the a.m., how early do you think is too early??
Agreed the trail is a great resource and something that is incredibly useful.
Hindsight being what it is, they probably shouldn't have let the railroad right of way lapse. If the powers that be would have had the vision to use that existing right of way for light rail or rail, through the county, some of our traffic congestion issues might be different today.
Probably not much we can do now (since none of us would give up the trail), but we have to be prepared for opportunities like this in the future.
There are some excellent histories of the W&OD RR (it had various names as a RR) available. One of them was sent to me after I submitted a donation to the trail. I'll have to dig out the book and post the title because others might enjoy it. I also got a DVD history from NVRPA's shop that was well done about the history of the RR.
The W&OD RR tried to reinvent itself numerous times. It was a long, painful process to winding down operations and closing it. I may be wrong on this, but I believe it was the longest running process to close a RR.
Forward thinking people tried to develop suburbia around the RR as a commuting corridor. It all failed. Places developed differently. You had people with great planning ideas that were before their time and a bit too utopian, perhaps, and you had ideas for updating the RR to meet new realities that seemed to have been a dollar short or a bit too late. That's not unique to the W&OD, of course. That's just how things go.
Fixed rail is more self limiting than we sometimes realize. It has to be part of a comprehensive transportation solution. I think that's part of the lesson of the long history of the W&OD. You can build the RR, but logical though it seems in its place, the world keep changing around it.
I've noticed more bike commuting traffic and more people who are using the W&OD to go to and from the grocery store lately in my area of the trail. It's a marked increase. It's a transportation corridor, but a different one that originally intended.
The price of fuel is making us all fitter by forcing us to move under our own steam, it seems. No complaint from me in that regard. It's nice to have the trail there to let us get to those places we want to go, while we get exercise and to have it there to give wildlife one of its last remaining good corridors to thrive.
The book title is *Rails to the Blue Ridge: The Washington and Old Dominion Railroad 1847-1968.* Author is Herbert H. Harwood, Jr. I highly recommend it!
Anne: THanks for all the great info. I'll see if I can find that book. I'm a railroad geek (as you know) and have a well-worn history of Norfolk & Western RR, now Norfolk Southern. Yes, the W&OD would be a great route for a commuter railroad but the world is not always ready for it at the right time.