After having the races in April the first year and June the 2nd year the 3rd annual Sun Mountain Trail Races will now be moving to May-- Sunday May 22 to be exact. Hopefully this will be the permanent date for the race from now on.
One great thing about moving the race to May will be that the "sunflowers" (Balsam Root) will be in full bloom! And the weather is usually perfect(not too hot, not too cold) in May at the elevations the races take place at (2000-3800ft).
The Date will not be the only change, The 50m course will no longer be a point to point but will now be a loop course that starts and finishes at Sun Mountain like all the other courses--50m course will run the same exact route as the 50k(which will be almost exactly the same as last year but the first and last few miles of the race will be different) plus will do an additional 19 mile "lollipop" style route in the same area of the second half of MVSTA's Sunflower Trail Marathon. This change will eliminate all the road running the 50m runners had to do last year to go from the Twisp River Trail to the Sun Mountain Trail System--it also means the 50m runners won't have to take a bus to the start anymore!
The pictures are from last year's Sunflower Trail Marathon and Relay(the 1st weekend of May) that runs right through Sun Mountian and follows the same partially the same route as the Sun Mountain Races. Photo Credit: Kristen Smith of MVSTA
