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C&O Canal 100: Running on Hallowed Ground

Gary Dudney 05/05/2021
Gary Dudney 05/05/2021
5.3K

If you’ve ever used the word “pleasant” to describe a 100-mile race, it’s likely going to be the C&O Canal 100 near Knoxville, Maryland. Forget about tripping down technical trails, battling brutal heat or sub-freezing temps and facing quad-burning elevation. In fact, forget any elevation change at all.

Instead, imagine banks of wildflowers, a wide river flowing nearby and a running surface free of rocks, ruts and anything that would require your attention. Even a night of rain produced no puddles or mud, leaving runners free to enjoy the scenery.

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal operated from 1831 to 1924, spanning from Washington, D.C. to Cumberland, Maryland. One of the nation’s first large-scale engineering projects, the C&O was built to bring the riches of the West — coal, lumber and agricultural products — to market in the East. A planned section linking the Ohio River to the canal further west never materialized. The canal that runners see today is across the towpath from the Potomac and consists of 74 canal locks, 11 aqueducts to cross major streams and more than 240 culverts to cross smaller streams.

Photo courtesy Gary Dudney

Running the race was a quiet experience in the woods, with the stillness of the grassy ditch on one side and the Potomac flowing by on the other. There were geese on the river, rows of large turtles sunning themselves, cardinals and woodpeckers flitting through the branches and even a bear cub that had lost its mother, we learned later, and was rescued by the park service.

Other times, because of the looped nature of the course, you were passing other runners in the race or dodging hikers and bikers enjoying the towpath with you, especially near Harper’s Ferry where the Shenandoah River majestically joins the Potomac. Taking the few hundred yards of technical trail back up to the start/finish at Camp Manidokan at the end of loop 1 and 2 was also a nice break from the routine of the towpath.

Photo courtesy Gary Dudney

And yet, while the historic canal, relaxed pace, joy of sharing the trail with all the other runners and gorgeous scenery were all wonderful, for me, the whole experience was vastly deepened by yet another dimension to this race. It’s the area’s Civil War history and proximity to the Antietam National Battlefield that makes it truly hallowed ground. A visit to the battlefield the day before the race is a must. The serene beauty of the place is surreal juxtaposed against the fact that Antietam was the single bloodiest day of battle, not just in the Civil War, but in all American history.

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Gary Dudney

Gary Dudney writes the “Running Wise” column. A native of Kansas, he followed his Polish wife to a job located in Monterey, California in 1982 and signed on as a Technology Project Manager at CTB/McGraw-Hill. Unbeknownst to him at the time, he had landed in the center of prime Northern California ultrarunning territory. Over two hundred ultras later, he still finds every race a fresh and unique experience, evident in the dozens of quirky race reports he’s submitted to UltraRunning over the years. He’s also published a raft of short stories in magazines such as Boys’ Life, Highlights for Children, Boys’ Quest, and several lit magazines. He's also the author of two running book The Tao of Running: Your Journey to Mindful and Passionate Running and The Mindful Runner: Finding Your Inner Focus available on Amazon or at Barnes & Noble online. Visit his website at: thetaoofrunning.com.

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