Friends of the W&OD
| W&OD TRAIL 5K Sunday, March 29, 2015 - 4:00 pm
On Washington & Old Dominion Trail
In honor of Walter L. Mess, chairman emeritus
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Thank you for entering W&OD Trail 5K, in memory of Walter L. Mess.
On-street parking near the start / finish is free on Sundays.
Packet pickup is Sunday, March 29, 2:30 PM to 3:45 PM, at American Legion Post 130, 400 North Oak Street, Falls Church VA 22046.
At packet pickup, you receive your bib number, safety pins you need them (bring your own if you have t hem), your t-shirt featuring a portrait of Walter L. Mess, and a goodie bag with a welcome letter and some product samples.
[In the goodie bag is sample packet of Emergen-C and a response form about Emergen-C that you may fill out and return to us. Oddly, the form does not have a return address or web site, so we'll have a collection envelope at packet pickup.]
Please pin your bib number to the front of you shirt, not obscured by a jacket, so we can read your bib number when you finish. Please leave the name-tag intact at the bottom of your bib number, so we can remove it at the end of the race to keep score. Please don't pin through the name tag.
Before the race, you can meet Walter L. Messs's lifelong friend Roger Neighborgall, now president of Friends of the W&OD; Karl Mohle and Andy Kaganowich, who manage W&OD Trail; David Garcia, roving naturalist from Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority and his animal friends; Brian Rice, our sponsor, exhibiting Amway products; and Sol Schott, owner of Acme Pies. We also thank Falls Church police, W&OD Trail Patrol, and Boy Scout troops 349, 681, and 895.
Pre-race, we play the National Anthem at about 3:50 PM, then get a welcome from Roger Neighborgall, a safety briefing from Falls Church Police Chief Mary Gavin, and a race rules briefing from the race director (me) -- stay to the right except when passing, be courteous to other trail users, finish to your right in the corrdct order.
The race starts at 4:00 PM on the W&OD Trail at Oak Street. Stay right and run west across Spring Street, West Street, and Grove Street; run across Citizens Bridge over Route 7, dedicated to Walter L. Mess, who worked for 20 years to get the bridge funded and built; and continue west to a turnaround point near Hickory Street and Shreve Road.
Turn around left there and run back eastbound over Citizens Bridge, across Grove, West, Spring, and Oak Streets, passing the start / finish, where we will have water and Gatorade. Stay right and continue eastbound across Great Falls Street to a turnaround point near Veterans Common, before you get to Little Falls Street. Turn around left there and run back across Great Falls Street, then stay to your right to the finish line at Walter L. Mess Plaza, the small playground next to American Legion Post 130.
We hope our mostly-flat, relatively scenic course enables you to run your best 5K ever. We promise better weather than last year's slush-storm.
After you finish, we offer Acme Pies by the slice, Great Harvest bread, Mario's pizza (both with cheese and without cheese for vegans), Whole Foods bananas, plus water and Gatorade.
We offer whole Acme Pies for prizes, also Dunkin' Donuts berets and some gift certificates.
Let's talk about t-shirts for a moment. Three weeks ago, in the depth of winter, I ordered 72 t-shirts when we had 24 sign-ups. Now that spring has sprung, we have 90 sign-ups! So that nobody goes home empty-handed, we will bring nice t-shirts from our marathon last year, but also we will collect names / bib numbers from anyone who doesn't get a Walter Mess W&OD Trail 5K t-shirt tomorrow and wants us to send one by mail. Sorry about that! Thanks for understanding.
We look forward to welcoming you tomorrow, Sunday, March 29!
Links:
See our web page at www.safetyandhealthfoundation.org/wod for further information.
Course maps:
We look forward to hosting you this weekend!
-- Thank you
-- Jay Jacob Wind
-- Secretary, Friends of the W&OD Trail
-- Director, Safety And Health Foundation