Runners participated in the trail race from regional locations such as Ithaca and Corning, as well as national locations such as North Carolina and Maryland. Salt Springs Forest, Fields, and Falls Trail Race provides the need for trail racing in the Triple Cities area. It is one of the only trail races within the Greater Binghamton area.
Interview with Fields, Forest, and Falls Co-Race Director, Diana Bean
Confluence Running: “How did you start this race?”
Diana Bean: Every Labor Day Weekend is the Celebration. This is the Friends of Salt Springs major fundraiser and it’s a day long event. And I had just started looking at trail races in the area and said you know what, this is a great park it needs a trail race, there are no trail races in this area, you have to travel to the Finger Lakes or the next county over in Pennsylvania to get good trail races. So I asked the board, and they said, sure go ahead. And thus, it was born. I mentioned it to somebody and they said you should talk to Phil Maynard, he likes to run at the park, and so Phil Maynard is the Co-Race Director. He is responsible for today’s 10k. Which was a resounding success.
Confluence Running: “So this is the first year of the 5k and the 10k?”
Diana Bean: Yes. Before it was like a 2.5 and a 5.5 mile course, simply because that’s the way the lay of the land was. And we decided that we would like to up it to a 5k and 10k. And after exploring some of the outer trails, the ones that are not used as much, we came up with the 5k and the 10k.
Confluence Running: “Two weeks ago there was a big storm. What was running through your head at that point in time?”
Diana Bean: Whether we would actually have a park to have an event in. It wasn’t so much worry about the trails as it was would there be a place to park, because the parking lot and the pavilion where we are standing were just washed away. The footbridge was washed away, that we were going to start the race on. As a matter of fact, we had a new starting area for the race and that was washed away. After the flooding subsided and the state brought in heavy equipment for about four or five days and did a lot of the big work. Then the volunteers came in and we had a big cleanup day. Everyday work was being done and every day I walked a portion of the trails, came up with some alternatives, but, in the end, Phil groomed the border trail, and made that usable again because that had a big rock slide on it. And we were able to go back to the original 5k and 10k that we had planned on. It was touch and go for a while.
Confluence Running: “What was some of the feedback that you were hearing today about the race?”
Diana Bean: I was really nervous. I was nervous about somebody getting hurt, like seriously hurt, and I did not hear one bad thing. People were just so excited for the 10k and they said it’s really a high level 10k trail race, very technical, they were just thrilled with it. I didn’t hear anything bad about it. And I’m really happy about that. As I said in the beginning, if you like [the 10k], Phil gets the credit, if you hate it, Phil gets the blame. But it was all credit to him.
Confluence Running: “Anything else you’d like to add?”
Diana Bean: I hope that we’ll be able to continue to grow this race. We’ve got room for more participants, the trails can take some more runners. There’s not that many trail races to easy access in the Triple Cities area, in my opinion, and it’s a great park and a great way to help support the park is to come out and run.
Confluence Running: “Thank you”
Diana Bean: Thank you.
Email: Matt.Gawors@gmail.com