On The Run with John Stifler: Covered Bridge Classic 10-kilometer road race set for Sunday

Published: 10-04-2024 5:07 PM

Conway, Massachusetts, couldn’t look ugly if it tried. Winding roads, classic village architecture, ancient covered bridge, old stone library – and now it’s October, when Conway’s autumnal charm is augmented by the Conway Festival of the Hills. The annual festival opens this afternoon and reaches full size tomorrow with a parade, music, cider, doughnuts, maple cream, fried dough, lots of other food, book sales, art displays and three great athletic events: log-splitting, a skillet-tossing contest and the Covered Bridge Classic 10-kilometer road race. 

I can split firewood. I refrain from throwing skillets. I love this footrace. It appeals for many reasons besides the carbohydrate replacement available afterward.

Two features distinguish the course from the standard loop race. One is that the race starts at the covered bridge just off Route 116 and finishes in the center of Conway. Consequently, you get to warm up by walking a mile uphill, from where you pick up your number to the starting line, and then the actual race is more downhill than up.  

Another is that the middle section of the route is a lollipop on unpaved road. You follow Reed’s Bridge Road out to approximately the five-kilometer point, run a short loop on Truce Road that comes back to Reed’s Bridge Road, and then run a couple of miles back to the finish. Thus, as you run toward mid-race you can see who’s ahead of you, and on your way back who’s behind. 

Online registration is closed, but you can sign up in person tomorrow morning in front of Conway’s Marshall Field Library before 9:40 a.m. Park at Pumpkin Hollow, on Whately Road. By the way, if you’re not running but want to do more than be a spectator, visit festivalofthehills.com, scroll down to “Volunteer!” and sign up to help set up, run an event (are you a certified skillet-toss referee?) or help clean up afterward and eat the leftover doughnuts. 

The Covered Bridge 10K is the 11th of 12 races in the 2024 Sugarloaf Mountain Athletic Club race series, in which finishers score points determined by a formula that factors together a runner’s clock time, age and performance relative to the race winner. Top points scorers win prizes at the club’s annual meeting in January, and everyone who runs at least six races in the series is eligible for a prize. If you’ve been thinking about joining a running club, visit sugarloafmountainathletic.org.

The final race in this year’s series is the Monson Memorial Classic, a half-marathon on November 10. Held in memory of Kelly Waldron and Kathy Waldron Perry, two sisters who died from two different cancers, the race follows a semi-rural course with nice hills and plenty of pre- and post-race amenities. It starts at noon in the center of Monson. Register in advance at https://runsignup.com/Race/MA/Monson/MonsonMemorialClassicHalfMarathon5K. If you want to run but aren’t trained to go 13.1 miles, sign up instead for the 5K that starts at 12:15 p.m.

Or wait a day and test your fitness in the Run ’Round the Mountain in South Deerfield. Held on Veterans’ Day (Monday, Nov. 11), this event offers a choice of distances: a 5K out-and-back on Main Street and Hillside Road or a 10K that continues up Hillside, down to River Road, around the red sandstone south side of Sugarloaf and north to the center of town. 

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Both races start at 10 a.m. in the middle of South Deerfield. Registration deadline is 5 p.m. on November 8th. Entry is free for veterans and active duty servicepeople, $25 or $30 for everybody else. Like most local races, this one would also love to have you volunteer to help with number pickup, water stops, finish line and more. To volunteer, email  jreino11@comcast.net. 

Besides celebrating America’s veterans, this run qualifies anyone over 50 to compete in the National Senior Games, a 12-day athletic festival modeled on the Olympics, with sports ranging from track and swimming to shuffleboard and pickleball. Finishing the 5K or the 10K on Veterans’ Day makes you eligible to compete at either or both distances in the 2025 nationals, which will be in Des Moines, Iowa. 

Race director John Reino and his wife, JoEllen, competed in the NSG in 2022 in Fort Lauderdale, where JoEllen won the women’s sprint triathlon in the 55-59-year age group with a time that ranked in the all-time top ten in that division. The late Judy Scott, a South Deerfield senior athlete beloved by everyone in the Sugarloaf club, was a Senior Games regular and won several medals. 

John Stifler has taught writing and economics at UMass and has written extensively for running magazines and newspapers. He can be reached at jstifler@umass.edu