Sunday, October 1, 2000 -- Elkins, WV
Forest Festival 10K Run / 5K Walk
Story and photos by Mike Monroe

[Details] [Coverage]
[Overall Results]
Pictures: [Set 1] [Set 2] [Set 3] [Set 4] [Set 5] [Set 6] [Set 7]

Off and running at the Forest Festival

[1998 Coverage] [1999 Coverage]

With the trees starting to shed their foliage you know its time for Elkin's famous Mountain State Forest Festival. The festival attracts many people every year and keeps growing with each additional year. You get a really warm aesthetic feeling as you cruise down WV Rt. 33 on the way there. When I got there I thought I might be early since it was still an hour before the race started, but to my surprise I was almost the last to arrive.

The racers were warming up and stretching out for the big run/walk. The kids started first and made their way onto the course, they were not competitive, but instead they were very supportive of each other.

Williams wins in Elkins

Next the 5k walkers started out and zoomed their way through Elkins. The race lineup for walkers was a tough one with a lot of competition and real go-getters. Last, but certainly not least, the 10k runners and the 10k race walkers started. They shot off the line with the bang of the gun as if they were running from the law.

They all had their game faces on as they passed me and headed down Davis Avenue. The course started at Fifth and Davis Avenues and wound through downtown Elkins. It also went through some countrysides before heading back into Elkins and finishing were it all began. They competitors were all wiping their game faces off and replacing them with smiles as they were crossing the finish line.

Twin winners on the Rainbow team

Taking the overall win in the 10K run was Kevin Williams with an impressive 34:12. Second place overall was earned by Adam Vrantner (35:02) in a close battle with Larry Taylor (35:06) who finished third overall. The fastest female 10K runner was Rebecca Schoonover in a time of 42:41.

There were a couple teams out in the mass amount of people, also. One team that stuck out was the purple team. The purple team was lead by Loraine Parsons: she just turned 35 that day. Also on the team was Kim Johnson and Lisa Mullen, Lisa wanted to make sure that I told everyone that "the Purple team ruled!" The other team out there was the rainbow team. They were lead by two identical twin sisters who decided to share the trophy after the race.