Photo by Leah Ingram Eagle.
A view of the pond at Dunnavant Valley Park. The trail connects with the Dunnavant Valley trailhead, which goes all the way to the soccer fields on Shelby County 41.
The FARM: Functional Athletic Rehabilitation and Movement is hosting one of the only races in the Birmingham area this month. The race will take place Saturday, June 10, at 7 a.m.
Dr. Beau Beard, co-founder and clinic director of The FARM, said this is the first year for the race, and he decided to put it on mainly to highlight the new trail systems between Dunnavant Valley Park and Double Oak Park.
Participants can run the 5- or 10-mile version of the race. The 5-mile option starts at the Dunnavant Valley Fields parking lot off Shelby County 41, and runners will go a quarter mile before hitting the Dunnavant Valley Greenway, which parallels the North Fork of Yellow Leaf Creek for 1.9 miles. From there, runners will continue through the trailhead parking lot and run the trail paralleling the highway before entering Dunnavant Valley Park. Runners will continue to the first aid station and 5-mile turnaround at the barn located next to the pond, then loop back on the same course
The 10-mile option will take the same route, but instead of turning around at the barn, runners will climb up a Jeep road for a half mile before entering Laurel Loop, which is two miles, and then enter Raven's Roost for a quarter mile before getting back onto the main Jeep road. The road will take runners a half mile to the edge of Double Oak Way to the second aid station, where runners will turn around.
The route will take them onto Fire on the Mountain for 0.72 miles before getting back onto the main road one last time. Then it’s all downhill from there, Beard said.
All of the profits from the race will be split with the nonprofit Coosa Riverkeeper. The FARM has been the Coosa Riverkeeper Fish Guide sponsor for the North Fork of Yellow Leaf Creek for the past several years, and Beard is on the board of directors.
“It is our pleasure to help out such a wonderful organization and to protect the wild places we all love,” Beard said. “Yellow Leaf Creek runs by our office and home in Shelby County, so we want to keep protecting the waterways that supply us with water and fish.”
Registration for the 5-miler is $40 and the 10-miler is $75 and can be completed at ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=101186.
