The Long Path Races
Schunemunk
Mountain, venue for the Great Schunemunk Traverse
Created and maintained by the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, the Long Path is a 358-mile hiking trail that reaches from New York City to the outskirts of Albany, along the way traversing some of New York's most beautiful natural parks and preserves, including the New Jersey Palisades, Harriman State Park, Schunemunk Mountain, the Shawangunk Mountains, the Catskills, and the Helderberg Escarpment.
The trail's name was inspired by the opening stanza of Walt Whitman's "Song of the Open Road":
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
The purpose of the Long Path Race Series is to to get more people running and hiking on New York's beautiful trails and build awareness for the Long Path and the work of the Trail Conference and its volunteers.
For more information on the Long Path, be sure to visit the Trail Conference's website at www.nynjtc.org
Here's how the series works:
1. You may compete in any or all of the races included in the series. To register for each race, please be sure to visit that event's website or registration page. No separate registration is needed for the series. Please note, relay divisions (and some others as indicated) do not count toward the series.
2. Points are awarded for the distance you complete in each race, relative to the first male and female. For example, if a female runs a marathon-distance race and finishes in 4 hours, and the first female finished in 3 hours, then 19.65 points would be awarded (26.2 x 3:00/4:00).
3. At the end of season, the series winners are determined based on cumulative point totals in four divisions: male (under 40), male master (40 and older), female (under 40), and female master (40 and older). We call the winners "disciples of the Long Brown Path," in a nod to Trail Conference founder Raymond Torrey, who is memorialized on Long Mountain as a "Great Disciple of the Long Brown Path."
Earn a 100-mile commemorative coin once you've completed a total of 100 miles in any number of Long Path Race Series events.
Andy Garrison and Bob Fuller
Ed Goodell with Ken Posner
Dave Webber with Ken Posner
We also award the commemorative coin to people who've made significant volunteer or other contributions to the Long Path, without which our races wouldn't be possible.
Recipients include:
2016 Dave Webber Volunteer trail supervisor for Minnewaska State Park
2016 Andy Garrison Volunteer Long Path Co-chair
2016 Ed Goodell NY-NJ Trail Conference Executive Director
2016 Bob Fuller Volunteer leader, Long Distance Trails Crew
Todd Jennings with 2016 SRT 70-Mile women's champion Melanie Mueller
2016 LPRS Men's Open champion (and disciple) Alan Davidson
