The Greasy-Gooney 10K course was certified for USA Track & Field by Neal Riemenschneider on 11 August 1999. The cerification number is VA99025RT.

After running the first quarter mile on pavement, you'll turn left onto the Gooney Manor Loop, which is unpaved for the next 3.7 miles. You'll be running on gravel, with a good bit of smooth dirt showing. So the footing on this gravel section is pretty good, with the exception of a slightly rocky section around 1.5 miles. Just before the four mile mark, the road changes over to pavement, and you'll be on pavement for the remainder of the race.

It is nearly impossible to get lost on the Greasy-Gooney 10K course, as there is only one turn. This turn (a left) comes a mere quarter mile into the race, so after that, just keep going straight all the way back to Browntown!

There will be two water stops. The first will come just beyond the two mile mark, and the second will come just before the four mile mark. If you take water, try and toss your cup somewhere in plain view so that our volunteers will see 'em to pick 'em up. (In other words, don't throw your cups off in the woods.)

Miles 1 through 6 will be marked with our usual blue & yellow signs stuck into the tops of traffic cones. Each intermediate half-mile will likely be marked with a little orange surveyor's flag or two. (Due to changes in house numbers as well as repaving, we no longer know exactly where the originally certified mile marks are-- but we went over the course a couple times with a measuring wheel in 2005, and we're relatively certain that our current mile marks will be accurate to within a few yards. Rest assured that we do know the certified start and finish locations, so the overall course length will be correct!)

As mentioned above and as illustrated below, the course is basically 3.1 miles up and 3.1 miles down. But don't worry-- the incline is fairly gradual until about 2½ miles. That next half mile is the hard part, getting steeper and seeming to go on and on and on. Many runners will slow to a walk. But eventually you'll see the Presley mailbox on your left at about the halfway point, and from there it's essentially all downhill!

Below are a couple of three-dimensional overhead views of the course. While they look like photos taken from a plane, they're actually images from a flight simulation computer game. We've highlighted the 10K course in yellow on the two images: