Detailed driving directions can be found on the directions page. Please drive carefully, particularly on Route 649 (Browntown Road), which is a hilly & winding two-lane road, prone to morning fog and wild animal crossings. (Same goes for those of you coming to Browntown from the south via Route 613 [Bentonville-Browntown Road].)

As Browntown is rather small, parking is somewhat limited. We have two main designated parking areas: A small lot sandwiched between two houses a couple hundred feet north of the Browntown Baptist Church, and the larger parking lot at the Baptist Church itself. We'll have two or three volunteers stationed out on Browntown Road to direct you as to where to park.

If our two main parking areas fill up, we'll have overflow parking in a grassy field at the nearby O.J.'s Christmas Tree Farm (provided the field is not wet) and possibly along the side of Smith Run Road to the south.

	MAP OF BROWNTOWN
	(Click here for a more detailed view)

(Note: Please do not park at the community center or on the west side of the Gooney Manor Loop road. We'll probably have "NO PARKING" signs set up in these locations.)

Browntown is a tiny little community, and we are its guests. Thus, please be respectful of the local residents! Don't walk in the middle of the road, don't block people's driveways, don't use people's shrubbery as a restroom, don't have your car radios blaring, don't start screaming or yelling for no reason, etc. Treat the local residents as you'd want to be treated if a bunch of people invaded your town early on a Saturday morning while you were trying to get some rest or trying to go about your morning routine. :)

Race day registration and check-in will most likely take place right next to the finish line, adjacent to the Browntown Baptist Church. (If the weather is poor, we may move registration inside the Browntown Community Center if possible.) We plan to be open for business at 7:45 AM, and we will be closing registration at 8:45 AM (so that we all have time to get down to the starting line before 9 AM). If you're preregistered, you'll just need to check in and get your t-shirt (if you requested one). If you're not preregistered, we'll have entry forms available for you to fill out. (You can always save yourself some time by filling out an entry form ahead of time-- see the registration page to print up an entry form.)

Our t-shirt supply may be limited on race day, so if you're signing up on race day and you really want a t-shirt, show up earlier rather than later! We do, of course, offer a $4 entry fee discount if you don't get a shirt (or if you don't want one), so if we run out of shirts, the discount applies automatically. More info about this year's race shirts can be found on the Registration page. (Preregistered runners, don't worry-- we will have your shirts set aside for you!)

The Browntown Community Center's bathrooms will be open for use by runners. Because we're expecting around 100 participants, we'd imagine that a bathroom line will quickly develop. If you really want to play it safe, you might want to try using a restroom before you get to Browntown. (Front Royal, which most of you will be passing through on your way to the race, has various fast food establishments and gas stations-- you might try one of those.)

Please leave your headphones and iPods at home or in your car. Because the course consists of winding rural roads and is entirely open to traffic, we want you to be completely aware of your surroundings. So we hope you'll be respectful of our wishes (not to mention our liability insurance!) by not wearing headphones during the race.

The starting line is in the middle of Route 613 (Bentonville-Browntown Road), 0.8 miles west of Browntown. There is no parking at the start, so you're going to have to walk or jog there, as we noted earlier. Because Route 613 is a public road-- and because the starting line is located just beyond a curve in the road-- we ask that you stay out of the middle of the road before the start so as to allow local traffic pass through unimpeded.

The course is open to traffic! The Gooney Manor Loop, onto which you'll be turning just a minute or two into the race, is a narrow gravel road until about mile 4, and while it sees very little traffic, you may encounter a car or truck or two. Please do your best to move to the side of the road and give vehicles room to pass by.

The Gooney Manor Loop becomes a wider paved road shortly before the 4 mile mark. We advise you to run on the left side of the road for the remainder of the race. Technically you can "run the tangents" if you so desire, but the impetus is on you to get out of the way if a vehicle comes rumbling by! They have the right of way, since they weigh a lot more than you do.

Running up the narrow Gooney Manor Loop during the 2001 Greasy-Gooney 10K

We will have two water stops this year-- one just past the two mile mark, and the other just before the four mile mark. Standard water stop etiquette applies-- don't throw your used cups off into the woods where our volunteers won't be able to see 'em, and don't hang onto your cup for a mile and then chuck it (since our volunteers probably won't be looking for cups that far down the road). And, of course, say "thank you" if you're not too out of breath!

The foliage should be at or just beyond peak color on race day. The weather has been too dry for optimal color this year, but it should still be pretty colorful out on the course, with a lot of yellows in particular.

We're expecting to have a few walkers this year. Walkers are welcome to participate, but be aware that we only have the two water stops (see above), so you might want to carry some water and/or snacks with you. The awards ceremony will probably be over before most of the walkers finish, but we'll keep the clock running!

This is not your everyday 10K course, so if you're one of the speedsters, it pays to put some thought into how you're going to approach the race! This course is probably going to be at least thirty seconds to a minute slower than your typical 10K (maybe even more), primarily because of the difficult third mile. So adjust your estimates accordingly! It's a good idea to hold back a little over the first half and then try to make up ground over the downhill second half. (Check out the Course Information page for maps and elevation profiles.)

We'll be using the "finish card" method of tabulating the results. When you cross the finish line, you will be handed a numbered 4" by 6" index card (like the one shown at right). As soon as you catch your breath, please fill out your card and turn it in right away! The sooner we get your card, the sooner we can get the results done... so don't hold us up by hanging onto your card for twenty minutes or by not turning it in at all.

Also, please, please, please do not cross the finish line twice! After you've finished (and turned in your finish card), you are welcome to jog back out on the course and meet up with a friend or family member who's still running-- but please veer away well before the finish line. If runners cross the line a second time, it throws off our entire reckoning of times & results and makes life very difficult for the finish line crew. Consider the finish line to be a sacred plane, only to be broken once.

We'll have water, soda, donuts, and maybe some candy at the finish. It won't be a very good spread, but hey, this is a low-budget race!

If all goes well and everyone turns in their finish cards promptly, we will start the awards ceremony around 10:20 AM, although there will be a few runners and walkers still out on the course at that point. If you're one of those who won't be finishing before 10:20, don't worry-- we'll leave the clock running for you! And if you wind up winning an award, we'll give it to you right at the finish line.

If you cannot stick around for the awards ceremony, we will try to mail your trophy to you-- but we'd really rather not, given that it'll cost us about $5.00 per award in postage and packaging (a big additional expense for a low-fee, low-budget, low-profit race such as this one). So do try and stick around if you can.

We encourage you to stop by O.J. Rudacille's General Store in Browntown and buy a snack and/or souvenir, because store proprietor Tom Lacombe is always a big help to us year in and year out. The least we can do to thank him is to drum up some business for him. So tell Tom the Greasy-Gooney 10K sent ya! The store is right across the bridge on Route 613-- you'll see it on your left as you walk to the starting line before the race.

The final race results will be published here on this site within a few days of the race, and they'll also be submitted for posting on the Web sites of the Washington Running Report, racePacket, and Cool Running, among others.

You can get in touch with me-- co-race director Karsten Brown-- by e-mail or by phone at (540) 635-1773. Our other race director, Terry Leckie, can be reached at (540) 635-1025.