This past weekend was Zumbro Trail Race weekend and so I headed down for my usual stint of taking photos. My friend Mike and I skipped our usual Thursday course loop and just came down in the evening. We ended up having a wonderful time playing guitar at Scott and Karin’s campsite well into the evening. Soon enough though it was time to crawl into the van and get some sleep so that I could be up for the 100 mile start in the morning.
It was chilly and cold on Friday morning with fully overcast skies. I figured that would help with some of the photos, and the sun did manage to stay away for a while. I did some shots around the start and then like last year I hitched a ride with Mike to the water stop somewhere between mile 4-5 IIRC. I went down the trail a bit and got some shots and then proceeded to walk the course backwards until I could catch a shortcut over to the river where I’d get runners around mile 15 (of the 17 mile loop) .
I decided to try something different this time and shoot with the wide angle with the bridge and river as the backdrop. I haven’t done this angle before at this race and figured it was worth a try. It was about this time that the sun started fighting its way out and that made shadows a problem, but overall I’m good with the results. It might be something I play with more in the future, though maybe with slightly less of a wide angle lens.
After everyone passed me I started walking the course backwards again to the finish area, catching runners as they were heading out for their next loop. I was ready for food so we all sat around a picnic table and had some lunch before I crashed for a nap. After about 45 minutes I decided to head out again, only this time I decided to walk the course forwards because I wanted to get up to the phone booth hill first to check on some logistics for photographing Saturday.
Walking the course forwards means that I was turning around a lot to catch runners coming at me, but it was also a nice excuse to get out for a hike on a 50ºF day. After arriving back at my van (with almost 10 miles of hiking for the day) I decided to get some relaxation in before an early bed time.
My plan was to wake up at 11pm and shoot the start of the 50 mile race in the dark, and then go back to bed to get back out on course for the 34 and 17 mile race. I ended up having a really great time shooting the nighttime portion and it was a fun challenge. I also tried some long exposure shots of the 50 milers as they ran along the ridge above the campground. Was pleased that there was also a starry night with no moon.
Saturday morning was grey and cold again and so I got dressed warmly, chatted with a few folks, and then headed over to the iron bridge to get the 34 and 17 milers as they came across. I also managed to get a ton of the 50 milers who were also at various stages of their looped race.
Eventually I got to the last of the 17 milers just as it started to sprinkle rain. Given some recent experience with water issues and my camera I opt’d to call it a day and start the drive home.
Posted the album this morning, and pleased that I’m getting more stringent about culling images and really just putting up what I consider to be good photos. We’ll see if I decide to do the iron bridge again next year, I’ve done it for a few years and it might be time to move on to something else.
For now, here’s the album link: https://swiftphotography.smugmug.com/Race-Photography/Zumbro-2026 and as always if you like the photos please feel free to drop a few bucks in my PayPal donation jar to help offset the cost of doing these.
