2020 Corn Maze Craze

09/20/2020

5k

New date September 20, 2020

The smoky air foiled our plan to hold this run on Sunday, September 13, so we rescheduled to the following Sunday.

Original Date: Sunday, August 23, 2020

6:30am – 9:00am starts

Bob’s Corn & Pumpkin Farm, Snohomish, WA

This race was such a hit last year as part of our Tuesday Night Trail to Grill series, that we decided to move it to the weekend so more people could join us! With COVID-19 distancing measures, we will be able to accommodate around 80-85 runners, so we recommend pre-registering soon before the event fills up.

Results & Photos
Start Times
Registration
COVID-19 Safety Measures
Course Description
Schedule
Directions & Parking
Apparel
Post-Race Festivities
Safety, Etiquette & Dogs

Results & Photos

2020 Results & Photos courtesy of our own Heather Gonzalez

2020 video:

2019 Results & Photos courtesy of Ryan Thrower & Video by Heather Gonzalez

Start Times

Here are the final start times as of Saturday evening (9/19):

Please let us know if you intended to run together starting at the same time as someone else that we assigned a different start time, and we can most likely put you together without impacting other start times if you will be matching their speed. Also, please let us know if you are no longer able to come to the run, so that we can be aware of openings in the start order.

We tried to account for everyone’s preferences stated in the registration information, but because we are using a seeded start, we need to keep the start list ordered by time and are not able to precisely accommodate start time requests. Many people requested to start at or near the end of the start order, and of course we were unable to accommodate all of these requests, and most people are starting earlier than their ideal time.

For the earliest starters, we may need to delay the start a few minutes depending upon sky conditions and whether there is enough light to see well enough to race. If we do this, then we will shave a small amount of time off the intervals between runners where feasible to gradually bring us back on schedule.

We will post the start list in the start/finish area, and we will periodically announce who is starting in the next few minutes.

Registration

	Pre-Registration (through 9/18)	Day-of-Event
5k	29.00	35.00

A portion of your registration fee goes to cover your entry into the corn maze while you participate in the run. If you’d like to upgrade to a farm admission to do the maze or other activities after they open at 10am, you can do so by paying us an additional $5 and then picking up a at the farm store.

The run is full, and registration is closed. Event-day registration will not be available, with the exception that if members of a household want to join an already-registered runner at their same start time and run together with them at their seed pace, then they may still register, since it does not impact the assigned start times for other runners.

COVID-19 Safety Measures

Runs can be a fun and safe activity during COVID-19 times if we just do some simple things for each others safety! Read on for more about what we’ve learned, what we’re doing, and what you can do.

Part of our duty as event organizers is to plan carefully for safety. We take this responsibility seriously, and we appreciate the trust you place in us by coming to our events. The COVID-19 pandemic meant a pause for our events that ended only in late July, but it has also meant much extra work over the intervening months adapting our events to mitigate the new risks of the pandemic.

Because confusing and often conflicting or politicized information has created doubt and uncertainty about safety and relative risk, we want to briefly address the basic safety of trail running: The consensus opinion of the infectious disease experts is that SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) is far less likely to transmit from person to person outdoors, primarily due to the movement of air dispersing virus-bearing droplets to a low concentration that is unlikely to result in infection. Outdoor transmission is still possible, but studies of the origin of cases seem to suggest that it is roughly 100 times less likely that any given case will have resulted from outdoor transmission.

It is also the case that brief contact with a contagious person is far less likely to result in viral transmission than sustained close proximity. Taken together with the relative safety of being outdoors, this means that if you briefly pass close by an infected person on the trail, there is only a vanishingly small chance of you catching the virus from them and getting infected. Of course we still want to take precautions to mitigate small risks, but with reasonable modifications, we believe that trail running events can be one of the safest and most health-promoting things you can do during the pandemic.

Our staff has been looking toward expert guidance—including from health and labor departments at the State of Washington (via the guidance from the Governor’s office) and numerous email bulletins and web resources from the Centers for Disease Control—as we implement extensive safety protocols to eliminate unnecessary risks. The list of steps we are taking is long and growing in detail, so we won’t include it here, but the general areas we are emphasizing are physical distancing, PPE/masks/hygiene, sanitizing, screening, staffing for safety, communications & training.

You have an important role to play in facilitating a safe event, and we ask that you follow #RecreateResponsibly guidelines and adhere to the guidelines below to help us keep you and our broader community safe:

Maintain Physical Distancing

Avoid gathering around others, and keep at least a six-foot interpersonal distance from anyone not in your household whenever possible
Travel to and from the event only with people in your household. Normally we encourage carpooling, but this is not the time for it.
Plan ahead so that you don’t need to make any extra stops on your way to or from the event. This is to eliminate unnecessary contact with others.
Arrive at the event site no earlier than you need to in order to comfortably check in and prepare to start, and at most one hour before your start time. If you arrive with extra time, please stay in your car or take a walk away from the event area in order to facilitate distancing for yourself and others.
Depart the event site promptly after you finish and complete your post-exercise routine
Unless you are passing, please maintain at least a 20-foot distance when following other runners going a similar speed on the course. Announce yourself when you intend to pass someone else on the trail, wait for a relatively wide spot, and allow time for the person you are passing to step to one side of the trail.

Wear a Mask & Practice Good Hygiene

Wear a mask or face covering at the event, only taking it off when you are about to start or are eating or drinking. You may want to bring a small plastic bag for your mask, so that you can put it in an easily accessible pocket when you aren’t wearing it. If it works for you to take a face covering on the course with you to cover your nose and mouth while you are passing others, then we encourage you to do so.
Wash your hands with soap for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer frequently, plus immediately before and after contact with respiratory fluids or possibly contaminated objects, like portable toilet doors and other commonly-touched surfaces.
If you need to cough or sneeze please cover it with a tissue (which you should then throw away as soon as possible) or with your elbow.
Avoid touching your mouth, nose, and eyes.
When taking your bib number, drinks, snacks, or any other items, please use care to touch only the item(s) you are taking. Drinks and snacks will be served in individual portions only, and common water and snack containers are to be touched by staff only.

Stay Home if You’re Sick or Vulnerable

Do not attend the event if you have a temperature of 100.4F or greater, feel sick, or believe you may have recently been exposed to the COVID-19 virus
Do not attend the event if you are a member of a high-risk group or are in close contact with one or more people in a high-risk group (per CDC: 65+, immune compromised, having another health condition that exacerbates COVID-19)
If you begin to experience the flu-like symptoms of COVID-19 while you are at the event, please immediately notify a staff person (at a safe distance) and self-quarantine away from others until you are able to safely depart the event

We will ask you to affirmatively agree to abide by this code of conduct before you participate in the event. We also ask that we be allowed to contact you after the event if we discover that someone at the event was sick and have reason to believe you may have been exposed. If you become sick soon after attending the event, we would appreciate you letting us know, so that we can track potential risk to our staff and other participants.

Course Description

The route will be very clearly marked, so even though part of the course is in a corn maze, no navigation or guesswork will be required; just follow the marked route!

Because of the need to facilitate physical distancing, we are offering individual seeded starts and a single course distance option this year. The course will start with a run to the start of the maze, follow a marked route through the maze, then end with a run outside the maze to the finish!

Inside the maze, the route is mostly narrow, however there are a few wider parts where passing will be easier, and we will mark these zones.

Here is a map of this year’s route:

Click the map image for a high-resolution PDF

Schedule

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20

6:00am – Check-in and day-of-event registration opens
6:30am – First start
9:00am – Last start
9:50am – Maze portion of course closes (first two miles)
10:00am – Maze opens to the general public

We will have an individual interval start, where runners (or a few people from the same household who will run together) will start individually at assigned times. Faster runners will start first to reduce the incidence of passing within the maze. We will have exclusive use of the maze during the run, so you can look forward to a clear run through.

Directions & Parking

Once you arrive at Bob’s Corn & Pumpkin Farm, please park in the designated parking area south of Elliott Road, and follow the signs east to the start/finish area near the gazebo shelter on the other side of the farm building complex. The race takes place mostly on the other side of the road, and the course will use an underpass to get from the start/finish area to the maze and back.

Bob’s Corn & Pumpkin Farm
10917 Elliott Road
Snohomish, WA 98296
(360) 668-2506

Latitude: 47.8376658
Longitude: -122.0729327

Directions from Seattle & Bellevue:

-Interstate 405 north
-Take Exit 23 to Eastbound Hwy 522
-Take Fales Road/Echo Lake Road Exit
-Go left under overpass onto Fales Road
-Continue for two miles to stop sign.
-Left at stop sign onto Elliott Road
-Farm is ahead on your left.

Directions from North
-Take Highway 9 South toward Clearview.
– Take left at light at 164th Street SE.
-Proceed one mile to stop sign.
-Turn right and immediately left onto Elliott Road.
-Cross railroad tracks and proceed one mile down windy hill.
-Farm is on your right.

Apparel

Our current Northwest Trail Runs series shirt with the “Run Every Trail” slogan and an inspiring mountain motif is available online or at each race! You can purchase apparel by 1) ordering at RunningBug Apparel and have it shipped to you, or, 2) trying it on and buying at the event.

$18.10 + tax – short sleeve tech shirts, in unisex, women’s cuts & youth

$18.10 + tax – short sleeve cotton blend shirts, unisex; $27.20 + tax – cotton hoodie, unisex

$22.70 + tax – long sleeve tech shirts, in unisex and women’s cut

Post-Race Festivities

Bob’s Corn and Pumpkin Farm will be open starting at 10am, in case you want to stick around after your run to enjoy some corn on the cob or other fall fare and fun activities.

Because of our COVID-19 safety measures, we are asking that runners NOT gather together in the start/finish area after the race, but we would love if you wanted to share about your experience on our Facebook page. Our finish refreshment selection will emphasize grab-and-go options. We look forward to returning to our previous social format and menu once the pandemic is over.

Safety, Etiquette & Dogs

SAFETY
The maze will be closed to the general public during the run, however there is still a chance that you could encounter a worker or a farm vehicle on the course, so please be alert. Participants are responsible for their own safety while participating, and the organizers are neither qualified nor equipped to render medical care in the event of a serious injury. In case of an emergency, call 9-1-1. You are encouraged to bring a cell phone with you as a safety precaution, if you wish.

COVID-19 PRECAUTIONS
We have numerous safety measures that we will describe in more detail, but in brief, we ask that while you are at the event—except while you are actually running the course—you maintain at least a 6-foot distance from others not in your household and wear a mask or cloth face covering.

FOLLOWING AND PASSING ETIQUETTE
If you find yourself following other runners at a similar pace, please do so at a distance of at least 20 feet (6 meters). When passing, please announce your intent well in advance, in case the runner in front of you wishes to step to the side of the path to maintain a comfortable distance. If possible without slowing down too much, please wait to pass until one of the marked passing zones where there is more room. Where the route is narrow within the maze, please let other participants pass you if they want to get by. It is a passing runner’s job to tell the person in front that they wish to pass.

HEADPHONES
If you’d like to listen to music while you’re on the course, please use headphones or earbuds, so that runners around you can’t hear it. Others may prefer a quieter event experience or may have different musical tastes. Runners playing music in the open air may be asked to leave the event.

Also, keep the volume low enough that you can hear someone talking to you in a normal voice, for example, another runner saying they would like to pass on your left.

DOGS
Our events are USATF certificated and under the USATF policies, dog are not allow on course.