2022 Report

The Starters

The Photographs

Report

This post-event note on The Facebooks from DxDL run organizer George Scott:
Thank you for all who showed up for Death by Do Loop today! A big shout out to: Quatro for being the brains and brawn behind it, Erik [Price] and Chris [Moore] for marking the course, everyone who brought stuff for the massive aid station, and DxDL founder Sarah [Curtis] who left us for the ugly Alps of southern Germany. Also, sorry it was so hot and dry! You can bet run day will have more appropriate conditions.

These post-event comments by your run photographer Quatro:
Thanks to George Scott for putting on a great show on what was an unseasonably warm mid-February day. Temps were in the 40s and 50s, and while there was some mud and high water points along the way, the conditions were relatively dry. The series of storms and extremely cold weather this winter ahead of this event took its toll on the trail in another way, however. There were a number of blowdowns that had to be clambered over, under or around on this day, and a lot of other debris hanging over the trail that the runners had to keep an eye out for, lest they lose an eye.

In lieu of the former tradition of having runners mark his back windshield with a hash mark after each successful loop, George helpfully used the facial media to create a poll for self-reporting, ex post facto. This may have been a game day decision made just prior to kickoff at 8 AM, after George noted just how many people had shown up for the run, and thus how heavily marked his windshield (and perhaps other windows) on his vehicle was likely to become.

No one reported more than three loops this year. The facial media poll had the following results: 16 runners had completed 3 loops, 17 runners completed 2 loops; and 6 reported a single loop. 6 non-runners helpfully reports that they completed zero loops on this day. My handy calculator puts this at 88 loops. As more than half of the field failed to report, it is probably safe to assume that somewhere close to 200 Do Loops were covered on this day. Of particular note, Katie Keier did complete three loops, and then went on to log another 10 miles on the BROT in order to complete a 50k for her day! Good job by you, Katie!

Speaking of the BROT, Will Weidman took off from Bull Run Regional Park at roughly the same time that the Death by Do Loop event was getting underway. 2 hours and 28 speedy minutes later, he had completed his run on the entire length of the current Bull Run-Occoquan Trail. Will devoured the BROT three minutes ahead of the time posted on the FKT website for the blue trail, thus setting a new FKT on this day! He opted not to cap his achievement off with an attempt to beat the highest known number of Do Loops at one go: the incredible 8-loop effort by Ellen Hart in 2018. But nonetheless, a good day for Will. And a great day for the dozens of runners who turned out for DxDL, 2022.