Use this topic for posts that will collect community stars for the Beebe Lake course. You can also ask questions or make comments about this course.
Here’s how it works.
Click the “Post Using This Template” button below to create a new post with a Story heading and boilerplate text.
Replace the boilerplate text with your report for one or both sections. The Story header is key for distinguishing between posts and replies—don’t change it.
Your post must be on the same calendar day as your run as entered in the leaderboard.
Story
To pick up a community star, replace this text with a write-up of what your run was like, a photo you took on the run, a link to your Strava track, or something similar. Don’t delete the Story heading above.
The temperature may have dropped 40 degrees overnight, and the snow may have been falling amidst the flowers of the Arboretum, but a hardy crew of runners still met to kick off the 2026 Challenge in style.
There was also big rain overnight, so the falls at the end of Beebe Lake were roaring, and the mist was engulfing the footbridge, making for some good shots.
1 down, many more to go! (depends on which aspect of challenge - Classic, personal, etc) …but it wasn’t easy. Missed the group run due to other obligations - but while it meant I was running alone, I also as running when it as dry! Saw Steve and Bob out on the same course - though much further along than I as (I ran it backwards essentially) and at least one other runner who potentially was running the course as well, but that was about it - the weather kept all but 2 groups of pedestrians off the trails. (I did pause to take a picture of a mother and son by the falls).
No, the bigger issue was energy level and breathing - this kind of change in weather triggers my asthma, and I had left my inhaler at home (grr) so it was an arduous run despite the pace.
one shoutout to Bert Adams who drove by just as I was dying on the steep arboretum hill…just the encouragement I needed
Beautiful to run on this spring-snow morning.
We got lost fairly quickly but only added half mile to our course:) Always a delight to be in such beauty! Thank you Adam for making this happen!!!
I missed the 2026 kickoff group run thanks to my kids’ greater-than-average degree of obstreperosity on Sunday morning so I was happy to get down to the arboretum bright and early today. It was a nice 28°F run, but whoa! I was not ready for the freezer blast from Triphammer Falls (on the foot bridge across Beebe Lake’s west end). I lost 1-2 minutes when RunGo Rachel starting giving me the silent treatment. Good running weather, probably the last truly cold day for this year’s Challenge.
Fun side note: I was messing around on the Leaderboard and discovered a quick and easy way to see how many lifetime Challenge runs someone has logged. Go to your personal athlete homepage and click the “Activity Log” button. This lists every run you’ve done in the Challenge’s six-year history. Use the search function in your browser to search the % character and voila! The result total equals the total number of lifetime runs you’ve recorded. This works in Chrome on my desktop and Safari in iOS. I’d assume it also works in Chrome for Android.
Eventually a bunch of other pages will get the same “All / 2026 / 2025 / …” selector that’s on the course results page, but focusing on the essentials for now!
Drove back from Baltimore today in time to finish this course. It was a beautiful mild spring day, I heard Baltimore Orioles calling from the big walnut trees at the start/finish (fitting, Baltimore seems to be the theme!) I saw @Petorius and his kids running down the hill just as I got started. Lots of blooming wildflowers in Mundy garden to brighten the trail. And the jog around Beebe Lake is always lovely.
Lots of challengers at the arboretum yesterday! That little bit of running you saw was one of the few times the kids weren’t distracted by the flora and wildlife.
I ran a double this afternoon, Beebe Lake then Botanic Gardens. Though there were no turtles on the bridge, as suggested by the Run Go directions, the gold fish under the bridge were stunning, as were the wildflowers. The new sign is up in the Mundy Wildflower parking area complete with photos of flowers currently in bloom. What fun!
