Zumbro 2024 – Photo Credit Cary Johnson
Greetings Runners,
With just three weeks to go, I wanted to check in, and extend an early welcome to all 575 of you, coming from 17 states and 175 Minnesota cities, that have registered for the 2025 Zumbro Endurance Run so far! I will, as usual, be sending out our final / week of ‘2025 Zumbro Endurance Run Runner Welcome’ email after registration closes, with final updates and more, but I wanted to quickly share a handful of things with you…
As a reminder, Zumbro is on Friday April 11 and Saturday April 12 2025. Registration will remain open until Thursday April 3, 2025 at 11:59 PM CST – so if you have friends or family still planning to register, you can give them a nudge.
As always, if your plans have changed and you can no longer make it to the race, there is no need to contact us. We will know you are not running when you do not show on race day. That way if your plans change, then change again, you just remain registered and still have the ability to race.
Now is a good time to study up on the Zumbro race website – everything you need to know about getting to the race, the distance you are running, and the race course can be found on our website.
The March 4 & 5 snowstorm that dumped around a foot of snow on the Twin Cities completely missed the area where the Zumbro Endurance Run is held. The March 19 snowstorm that hit southern Minnesota / northern Iowa also missed “Zumbro” for the most part, with only around 1″ of snow accumulating. The trails are coming around, and hopefully the old adage for March holds true… “in like a lion, out like a lamb”. That said “April showers bring May flowers”, so as always, prepare for any / everything at Zumbro; it could be the normal course with dry trails (Saturday last year was like zero humidity and temps that topped out near 80F) or we could get rain and snow between now and the race forcing us onto the Highwater Course and include mud, ice, frigid water crossings, etc. As always, if Zumbro wants to Zumbro, it’s going to Zumbro. Either way, I am knocking on wood and hoping for the best, and even if we get prime conditions, we always have the sand to provide that extra challenge.
—-
After a three year hiatus in order to do some different hat styles, we are back to t-shirts for 2025. We are very excited about these! All registered runners and volunteers will receive one of these t-shirts.
The eastern Gray Squirrel, who has cameoed in past Zumbro art, was the inspiration for this years t-shirt. Anytime I take a run at Zumbro on a quiet / windless day I enjoy the sounds, near and far, of squirrels rustling in the leaves on the ground, and performing their acrobatics in the tree canopy above. The Zumbro Endurance Run takes place in the Zumbro Bottoms Management Unit which resides within the Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood Forest – an expansive 1.7 million acre tract of Minnesota hardwood forest on the Northern edge of the Driftless Region. Eastern Gray Squirrels play a crucial role in Minnesota’s hardwood forests by acting as seed dispersers, helping to regenerate tree populations through their caching and forgetting behaviors, which lead to the planting of seeds in new locations.
As always we will have all kinds of Zumbro and RSR swag available at the race (including a companion poster and sticker with this years t-shirt design), but due to no cell / 4g in Zumbro Bottoms, it is cash or check only (no PayPal or Venmo) so please plan ahead. You can always pick up things on our website as well HERE https://www.rocksteadyrunning.com/shop/
—-
We are happy to offer these super cool Zumbro course map and elevation chart art prints for sale again in 2025. We produce these prints with a close friend of ours, in his local shop. Each print starts its life as a full sheet of plywood that we are going and picking up, transporting, ripping to size, routing, sanding, printing, packing and transporting to the race(s). If interested, you can learn more and place your order for in person pickup on race weekend HERE https://forms.gle/sxLefve6iz3vcWp88
—-
As always, a huge thank you to all of our sponsors and partners. Please take a moment to click the link and check them out https://www.zumbroendurancerun.com/sponsors/
If you are not quite ready to get back to what you were doing, linger a few more minutes and get stoked for what’s to come by checking out photo highlights from last year’s race https://www.zumbroendurancerun.com/photos-2024-highlights/
That is all I have for you today – thank you for your time. We can’t wait to see you all soon!
Gratefully,
John Storkamp
Race Director
Zumbro Endurance Run