Golden Gate Dirty Thirty Trail Race
Scholarship fundraiser for Gilpin girls
There’s a big trail race coming up on Saturday, June 6th, in Golden Gate Canyon State Park. It’s called the Golden Gate Dirty Thirty and is composed of 30 mile, 12 mile, and 7 mile courses all being run on a trail beginning and ending at Nott Creek Trail Head within the park boundaries. Megan Baker is the driving force behind establishing the local race to benefit Gilpin girls. The goal of the race is to raise funds for scholarships to send several Gilpin girls to wilderness leadership camps through The Women’s Wilderness Institute (TWWI) in Boulder.
Why is Baker so strongly motivated and dedicated to establishing this first annual trail race? She wants to boost the confidence of girls becoming women by showing them that through hard work and training that they can accomplish what they set out to do. This concept is demonstrated in training for and completing the race, and further reinforced in TWWI wilderness leadership camps. According to Baker, TWWI’s mission is to strengthen confidence, courage, and leadership skills in girls and women through wildness and community-based experiences. In preparation for this race, Baker hosts a running club after school hours open to all at the Gilpin School.
Baker has successfully promoted the race to numerous organizations and raised money through sponsorships. One of the sponsors is Runner’s Roost, which has donated socks, running shoes, tee shirts, and water bottles in outfitting ten girls for the race. Another sponsor is the local Peak to Peak Rotary Club which donated cash for the cause. The Golden Gate Dirty Thirty is a 501c3 organization, meaning that any donation to the group is tax deductible. A link to the Gilpin County website should be available in the near future for accessible information.
Please visit Baker’s website, www.goldengatedirtythirty.org, for a more complete description of the race and its activities. The website offers a visual tour of the trail run through beautiful photographs—which may help allay the fears of those of us running (or walking) any race for the first time. Fun race categories range from the Tortoise (Slow) to the Homo sapiens (Average) to the fleet-of-foot Mountain Goat (Very Fast). Register for the race under Registration—Runner Information and choose your race category. If you don’t register to be an athlete for a day, be sure to volunteer your time to the event. Many volunteers are needed to make this trail race a good happening and a recurring event. See you in the nearest recovery room—or rather, at the post-race festivities in the Red Barn—after the race!