In early 1999, living in Vienna near the W&OD Trail, I came across a small newspaper article about a dirt trail for mountain bikers that went from Reston to Great Falls, and there was a tiny map that went along with it. I had a friend in Great Falls whom I thought it would be neat to bike to.
This was the start of many navigational adventures. The little newspaper map was basically useless and after getting lost repeatedly, I researched the trail on the Internet and found Fairfax Trail and Streams (FTAS). This web site had some better maps and some written instructions, and I also learned that a new 40-mile trail, called the Cross County Trail (CCT), was being created, which would go all the way up the length of the county. I never did bike to Great Falls, but was intrigued by the CCT concept, struggling to imagine how there could be a long nature trail in the middle of this over-developed county. Well, it turned out not to be a 40-mile nature trail, but rather a hodge-podge of a variety of trail systems, which was fine by me.
During the summer of 1999, there were three one-way hikes led by Bill Niedringhaus of FTAS. Together these hikes would cover the length of the CCT. So I went on the first one, which had about 30 hikers and started from Saratoga Elementary School. Even the leaders got lost often on these early hikes, and I made mental notes so I could come back on my own and try again. Over the next year, in parts, I navigated the entire 40-mile route from lower Springfield. Even though I got lost and was hit by poison ivy often, it was a great adventure and I took it as my mission to write a better course description for others to use.
In the beginning of 2000, I began leading the DC Road Runners Saturday Long Run (SLR) group. Here I did a lot more running than I had ever done before, and made some new friends. One interesting character was Peter Ward, who was an ultra runner and had done Massanutten that year. Peter had also “impressed” me by doing a marathon on a treadmill!
During 2000, I was running on Saturdays with SLR, and on Sundays I was scouting the CCT. I began accepting the idea that my goal was to run the entire CCT in one day. I envisioned running without carrying anything, only supported by my family and friends. This is the origin of the “Run Plan”, which had all the locations and times of when I would cross certain parts of the course, so I could be given aid (today you know the Run Plan as the list of locations that has estimated leader times and cutoff times for the CCT run).
After the Marine Corps Marathon, in October 2000, I told Peter of my plans, and he said that what I have is a “fatass”. At first I took offense, but then he explained that if I were going to run the CCT, I might as well invite others to run it with me. Not wanting to be involved with paperwork, permits, insurance etc., I agreed to the fatass concept, and then made my web site with my new course description and began advertising the event, which would occur on March 31, 2001. I needed to scout the entire trail one more time.
In February of 2001, Russ Evans and Bill Van Antwerp made me proud by successfully and bravely using my instructions to become the first to navigate the entire 40-mile route in one day. Then on March 31, 5 of my friends started with me at Wadebrook Terrace at the then-southern termius of the CCT. It was cold with light rain. Water was very high and rushed over the fair-weather crossings. This day was the muddiest I have ever seen. One funny incident was when Peter tried to show off his technique for crossing streams without getting his feet wet. Only one mile into the run, Peter revealed 2 simple plastic grocery bags which he put over his shoes and held onto while crossing the cold rushing creek. The flimsy bags quickly took on water. Peter moved smugly to cross the creek, until we pointed out that one of his bags had fallen away and was flowing downstream behind us. So he had to immediately jump into the creek with both feet and run downstream to retrieve his bag. When he finally got out, wet up to his hips, he quietly put the bags back where they came from and we all started running again. All three runners who planned to run the whole thing did, with many others joining in for certain segments to keep us company. Groups of my family came out to run parts and host aid stations. Peter, myself, and Michael Bur finished close to each other. (Michael has gone on to run in ALL of the CCT runs since).
The following winter I held regular Sunday CCT training runs to give people a chance to scout the route for themselves. It was still easy to get lost. I met Vicki Kendall on one of those runs, who has become an important partner in planning and supporting this event. In March of 2002, the 2nd annual Fairfax CCT Fatass 40-miler was held with a much higher participation level.
In the winter before the 2003 fatass, during our first group scouting run, we found pipeline construction on the southern section, so I moved the start up to Byron Park and the fatass became a more manageable 50K. In March 2003 the 3rd annual fatass went off on a very warm day. I found directing a race was much easier if I did not run it as well!
In the winter before the 2004 fatass, I scouted the course on my own time, continuing to tweak the course description, and took in great scouting reports from others. In March 2004, the 4th fatass was held on a cold windy day, with 35 runners. Every year I've had fantastic volunteers. In 2005, flooding cancelled the run, but Larry Woodward still showed up and run/swam the course by himself. In 2006, Michael Bur held the director's torch, the run coincided with the official CCT Grand Opening, went from North to South, and Quattro got lost.
Starting in 2007, to avoid as much pavement as possible and maximize scenery and hilly trails, the course was changed to an out-and back starting at Riverbend Park, two miles upriver from Great Falls. This also makes carpooling much easier, adds a nice relatively unknown river section, and provides a less crowded venue for the post-run party.
- John Coogan