City Dock, 8:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., Fredericksburg, VA
The Great Train is sponsored by the Fredericksburg Area Runners Club. The race starts at the Fredericksburg Train Station. Runners head west toward Fredericksburg's downtown, turn north toward the Rappahannock River, and then run eastward, down the big hill. The finish line is at City Dock. Appalachian Kettle Korn will be on the left in the big parking lot.
In 2006 we made the nearly unforgiveable sin of actually running out of popcorn. It happened about noon and left us without any corn and some disappointed people still standing in line. Were we ever embarassed. We've promised ourselves it will not happen again!
In 2007 we found ourselves short-handed. There were so many people and there was only Wes and Larry to make the kettle korn. Fortunately, we were able to prevail upon our friend Burleigh Kay who was there with the Children's Miracle Network booth. Burleigh was kind enough to give up his morning to help us. Ask him some time about his experience. We were very impressed by how quickly he picked up the routine. In fact, he became comfortable enough that he was able to integrate his pitch for donations to Children's Miracle Network with his own personal high-energy sales pitch for kettle korn. It was a lot of fun and we had a blast. We believe he did, too.
Updated 26 April 2014