Broad Run Off Road was founded by Allen Wagner in 2014, but not immediately as a race organization; instead it truly began as just a simple group run / get together... 

In 2013 a developer in Haymarket Virginia struck a deal with the county to rezone several hundred acres of land within the community. The land was originally zoned for commercial/industrial use; but the conversion meant it was to now be split into some residential use and for the remaining 380 acres to become a nature conservancy, now known as Leopold's Nature Preserve. The preserve was planned for historic sites, bird watching, observation areas, plus several miles of trails for public access. 

The trails began to take shape in 2014, and Allen being an active resident of the area, got permission from the Preserve to put together a group run to try out the trails and introduce folks in the community to the newly available running outlet. He mapped out a 5K course and created a simple online sign-up sheet to track how many people to expect for this first ever "Leopold's Trail 5K." 

Word spread and with just less than a month's notice from idea getting the "ok" to the group run itself, that on a chilly November morning over 100 runners had showed up. There was nothing fancy about the group outing, just some donated race bibs for folks to wear, and setting up a running clock at the trailhead so folks could see their time as they returned. Being so close to Thanksgiving, it was decided to ask folks to to bring a non-perishable food item as a donation to the Haymarket Food Pantry, and 2 large boxes were filled/donated, thus kicking off the philanthropic nature of things.

By popular demand, in 2015 the "Leopold's Trail Race" became an official registration / timed race open and advertised to the public, moved to warmer weather amongst the fall foliage in October, and adding a 1-mile fun run for kids. Then in 2016 a mini family-fest was added and the event was now getting 400+ racers. In 2018 it was decided to add a 10K course too, but from 2014 to present, two things always stayed the same: the race was always 100% run by volunteers, and 100% of any proceeds were donated to a local area non-profit organization. 

In the short timespan of those first 5 years, the Leopold's Trail Race event saw over 1,200 different racers from 15+ states; it was nominated for best annual event by Haymarket Lifestyle magazine; and had raised over $25,000 for local non-profit organizations... not too shabby for a simple group get together. 

As popular demand by our racers drove the expansion of the Leopold's event; in 2020 it was time for even more and the group branched out into hosting its first ever adventure race in 2021 with the Spring Bloom Adventure Race which sold out in record time. Due to that popularity, a Fall Foliage Adventure Race was added for the opposite season along with a mountain bike race too, all of the events rotating around different parks of northern Virginia and bringing our total money raised/donated to over $50,000.

As the expansion in 2020 took us beyond our original race at Leopold's Preserve, it was time for a new name. Wanting to recognize our Leopold's Trail Race roots we took the name of the stream that parallels the Leopold's Preserve trails (North Fork Broad Run) and combined that with our mission to stay off the hard asphalt and out in the great outdoors, and thus in 2020 changed our name and have since been: Broad Run, Off Road :)