Driving to Leavenworth to cover the Octoberfest Marathon, I tried to think of what photograph I could make that would distinguish this race from all the others we have covered throughout the year.

When I got to the start at the fish hatchery, I knew that the fall leaves would need to play an important part in the picture. I also noticed some of the participants dressed in Bavarian themed clothing and hoped that i could include that in the picture as it seemed to be less of a serious competition and more of a fun event.

I drove ahead of the starting line, into the Icicle canyon looking for a good location and came up with this spot about a mile from the start. I tried a few test frames with a slow shutter speed to blur the color in the leaves and show speed in the image of the racers going by.It was just a matter of waiting after I had decided on the camera settings, and fortunately, one of the appropriately dressed runners came by close to my camera as I panned the scene.