Flatrock 2013

It all began nearly 9 months ago when I got my introduction into trails at Psycho Wyco 10 mile distance.

That was the first time I heard someone mention the name “Flatrock”.  At that time it was a mere word, that I had no understanding of, or concern with, I was still concentrating on making it around the lake for the first time.  At that point I had yet to go the distance around the lake all at one time.  I had run the road several times, but never ventured very far on the trails. That being said my trail adventures had begun.  I spent the next 8 months chasing the runners in every event I could think to do, I was well on my way to becoming a real “Nerd”. 

Then it started, I figured out that I needed to plan the later part of my year and see what I could possibly accomplish.  That was when I thought… hey, I can try to get into the “Flatrock” event.  So I looked it up and low and behold it was already sold out.  Part of me said it was a good thing because I had no business trying to run such a thing in the first place. But then I got an email from Eric, the “King”.  It was something like this, there was now some openings and if I still wanted, come on in, and get some. I thought to myself what the hell, I have been holding my own on the trails around here in KC, and I’ll go down there and open a can of whoop ass and see how it goes.

Mean while back in my life at home my youngest son Matt had made his way thru 6 years in the Navy and was scheduled to come home soon. I immediately thought, Ill make him like trails like I do, that will be easy. I first started with inviting him to join me on a training run at Wyco.  That went better than I expected and he seemed to enjoy the trails. We ran a few times out there and some road runs at the college and then I told him I had a run at Perry in a few weeks and I would like him to run with me.  He said I’ll let you know.  Then I proceeded to tell him that I also had this run at Flatrock and he could come down with his mom and watch me cross the finish line (what excitement).  It was not long after a couple more training runs that Matt said; I’m going to sign up and run the Flatrock with you.  I said have you ever run 15 miles? He said no, I said ok, this will very hard, but your young, you should be ok.

Now the race was scheduled to go off in the morning and we are in the hotel in Coffeyville looking at the weather report.  It looks like rain in the morning for sure; I said that’s good at least it won’t be hot.  I had had a couple close calls with the heat this summer, running, and had become very leery of the heat. I told Matt and my wife we should be at the start location by 7:45 in the morning and we will have plenty of time to get things set up.  We left the hotel and off in the distance we could see the lighting and the rain started to fall a little.  My first thought was boy, I am glad I am not the “King” Eric, this morning, having to make a call on the weather, for safety sake. But then just as we arrived, a little bit early, we could see in the distance a flashing light of a truck or car was on the road.  It just happened to be right after 7:30 when the 50k runners would have started.  Well they started and here they come.  I wish I had not been driving so I could have gotten pictures of the smiling faces of the runners as they passed by our car.  The one that I easily saw was Dave Everhart; I then realized that this was truly going to be and “Epic” event.  Not even the weather can stop these types of people I find myself with today, they are hard core, and love it.  I wanted to get me some of that, so we proceeded to the start area and waited out our turn.

It was almost like waiting for our turn on the big thrill ride at the amusement park with everyone all excited about what would happen and how they would enjoy the run. As Eric the “King” walked us up to the start line I felt some real butterflies about what was awaiting us.  This course was such that there really wasn't even a glimpse of the trails until you got on the trails.  So we had no Idea of how difficult it would be.  I still felt great because I had been training real hard back home and I felt like these “wheels” were going to roll.

 Matt was pumped and we both decided that at the half way point he would run his own race and see how it went.  Eric gave us a few of the usual thoughts and the biggest smile on his face as he said goodbye and have fun.  Little did I know how much fun I would have on this day. Soon we had made it to the end of the road and started to enter the trails.  Almost immediately the climb started as we got in the conga line up the trail. There were a few words but mostly just people trying to figure out how to find their way on the next twist and turn.  I like to think of these trail runs as amusement park rides and the car that I am riding in just happens to be my body, and I am the silly person holding on for dear life and laughing my ass off as we scurry up and down the hills. The rain was now pretty steady, but it really was sweet. I love running on the cool side.  Matt and I were talking about the cool rock formations and just in awe, of the spectacular views at most every turn. There were a lot of things that I did not really have to worry about since we were only running the 25k this morning, like water and s-caps.  I figured I most likely had enough water in me to make it to the half way point. I could clearly see now that these trails were everything they were touted to be and then some.  The views were movie quality and the trails were very well marked as we found our way almost to the turn around.  It was then that Matt said hey dad I’m going out ahead and see you at the turn around, I said cool see you then.  Now I was starting to lose some ground on the folks ahead of me but It didn’t really  matter at this point, I was having too much fun to worry about being right with someone all of the time. One thing about most of the trail systems here, was that you really could not see very far out ahead of you so when someone left you, they were out of sight in no time.

Then it came, the fast ones were making their way back after the turn around and one by one they went by as I said “great job, you look great” ,and they said the same.  I then was beginning to wonder if Matt was going to wait for me at the turn or just keep running.  Part of me wanted him to wait but that would not be fair to him, so I hoped to see him soon too.  Sure enough here he comes and he looks great.  He said something like it’s not far to the turnaround, good luck. I then knew that I would not see him again until the end of the race.  It was then that the rain had just turned the course into a mud bath.  I really don’t mind the mud, so I just kept plugging away down the trail.  I think there were a couple of people right behind me but I soon lost them in the twists and turns of the trail.  I was now all alone and not really feeling too bad.  My legs were tired but I still had good lungs and felt pretty strong.  This course does not have any real long hills that make you cuss just a lot of little ones that seem to never end at times.   Then as I figured that I was going to run the rest of the race by myself at about the 8 or 9 mile mark, a person came into view to my left.  It first appeared that the person was coming out of the woods after maybe taking a potty break, but soon I heard what happened.  The young lady I ran into was Megan Becker and she told me she had gotten turned around a little and ran into some barbed wire and turned around and ran into me.  It was at that point that I again had someone to run with and talk to. We both were there for our first time but Megan told me it was her first trail race in her life.  I said oh my God.  You are a “beast “for running this course.  Then we just kept talking about the course and how cool it was and how hard it was and how we loved to hate it and hated to love it or something like that.  Then we got to the point where we ran into another guy I had not seen on the course and he said he had run this race 8 or 9 times, and we were only about 1 ½ miles to the road.  I could almost feel the relief coming from Megan as she heard that.  We both were pretty well spent at this point and I had yet to think about how I was going to run the road when I got there.  I am not sure at this point if Megan had given it much thought either.

 So we made our way down the last hill and down on to the road.  The first thing I said to Megan was, hey, you’re in your element now (Megan told me earlier that she had run for about two years it was all road running), you should feel pretty good.  That was the wrong thing to say to her.  She shot off like a woman possessed with a tenacity of an Olympic runner.  I said to myself; let’s see how long she can keep this up.  I kept a close eye on the old Garmin and was freaking out when I looked at it the first time and we were running at a 7 minute pace.  I told Megan you know how fast we are running?  “SEVEN” that’s really fast, you’re killing me.  It seemed like she was in a zone now and there was no getting inside her head now.  If I wanted to run this race with her to the end, I had to man up and hammer down.  I kept saying that I was dying and she kept saying it’s not much further hang in there.  I really don’t know why I kept the same pace with her other than the fact that the little amusement park rider in me was having a blast and the wheels were screaming and had not come off yet so I decided to ride it out.  It seemed like an eternity down that road and so I looked down at the ground in front of me like had been for the last 14 some odd miles.  Then we turned onto the gravel and it seemed as if Megan hit the Nitrous button and blew me off the course as I finished a second or two behind her.  After we finished I told Megan what a race, and that was, like none I had ever ran in my life, she concurred.  I saw Matt at the finish line and got a few high fives from him a hand shake from the “King” and some pictures.  Then it was off to the food tent.  I think I had about three bowls of the chili and drank some coffee.  Damn that stuff felt so good and made me feel like a “King” myself.  My wife Cathy was still in the car since it was raining, and that was cool with me, I was just glad she wanted to come down.  She even took the day off from work to be there.

 I had done what I set out to do and my son had a great time also.  I met a few cool people and ran a race like   I had never run before.

I guess the only other thing I could say would be a big thanks to all of the people out there that crossed my path in the last 9 months and had offered little nuggets of info to me that made it all happen. I am hooked on this stuff and will continue to pursue my painful thrill rides until the wheels come off some day, but I don’t think that will be for a while, so I’ll see you out there.