Hell at Flat Rock Confirmed
It was very humid and already warm at the start of the
11th Annual Flat
Rock 50 km Trail Run, in
most of the times reflect it. David
Wakefield somehow ran the only sub-5
hour race and broke the course
record. Paul Schoenfield finished in second
about 19 minutes later. Mindy
I accomplished my goal of setting a new personal worst at
the 50 km
distance, managing to add an hour
to that time. My "Go out fast in the cool
morning then slow down and survive
the heat" strategy wasn't that
successful. The temperature rose so
quickly that I entered survival mode
after the first hour. Splits of 3
hours out and 4.25 back aren't that great.
Surprisingly, I was passed by only one person on the return
25 km and I
passed another. I guess everyone
was suffering.
The Flat Rock races (25 and 50 km) are run on the Elk City
Lake Hiking Trail
which rises and falls through the
canyons along Elk City Reservoir. It is
very rugged and beautiful but not a
course that produces fast times. There
are many short steep climbs and
descents and a lot of rocks. I have three
purple toenails from stubbing my
tired feet. My blisters aren't as bad as
they should be because I walked
much of the last 25 km instead of running on
the trail.
I went out in about 10th place, with plenty of faster
runners lollygagging
behind me. Most of the 40 or so
people in the 50 km were Flat Rock veterans.
The group I ran with fragmented and finally I was finally
left alone on the
dirt road near the turnaround. I
hit the turn at 3 hours, which is
for me. However, I knew that I wouldn't be able to
maintain decent splits
and was pretty sure that even a
sub-7 hours was out of the question. I was
carrying two bottles and drank a
lot at each aid station. I also filled my
cowboy hat with ice at each
station. I quit sweating somewhere about 5 hours
despite all the drinking and was
feeling pretty dehydrated. After lots of
walking I finally emerged from the
woods onto the dam access road. Eric
Steele, the RD, was there to shout some encouraging words,
one of them was
"wuss"
and a few aren't printable. I walked the road to the finish line
since no one ever emerged from the
trees to chase after me. After crossing
the line at
much as I could. It was just a day
to survive.
And my legs are still sore,
Earl
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Earl Blewett
| Slow Swimmer | Slow Cyclist | Slow Runner