8/31/08 Flatlanders 6-Hour Ultra

Fenton MO (St. Louis area)

http://www.stlouisultrarunnersgroup.net/flatlander/flatlanders.htm

This is the longest distance I’ve ever gone in an organized event.

Officially my run was measured at 34.85 miles + 245 feet. That calculates out to 34.9 miles.

This is a great event that I recommend to anyone seeking an easy entry into ultra-marathons or anyone needing to add Missouri to their state list. The organizers (St. Louis Ultrarunners Group, “SLUG,” are required by the Park Service to limit the total registrants for the 6- and 12-hour events to 70 runners and the race director told me they have closed a few weeks before the event for the past several years so if this interests you be sure to register early.

The format is multiple laps on a 1.4-mile paved, nearly traffic-free path around Fenton City Park. The registration fees are low with the money going to support the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

The goal is to run as far as you can in the allowed time. Volunteer lap counters keep track of each participant’s mileage. During the last 15 minutes before the end each runner is given a small flag with their name and bib number to carry with them while they are redirected from running the full course to doing repeat out-and-back sections on a marked and measured 0.1-mile segment of path. The lap counters keep track of this phase also. When the siren sounds ending the time, each runner stops and plants his or her flag in the ground wherever they are and a measuring wheel crew comes out to determine the exact final distance. It’s all pretty precise and well-organized.

The course loop has several water fountains, two sets of public restrooms, and is about 2/3 shaded under trees. At the starting line there is a well-stocked aid station with bananas, gu packets, potato chips, baked potato pieces, M&Ms, fig bars, water, sports drink, and sodas. The volunteers are courteous and competent.

The repeat-loop format allows one to revisit their drop bag as frequently as every lap if needed. One can run essentially any distance within the limits of time and ability. (I’m told that last year one registrant started, ran a couple hours, took a break for to watch his son’s soccer game nearby, and then returned to the race and ran several more hours. Today I observed several participants stopping for a short rest or for lunch with family and friends.)

Walking from the parking lot to the start area I meet two guys from Omaha Nebraska both named David. They are 53 and 47 years old. Both are lean and look fast. We agree that walking slowly to the bag drop is good since we’ll have plenty of time for moving fast later. We three are all registered for the 6-hour but I heard from the race director earlier that more of the registrants opted for the 12-hour race. There’s only a $5 difference in the registration fee and one can drop out any time without consequence unless they expect to win an award in one of the events.

While we’re waiting for the starting siren to sound, Janice comes over with her digital camera and snaps a couple photographs of the Davids and me. We coincidentally have sequential bib numbers: 757, 758, and 759. The Davids are planning to run the JFK 50-miler near Washington DC and are using today’s event as a training run. All three of us are planning to run farther today than we ever have before.

A fun middle-aged woman nearby is telling another women her saga of last year’s Flatlander’s 12-hour event when she drove to Fenton overnight after doing an ultra the day before in another state. She fell asleep longer than intended at a rest area and awoke to realize she’d be about 90 minutes late for the start but came anyway and ran the remaining 10.5 hours. She did the 12-hour event again this year and I saw her still moving forward after more than 10 hours today.

The siren sounds at 7:30AM. (It should have been at least an hour earlier to save us from the heat.) The temperature is a comfortable 68 degrees under a completely cloudless sky. The Davids and I start out together for the first lap at about a 9-minutes/mile. They plan to walk a bit after each lap so I pulled away from them after the first 1.4 miles and didn’t see them again for a several hours.

The 6 and 12-hour events start at the same time and are run simultaneously on the same course so one can meet and have running chats with nearly all the participants on the course. During the early miles I meet a couple of fellow 50 State Marathon Club members and two fellow Marathon Maniacs recognizable by their club singlets. One guy and I remembered one another from last Mother’s Day when we both ran the TIMTAM 50k in Ames Iowa.

At about the middle of lap 19 (about 25 miles) the Omaha Davids , who are still together, catch back up to me while I’m briefly walking. I had been nearly a lap ahead of them for a while but that’s over now. I run a few yards with them while we chat and although they encourage me to join them, I have to let them go since by now the 90-degree heat is catching up to me. As they pull away I realize that older David will likely run farther than me today and will probably win our age group (M 50-59). This comes as some relief since now I’m free to go as slow as I feel is necessary. Ultra running is definitely much more about resource management than speed.

The older David is alone when I next see him. He looks pretty good and is lapping me after about 29 miles. I asked about younger David and was told “He’s way back there somewhere.” I don’t see young David again until the awards ceremony. I found out later he dropped out after about 31 miles, went back to the hotel to shower, then returned for the awards and post-race cookout.

During the last minutes of the event, older David passes me at least once more on the repeat out-and-back segment. He is still running confidently for having run so far on such a hot day. As I predicted, he wins in our division this day.

As usual, I look and feel pretty rough afterwards. Janice captured some early post-race scenes when I was leaning over a drinking fountain for support and later on the ground pouring cups of water over myself.

The post-race food is above average and plentiful. Grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, and bratwurst are offered along with canned soft drinks, potato salad, fruit salad, and various kinds of chips. The 12-hour runners get pizza in addition to the above.

Anyone who completes at least 26.2 miles gets a finishers medal at the awards ceremony. The medals are nicely-made, round with the event logo showing the City of St Louis skyline including the iconic gateway arch, a clock symbolizing the set time duration event, and a siren that symbolizes the starting/stopping signal. It’s mostly gold and white with the logo in black with gold outlines. The ribbon from which it hangs is royal blue.

The event shirt is not remarkable but is certainly nice enough. This year it’s forest green cotton (appropriately the tag says “Ultra Cotton”) with white silk screen graphics showing the event name, location, date and logo. There are no advertisements on the back, but rather only the name of the sponsoring club SLUG in a nice font.

Pictures from the event are too large to post here and so far I haven’t figured out how to post them online elsewhere but if you send me an e-mail note I’ll send you back some photos if you’re interested.