Early in the week prior to the race I received an e-mail from Dale Perry. At the end of his message he gave me the forecast for the race weekend. At the time I did not know he was a meteorologist and I responded by stating that this was Kansas and race day could bring anything. I also responded that the only thing I could predict from the first four years of the race was that on Sunday, after the race was over, the weather would be absolutely perfect. I should have known that with two meteorologists in the race, and the six new tents we purchased for the aid stations, we were almost guaranteed perfect weather. Race day temperatures were in the low 70’s and the overnight low was around 60. Just as the last two runners were finishing, it started to rain and continued for the rest of the day. I guess I better leave the weather predictions to the experts.
The warmer than normal conditions may have contributed to a 72% finisher’s rate which was the lowest in race history. Historically, Heartland has averaged a 79% finisher’s rate in the 100 mile and 95% in the 50 mile race.
Tuesday night before the race, Mark Henderson was in a serious car wreck and it looked like his streak at Heartland might end. In the previous four years he had finished first or second each year. For anyone who knows Mark, it was not a surprise when he showed up at the pre race meal even though he could not shake hands due to badly damaged ribs. Mark not only started the race, but by 50 miles had a 24 minute lead on Steven Funk. Over the last 50 miles Mark expanded his lead and cruised to victory in an excellent time of 20:19:05, even after spending nearly 45 minutes in each of the last two aid stations. Steven finished second and held off a fast finishing Scott Demaree. Tia Bodington led the women’s field from the start finishing in 23:13:48 and became the third women to go under 24 hours. Louise Mason joined Mark Henderson as the only two runners to have finished all five Heartland 100-mile races.
In the 50-mile race, Keith Grimes won in 7:56:05. Verna Troutman at 61 years old won the women’s race in 12:52:49.
A special thank you goes out to all of the volunteers. Many have given up the chance to run the race themselves to help runners from across the nation experience the tallgrass prairie. We have had the same core group of volunteers working the same aid stations each year and I am sure they have been responsible for the high finishing rate at Heartland.
David Hughes in e-mail to me summarized his experience. "I’m not sure what motivated me more to keep moving, the fact that good food was just up ahead, the fact that I hadn’t finished any hundreds this year, or the coyotes whining in the tallgrass. As I passed the remains of a jack rabbit along the road I thought that could be me in a few hours. Fortunately I’m unaware of anyone becoming a coyote’s late night snack. I kept praying, Lord; please give me the grace to make it to the next aid station and the courage to leave it. The prairie was astounding in the late afternoon as were the sunrises and sunset. The cows kindly moved out of the way after trying to stare us down, but out of spite, I suppose, left running obstacles on the road. If someone’s holding back from running this race, they’re missing a well run event and a chance to become in their imagination an early pioneer transversing the Great Plains to the Rockies.
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