Heartland Spirit of the Prairie

100 Mile and 50 Mile Race

October 11, 2008

Cassoday, Kansas

When we formed Kansas Ultrarunners’ Society (KUS) in 1995 our vision was to create an atmosphere that fosters not only the enlightenment of the novice ultrarunner, but nurtures the needs of the veteran ultrarunner as well. In 2000 when we developed the plans for Heartland we knew that we had come up with a course through the tallgrass prairie of the Flint Hills which would meet our mission. Every year we get runners who decide to make Heartland their first attempt at either 50 or 100 miles, and runners who want to challenge themselves on a course, which when mother nature cooperates allows for some very fast times.

Another goal when we formed KUS was to expose runners in Kansas and the Midwest to our great sport. When we formed KUS there were probably less than a dozen runners in Kansas who had ever completed an ultra and most runners had not even heard of races beyond the marathon distance. We give out a first Kansas finisher award at Heartland as an incentive to encourage more local runners. For the first six years of our race we were always concerned that we might not have a finisher to give the award to as we averaged only two Kansas finishers. This year you would have had to run under 17:05 to win the award and there were three Kansas runners under 24 hours and nine who finished the 100 mile race and 12 who finished the 50 mile race. While Kansas may never be a hotbed of ultrarunning the sport is growing with many more runners and some very fast runners. In addition to KUS, the Kansas City Trail Nerds and Great Plains Running Company of Topeka have contributed greatly to this accomplishment.

A week before this years race the weather was predicted to be cool and wet. Fortunately they missed the forecast by two days and race day brought unusually warm conditions with a race day high of 81 and an overnight low of 62. While the warm conditions took a toll on the runners, most were prepared and adjusted their pace.

The 100 mile race turned into a two man battle. The lead was exchanged several times before Wynn Davis pulled ahead for good and won in a time of 16:20:28 the third fasted time in race history. He was closely followed by Michael Adams, the first Kansan in 17:05:08 and closely followed by Kyle Amos in 18:13:16. The women’s winner was Barbara Elias who finished in 21:18:34 with Chrissy Ferguson finishing second in 23:28:04. Twenty-five of the 53 finishers completed the race in under 24 hours. Louise Mason finished in 28:59:30 to become the races only nine time finisher.

David Wakefield was the 50-mile winner in 7:39:51 and followed closely by Charles Dodd in 7:56:46. Chris Harrison returned to defend her 50-mile win from last year and accomplished that mission with a time of 9:29:34.

Runners every year tell me that the course was a lot harder than they anticipated and yes, Kansas is not flat as there are lots of rolling hills on the course. Every year Heartland has an extremely high finish rate and much of the credit should go to the race volunteers. Most of our aid stations have had the same core group every year and they do whatever it takes to help the runners safely get to the finish line. I would also like to thank Hammer Nutrition and Great Plains Running Company for their sponsorship of our race.

Randy Albrecht

Co- Race Director