Second
Annual Rockin K Trail Run April 1, 2000
Kanopolis State Lake, Kansas
It's 4:00 AM and the evil
race director stands on a bridge out in the prairie of central Kansas, a cold
mist falls in the 38 degree air, his flashlight plays across the swift, muddy,
rising waters of Alum Creek. An inch of slow, soaking rain has fallen
overnight, this added to three inches of rain last week. There will be mud. The
low water crossings will not be low. He chuckles in deep satisfaction. Life is
good, it will be a glorious day.
The Rockin'K is a loop of the trail system at Kanopolis State Park with a short
out an back on dirt roads to Mushroom Rock State park. The 50 mile is a double
loop and the marathon is a single loop. The marathon loop is somewhat more then
the 26.2 mile standard, but not even close to 50K, it is a Kansas Ultrarunners
Society standard trail marathon! The loop has an aid station at the
start/finish, an unmanned aid station where the trail crosses itself, and a
well stocked manned aid station at about 14 miles. Due to washed out four wheel
drive roads the unmanned aid station had to be packed in, and was limited to
water only, no drop bags or goodies.
The course is normally a nice mix of sand, rock, water and hills. Due to the
rains the normally dry water crossings had become knee to waist deep. Alum
Creek was running close to waist deep with a strong current. One deeper
crossing required a short detour be marked around it, as I knew it would be at
least five to six feet deep.
Into this came 64 starters, 24 looking for fifty miles and 40 intent on the
marathon finish. At 6:00 AM the runners lined up, the rain had stopped but the
temperature was still a cool 38 degrees. As the runners hit the trail the more
experienced ones realized the futility of skipping around the mud and just
plowed straight on in, and within a mile or two the newbies joined them plowing
the prairie, as it soon become completely
obvious to all that there was no possibility of staying clean or dry. When the
runners got to the 5K road section, an out and back to Mushroom Rock Park, they
had a fine treat, "real" mud, shoe sucking, shoe goo clay mud...the
fastest runners were soon to be running a 30 minute 5k split, and numerous
runners took an hour to do the 5K road. Even though the trail was wet and muddy
itself, every runner was grateful to finish the road and get back on trail.
After the road section the trail did several more waist deep crossings and
numerous hills, to a place a couple of miles before the finish where John Peppiatt
had marked the course to detour around a 5 foot deep crossing about 50 feet
across. However, I had not counted on the trail runners innate ability to
readily discern where the true and proper trail lies. We had numerous runners,
some of whom were not really a lot taller than 5 feet, cross the water where
the trail would normally run. Only a few of the shorter (women) had to actually
swim very far. You runners have my sincere admiration, I am somewhat of a wimp
and usually bushwhack my way around this one when it is much deeper than my
belly button. The 50 mile runners had one more nearly overwhelming obstacle to
face...temptation. I have arranged the course so the 50 milers have a marathon
finish at the turnaround for the second lap. So the 50 milers had to decide,
more mud, more cold water and more hills or warm chili, cold beer and a blazing
fireplace. For nine of the 50 mile folks temptation won, they succumbed to the
easy merrython finish and the warm food.
In the 50 mile race Mark Friesen took off like he was in a 10K and soon gapped
everyone. He increased this gap until the finish in 7.49.58. In the womens 50
mile Molly Gibb was running hard against Lisa Conover through the first lap.
Lisa was ahead at the manned aid station by about 3 minutes, but Molly caught
her and went up by about 5 minutes at the turn around for the second loop. She
increased this lead through the second loop, setting the womens course record
in 10.09.11. In the marathon the womens race was very competitive, especially
considering the conditions. We had no less than five women run under the old
marathon course record. Theresa Wheeler led Gail Leedy into the manned aid
station by just two minutes. Over the second part of the loop Gail erased this
and set the new womens record in 4.45.11. Overall, in both the 50 mile and
marathon it was a very impressive day for the women. Several men were running
close through the marathon run. Mike Skipper came through the manned aid
station followed by Marc Crisman, Aaron Walker and Rouhana Mansour. Over the
last half Aaron Walker and Rouhana Mansour pulled ahead of the pack with Aaron
Walker finishing ahead of Rouhana Mansour by four minutes in 4.17.38.
To all of the runners that completed even one loop Saturday, you did very well
in very bad conditions. I run this trail often. I have run it only a few times
when it was as tough as it was on race day. I have run very few trails anywhere
when the conditions were as bad. For those of you that were first timers to
trail running......it usually is a lot more fun, really...try another
one...learn the code words that RD's use...(rocks, sand, rolling hills,
water)..For those of you that feel that it was too easy....come to Flatrock in
the fall. I don't RD this one, I get to run it. Come find out what
"picturesque vistas" means! (more code words) Also I never explained
the shirts, the rock, of course, you ran by, and is Mushroom Rock. It was about
100 yards off of the road in Mushroom Rock State Park. The rattlesnake is
endemic to the area. With the cold weather it just slipped my mind. I knew
there would be no snakes out. We have three different species of rattlesnake on
the course. Massasauga, Western (or prairie), and Western Diamond Back. For
those interested in trivia, I have never seen rattlers in three consecutive
years, I haven't seen a rattler in the heat of the summer or in the cold of the
winter, and I haven't seen a rattlesnake on the Rockin'K trail since September!
I hope you had an experience!
Phil Sheridan RD