Seventh Annual Rockin K Trail Run
April 2, 2005 Kanopolis State Park, Kansas
Race Director's reports usually start out with a weather report or how many runners lined up to race, and then at the end of the report is a thank you to all the volunteers without whom we couldn’t put the race on. I want to turn that around and first thank all our new and veteran volunteers, some of them are not runners, just friends who come out to help with the race.
Big Thank You's to Bill Shirk for the help with the trail work and his wife Jan for working the Gate 6 aid station again this year. John Peppiatt for trail work, tearing down the markers and working Gate 6 aid station, his wife Mary for baking wonderful cookies for us. Sarah Friesen for working the Gate 6. Peg and Roger Schultz for working the Corral Shelter aid station/turnaround. Deann Corn, her first year helping with the race put in 8 hours of finish line work. (8 hours of cowbells can be a little tiring). John, who took over the cooking for me in the afternoon while waiting on Kimberly to finish her race. Steve Breeding for coming on Friday and working his tail off for 36 hours, he worked the dinner on Friday, and Gate 6 on Saturday, and many jobs in between! Randy Albrecht for cooking the pasta for the dinner on Friday and for volunteering to give up running the Rockin K to RD it if my granddaughter decided it was time to make that weekend her birthday. (Glad she waited until the next Wednesday.) Jamaica, our daughter for working the finish line and helping out, despite being due to deliver her baby on April 1st! We would also like to thank Lisa Mikkelson from Inov-8 shoes for coming to the race to show the Inov-8 product line and giving away prizes that included two pairs of shoes. Thank you all so much!
We would also like to extend a special thank you to the Kanopolis State Park staff for their help and support of our race. Without their support we couldn't put on this race on their wonderful trails. The Kansas Ultrarunners' Society will be donating some of the entry income from the Rockin K race to the Kanopolis Trails fund after the final tally is made.
Several months before this year's Rockin K, Wendy Bowles called me and told me she had nominated Phil for the National Trail Symposium's State Trail Worker of the Year and that he had won. She wanted to present the award to him at the race, and she wanted it to be a surprise. Phil has been doing trail work at the lake for as long as we've been putting races on there, ten years with the race this fall, and when we started Rockin K seven years ago he started doing trail work twice a year before each of the races. I have no idea how many hours of trial work he has put in over the years, some years require more trail work than others, due to the amount of rain we've had here on the prairie. With more than 26 miles of trail to maintain the Parks department work on the most used trails first, which in a particularly wet year may mean they don't get to the outer trails. Phil has always viewed his trail work as a selfish endeavor, he says if he does the trail work then they are more enjoyable for him to run on. The fact that it happens to benefit others is just a nice bonus.
In the days before the race I talked with Wendy and we settled on giving Phil the award at the dinner the night before the race. Wendy and Rick Martin, the park manager, both came out for the dinner, which I thought might tip Phil off there was something going on, but I had told Phil that Wendy and Rick wanted to speak to the runners briefly that evening. Phil climbed up on the picnic table to give the brief version of the race briefing, and was totally sidetracked as Wendy and Rick said some very nice things about him and then presented him with the two framed award certificates.
The Rockin K Trail Runs are held at the Kanopolis State Park in the heart of the Smoky Hills, in central Kansas. Many of our runners come to the race thinking Kansas is flat and most are surprised to find the course is anything but flat. The Rockin K is run on a series of interconnected loop trails, mostly horse and mountain bike trails, all single track, that follow the canyons and watersheds, then out across the prairie to the bluffs of the Smoky Hill River. The marathon race is one loop of the course, with an unmanned water station at about 7.5 miles and a fully stocked manned aid station at Gate 6, which the runners pass twice at about 13 and 18 miles. The 50-mile race is a second loop of the same course, except the runners take Alexander's Cutoff on the second loop, passing all the same aid stations. The start wanders across the prairie to the tops of box canyons on the Horsethief Canyon Trail, where legend has it the Native Indians stashed the horses they stole, across several water crossings fed by underground springs, and across beaver dams on the creeks feeding the lake. Then the trails take you past the Red Rock Canyon, named for the red sandstone, back across the prairie on cattle trails, through cattle gates to the Alum Creek trail. The Alum Creek loop is primitive as no hikers make it that far and most of the horse riders don’t use it much as it is closed six months of the year for hunting seasons. It follows game trails and cattle paths to the Aid Station at cattle Gate 6. From Gate 6 the runners go out on the Big Bluff loop, an unimproved game trail bush whacked out in the week before the race, crossing barb wire fences with blankets laid on top, to the bluffs above the Smoky Hill River. The trail is rough and rocky, going from the top of the bluff down to the bottom and back several times on the way back to Gate 6 aid station. After finishing the Big Bluff loop the runners head back in on the southern part of the Prairie trail, past the Eagle Hack tower, built for eagles to nest in, and onto the southern part of the Horsethief trail. The race finishes at the Corral Shelter house, on top of a hill, at the Rockin K campgrounds.
On the day before the race the weather was a bit breezy and warm and the forecast of mid 70's for race day was looking like it would be perfect for the volunteers but warm for the runners. Many of the marathoners would beat the heat, but the second loop of the 50 was tough for many when the temperature approached the 80-degree mark. We used lots of ice this year! We only had one DNF in the marathon; one runner decided he'd had enough at the 18-mile mark. In the 50 Mile race we had a 50% finisher's rate, this is consistent with the other "weather years, the hot year, the mud year and the wind year. The heat of the day took its toll though and the final three runners in the 50-mile race finished in the dark. Scott McPherson gets the "guts award this year, this is the first year he's run the race, and he finished in 13.13.43 in the dark and not knowing the course.
Mark Crisman, the overall Marathon winner, lead the race into the Gate 6 aid station from the start of the race, through the Big Bluff loop and out of Gate 6 the second time while being closely chased by Art Long our second place finisher and the first two 50-mile runners. Mark finished strong in 4.02.52, setting a new course record by almost 2 minutes. Art Long was just a little over 3 minutes behind and finished in 4.06.18, third place overall went to Kyle Amos who finished in 4.29.17.
The first three women in the marathon all ran under the previous course record. The female overall winner, Leigh Truhe set a new women's course record by a little over 52 minutes, Leigh led Cindy Stonesmith, second overall female, by 10 minutes into Gate 6 and lengthened that to over 23 minutes at the finish line. Cindy ran the marathon, which is the first loop of the 50-mile race with our 50-mile Women's overall winner, Cindy finished in 4.54.42. Leslee Hampel held the previous course record and took third place, finishing almost 11 minutes faster than last year.
In the 50-Mile race, Paul Schoenlaub, the course record holder and Eric Truhe ran within minutes of each other all the way through the 3rd time through Gate 6 at 37.6 miles. Paul pulled ahead on the Big Bluff loop and lead by 17 minutes leaving Gate 6 the 4th time at 42.5 miles. Paul finished in 8.58.31 to take the overall winner's award, while Eric held his pace steady and finished in 9.16.30 for second overall. Ben Gilbert running his first 50-Mile race and his first trail run, ran in third through Gate 6 the third time, Randy Albrecht overtook him on the Big Bluff loop to take third place overall, finishing in 9.41.09, while Ben finished just 51 seconds behind him for fourth in 9.42.00.
Tammy Stone set a new 50-Mile course record for the women by over 43 minutes this year, finishing the race in 10.12.31. Tammy lead the women the entire race, steadily lengthening the lead. The previous course record holder Cheryl Miller-Balster took second also running under her course record time from last year by over 15 minutes, finishing in 10.40.29. Third place overall was Theresa Wheeler finishing in a time of 12.13.16, who ran her first 50-miler at Rockin K in 2004.
Marc Friesen remains the only runner to have completed all 7 of the 50-mile races, Rich Golden is the only runner to have finished all 7 marathons and Randy Albrecht has 7 finishes, four 50 milers and 3 marathons. Listed below are the standings of finishes by number of years and races.
Six Years
Jim Davis: Four 50's, Two Marathons
Nancy Davis: Four 50's, Two Marathons
Bill Shirk: Two 50's, Four Marathons
Mark Crisman: Six Marathons
Five Years:
Scott Bishop: Five Marathons
Frank Dayton: Five Marathons
Theresa Wheeler: Two 50's, Three Marathons
Dann Fisher: Two 50's, Three Marathons
Four Years:
Stuart Johnson: Four 50's
Howard Ward: Four Marathons
Mike Bishop: Four Marathons
Chris King: Four Marathons
Paul Schoenlaub: Three 50's, 1 Marathon
Molly Gibb: Two 50's, Two Marathons
Kevin Guest: One 50, Three Marathons
Bill Smith: One 50, Three Marathons
Dave Dinkel: One 50, Three Marathons
Phil and Stacy Sheridan RD's
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