Prairie Spirit groupie report

The second running of the Prairie Spirit 100 (and 50) took place over the weekend. Epic Ultras served up god weather, great volunteers, and an awesome event--and this year even without epic weather was epic in the minds of most of the participants. This might be the easiest 100 miler in the USA with soft chat to run in for 98% of the way, and barely more than a thin dime's worth of elevation change. I was on the sidelines just being a fan. Ultrarunning IS a spectator sport and I had a great time just hanging out seeing my friends.


We drove up from Tulsa and got to the halfway point just before 5:00 pm--just in time to see my buddy Bill Ford. Dude hardly looked like he had ran 50 miles.


Dana and I were not the only fans out. Shelley and Lori were doing the groupie thing, while both crewing and pacing friends.


Bill and Michele refueled, and headed back north for 50 miles. We planned on following them--jumping from aid station to aid station.


More groupies--Cindy and Teresa were following and crewing Kathy and Roman.

Picture by Lindsy Wenz

My list of people I wanted to follow included several Oklahomans, a couple of Arkansans, a few from Kansas, and a herd of GOATz (Greater Omaha Area Trailrunnerz.)


My Kansas buddy and fellow Flat Rock Fool Zach Adams was doing well. He, Bill, sand Michelle were toe fastest ones I saw, although Earl Blewett and Brian Smith had hit the turnaround before I got there and were both enroute to good finishing times.


Jono looks tired, but he never seemed slow once he was running. He kept a steady pace throughout the race.

The Goatz had two groupies for each runner, or so it seemed.


Goat superstar Bobbie Ruhs rolled into the turnaround looking good.


A beautiful day was drawing to an end, giving way to colder temps. We left the turnaround at Iola,
got a bite to eat, and drove northward to Welda--some 19 miles down the trail.

We were ahead of most of the runners on my list, and we stayed here for around 3 hours.


The Trail Nerds ran this aid station. They were very well organized, and had two soup choices, and all kinds of aid station goodies. It was cold, but they had a propane space heater, and the warmth from the gas fired soup kettles made it pretty cozy.


Jason Dinkel waited for his runner. Jason and I will be running an aid station at FlatRock 101K later this month/


My buddy Tony Clak shows true grit and determination in finishing the race.


And while Tony was impersonation the incredible Hulk, Arnold impersonates an Eskimo.


69 miles, and Bill looks like he is merely out for an easy 6 on a Saturday morning.


Roman and Kathy roll into Welda looking good. Ok, Roman looks pretty sleepy.

We waited until all of my listees came in. Charlotte, Dennis, Ron, Bill C, Amanda, Bobbie, and Caroline. I had a few friends drop along the way, and Welda claimed a couple more. :-( From there, we leapfrogged two aid stations to get ahead of enough runners so we could catch a few winks. This plan worked, but I slept through seeing most of the faster runners. Kurt Egli, Jeff and Amelia Elbert, David Newman, Zach Adams, Earl Blewett, and Brian Smith buzzed through while I slept. I woke up just in time to seer Ken Saveth aka K2, and he had really came back to life. I bet he had close to a negative split, running a huge PR. HGis pacers Michelle Hancock and Travis Owen lit a fire under him and dug him out of cut-off-danger.


Next, Roman and Kathy strolled in and started grazing.


Roman had picked u a huge rock in his calf. Cindy and Dana teamed up on his poor legs, and rubbed out some of the knots in his lower legs.


With a mere 7.5 miles to go, Roman ran on in for a huge PR himself.

Again, we stayed until the last runners came through. I actually ran a couple miles waiting for the last runners. I really miss not getting to run this race.

Picture by Russell Bennett

The GOATz crew made in to the finish 30 minutes under final cutoff. Amanda nabbed her first 100 mile finish, as did Bill Colbert.; This was Ron's third, I think. Dana and I did not go on to the finish line though. We had to get home, and we were worried about falling asleep on the road.

It was tough for me to be on the sidelines--I wanted to run so bad! I think even despite a hampered knee (it is better every day) I could have ran. But I still loved being a groupie and I will go back next year to run this race--and run it well.

Post Oak Challenge aid station's perspective

It's been a while and I'm normally not this late in getting out race reports, so I guess this report is DFL--much like a lot of my races.

The Post Oak Challenge is a 2-day event where trail runners can run a DOUBLE. Only a trail or ultra runners understands the will to do two hard races on consecutive days--it's an oddity to some casual observers, and lunacy to others. The POC has your choice of a 50K/25K/10K on Saturday all on trailz, and your choice of a marathon/half marathon/quarter marathon on Sunday on a mixture of trailz and pavement. I did the big double the first year, and it is super tough. The past 3 years I have worked aid stations which is a blast. It's fun to see to the needs of friends as they push themselves.

 
The different distances are sent out in waves, and on day one, we had quite a bit of wait time til we saw our first runner. We had the privilege of seeing every runner, and the 50K runners twice,


I had fantastic help, with Susan Melon Westmoreland and Mishelle Hancock by my side. Our aid station was well stocked with goodies provided by the Post Oak staff (thank you Charlotte Lindley) and we also brought some goodies of our own.


Jello shots were a favorite. Nearly everyone who knew we had them through on e back. They were yummy, and were a lot like a yogurt cup where the goodies were on the bottom (wink.) The dude at the bottom left was having a big dose of one of our other goodies--CHOCOLATE BACON!!!

Nice crispy salty bacon dipped in a hard shell luscious chocolate. Melon cooked up 11 pounds of bacon, and it was all consumed. And I helped! (to the point of having a tummy ache)

We had such a great time and were out until the last runner came through.

Day two, my station was very near the start/finish, and we serviced only the marathon runners at their halfway point. It was bitterly cold, but the sun shining made it bearable. The chicken soup was a hit, but only for the mid to back of the pack. The front runners checked in and out very fast. My aid station was done and picked up by 11:00 am. I then made my way down the big hill to the point where my aid station was the day before. Monty Python and the Holy Grail was the theme.

Picture stolen from Wes Rupel

Stormy, Brynna, Edward, Christy, Phillip, Sarah, and Wes had this place under control. Runners came through and headed out on the road for an out-and-back, then headed up the Hill from Hell. Directing traffic (cars and runners don't mix well) was a big responsibility, and there were no mishaps. 


This is Holmes Peak-the tallest hill in a 3-county area, and the course goes up and over more times than most runners wished. Here, a GOATz friend Ron Ruhs practices a "Hurdle the weak, trample the dead" philosophy.

Picture stolen from Ron Ruhs

And the payoff for running tough but beautiful trailz for two days in a row--bragging rights, a cool tech shirt, and double bling. It doesn't get much better than this.

Ghost town running