Initially when Cindy told me about this race I thought not only no, but hell NO! I don't do well on rocks and generally wuss out when I have to go up or down. Well, after some careful consideration and looking at fall races, I figured why the hell not? They allowed dogs so that is a big plus for me. The race is an out and back which I kind of like. Plus, I had heard the trail was "rugged" but beautiful. Shall we dive in???
We got into town Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel, which was about 9 minutes from the race start. They had a spaghetti feed at packet pick up, which was yummy, but something in the spaghetti gave me HORRIBLE gas. We got a very nice shirt that has the course profile on it (holy moly) and our bibs.
I sat flat Michelle and flat stella out. This was my first time using tail wind in a race, so I had a mix of singles and some already scooped into ziplocs. I only had two bottles, which wasn't enough, but I am jumping ahead. We had a quick beer while sitting outside the hotel and had some nice unwinding time. Back in to take some melatonin and hit the hay early. It would have been perfect except both of my pillows were as hard as rocks and stella kept barking at every single noise. She was really keyed up for some reason and I couldn't seem to get her to relax. We finally drifted off around 10 something, but she was on guard most of the night.
We started at 8:00 with a briefing, so we actually got to sleep in! We headed over around 7 am so we could see the 50K runners start at 7:30. My friend Cindy was doing the 50K with Miles and we wanted to help cheer them on. Not sure why I have such a funny look on my face in this picture! It was cool but not cold so I left my jacket and ran in arm warmers, which i quickly took off and stored in my pack.
This race is nice and small and it seemed like most were entered in the 50K. We talked to a few new friends pre race and of course stella always draws people in. She is so fluffy that people just have to pet her!
Of course this is one of her favorite people Pat. I always get lots of questions about her running. Most people can't believe a dog can do races like this. Yes, I was a little worried about the course for her, but only because of the rock climbing. We run on rocks daily, so I know her paws are pretty tough, but we don't climb up or down boulders on the regular. Fancy Creek has a few rocky parts, but NOTHING like Flat Rock!
Right at 8:30 we were herding up and headed off. The first part of the race is on a road as we go out to the trail, and of course like always Stella tried to pull me to the front. It takes her a while to figure out that we are doing a long race and as always people worry about her because she is pulling like a crazy dog. I try to assure them she will settle in but no one ever believes us. We luckily had a very cool and over cast day. The toughest and rockiest part is at the start of the race and then subsequently at the end since it is an out and back. Here are a few pictures that I tried to take on the course and honestly they don't do it justice.
There were lots of ups and downs at first that meant a ton of climbing and not a ton of running. We finally seemed to get high enough to be in a prairie like area that had few trees and nice places to run. The course is REALLY well marked with marking on the ground as well as up. Kudos to whomever marked it. We did get lost twice, once stella went the right way and we figured out she wasn't with us. She was just standing at the top of the hill looking down like, where are you idiots going? The second time we all went the wrong way and suddenly were down by the water. We quickly figured out our mistake and righted our selves.
We only had one hiccup. Devil's butt crack. Here is what it looks like from down low as my new friend Kris climbed up.
Stella would not squeeze down the smaller part to get to the wider park to get down. She wanted to jump from way up top, and I was terrified she was going to hurt herself. I kept trying to let her off so she might find the way, but she just couldn't. FINALLY a big group of ladies caught up to us and we all worked together to get her down. One lady pushed from the top, I kept her from splaying her legs out like spiderman to get her through the narrow part, and another lady held my back so if stella jumped I wouldn't fall and hit my head. We were a well oiled machine. She of course had no issues getting back up it and just scampered up after Kris.
Kris and I kept leap frogging each other and we finally decided to just run together. She was very tolerant of stella running right behind her and drooling on her calf muscle. She even shared water with her when I ran out. I really am going to have to get either two more bottles OR a bladder so she always has water. The aid stations were too far apart and I mostly had tail wind in my bottles so couldn't share. While the weather was nice and cool, I think she needs her own water source no matter what. Funny story, we had a collapsible bowl, but one of the aid stations we passed decided to make her a water bowl for on the way back...except she would NOT drink from it LOL!!!!! I felt so bad but she just wouldn't!
We finished back on the road and when stella heard the music and the cow bells she turned on the jets!!!!!
I can't wait to see the amazing pictures from Mile 90. They caught us in two places and at the finish. We didn't come in last like I thought we would, but my legs, specifically my hip flexors were not feeling the hard on the way out. I needed more technical trail practice and a little more cross fit, but maybe I can come back next year and do better.
Till next year Flatrock! We are sore, we are tired, but we had a great time! If you are looking for a gem of a race in a small town in KS with a small group of very nice, very dedicated trial runners, come to Flatrock!!!!
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