SUNDAY POST-RACE: SOCIALIZING & 100-MILE AWARDS CEREMONY

Neither of us was in any hurry to get out of bed on Sunday morning. There wasn't any need to. We weren't signed up for the 10:30 AM post-race buffet and the 100-mile awards ceremony wasn't scheduled to begin until 11:30 AM.

We did crawl out of bed in time to eat breakfast in the camper and get over to the finish area by about 10 AM. The 30-hour cut-off was at noon.

The aftermath of a race is always a bit sad when you see the tents coming down, especially when 17% of the 100-mile finishers hadn't come in yet; 28 of 162 runners finished in the last two hours. Fortunately, in this race all but two of them were done before the awards ceremony began.

The party's almost over.

The finish experience at many ultras is vastly different for those who are mid-pack and faster than it is for runners in the slowest quartile. Those of us who now find ourselves more often in the back of the pack don't have much -- or any -- audience when we get done and sometimes we don't have much of a -- or any -- selection of foods and beverages, either.

I do understand the need to tear down the aid stations and finish line in a timely manner so volunteers aren't tied up any longer than necessary; I've been on that side of the fence, too, and know what it's like to wait for the last runners to come through. However, I'm as uncomfortable being a volunteer and putting things away before the last runner arrives at my aid station as I am as being one of those runners myself.

But RDs need to consider the message this sends to the slower runners. For one thing, I can think of a few times I dropped out of races at an aid station where I made the cut-off but was afraid I'd inconvenience volunteers if I didn't make it to the next aid station by their cut-off time. Even Jim has done this -- and we both usually regret our decision later!

Back to Sunday morning . . .

Jim talks with Susi as she waits for Hans to finish.

We had time to talk with some of our friends as they finished the race or came back to watch the last happy-to-be-done runners cross the timing mat. Both Hans (28:50) and Jean-Jacques (28:52) came in while we watched. I think Hans has finished more 100-milers than anyone else in the world. He told me the total after Rocky, but I forget what it was.

Hans-Dieter Weisshaar and his wife Susi at the awards ceremony

The timers were still on duty until the last runners crossed the line at Rocky and found their way to the awards ceremony, which -- like the ceremony for the 50-milers -- began before the final cut-off. I understand the reasons why races do that, too, but it makes me uncomfortable (and I wasn't even in this race!).

We wandered over to the lodge before the awards ceremony to talk to other friends and admire the very cool awards on display for the 100-milers. I believe 50-milers got the same overall, masters, and age group awards but I could be wrong since we missed that ceremony. Jim received his finisher's medal, shown below, when he crossed the line Saturday afternoon. Hundred-mile finishers all received a belt buckle (different ones for under and over 24 hours).

Handsome 50-mile finisher's medal

One thing I like at Rocky is that men and women receive the same number of awards in the same categories, including the older age groups (another indication that this race does welcome older runners): first five overall men and women in each race, top three masters men and women, and first man and woman in each of seven age groups, including 50-59, 60-69, and 70+. This year there were no female finishers age 60 or older in either the 50- or 100-miler, to my surprise. I don't know if runners are limited to just one award or if they can collect two or three (e.g., a fast 50-year-old man could be in the top five overall, top three masters, AND first in M50-59).

I wasn't paying very close attention to the various awards that were given out to the overall and masters winners on Sunday morning, but they were the larger metal sculptures. Some of them are shown in the next photo:

Age group winners received a handsome and much smaller metal Texas star award, which you can see here. Several "repeat offenders" received nice fleece jackets for reaching 500 and 1,000 miles at Rocky. There were also several very cool 3-D metal salamander sculptures, a large turtle sculpture, and some wooden plaques in the shape of Texas.

Joe presented the large turtle sculpture (below) to Bobby Keogh; I can't remember the reason but it certainly wasn't because he was slow! He ran the 100-miler in 23:48. Dan Brenden received the graceful metal sun sculpture (near the top of the photo above) for having the sunniest personality or biggest smile or something like that.

So who won the awards?? You can find the 2009 results here for both races. There is a link for loop splits of all the 50- and 100-milers in the "Results & Reports" link on the home page. I don't see them broken down into age groups anywhere, though.

Hundred-mile winners were Andy Jones-Wilkins (15:57:53), who we saw most recently at Ghost Town, and Jamie Donaldson (16:51:36), first female and and a fast third place overall. Despite the heat, 68% of the runners who began the race finished it (162 out of 239). That's a little lower than the 17-year average finish rate of 72% at Rocky.

Kevin Sullivan (6:05:50) was first in the 50-miler; Meredith Terranova (8:02:13) was first female and 11th overall. This was the largest field of 50-mile finishers in the race's history, with an 88% completion rate (174 finishers out of 198 starters). That finish rate is about average for the eight-year history of the 50-mile race.

Jean-Jaques d'Aquin (L) and Dan Brenden are all smiles after the 100-mile race.

You can see the course records for both races here. Three of the four race winners were well off the previous records but Kevin missed the 50-mile record by only four minutes.

There is some question re: the "comparability" of course records at Rocky because the courses have morphed several times over the years from continual trail relocations in the park (which are totally out of the control of the RD) and other reasons. Joe even joked about that at the race briefing. Although I heard mostly positive reviews of the new courses, the 100-miler was probably more difficult this year than last with more of the rooty Chinquapin Trail included on the far side of the lake.

Here's one more link for several categories of records at Rocky, including

• yearly participation in each race
• a very long list of every runner who has ever finished either race and their total number of miles
• race veterans who have accumulated 400, 500, and 1,000 miles (this year Hans-Dieter Weisshaar and Bobby Keogh joined Rolly Portelance, Kim Sargent, and Phil Wright in the latter category)
• male and female single-age records in each race (hmmm . . . if I ran the 50-miler next year at age 60 and was faster than 14:09:40, I could have that record)
• and course records

Front: Beth Simpson-Hall celebrates her 25:35 finish in the 100mi. with husband Larry Hall
(9th overall in the 50mi. in 7:55).  Second row:  Miles Krier, Bobby and Dianna Keogh.

It was fun to relax Sunday morning at the awards ceremony and have more time to talk with friends.

We were happy to hear our new buddy Bill Heldenbrand's name called for the M60-69 award in the 100-miler for his quick time of 23:37 -- but he wasn't there to get it. After the ceremony Joe gave Bill's cool Texas star award to us when we told him that we could give it to him at Umstead in early April. Bill's pacing a friend, Frankie, in her first 100-miler there.

On our walk back to our camper we found Bill at his camper and surprised him with his award. He was quite surprised to learn that he'd won his age group! I took this photo of him proudly holding his star as he and Jim talked about the race:

I'll have more to say about Bill (good things!) and his influence on us in another entry about our running and RV lifestyle.

KUDOS

Kudos to all the volunteers, including the race management team, for pulling off an excellent race. It appeared to us that everything "ran" smoothly, although Race Director Joe Prusaitis poignantly explains in the last part of his race report just how difficult that can be:

. . . Rocky continues to grow, but it was the 50 miler that really took off this year. With 174 finishers, we have reached an all time new high.

In my never ending search for putting on the perfect race, I plan and scheme for buckles, medals, awards, shirts, aid station food, pre and post race meals, volunteers, marking materials, heaters, tents, stoves, lanterns, trailers, tarps, signs, timing, sponsors, maps, course changes, and all the issues associated with each. Damn but its only a foot race, but the minutia of details is as detailed and endless as I have time to make it. With formulas for predicting water vs weather, buying shirts and buckles long before the first person signs up, living by last years statistics and this years best guesses. Rolling the dice on every guess, knowing a bad guess will cause me grief or money. Still, solving the puzzle that I call Rocky is a great mental puzzle before, during, and after the race is run.

Still, it is the people that make it real live entertainment. The runners and volunteers, merge with the park personnel, photographers, portojon drivers, pizza delivery, and many others to create a show that spins non-stop for days on end and leaves me and every person working the race as exhausted as any runner that ran. I like to equate directing a race like this to running a race like this. They are the same in almost every way. The main difference . . . for the runner, the race is over on Sunday at noon!

I think race directors the world over can probably relate to this! Thank you for all your hard work, Joe. You and your crew did a great job.

Happy trio after the race: Bill Heldenbrand, Frankie Stone,  Donna Palmer;
Donna held out her arm to rake this great picture!

CONCERNS

I do have a few complaints/concerns about this race, however. The first is directed to management and perhaps some whiny runners who influenced the decision:

1. It bothers me that the 50-mile awards ceremony was held at 5 PM, only ten hours into the race. One hundred twenty-four of the 174 finishers were still running at 5 PM and unable to be present; that's over 71% of the field! Their crews probably missed the ceremony, too. I know I did. I don't remember ever attending any other ultra that held its awards ceremony when only 29% of the runners were done, even if most of the award winners were in that group.

My assumption about the reason(s) for scheduling the ceremony so "early" may be wrong. I haven't asked Joe. What it looks like to me is that it's deemed more important for the faster 50-mile runners to be able to leave before suppertime or dark than to wait until the older age groups are represented and able to receive the recognition they deserve. I wonder if any of the later finishers, including F50-59, M60-69, and M70+, left their awards "on the table" because they didn't know they'd won their age group. They all came in well after 10 hours. (There were no women finishers over 60 in either race this year.) I hope they either received their awards after they crossed the finish line or they got them in the mail. Even so, I still think they got gypped out of one of the nicest parts of the race experience.

Are these cool awards, or what??

I prefer the way many other races handle this: if the fastest award winners can't stay until the end of the race or come back for the awards ceremony (in this case, I'd recommend holding the ceremony at 7 PM, twelve hours into the race), let them pick up their awards when they need to leave. That way it's their choice if they want to be deprived of the camaraderie and peer recognition an awards ceremony provides.

If you look at the 50-mile results you'll note that the top five overall and top three masters men and women came from as far away as Massachusetts, Maine, Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, and California. If they flew to the race it's not likely they had plane rides home until Sunday anyway. Some of them could have brought clean clothes with them to the park and showered in one of the bathrooms, then gone back to Houston to their hotel (and airport) after the awards ceremony.

Fortunately, this is the only way in which the older and/or slower runners are not well-accommodated in this race. In other regards the 50-miler is very appropriate for slower and/or older folks, including equal age groups and awards for men and women, ten-year age groups up to the 70s, and a 29-hour cut-off. I believe those factors are more important "in the long run" than the time of the awards ceremony.

Abigail "Ultrarunningmom" Meadows and another runner come into the main aid station
on Saturday morning. Abi always has a huge smile on her face when I see her running!

2. This complaint is directed squarely at thoughtless runners:

Like last year, the course was a mess after the race. Even though volunteers went out and picked up trash on Sunday, there was plenty for Jim and me to pick up the remainder of the next week as we ran and cycled on the trails (we continued camping there another three weeks after the race). It was obviously race trash, not likely from other trail users that weekend. In fact, we rarely saw any trail trash the entire month we stayed at Huntsville SP, only after this race.

What galls me the most are the dirty mounds of toilet paper left most likely by 100-milers after dark. They think they are pooping well off the trail, but in daylight it's obvious they weren't. Guess what, people? NO ONE wants to pick up used toilet paper!!! It's a good way to discourage both the park and the RD from putting on future races there. Get off the trail farther and bury everything if you can't make it to the next portapotty.

How about the guy in the light gray running skirt (yes, sKirt)?

3. My last gripe is with clueless crews and it is two-fold:

• Kids whose parents don't control them adequately at aid stations: the main problem I saw at Rocky was on the narrow path to the Park Road AS, where children too often got in the way of runners between the road and aid station. For that matter, some adults seemed oblivious to oncoming runners, too!
• People who smoke at aid stations: oh, my, what ARE they thinking?!! I kept running into a middle-aged couple crewing for their son at both aid stations where I crewed. They sat close enough to the trail so runners got to inhale their smoke as they ran or walked past them. I had to reposition myself at Park Road to stay upwind of them, which wasn't as good a place to take photos. Grrr. There was much more room at the main aid station to avoid them but they still polluted everyone's air. In retrospect I probably should have said something diplomatically to them or to a race official. I usually don't have any problem being assertive but I was in a mellow mood at Rocky and didn't want to make anyone mad. 

The race website clearly stated dogs weren't allowed at any of the aid stations or the start/finish area so I left Cody in the camper all day (with sporadic walking breaks). Not everyone got the message, however. That was no problem for me. Every dog I saw at Park Road or the finish area was well-behaved and out of the way. However, I'd like to see a new rule that no one can smoke cigarettes at the aid stations . . .

. . . and maybe a reminder for people to control their kids as well as they control their dogs.

End of rant. I probably did something to tick off someone, too! For my four whines, I'll take an eight-minute penalty.

Overall, this is a wonderful race and I don't want to discourage anyone from entering it. Joe and his crew do a great job and we're grateful for all their efforts, special touches, and the beautiful venue. We plan to return next year for one or both races; I'm considering entering the 50-miler for the first time if my knees hold out that long.

Next entries: more stories from our month at Huntsville State Park

Happy trails,

Sue
"Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil, and Cody the Ultra Lab

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© 2009 Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil