Fritz represented OK at the Flat Rock 50K near Independence, Kansas, yesterday. We can hope Fritz will post something about his race.

I tagged along with Fritz and got in some time on the trail (I was not actually competing and didn't cover anywhere near 50K). The event is held on a 15 mile hiking trail on the north side of Elk City Lake. It is tough. I saw about half of the trail and what I saw was narrow and stony. It isn't extremely stony, but there are very few areas where the trail is smooth. The run is always held near the end of September, which can make for brutally warm temperatures. Yesterday was sunny and low/mid 80s.

Fritz did quite well -- his time might not impress (around 6:50), but the conditions were tough. The course record is over 5 hours.

Fritz, what did you think of the race?

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), October 01, 2000

Answers

While a bunch of OKers were running various trail races this weekend (Mean Gene, Dick N., Mike Shifman, a number of PTOC beginner clinic participants, and I ran the Sand Rat on Sunday), the Swedish Chapter was racing around the trails of Stockholm. Magnus and Sanna both ran Lidingoloppet ("the worlds largest cross country race). The main race is 30K (there are also 10K, 15K, and relays run over parts of the course) and there are typically over 30,000 entrants.

Magnus finished 478th of 7132 in the men's open 30K class. His time was 2:13:35.

Sanna was 48th of 992 in the women's open 30K class. Her time was 2:33:32.

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), October 02, 2000.

One interesting bit of info about the FR 50K is that the top two places in this year's race were taken by women.

-- Michael (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), October 04, 2000.