Rock the Night Away Trail ½ Marathon: June 24th, 2011

A couple of years ago, Willie Lambert, then owner of Great Plains Running Company, directed the Rock Creek Trail Runs, a series of races between May and October just east of Topeka Kansas at Lake Perry. They were fun events held on really great trails. When GPRC shut down and Willie moved on to greener pastures; eastern Kansas trail runners lost not only a terrific running store and a super friendly and talented ultra-runner, but a great series of trail races. Despite an impressive and fun system of trails, Lake Perry went without a trail race for some time. That all changed in 2011 as the Trail Nerds created a new Lake Perry trail race series called; appropriately, the Rock On! Trail Series. Friday night June 24^th at 8:30 pm was the Rock the Night Away Trail ½ Marathon.   

So after work on Friday, I met up with an old Marine Buddy, Cameron, who was running the 10K version of the race. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at Boston Market (still not sure how he managed to run after eating that gi-normous  pot pie…oh well, gotta feed the machine!) and then made the drive to the Branded B Ranch at Lake Perry. We got there early and had plenty of time to stretch and chat with runners. I saw a number of Trail Nerds and Hawks but felt for the most part that it was an unfamiliar crowd.  I also wasn’t feeling very strong only being four days removed from a 22-mile training run at Wyco Lake. My left ankle was starting to act up again and I just felt a little lethargic. Overall though, I was still ready to go.

Finally the sun went down. I wished Cameron good luck and after Bad Ben’s pre-race brief we took off down a gravel road and ducked into the woods. As is common when 100 runners share the single track, I got stuck in a conga line for awhile and had trouble passing people. I’ve learned that this is a good thing as it keeps me from “going out” to fast and since my ankle was feeling tender, I needed to be conservative.  Besides, I had decided that I wasn’t aiming for any particular time-goal, it was just my Friday training run so there was no rush…just a good pace, good company and a chance to enjoy some great trails.

Speaking of great trails, there are so many in the area that I think Lake Perry gets a little overlooked sometimes but it is a rocky, rooted, rugged and scenic trail with just enough hill work to be fun. Running it at night was an awesome experience. So dark in those woods, I had no idea where I was at any given time on the trail. Occasionally I could hear the waves hitting the rocks so I knew when I was near the water and there were a couple of manned aid stations but apart from that I felt pretty isolated. There was a four mile span where I didn’t see another soul. I had no idea if I was in last place, first place or even off course…I just kept following what I thought were (hopefully) course marker flags.

Finally, I popped out of the woods and back onto the gravel road we started on for the short run back to the Ranch. Tough course! There would be no PR this day, in fact it was my slowest ½ marathon by a half hour!?!  Oh, well according to the results it was good for 19th place and I had a blast. Huge thanks to Ben Holmes and the Trail Nerds for bringing back the Rock races! Thanks also to Dick Ross for the photography (again!!). Great course, great venue, great volunteers, and great way to keep Willie’s races going! I’m looking forward to the Rock On! 50K  later this fall.  

As always, love and thanks to Jessica, Alyena, and Ayden!