10/17/10 - Spirit of the Osage 50k race report

2010 Spirit of the Osage 50k – near Chamois, MO

St. Louis Ultrarunners Group has offered the Spirit of the Osage 50k for quite a few years now. However, 2010 would bring a new course that would start and finish at the co-race director’s farm (David & Victoria White) near Chamois, MO. A cool fact about David & Victoria’s farm is that it sits at the highest point of elevation in Osage County Missouri according to the US Geological Survey. If memory serves, it’s at 927ft and they have the U.S.G.S. brass marker in their yard to prove it. Not really “high elevation”, but still pretty cool. David & Victoria were sure to explain all of this to me so that I didn’t get suckered in to anyone telling me that “it’s all down hill to the finish”.

Pictured: Co-Race Directors, David & Victoria White, near the start/finish of Spirit of the Osage 50k

This race was a really meaningful one to me for a LOT of reasons. For one, race day (10/17/10) would be my last day as a resident of Missouri. I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate that than with a 50k run in the hilly center of the Show Me State! Secondly, going in to this (the final SLUG even of 2010), I was the leader in the Men’s Open Division of the Eastern Missouri Ultra Series Championship. Realistically, all I needed to do was finish the race and I would be the champ. Something to look forward to, for sure. 

With my pending departure and move to Florida, I wanted to make the most of my last SLUG’s event for 2010. David & Victoria obliged by opening up their farm for free camping to any race participants, volunteers and friends the Saturday evening before the race. Several people took advantage (including me). David even built a nice camp fire for us to sit around on Saturday evening and the lot of us enjoyed a few beers, swapped running stories, and generally relaxed looking forward to the 8am start of the following day’s race.

Pictured: David enjoying the warm glow of a fantastic campfire...

Victoria hand delivered my race number & participant’s technical running shirt as I sat in my camping chair near the fire. The logo that she & David had come up with for the new course is really stunning. It’s a gorgeous Thunderbird logo. It’s a great show-piece that captures the essence of the race and, if I’m not mistaken, some of David’s ancestry. The race has a 20k or 50k option, and the new 20k medal is the very same logo. 50k finishers would be receiving a belt buckle with different, but equally cool artwork.

Weather was shaping up to be PERFECT. Thanks to a very flat spot in David & Victoria’s yard I was very comfortable in my small tent underneath a clear and star-filled sky. The cool temperatures and sounds of the breeze and critters filled the night air. Yep, this was going to be a good experience from start to finish.

When I awoke the next morning, the farm was a-buzz with volunteers, runners, friends & crowing roosters! Excitement over this new course was evident. The drive in, which shared a good portion of this mixed paved & gravel road loop course suggested this sucker was going to be a real challenge. This course DID NOT disappoint!

At the 8am start fellow SLUG Kyle Gibbs and I headed out in the lead. I knew I wouldn’t be running with Kyle all day. Kyle is too fast for me, plus I haven’t been training properly the last couple months and knew I needed to take it easy. Kyle and I stayed together for the first 4 miles. He was wearing a GPS watch and when the 4^th mile clicked off he announced to me that we were averaging 6:56/mile to that point. “Ok”, I said, “I’m backing off because I’ll explode to a million pieces with all of these hills at this pace if I don’t – so you go on ahead, Kyle – run strong!!!” At about that time, we were passed by a guy named Greg who looked SUPER strong and he would go on to be the eventual winner. Hell of a runner, that guy – he never faded. About 7 miles in to the race I was passed by local runner Scott – who always finishes top3 at Spirit of the Osage 50k, at least on the old course. Turns out that Scott’s “record” of 3^rd place finishes would hold up again on this day.

So now, this means I’m sitting in 4^th place, with LOTS of time left in the run, and hanging on for dear life! I could see the 3 runners ahead of me for a while, but that finally gave way and I was by my lonesome for the rest of the day. I don’t mean to make that sound bad, either: the weather was PERFECT. I never saw a cloud and there was a nice breeze. October in Missouri brought about cooler temperatures and lower humidity, so it was a great day to run.

I managed not to walk any of the hills on my 1^st two loops, but the 3^rd loop really got me. I power walked nearly all of the hills on that 9.4 mile effort. I held up pretty strong for about 21 miles, but my lack of training as of late caught up with me. However, on some of the LLLLlllllooooong straight away sections I could see no one within striking distance of me, so I figured I could hang on to my position, even if I needed to march the steeper sections of the course.

Hang on I did, and I crossed the finish line in 4:33:55, in 4^th place overall, only about 3 or 4 minutes off my 50k PR. Not to shabby for 20 miles a week of training for a couple of months. Better yet, this sealed the deal for me taking the Men’s Open division championship for the Eastern Missouri Ultra Series! David & Victoria presented me with a beautiful solid walnut plaque that is engraved with all 5 races in the series, which include:

Howard Aslinger 24hr (I ran 100 miles in 21:21 – 2^nd place overall)

Double Chubb 50k (I ran 4:30 – 9^th pace overall)

Berryman 50-mile (I ran 7:47 – 4^th place overall)

Flatlanders 12hr (I ran 44 miles in about 7 hours – not sure what place I finished)

Spirit of the Osage 50k (4^th place in 4:33:55)

Fellow SLUG, Lee Dougherty, took the title for Men’s Senior Division. Lee racked up more points in the series this year than any other competitor, and by my estimation, set a record for most points ever earned in the series. Amazing job, Lee! Here is Lee and me celebrating our EMUS wins. Lee also took the Senior division 1^st place in the Spirit 50k, finishing only 10 minutes behind me in 4:44. WOW, what a machine.

I’m certainly not the best runner in the SLUGs group, but I was consistent and really put in the work this year. It feels good that it paid off for me. I can’t think of a better way to “go out” than to leave Missouri as the EMUS Men’s Open Champ. Thanks to work & family in the St. Louis area, I’ll be back plenty to volunteer at some SLUGs races (hopefully next year). Speaking of volunteers, as usual, the SLUGs showed up and did a bang up job supporting the runners. Thanks everyone!

In the meantime, I think I have my work cut out for me in finding an ultrarunning group in the Sunshine State!

Adios, STL!!! 

Pictured: My flight out of STL, headed for Florida...