From: mfarns@mindspring.com
To: netr@newenglandtrailrunner.com
Subject: All The Florida Trail News Thats Fit to Print!
Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2001 23:37:41 -0400

Hi Everybody,
 
For all of you who were sitting by your computers waiting for
someone to update you on the trail running news
from Florida, your long wait has come to an end!
 
Although trail running is not hugely popular here in
sunny Florida,the local running club here in the
Melbourne/Cocoa Beach/Cape Canaveral area, the Space
Coast Runners, had their annual Memorial Day trail
marathon, 50 miler, 100 miler & 200 miler last weekend.
The races are held in a state park, and consists of 7 repeats
of a 3.75 mile loop for the marathon, then 7 repeats of a 3.4
mile loop to finish off the 50 miles.  The 100 miler is run
over two consecutive days, and the 200 miler over 4
consecutive days over the same 14 lap course.  Although not
bothered by the pesky elevation changes that we have in
the Northeast, this race course is no lay-up, as along with
the 90+ degree temperatures, blazing sun and nearly 100%
humidity, each 3.75 mile loop consisted of about 2 miles
of hard packed trail, 3/4 mile of dirt road and about a
mile of soft sand (yup, what would any good Florida trail
marathon be without 7 miles of beach sand to run through!).
The 3.4 mile loop was run over the mostly the same
trail, so the effect was the same.  The good news was
that since the marathon was a 7 lap race, a strategically placed
cooler full of fluids and yummy trail treats could make
the day a lot easier to complete.
 
All in all it was a good day for the home team, as I stuck
to my game plan of staying fully hydrated, running even,
and successfully managing to not find any poisonous snakes
or reptilian critters in the wood, and turned in a time
of 4:00:23.  This was good enough for 2nd place, and the
3rd fastest time ever on the course.  It was my first trail
marathon ever, my first marathon of any kind in 18 years,
and most importantly gave me a qualifying time for
Escarpment, which I have been looking forward to going
back to ever since I last ran it 15 or 16 years ago.  Yeah!!!!
 
Even with a good race in the marathon, probably the most
exciting thing for me over the course of the week was
watching Mark Henderson from Seabrook TX run the 200 miler.
Mark had previously set the course record in the 50
and 100 milers, and came back this year to break both
of those records, and set a new standard in the 200 miler.  He
was successful in all three, setting course records of
10:20:15 for the 50, 21:08:59 for the 100 and 43:48:39 for the 200.
What even makes this more impressive was that he did
it in the hot Florida sun and humidity, while running 56ish of
those miles through soft sand!  Ouch, how's that for getting
the ol' quads burning!  I really wanted to write about
Mark's achievements because I know that some of you know
and have run with Mark over the years (he says hi
Missy!), and because I was so impressed with him.  I
went back to the park each of the three days following the
marathon/1st 50 day, and ran an additional 19 miles with
Mark, to try in some way to help him along in his quest.  I
hope in some way I was a small help to him achieving his
goal, but I know that I benefited greatly from the time we
were able to spend together on the trail.  Listening to him
talk about the 3-a-day workouts that he does to log the
140 - 170 miles a week he runs getting ready for ultras (he
call them bricks, but they would sure seem like back pack
full of concrete blocks to me) while working two jobs (yup
he's a real rocket scientist folks), it is easy for me to see
how he was able to collect the arms length of titles that he
has in ultra running over the years.  I get to the Houston
area fairly frequently in my line of work, and I am looking
forward to getting out for a few miles with Mark (very
small bricks mind you) when we have the chance to catch up.
 
Kudos also goes out to the race director Matt Mahoney, who
as the Space Coast Runners official ultra runner,
college professor and Ph.D. candidate managed to run in a
combination of shoes, sandals and bare feet a total of
120.4 miles for the four days, while also dealing with all
of stuff that race directors have to deal with.  A great effort
by him, and a great race overall.  I will be back next year
to see what I can do to lower my time the 9 minutes and
change that I need to set a new course record in the marathon.
 
Sorry this is so long, and I hope to see you all in the
mountains of New York in late July!
 
Take care,
 
Mike Farnsworth