Another Dam 50K Race Report

Pinebelt Pacer Rob Apple and best friend, Raz Estridge traveled to Ohio for Rob’s 456th ultra marathon. This was Rob and Raz's first time to run this race. He is originally from a nearby town and had trained in this park for many years.

Race director, Frank Fenton, survived a nightmare on this adventurous day. Torrential rains fell on Friday morning leaving part of the course under water as the river overflowed. He and his brother, Wesley, rerouted the course around the floods that afternoon. Both of them checked the route again on race morning and all seemed to be well. Race started and runners found a couple miles out that the “new” course was under water. We had to go around the flooded area through weeds and nettles. It came to light that two areas of the re-routed course had flooded. When Frank found out about it, he quickly re-routed the course again. Another part of the new course was threatened, but everyone got through that area before it flooded. The second order of pizza had to be cancelled because the park rangers had closed the park gates. Frank had driven out to get more Gatorade and had to walk a little over a mile to the race start with his load. We were very fortunate that the rangers didn’t close down the race.

Thanks to all the volunteers who operated the aid station, the time keeper, lap counters and especially Frank who did an excellent job pulling the race off in spite of Mother Nature threatening at every hour.