Ghosts of TUDC Past

Mike Melton, December 2010

This Saturday morning I’ll join a small group ofrunners in Wakulla Springs State Park a few miles south of Tallahassee, Florida,for the 30th anniversary of the Tallahassee Ultra Distance Classic(TUDC) 50K and 50-Mile races, also known as the Run Through The Jungle. My ultrabuddies Bob Pope and Steve Strait will join me in the 50-Mile race, andwe’ll make it a boys’ weekend as we’ve done at so many otherraces in the past six years.  Bob just turned 70 years old this week, andSteve will turn 70 next March on the same day as my son turns 15, so I’vegot some great examples of persistence and determination in the battle againstold Father Time close by me.

Although Bob would not admit it, he’s both tough andfast - he ran a 4:29 50K a bit more than three years ago at the Croom Fools Runtrail run, and in the past two years in the Croom 50-Miler there he’snotched a 9:04 and a 9:38.  Steve’s a steady-as-he-goes runner whoran a 31:22 in the 2008 Ancient Oaks 100-Mile race as a 67-year-old – theonly runner older than Steve to finish that year was Bob, who ran a 28:22 atage 68.

So my ultrabuddies and I are looking forward to running anincreasingly rare breed of ultra – the road ultra.  TUDC is a certifiedloop road course, and its history is undeniable.  It’s one of theoldest and fastest ultras in the US.  I’m anxious and a littlenervous since I won’t have the usual set of excuses for a crappy time –‘the trail was tough, the elevation was brutal, the rocks hurt my feet, yadayada yada…’ and I’ve been running reasonably well lately –notwithstanding my DNF at Mother Road 3 last month.  I’m hoping topush the pace and make my too-soft 9:38 50-Mile PR a bit less soft.

I’d love to hear the stories this section of  SR61 – Wakulla Springs Road – must have.  What must it have beenlike to see Minnesota’s Barney Klecker run a 2:51:53 for 50K in 1982, oneof the fastest times in the world at that time, and still one of the best timesever run?  Or what about Barney’s wife Janis’s still-standingworld-record 50K run of 3:13:51 the following year in 1983?  Or SandraKiddy running for second place in that race with a 3:32:34, which ended upbeing a Masters world record?  If you think that Barney just got lucky andpopped one great race, he came back the following year and ran 2:53:45 to defendhis 50K title, and those remain the top two 50K times ever run at TUDC.  FrankBozanich’s 5:14:40, set in 1982, is still the Open Course record andUltraLister Rich Schick (boy, have I been Schicked way too many times in mylife!) owns the Masters course record at 6:22:08 from 1993, when he was 44years old.

List member Ray Krolewicz has put up some eye-popping timesas well, winning the only 100-mile event held in TUDC history as he ran 14:57:26in 1985 at age 30.  Sandra Kiddy took the women’s 100-Mile race in 15:12:54– at age 49!  Ray the K had three first-place finishes and twosecond-place finishes in the various race distances as I quickly scanned theresults , including a 7:25:13 100K win in 1982, and a 6:54:01 50-Mile win in 1996. And unfortunately, the other runners were probably subjected to some of Ray’sinfamous lack of singing talent - which I’ll get to experience up closeand personal again at the upcoming Ancient Oaks 100-Mile event ;-).

Lister Mark Dorion took top honors in 1986, winning the 50Kwith a 3:09:25, still the fifth-fastest time ever run at TUDC.  And if youthink that all the history at TUDC is in the ancient past, think again –last year Joe Burgasser of St. Petersburg FL ran a 50K time of 4:16:56 –at age 71, to set an age 70-74 national age group record!  That time makeshis 4:22:04 from the previous year seem a bit ‘pedestrian’ ;-). And at age 65, Frank Bozanich returned to TUDC last year to run a 4:39:39 –hell, I hope to just be running at all when I’m 65 ;-)!

So on Saturday morning, when I’m shuffling down SR 61 tryingto get some kind of pace going as the cold early-morning fog burns off underthe glare of the rising sun, I’ll be thinking about all the footsteps ofall the people who have trod this road before me, and I’ll be thinkingthat I’m blessed indeed to be following in the ghosts of their footsteps –no matter what happens in the end for me.