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Brooksville pair revives Flatlanders Challenge

By DAN DEWITT
Published December 21, 2006

BROOKSVILLE - A pair of young Brooksville residents have agreed to take on one difficult task - reviving the storied Flatlanders Challenge road race - and another that is seemingly impossible: making it even tougher.

"We've just added some more hills, if that can really be done," said Addison Sullivan, 28. He and the other main player in the rebirth - new race director Jay Pingley - have a long history with Flatlanders.

Both volunteered when they were children, and Sullivan has run it several times. Pingley's father, Norm, was a member of the Red Mule Runners when the group founded the race in 1978. Sullivan's father-in-law is Ernie Chatman, another longtime Red Mule member and a former race director.

After hearing several weeks ago that the older members of the club had given up on the race, which has suffered from declining attendance in recent years, Pingley and Sullivan decided to save it.

"I felt compelled, almost, to try to revamp it and bring it back to prominence because this is what I do," said Pingley, 27, who recently started a company, Florida Race Services, that organizes and supplies equipment for road races and triathlons. He has previously worked for World Triathlon Corp., based in Pinellas County, which operates Ironman races throughout the world.

He and Sullivan have moved the race back from its usual date, in late January, to April 7, giving them more time to organize it. Besides slightly altering the route of the 10-kilometer race, they will replace the traditional 2-mile fun run with a 5K race.

Though they must still receive permits from the Brooksville City Council, city police officers and other staffers have so far been helpful and encouraging, they said.

The race, which was first run in December 1978, is believed to be the third-oldest in Florida, said Omer Hensley, who served as director in the late 1980s.

A few years later, when Hensley's wife, Judy, persuaded legendary marathoners Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter to run, participation peaked at about 850 runners. Though Flatlanders retained its reputation as the most brutal 10K in the state, attendance dropped to, typically, between 250 and 300. Last year, because of a torrential rainstorm, only 93 runners participated - far below the break-even point.

Pingley, who is donating his company's services this year, is convinced he can bring that number up because of his many contacts with running and triathlon groups.

"If we get 300 to 400 this year, I'd be thrilled," he said, adding that he hopes that number will continue to rise, especially if it is returned to its traditional January time slot.

Judy Hensley and other Red Mule Runners are more than happy to see him try.

"Jay and Addison, when they were still in elementary school, they helped work the Coke wagons and do the fun run," Hensley said. "Now they're about the age we were when this all got started, and it's great to see them get involved."

Sullivan said he is especially eager to preserve two of the race's traditions: a party, complete with beer, in downtown Brooksville after the race, and the singularly humbling experience of running it.

"You start out feeling invincible, and then the next thing you know you're 45 minutes into it and only at the 5-mile mark," he said.

"It makes you realize you're 10 feet tall and bulletproof only to a point."

Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or 352 754-6116.

[Last modified December 20, 2006, 21:29:18]