Mean hills, sweet pain lure racers once again

The Flatlanders Challenge, with its tough terrain and taunts, is back for a 29th year.

By DAN DeWITT, Times Staff Writer
Published January 14, 2008

Organizers of the Flatlanders Challenge road race hope to attract 250 runners to the Feb. 2 event in Brooksville. After the grueling run, a postrace party will feature beer and hot dogs.
	[Stephen J. Coddington | Times (2007)]

BROOKSVILLE - The Flatlanders Challenge road race is tough, some runners say, but not so tough that it would discourage first-time participants.

Ernie Chatman, one of the founding members of the Red Mule Runners, which sponsors the race, was able to run the 2007 Flatlanders - rather than help stage it - for the first time in years.

"Actually, I thought it was kind of comfortable," said Chatman, a longtime coach and physical education teacher at Hernando High School.

Of course, Chatman's comments need perspective: A few months before the 2007 Flatlanders, he completed a longstanding goal of running a marathon in all 50 states. The week after last year's Flatlanders, which was in April, he would run another marathon.

This year, the 29th annual race returns to its traditional midwinter date and is scheduled for Feb. 2. For runners less accomplished than Chatman, the course is plenty daunting, said Chuck Boldt, another longtime Red Mule member.

The course was changed last year to include the steep hill on Bell Avenue, while retaining most of the traditional route's most grueling stretches. Those include a sharp incline just past the 5-mile point, near Brooksville Elementary School.

"What a nasty place to put it," Boldt said.

And perhaps the steepest hill, on Bell Avenue, comes just a few hundred yards from the finish.

"As they used to say, it has a fast, uphill finish," Boldt said. "You have to joke about it, because nobody is going to run a personal record on this course."

Boldt and Chatman, both of whom say they may run the race this year, have the opportunity because two new directors stepped forward last year: Chatman's son-in-law, Addison Sullivan, and Jay Pingley, son of original Red Mule member, Norm Pingley.

The two have stayed on as co-directors this year, Sullivan said, and are working on building the race to its former prominence. Participation peaked at about 850 in the mid 1990s. In 2006, when a heavy rainstorm drenched the course, it hit an all-time low of 93.

Last year, the field grew to about 150, Sullivan said. This year, by advertising in running publications in Tampa, he and Pingley hope to attract about 250 runners, each of whom will pay a $20 entry fee (or $25 for those who register on race day).

"We'll have some numbers this year that will bring in enough money to do a bigger race next year," the event's 30th anniversary, Sullivan said.

One of the draws has been to return to the race's traditions, with a true postrace party featuring beer and hot dogs from the Coney Island Drive Inn. Another cherished custom is the series of signs, modeled after old-time roadside advertisements, that taunt the runners as they struggle up the hills.

Unlike previous years, when Boldt took on the all-consuming job of director, posting the signs will be one of his few obligations this year.

"My duties are bringing the tables to the (SunTrust Bank) parking lot and putting up the Burma-Shave signs," he said.

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

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Runners interested in this year's Flatlanders Challenge, which begins at 8 a.m. Feb. 2, should visit www.active.com or www.redmulerunners.com.

[Last modified January 13, 2008, 21:06:48]