10/02/2025
I guess there's no reason to put this announcement off any longer. The Flatlanders canyon run has officially ended. Many factors went into this decision.
I think the understanding of how the race originated is worth sharing. Myself and Randy Carr were looking for a place to train for 50k and 50 mile runs at Sweetwater state park as well as Pine mountain park. We are from Albany and if you know the area, it's as flat as a pancake. Traveling to Pine Mountain was an all day trip. One day on a whim I went to Providence alone and was very impressed with the trail and the beauty of the park. After training there for a year or so it came to us to establish the Flatlanders Canyon run. We started with the 5 and 10k, and eventually added the 1/2 marathon and 50k. Eventually even adding Canicross.
Here we are, well over a decade later. Fun fact. I have never actually ran the race! I have been the sweeper many times and truly enjoyed pushing those last runners on the trail. We have made some very good friends along the way and I have seen our shirts many times over the years in some of the most surprising places, some a LONG way from south Georgia.
As I said, many factors went into the decision. One was cost. The parks have increased the amount per participant to the point that it has really become a factor. The second was "volunteers". Over the years we have used volunteers from the causes we were donating to. We have donated 10's of thousands to the Boy Scouts, Hospice house, cancer society, as well as mission trips to Africa and Mexico. The problem is the majority of these people weren't runners and in the last few years we have had a hiccup here and there. I took a few tongue lashings from folks that took the race WAY more seriously than I had expected. One nice lady got me two years in a row! That's ok as I took it and tried to figure out how to correct the issues. After all, our goal was always to get people to the park, hoping they would return after seeing how awesome the place is. Another fun fact - It was always the 5k folks that got lost. ;)
That left us with tough choices. With the park use increasing, paying staff, furnishing the BEST shirts in the business, as well as custom awards we were at a crossroads. One option was an increase in price. I feel like we are already on the top end to get people to commit to traveling to the middle of nowhere and so I declined that option. Option 2 was to cut our quality. I mean we could give you a Haynes beefy T (no offense to other races) rather than the Tri-blend shirts or the tech hoodies and long sleeves we have done in the past. We could go cheap on awards. Again... that wasn't going to happen. Option three was to sell the race. Although we considered this option, in the end this race was our "baby" and we were very proud of what we have achieved with it over the years. We won't be selling the race.
So here we are. To anyone who wants to pick up the baton and establish a new race at the canyon, Randy and I will be happy to help and give you the knowledge we have gathered over the last 15 years. Heck it would be fun to actually run a race there!
Lastly, we want to humbly give a heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone of our participants, volunteers, and the park staff, that made this race what it was. We had runners that returned year after year. That always made me feel like we were achieving our goal. I also need to reiterate that the money in most cases went to help those that truly needed help. I think that may be the part that made the decision so hard. We love you all. See you on the trails!
Race directors-
Billy Goodson
Randy Carr
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