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| Clay Milford |
We have one of those in Tallahassee, and last Saturday, July 28, Chile High senior Clay Milford won Tallahassee’s Devil-take-the-Hindmost race, the sole survivor of a field of 21 runners.
In Kenley’s book, one of his character describes how the run works. “So you can’t be last in Devil, that’s the main rule. If you’re last at the finish line, the Devil gets you. Since there are six of you guys, that means the winner and the second place finisher will run five laps each.”
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| The Devil leads |
The Tallahassee race wasn’t limited to just one small cross-country squad, so with 21 runners lining up on the track at 7:00 PM, the winner would have to go twenty laps. The rest would be removed one at a time, one at the end of each 400-meter lap, by the Devil.
Kat Sack was this year’s Devil, and led the runners on their first lap around the track. This was a parade lap, a free lap where no runner would be removed. After that, the Devil stepped off the track and waited for the end of the second lap to start her harvest.
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| The surge at the end of lap nine |
Zachary Bridges and Anna Bridges ended the second lap with an Alphonse-and-Gaston routine. “I’ll be last.” “No, I’ll be last.” Tiring off their antics, the Devil took both athletes off the track.
Eight-year-old Chloe Molen left the track after the third lap, and Jennie Merchant after four laps. The remaining runners started their second mile.
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| Rory Claussen |
Master runner Stuart Poage bowed out on lap five. The Devil nabbed Panama City master runner Neil Claussen on lap six, and Spencer Claussen after lap seven. The second mile ended with Ryan Poage going to the Devil on lap eight.
After leading most of the way, master runner Paul Guyas was taken by the Devil after nine laps. Eric Godin left the track on the tenth lap. Thirteen-year-old Rory Claussen of Panama City was the last female runner left on the track, but the Devil got her after eleven laps. Master runner Brian Molen couldn’t escape the Devil on the twelfth lap, leaving just two other master runners on the track--Duane Evans and Philip Sura. The Devil took Evans on the thirteenth lap, and Sura on the fourteenth. Only seven runners were left.
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| Vince Molosky |
Vince Molosky was the first of the seven, leaving the track after a hard-fought fifteenth lap. That lap exhausted Matt McCurdy, the 2017 Devil-take-the-Hindmost winner, and he jogged the sixteenth lap, his run over after four miles.
“It took a year, but I got you!” chortled the Devil.
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| Lap 17 |
Ryan “Weather Tiger” Truchelut went out at the end of the seventeenth lap. On the eighteenth lap the Devil snatched Jake Mazziotta, a second-year runner on the Virginia Military Institute cross-country team. Three runners were left, none of whom wanted to yield an inch. Trying to lean ahead of Bryce Cole and Clay Milford at the line, Chris O'Kelley stumbled and fell. When he looked up, the Devil was directing him off the track. The nineteenth lap was over, and so was O’Kelley’s race.
The battle on the nineteenth lap had exhausted Cole; the Embry-Riddle cross-country runner could only trot around the track on the twentieth lap while Milford galloped away from him. After five miles, the Devil got Cole, and Milford got the win.
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| Chris O'Kelley, Clay Milford, Bryce Cole |
“This is one that Jake and I have wanted to do for a lot of years,” said Milford.
The race has been going on for a lot of years. Tallahassee’s Devil-take-the-Hindmost was first run back in the 1970s. It has been almost annual since then; there have been more summers with a Devil-take-the-Hindmost than without one. It’s an unusual event, but the novelty is a welcome break from the endless summer miles. And of course there’s no more appropriate time to run with the Devil than midsummer in Tallahassee, when it’s as hot as...you know.
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Links
- More photos of the 2018 Devil-Take-The-Hindmost Race
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10112230072748023.1073742364.5215641&type=1&l=90121d56f9
- Mike Rowland's photos of the 2018 Devil-Take-The-Hindmost Race
https://www.facebook.com/mike.rowland.351/media_set?set=a.10209580659472951.1073741853.1821804264&type=3
- David DeJesus' video of the 2018 Devil-Take-The-Hindmost Race
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InbsjTKgX6Q
- Trouble Afoot! coverage of past Devil-Take-The-Hindmost Races, with results and links to photos
- 2017: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2017/07/devil-2017.html
- 2016: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2016/07/devil-2016.html
- 2015: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2015/07/devil-2015.html
- 2014: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2014/08/devil-2014.html
- 2013: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2013/07/devil-2013.html
- 2012: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2012/07/devil-2012.html
- 2011: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2011/07/devil-2011.html
- 2004: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2011/07/devil-2004.html
- 1993: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2013/07/devil-1993.html
- 1992: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2013/07/devil-1992.html
- 1990: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2015/07/devil-1990.html
- 2017: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2017/07/devil-2017.html
- Announcement for previous Devil-Take-The-Hindmost Races
- 2011: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2011/07/devil-returns-2011.html
- 2013: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2013/07/devil-returns-2013.html
- 2014: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2014/07/devil-returns-2014.html
- 2015: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2015/07/devil-returns-2015.html
- 2017: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2017/07/devil-returns-2017.html
- 2011: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2011/07/devil-returns-2011.html
- Find the date of the next Devil-Take-The-Hindmost Race on the Trouble Afoot! calendar
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/search/label/calendar?max-results=1
8th annual Get-A-Mammy 5K. 8:00 AM ET. Bethany Baptist Church, 5064 Bethany Road, Hahira, Georgia 31632. 2017 
11th annual Red Cross Robin Lotane Memorial Hurricane Run 5K and one-mile fun run. 8:00 AM ET one mile / 8:30 AM ET 5K. State Office Satellite Complex at SouthWood, 4079 Esplanade Way, Tallahassee, Florida. 2015 
Hahira Honeybee Festival 5K. 8:00 AM ET. Hahira Community Center, 216 Randall Street, Hahira, Georgia 31632. 2017 
39th annual Boston Mini-Marathon. 8:00 AM ET. Commercial Bank, 124 West Jefferson Street, Boston, Georgia 31626. 2016 
8th annual VetFest Veterans Day 5K. 8:00 AM ET. South Gadsden Street and East Park Avenue, Tallahassee, Florida. 2017 
10th annual Trent Trot 5K and one-mile fun run. 8:00 AM ET 5K / 9:00 AM ET one mile. 
7th Tulip Trot 5K and one-mile fun run. 8:30 AM ET one mile / 9:00 AM ET 5K. Cascades Park, 1001 South Gadsden Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32301. 2018 
26th annual Run For The Cookies 5K and one-mile fun run. 8:30 AM ET one mile / 9:00 AM ET 5K. Tallahassee Community College Lifetime Sports Center, 444 Appleyard Drive, Tallahassee, Florida 32304. 2018 
9th annual Chattahoochee Smoochee 5K and one-mile fun run. 10:00 AM ET. Chattahoochee Landing, 269 River Landing Road, Chattahoochee, Florida. 2011 
31st annual Shamrock Scurry 5K and one-mile fun run. 8:00 AM ET one mile / 8:30AM ET 5K.
10th annual Race The Tortoise 5K. 8:00 AM ET. 
10th annual Don't Run With Scissors 5K and one-mile fun run. 8:00 AM ET 5K / 9:00 AM ET one mile. Sallas Mahone Elementary School, 3686 Lake Laurie Drive, Valdosta, Georgia 31605. 2017 
8th annual BFD Catfish Crawl 5K and one-mile fun run. 8:00 AM CT. M and B Train Park, North Main Street and Railroad Avenue, Blountstown, Florida 32424. 2017 
Monticello Kiwanis' 41st annual Melon Run 5K. 8:15 AM ET. First United Methodist Church Family Ministry Center, 325 West Walnut Street, Monticello, Florida 32344. 2018 
37th annual Firecracker 5K and one-mile Sparkler Run. 7:30 AM ET one mile / 8:00 AM ET 5K.