If #Poopgate isn’t the biggest problem at Sedona Red Rock Jr./High School, it’s certainly No. 2.
Sedona Red Rock is a sacred place for the North American professional distance running community. If Flagstaff is their mecca, their weekly pilgrimage to the school of no more than 500 students is a spiritual escape.
Citing the “live high, train low” method of distance running, Flagstaff-based runners have used the red rock- draped Sedona track for years as a way to enhance their red blood cell count.
But now, their long-time sanctuary has a lock on the gate. As of mid-February, Sedona-Oak Creek School District is no-longer allowing non-students to rent the track until the student-sports seasons end in late-May.
The district’s Director of Operations, Jennifer Chilton, passed on the following message in an email to the Sedona Red Rock News. It was originally sent in response to a commercial usage request on Feb. 10:
“After school track use was discussed at our recent administrative meeting, and the consensus was that we would limit our school track use to students only for the time being. Track season started this week so we have three running teams and two teams on the football field. I’m honoring the reservations already secured, but not scheduling new rentals at least until the student seasons end. With as many kids as we had out this week, the access I had already scheduled was a concern, and we’re starting to battle increasing ‘stranger danger’ again as the days are warmer. So for a while, we will try to hold the line for kids.”
The rumored reasoning for the “restrictions,” as Chilton puts it, has taken the running community by storm.
A simple Twitter search for the hashtag “#Poopgate” yields memes and armchair detectives trying to figure out a simple yet dumbfounding question: Who defecated on Sedona’s track?
As confirmed by Chilton, incidents have occurred on the Sedona track in which human feces were found on the premises. Rory Linkletter, 25, a Flagstaff-based professional runner who used the track often, tweeted on Feb. 21 that a “group ran through the halls” during school hours, which Chilton denies. She maintains that the school’s position on the temporary restrictions simply have the student’s best interests in mind claiming in an email that “the sheer number of professional groups and runners played a larger role” than the “pattern of incidents” that occurred.
Linkletter told the Sedona Red Rock News in an interview that while he hasn’t personally seen any inappropriate activity taking place on the track, the rumor mill among running circles is active. He believes groups outside of the Flagstaff running community is likely responsible for any poop-related incidents.
“I do think the people that are from Flagstaff, or anywhere in Arizona really, would never do anything to harm that relationship,” he said. “Because it’s such a vital part of our livelihood as athletes. I’m disappointed, that’s all.”
Linkletter says he’s more disappointed in his fellow runners than he is with the school’s decision. He adds that in his usage of the Sedona track he’s never had an issue with bathroom availability. Either the bathroom by the concession stands outside the school’s stadium is open, or he uses other facilities, like the neighboring hotel or West Sedona’s McDonald’s.
While the memes and the overall situation seems to carry comedic elements online, Linkletter says the situation is serious. The track is important to Flagstaff runners’ livelihoods.
“It’s funny to talk about the fact that there was poop, and on the internet, they’re going to take that and run with it and they obviously made a big splash in our world,” he said. “But this is something that totally is a hindrance to those of us that call this place home.”
Linkletter cites the recent snowstorms in Flagstaff. With outdoor running not really an option during the storms, he says he would have traveled down to Sedona’s track for his workout. Without it as an option for the next few months, he says that the track at Mingus Union High School in Cottonwood is likely the next-best place to get in a lower-elevation workout. Cottonwood is at 3,314 feet, while Sedona sits at 4,350 feet.
But Linkletter, and the Flagstaff-running community as a whole, isn’t satisfied with that option. They just want to run among the red rocks again.
“[The proximity to Sedona is] a huge tool that is what actually makes Flagstaff the greatest place — maybe on Earth — but definitely in North America to train,” he said. “I would do anything. I would pay money and do whatever it takes. I’m trying to think of which way our community can come together and make this an opportunity again.”
