Flint Queen of the Crates

Nine-year-old Scarlett Flint is a three-time queen of the crates at the Rockland Lobster Festival lobster crate races. Flint, who will be a third-grader at Union Elementary School this fall, is the daughter of Sarah (Norwood) and Jeremy Flint, the granddaughter for Laurie and David Norwood, of South Bristol, and the great-granddaughter of Katherine Norwood, of South Bristol.

In her very first competition in 2014, Flint ran across 6,500 lobster crates, before  the race was declared a tie with Harrison Page. Over the next two years, Flint has not been challenged. In 2015 she won with 3,000 crates, and this year, she won with 1,500. She could have run over more crates, but knew she had already won, and had a birthday party she wanted to go to, so she jumped in.

She competed in the featherweight division (70 pounds and under) all three years. Next year she will move up to the lightweight division.

“She had always wanted to try it, so one day I brought her,” Sarah said. In her very first race, Scarlett was not prepared with enough water and snacks for the marathon race that started at 2 p.m. and did not finish until 8:30 p.m., when the race was declared a tie.

When asked what the trick is to doing well in a lobster crate race, Scarlett responded, “Just step on the middle of the crate. If you look too close to your feet, you will miss the next crate. You have to look far away.”

“She has always had good balance right from the start,” Sarah said. “I can remember when she was 18 months old at the Common Ground Fair. She had only been walking for six months” when she walked across a log set up for children to walk on.

Scarlett loves to play sports, including gymnastics, horseback riding, soccer, basketball, and skiing.

When asked what drives her back to lobster crate racing each year, Scarlett responded, “My dad wants me to keep going, because he thinks I can beat anyone.”

“She’s always been competitive,” Sarah said.

Scarlett said the funniest thing she ever saw at the Rockland Lobster Festival races was Burt the Conqueror from the Travel Channel trying his luck at the crate races last year. “He ate five lobsters, drank two pints of beer, ate two ice creams and a pizza before” competing. “He made two crates before he fell face first.”

The episode was aired on the Travel Channel and about a minute of Scarlett’s run across the crates was shown.

Fifty crates are tied together, and competitors have to run, dance, and balance their way across, then turn around and come back. After completing 500 crates, competitors are given a rest before starting up again. After negotiating 50 crates, competitors have just a few seconds to turn around and go again. “They all have little tricks to get a breather,” Sarah said. Scarlett fixes her socks.

Some of the lobster crates are loosely tied to make them slide a little and harder to run over. The crates also have loops of rope on them. “You try not to get your foot stuck in them,” Scarlett said.

Scarlett talked three of her friends into trying it this year. One made it five crates, one six, and the other 10, and that was after Scarlett gave them tips on how to run the crates.

She has won all three years wearing her favorite and lucky color, green.

There are usually 80-100 competitors in the crate races in four divisions: featherweight, lightweight, middleweight, and heavyweight. Scarlett said running on crates “feels like you are walking on the beach with a lot of sand on it” that is moving under your feet. “It is quite tiring.”

In three years of competition, it is estimated that Scarlett ran on a combined 6.2 miles of crates, which truly makes her the queen of the crates.