trail running

Eugene Curnow Trail Marathon Training: Week 2

I rested on National Running Day. How ironic.

Monday: 5.5 mi, trail (SHT @ Ely’s Peak), 148 bpm
Tuesday: 5 mi, treadmill, 144 bpm
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 6 mi, trail (Magney Ski Trails), 146 bpm
Friday: 5 mi, treadmill, 147 bpm
Saturday: 7 mi, road, 139 bpm
Sunday: 15.5 mi, trail (SHT, Magney parking lot to home), 143 bpm
Total: 44.1 mi

This was a big jump up for me in mileage, but I feel like I managed it well.

Monday I ran on the Superior Hiking Trail after returning from the cabin. We arrived home with plenty of time for a late afternoon run, and my first iced latte of the season. The run went ok, but I was rained on a bit and things got slippery. I had a few near misses, and then I had a real fall with about a mile to go. I slipped on a rock, banged my knees, submerged most of my water bottle in a puddle, and was able to catch myself on my hands and slow myself down before hitting the top of my head on a rock. I didn’t hit it extremely hard, but hard enough that it hurt, even through my hat. The fall shook me up a bit, as it could have been much worse. I could have twisted an ankle or hit my head a lot harder. I ended up with a few bruises and scrapes, and a heightened fear of running over rocks. I took a slight wrong turn at the end (headed to the other lot, which was closed last year) and added a bit of distance to my run.

Tuesday the weather was terrible, so I didn’t bother running outside. Wednesday I rested. I think it was cold then, too. I don’t remember, there were so many cold days last week. Thursday’s run got its own post.

Friday it was cold and crummy YET AGAIN and I ran on the treadmill. My treadmill running has really improved. Tuesday’s pace was 14:31 and Friday’s pace was 13:59, both including warm-up and cool-down. I’m pleased to see some progress there, although it still feels like torture. People keep setting records for distances run on treadmills in 12 hours, 24 hours, whatever, and I keep shaking my head and wondering how and why.

Saturday I got out during what I thought was a break in the drizzly weather. It was not. I wore my new super-lightweight Houdini jacket and it worked fairly well at keeping me dry, although by the end it was sticking to me and I think the sleeves were saturated. I kept a 14:42 pace without monitoring it very closely and was pretty pleased with that.

Sunday (National Trails Day!) I had planned a 17 mile long run. I was going to start at the Magney parking lot (which I did), run 8.5 miles on the SHT, and then turn around and run back. I had my new hydration pack on, to give it a test drive. (Spoiler: it rocked and I could carry so much stuff!) Some amateur radio folks were set up in the parking lot doing a live broadcast of National Parks on the Air. They gave me a wave as I headed out toward Spirit Mountain.

The trail was pretty muddy from the get-go, thanks to the rain we’d had earlier in the week. It was also rather warm, which was good and bad. Good because I needed the heat training, bad because… well that’s self-evident. I dunked my hat in a stream in passing and saturated it, which felt pretty good, although the brim kept dripping. Somewhere after passing across one of the ski runs, I lost the trail and ended up on a snowmobile trail. I figured I’d pick up the Superior Hiking Trail again at some point and I did, at the Knowlton Creek crossing.

The weather started to turn, and I ended up taking shelter from a downpour under the freeway overpass near Cody St. I sat there for about 20 minutes, wondering what to do. I was dumb and didn’t put my phone in a plastic bag, and there’s no fully waterproof pocket in my vest. Fortunately it didn’t get soaked. My friend Emily gave me some weather updates and I decided to press on once the rain stopped, rather than stop and call for a ride. I felt really sluggish after the stop, so I will need to remember that when I am in aid stations: DON’T SIT DOWN. I ran into another short storm cell after passing through Highland/Getchell, and had nowhere to shelter so I just kept running and worried about my phone. The rain didn’t last long and my phone was in a pocket by my side, so it was ok, but I’m never risking that again. If I’d been fully drenched I’d be looking at a new phone purchase, I would guess.

The trail was muddy and/or waterlogged at this point, with some of the small water crossings nearly underwater. I made a decision to run home instead of turning around, knowing that the trail conditions at the beginning would be even worse than they had been when I ran through on the way out. I figured I could run around my neighborhood to bump it up to 17 miles, if I was short. I changed my mind on that again when I hit Enger Park and realized it was threatening rain again. I decided I’d just run home and the distance would be whatever it was. So, 15.5 miles. But it was 15.5 tough miles, so I don’t feel shortchanged.

I ate two protein bars and one peanut butter flavored gel during the run. I’ve never had a gel before so I wanted to see how that went down. It was fine, but I also wasn’t running at race pace. I also had one sports drink bottle and was drinking water from my vest the whole time. I felt pretty good post-run and was able to go run some errands after a quick shower and a little bit of down time. I think I might try carrying gels during races and eating solid food at the aid stations, instead of carrying solid food with me. I am positive I can’t survive on just gels, I want actual food too. I bought some more gels to try out additional flavors on my upcoming long runs. They are kind of expensive, which is annoying.

I am pretty pleased with how the training is going so far. Even with the increase in mileage, I’m not seeing an increase in my resting heart rate and I don’t feel exhausted or sore, so I am going to continue at this level and probably peak at a little over 50 miles/week. I’m feeling more and more confident that I can complete the marathon distance upright and smiling, with a bit of luck on my side. Now I just need to get more confident I can completed it in a reasonable amount of time.

Someone Had Blundered

I had a Charge of the Light Brigade-worthy run last night. Bad decision after bad decision.

Since the Curnow Trail Marathon is local, one of my training strategies is to get out on the course and scout out each section a couple times. This worked really well for me in the Harder ‘n Hell Half, and since I’m feeling a bit anxious about moving up to the marathon so quickly, I thought I’d revisit the strategy. Unfortunately, the course isn’t as straightforward as the other trail races I’ve run (Those races have basically two instructions: 1. Get on the Superior Hiking Trail. 2. Run, if you can.), so it seems I’ll have a tougher time following the actual course.

When I was a senior in high school, I joined the nordic skiing team, despite having little talent for skiing and little general athletic ability. My friends were on the team, I’d quit all my nerd activities other than math team and quiz bowl, and I liked a boy on the team (who was also on math team!), so those were sufficient reasons. We also went on a winter team trip to Giant’s Ridge in Biwabik, MN; another good reason.

I was a terrible skier, but since our team was very good and had plenty of excellent individual skiers to fill out the varsity roster, our coaches didn’t seem to mind that I spent a lot of time screwing around. They let me do my own thing, and I did make some progress, but I was still pretty terrible. One of my best friends was also new to the team that year, and she wasn’t very good either, so we stuck together.

During the class trip, we were all doing a warm-up loop and then a time trial on that same loop. My friend and I were so slow during the warm-up that one of the coaches suggested we cut across before the turnaround point so we could make it back in time for the start of the time trials. This meant that we didn’t know the course, and instead of turning around at the proper point, we kept on going. We must have skied around for an hour or so, trying to figure out where we were, before we finally took our skis off, marched the wrong way down the side of a ski trail, and made it back to the chalet, long after the time trial was over, everyone was on their own having lunch, and someone’s dad had been sent out to try to find us. We weren’t lost, as we were still within the resort and still on trails, but we had no idea where we were going.

Something similar happened last night. I was planning to run the Magney-Snively xc skiing trails, which I never have before. I left my house with a somewhat nebulous idea of where to go. My GPS ended up leading me to nowhere, but since it did lead me onto Skyline off of Midway Rd, I was able to follow Skyline to the Magney-Snively trail parking lot I use when running the SHT. I could jump on the Magney-Snively ski trails from there, so it worked out nicely. It was almost 7 PM, but I figured I could run for half an hour, no problem. Into the valley of death rode the six hundred.

The trail was completely ungroomed, which was a bad sign. At first it was just shoe-high grass, which was fine, but then it turned into ferns and violets and longer grass and I even saw a jack-in-the-pulpit underfoot at one point. The trail was also very soft, sometimes squishy underfoot, and at times there were even trail-wide pools of standing, murky water, a colloid with heaven knows how many gorillions of mosquito larva suspended inside. I normally will run through mud or puddles rather than go around, to help preserve the trail and to avoid wasting time, but by the point I reached the worst of it, I was so frustrated I didn’t care if I wasted time and just tried to jump from rock to rock or at least to more solid-looking spots. A groomed, packed cross-country skiing trail in a shaded wood has standing water in early June? You don’t say. I guess that was dumb of me, I’m sure that was one of the last places for the snow to melt, and the trails haven’t had a chance to dry out. Well, now I know. And I’m not running there again.

I also sucked at reading the maps. I was confused as to why there wasn’t a YOU ARE HERE sign on the trail maps nailed to trees at forks in the trail. There wasn’t because there was a huge letter (say, F, or D, or J) at the bottom of the map, and all of the letters were on the map. I wished I had figured that out right away, because the first time I looked at the map, I sort of guessed where I was, not noticing the letter at the bottom, and just kept going. Half a league, half a league, half a league onward.

Again, I wasn’t lost, because I was still on cross country ski trails, but I was not sure exactly where the trails were in relation to my car, and I was not sure how long it would take me to get back to the car once I could find my bearings. There was only so much daylight left and I didn’t have a headlamp, or food, or warm clothes. At about 7:45 I was starting to get stressed out, but stayed calm and kept running until I found the next map. I followed the map toward what I thought was the correct parking lot, but ended up coming out at Spirit Mountain Campground. That turned out to be over a mile away from my car, by road, but it was at least a road I knew. I that had fought so well came thro’ the jaws of death back from the mouth of hell. Shatter’d and sunder’d, maybe.

I have to do a better job of planning out my routes when I’m not familiar with them. I figured I’d be fine, since the trails were a series of loops, so I wouldn’t end up 10 miles away from my car, but I could have ended up running in circles for quite awhile, and if the sun had gone down, I’d have been in serious trouble. I stayed calm, I figured out the maps, and I stuck with one plan (get to a certain parking area on the map) instead of doubling back (since I wasn’t certain if I was really headed toward my car or not) or taking one fork, and then another. So that was good, even though my poor planning and recklessness were bad.

I am also fairly certain I didn’t run a single step on the actual marathon course, so that was not great. I will have to study the maps more closely, and in relation to some SHT maps, to see where I need to go. If all else fails, I’ll just run whatever routes I feel like and go into race day blind. Although there’s apparently a notorious section of power lines that I feel like I need to see in advance, if I check out nothing else.

Eugene Curnow Trail Marathon Training: Week 1

Yes, I signed up for another marathon. I was feeling extremely unsure of myself after running Superior 25K, especially since the Moose Mountain Marathon is on the same course. I will be climbing those tough climbs after 20 miles of running, which is frightening. I decided I couldn’t let my first crack at the distance be on such a tough course. The Eugene Curnow Trail Marathon is on July 16th and starts in Duluth, so I will not need to travel. The elevation profile is a lot kinder than Superior’s, and there are a lot more aid stations. The only thing that will be an issue is heat, and I am definitely concerned about it.

This means I will not run the Park Point 5 Miler this year. It’s just a few days before the marathon, so I can’t do both. It’s kind of a bummer, but I’m not too put out. I am still signed up to do Midnight Sun Midnight Run in 4 weeks.

I am rolling over my training session from Superior 25K, and I hope to get 6 weeks of higher-mileage training followed by a gentle 2-week taper before the race. 8 weeks after that, I’ll have the Moose Mountain Marathon, and then 6 weeks after that, I’ll have Wild Duluth 50K. Unless Curnow goes HORRIBLY wrong, then I might just to the Harder ‘n Hell Half and leave my ultra debut for 2017.

Monday: 5.3 mi, trail (Lakewalk), 133 bpm
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: 6.3 mi, treadmill (4x 0.5 mi @ 3% incline), 146 bpm
Thursday: 7.2 mi, trail (SHT @ Spirit Mountain to Cody St), 146 bpm
Friday: 8 mi, treadmill, 146 bpm
Saturday: rest
Sunday: 7.7 mi, road, 144 bpm
Total: 34.5 mi

The weather was a bit dicey this past week. Monday I ran partially in the rain, Wednesday I ran inside because of rain, Thursday I ran in mist, and Friday I stayed in because it was cold and damp and awful. Sunday I ran in full sun and 70+ F temps (and forgot sunscreen, because it was cloudy when I left. Oops.)

I felt pretty good Monday but didn’t have much pep in my step, as demonstrated by the low HR. My two treadmill sessions went pretty well, I am getting a lot better at running on treadmills. Both overall treadmill runs were done at an average pace below 15 min/mile, which is really good for me! That pace includes warm-up and cool down, too.

My one road run of the week was done at the cabin my family has rented for the summer. It was mostly done on the shoulder of a county road or on the side of a paved back road. It was really boring and I felt like crap. I had slept poorly the night before, so it’s not surprising I felt like a slug running. I did remind myself to pick up the pace at times, because it was really dragging, and I need to stop running that same, slow, mindless pace I was running in the winter; I’m better conditioned now.

My trail run was slow, but did involve a couple of significant climbs. I felt good climbing, so that is a good sign. I still have lots of room for improvement in my power hiking ability. I also need to figure out how to run faster on the runnable parts of trails. I think I’m going a decent speed and then look down at my watch and I’m running 19:XX. I suppose it could be a watch error but that’s not something I’m going to count on. I have noticed some serious GPS errors lately, both in regard to elevation and location. Take a look:

altitudeprb

Altitude data for an out & back run

outandbackprb

Location date for an out & back run

It is fairly obvious there are some GPS errors occurring, since I ran the exact same route going out as I did on the return trip. The course profile should be symmetric, but instead there are odd skips and jumps. There are spots on the route map that make it look like I skipped over/cut parts of the trail, which I didn’t. I am not sure how to fix it, since I am plugging in and getting updates almost daily.

In the long term, it doesn’t matter. The time on my feet and the time spent climbing is important, not the exact number of miles run or feet climbed. I can relax about the data errors and trust in my training.

I did a few sets of pushups/planks here and there during the week, but my main source of “strength training” was water-skiing, knee-boarding, and tubing. Yes, hanging on for dear life on a tight, fast turn while on an inner tube is quite strenuous. There was a bit of swimming in there too — swimming after the knee board when I fell off, swimming after the tube when I was thrown off and went skipping across the water on my butt, swimming back to the boat when I was beat. It was a pretty good long weekend!

Post-Mortem: Superior 25K

Sic transit destitutione. Disappointment fades.

Refreshers
Race Report
All Superior 25K posts

Good things
I warmed up! A little bit. It didn’t matter, but I did it. And of course imagined everyone was staring at me thinking “what a slowpoke.”

A speedy post-race recovery. I’m not sure if I can attribute this to a slow race, more training, or active recovery post-race, but I don’t feel achy at all, and my run the day after felt fine. I’m sure this won’t be the norm, but it feels nice to be functional right away. I must be adapting.

Minimal sunburn. I could have been a lobster out there, if not for semi-diligent sunscreen application. I was grateful the aid station had some on hand, and then I reapplied from my baggie on the back 7. I do need to find a small tube to carry with me.

Readjusting my expectation. I knew sub-4 was out of reach before the turnaround, but when I started realizing there was no way I’d make my B goal, and then all the other goals I made up on the fly (except sub-5, thanks to the GPS error), I didn’t panic, or get mad, or try to do something stupid to try to make up time. I wasn’t happy about it, but I kept going as best I could. And that’s life, that’s trail running. Not every race is perfect. I was able to accept it quickly and didn’t wallow in my petulant “I hate running” bitterness for too long. After other accounts of the race are starting to trickle my way, I’m realizing I wasn’t the only person who didn’t have the race they wanted. I can be grateful I wasn’t vomiting my way up Moose Mountain.

Bad things
Nutrition. Ok, no more pre-race bananas. I’ve probably said that before, but I mean it. The banana wasn’t the only problem, but it was a factor at the beginning of the race. I also didn’t eat enough, though I don’t feel like I actually bonked during the race. I do need to try out some gels or some other easy form of (ugh) calories. (I hate putting it like that, it sounds so smug.) I also needed some better food the night before and the afternoon following the race. I shouldn’t have left right away, I could have had some chili after a bit.

Strength training. I was better about it, but I still need to make it a habit. Etc.

Not enough climbing during training. I know I said I was a good climber, but I’m not good enough. I mean, Moose Mountain sucks, there’s no way around that. It’s just unpleasant. But it could have gone better. I am going to be torturing myself with those awful stairs at Spirit Mountain to try to prepare for the fall, when I have a date with Moose Mountain after 20+ miles. Terrifying.

Superior 25K Training: Week 6

Race week!

Monday: 6.1 mi, road/trail (ran to/from Bagley, did one loop), 144 bpm
Tuesday: 5.2 mi, paved trail (north Lakewalk), 132 bpm
Wednesday: 4.3 mi, trail (Bagley x 2.5), 140 bpm
Thursday: rest
Friday: rest
Saturday: Superior 25K
Sunday: 4.2 mi, road/trail (to/from Dan Proctor trail), 140 bpm
Total: 35.5 mi

Well. The race happened, it was ok. I was actually planning on running on Thursday but I felt fairly crappy. I was fairly aggressive earlier in the week compared to other racing cycles, running trails and/or hilly road routes Monday and Wednesday. I felt good, the weather was amazing, and I was enjoying the time outside.

I didn’t run Friday, as I still had race prep to do, and then I drove up to Lutsen to volunteer at packet pick-up. I did a very short, easy hike around the resort on Friday evening, but that doesn’t really count as a workout.

Saturday, the race happened, blah, it went not-so-great, and I lazed around the hotel room for a few hours before taking another short hike. Semi-active recovery at its finest. I wanted to have a tasty dinner from the resort restaurant, but they didn’t have room service (fine) and then when I tried to get take-out, the front desk transferred me to the “pub” and no one answered the phone. So I ate rice Chex, cookies, and bread and Nutella for dinner. It was extremely disappointing.

I felt decent on Sunday morning. I woke up feeling maybe a bit “hungover,” probably a little lingering dehydration, although I didn’t really end up dehydrated after the race, despite the heat. I suppose I eventually absorbed all the liquid that was sitting in my belly making me feel full the whole race. Whee. My back was stiff from the bed but other than that I felt good. I drove back to Duluth and got a huge latte before I even made it back to my house.

Since I felt pretty awesome (a sign that my mental game is weak and I had plenty more to give in the race) I went for a short run in the afternoon. It was a little bit warm, and I realized with a little over a mile to go that I was pretty hungry, but I felt good. I guess now I can just call the race a “long run” and parlay this week into marathon training. (I’ll get to that later.) Then I went and got a burrito bowl and ate it in about a minute and a half.

This would have been a fabulous training week, but unfortunately it was a goal race week. Womp womp.

Race Report: Superior 25K

Official Results:
Time: 4:51:40
Pace: 18:47
Placing:
Overall: 258/288
Gender: 133/157
Division (OPEN F): 75/87

Watch Results:
Time: 4:51:51
Pace: 20:27
Distance: 14.26 mi
Heart Rate: 163

Goals:
A: 3:59:59
B: 4:15:00

Food:
What I ate the night before: Goldfish crackers, a banana, chunks of bread & Nutella, 2 cookies, Rice Chex
What I ate on race morning: one chunk of bread & nutella at the condo, banana after packet pickup
What I carried with me: 2 energy bars

Gear:
What I wore: cap sleeve tech t-shirt, shorts, ball cap
Gadgets: GPS watch, heart rate monitor, fitness tracker

Discussion: Oh man, this race broke me. It chewed me up and spit me out again. At times I vowed not to run the race ever again, not to run the Moose Mountain Marathon, and that I would never be capable of running something as intense as a 100 miler. The only reason I didn’t contemplate dropping out of the race is there’s only one chance to drop: the aid station at the turnaround. A few hours later and I’m probably going to sign up for a marathon before MMM in September. Ah, recovery. And shade, and a ceiling fan, and cold water and vanilla Coke. I’ve already forgotten the pain. Mostly.

I slept kinda poorly, but still got more sleep, and definitely more restful sleep, than I did for Zumbro. I woke up before 6, thanks to the sun coming through the roman shades of my east-facing condo, and I couldn’t get back to sleep due to race-day anxiety. I got out of bed around 6:30, and almost everything was ready to go. I’d laid my clothes out the night before, stocked up my baggies of food, mints, and medicines (I ended up combining the mints and pills into one baggie so that I could also carry a baggie full of sunscreen, since I didn’t have a small enough tube.)

I stayed only a mile from the race start, and my worries about parking were for nothing, there was a huge lot with plenty of space. For some reason I remember that lot being smaller for the fall races last year, when I was working the parking area, but I guess I was either wrong, or there were a lot more people last year. I am fairly certain some people slept in various RVs in the parking lot. I checked in for a second time (required for people who checked in initially on Friday) and went back to my car, since it was close to the start. I screwed around for awhile and then realized it was getting close to race time and I needed to warm up. I ran about 0.4 miles to warm up and returned just before the short pre-race briefing. I lined up near the back and tried to stay out of the background of people’s selfies.

I started the race in near-last place and clearly didn’t budge from there. The race starts out on Ski Hill Road, winds a little less than a mile down the road (which turns to gravel), and then hits the Superior Hiking Trail. It crosses the Poplar River right away, which was a nice early view. There’s a slight gentle climb before hitting the first climb, Mystery Mountain. I think that climb went all right. I can’t remember, my brain has been fried. I was overall slower than I would have liked to be, but I figured I’d have time to catch up. Mystery Mountain has a fairly gentle descent on the other side, so I bombed down that with another guy, who I am going to guess swallowed about one bug per mile during the time we were running near each other. The bugs were rather annoying; I was getting dive-bombed by flies, they were landing on the underside of the bill of my hat, and in general irritating me. They only went away when there was a breeze or I was able to run decently fast. I caught some people on the downhill. There was a short section between Mystery Mountain and Moose Mountain, and then came the steep climb up Moose Mountain. It was really starting to warm up; it had been over 60F at race start, and as the sun rose, so did the temperature.

The climb up Moose Mountain to begin the race was steep, but I was still in control. Once I crested the mountain, I encountered the first runners of the 25K on their way back. They were really zipping by. The first two guys were only a few minutes apart, and it turned out the first 4 runners finished within 5 minutes of each other. The 5th runner overall was a woman, so it was nice to see her kicking some butt out there. She took down the course record.

I started to feel like a real jerk as I realized what these speedy runners were coming up from. Once I began the descent of Moose Mountain, I realized it was steep and awful. It wasn’t runnable (for me) on the way down, which was really annoying, as I was hoping to pick up some time on the downhill like I had on Mystery Mountain. I stepped aside and let the faster runners pass, offering encouragement as the hauled themselves up the long, steep climb. When I reached the bottom I was fairly horrified I’d be suffering through that same climb in a few hours.

I was encountering 25K runners regularly after Moose Mountain, which was difficult on single track. I tried to offer encouragement and many offered the same in return. I got a little tired of stepping off the trail or skirting to the side (sometimes right into branches), but that is how the race goes. It was throwing off my rhythm, but it turned out that didn’t matter! I crossed another creek, tromped directly through some mud other people were trying to pick their way around, and began the final ascent of “the front 7.5,” if you will.

The ascent of Oberg Mountain was less challenging, as it wasn’t as steep, but I was dodging runners and less able to offer a cheerful to them during some of the steeper parts. I came across the first 50K runner during the ascent to Oberg, and he told me “great job” (or something) before I could even congratulate him. He looked incredibly strong and finished under 4 hours, 26 minutes ahead of the next guy, someone I know by sight from running around Duluth. I saw maybe 4 50K runners before I got to the turnaround; I’d been hoping to avoid seeing any, but I realize that was pretty silly, considering even my initial time goals.

I thought I heard the aid station coming up, but it turned out it was a small pack of people with cowbells out to cheer us up over the top of Oberg Mountain. It was great to see them and get a nice pick-me-up, they were really lively. I did tease them that I thought they were the aid station and was a little bummed out. I also didn’t realize that the aid station isn’t on the top of the mountain. I don’t know why it would be, because that is stupid, you can’t drive to the top of these places. It meant another descent (fine) followed by another ascent (not fine).

The Oberg Aid Station people were totally amazing. There were people directing traffic, another guy greeted me with a pitcher of water to refill my bottle (I dumped the remaining contents of my water bottle on myself, soaking my hat and hair, before refilling), another guy put ice in my sports drink bottle himself and then handed me some cubes that I stuffed into my sports bra. I don’t remember where I read to do that, but whatever race report or blog I saw it on, I’m grateful, it came in handy. They had sunscreen at the aid station and I slathered up again, ate a couple of pretzels, and left.

The pretzels didn’t sit too well, so I had to back off the ascent out of the aid station. The banana I’d had for breakfast hadn’t been sitting well in my stomach for the whole race. It wasn’t disastrous, but I was burping banana and overall feeling a little yucky. The cold water and cold sports drink felt so good, I drank a little too much and started feeling full and nauseated. This was a very bad sign. I slowed down, even on the descent down Oberg, to let my stomach settle.

Then I hit the Moose Mountain climb, and that’s where the race fell apart. I felt so awful and sick climbing it. The only saving grace was it was in the shade; if it had been in the sun I’d have needed to crawl up. It took forever, and I finally took to stopping to let my heart rate go down and my nausea abate. I just felt so terrible. This happened the rest of the race: my stomach felt full, and then every time it settled, I would take another drink of water/Powerade and feel gross again. Most people would probably just puke and rally, but I am too much of a wimp for that. Another woman climbing behind me was shouting encouragement (how? she was climbing too!), which was so nice to hear. I cheered when I reached the top. I was surprised that I was able to do a little bit of running after a bit, but I was still mostly walking/hiking.

On the descent of Moose Mountain, I encountered a 50K runner, which wouldn’t have been unusual except that he’d already passed me. He’d run out of water and his body had just quit on him. Another 50K runner came across him at the same time I did and gave this guy his spare water bottle. Trail people are the best. I made it down Moose Mountain but I was in fairly rough shape at that point and had no interest in running. I knew there was one more ascent coming, but I thought it would be a bit easier.

Mystery Mountain was another disaster. It’s not as steep as Moose Mountain, but it goes on forever, and it’s in partial sun. (Maybe later on in the year, like, say, September, it is more shaded, once the trees have leaves, but the bare branches were offering no respite.) I encountered that poor guy with no water once again, and he had to get some more water from the woman behind me (same one cheering me up the Moose Mountain) to continue. I ran into two other 50K runners who needed water and I was able to share some. None of us accounted for the heat, but most runners were still prepared with hydration packs or handhelds. Some people either had nothing or had a single water bottle and had lost that gamble. I don’t get it. Maybe if I was fast I would, but running out of water on a hot day would have been terrible. The final aid station for the 50K (Oberg) is almost 8 miles from the finish. Be safe, people!

I felt crummy descending Mystery Mountain, and even tripped and fell once, although it was pretty slo-mo and I didn’t get hurt. All my goals were slipping away… sub-4, 4:15… then I adjusted to 4:30 and that came and went, and then I realized I was unlikely to beat my Zumbro time and unlikely to break 5 hours. It seems at some point my GPS got confused and I was shorted a mile. I know I didn’t go off course at any time because the shape of my GPS data is the same as the shape of the race map, and because the trail was extremely well-marked. So I’m not sure what happened there or when it happened, but I didn’t know that I was short according to my GPS data until I was almost done. I realized I was crossing the Poplar River again, and there was a volunteer there to cheer people on. She said “less than a mile to go!” and I hadn’t even hit 14 miles on the GPS yet. People at trail races aren’t jerks who lie about stuff like that, so I realized I could still break 5 hours and perked up a bit. The road is also mostly downhill so that was enticing, too. I was able to get a steady pace on the pavement, my stomach stayed under control, and I was able to run in to the finish.

I got my medal, drank a cup of cold water, and then got a cup of lemonade and sipped on that. There was chili for a post-race meal, but I just couldn’t imagine eating chili. I wanted to go back to the condo and die in piece. I found the poor dehydrated 50K guy, who was still upright and functional. He gave me a nice sweaty hug and said I saved his life, although I wasn’t the one who gave him water. I told him it just wasn’t our day, and he agreed and said it didn’t matter, being out there was what mattered, to which I agreed.

I am not too badly sunburned. Arms look ok, legs are ok, face has seen worse. I think my plan for the rest of the night is take-out from the resort restaurant, a bath in the whirlpool tub, maybe lance a few blisters, and then some Star Trek: Voyager and crossword puzzles, because I am cool. Oh, and a short evening hike down to the shore, for some active recovery. It should be blissful.

Superior 25K Goals

Hah, it’s less than 12 hours til race time and I’m finally getting around to planning my goals for this race. What does it really matter, though? They’re really more like predictions. I’ll run the best that I can.

I spent the afternoon checking out the competition handing out race t-shirts to runners checking in. It was a nice way to feel more part of the action and certainly beat sitting around in my condo at Lutsen Resort.

Oh, by the way, this place is unreal.

I am slightly annoyed I didn’t call the resort that serves as the start/finish of the race when I was making reservations, since apparently they did have rooms available. However, I was rewarded by being just a short walk from Lake Superior. I didn’t run today, but I did take a very short evening hike down by the shore and along the Poplar River near the resort. I am so very excited to get out on the trails and see what other wonders I may find.

Oh, yes, goals.

A Standard: 3:59:59
B Standard: 4:15:00

4:15 (16:46 pace) puts me just ~0:10/mile faster than Zumbro, and sub-4 (15:47 pace) just seems like something nice to shoot for. Seven months ago, I was shooting for sub-4 in the Harder’n Hell Half, and now I’m shooting for sub-4 in a two mile longer race. I think that would show great progress. I will just be happy with showing a pace improvement over Zumbro, when I was sick and it was cold. I need to be cognizant that the pace on my watch will not be accurate, since my GPS has consistently measured longer than the race distance.

The net elevation change in this race is a lot lower than Zumbro (2300 vs 6200ft net change), and reports from the RD and trail marking crew indicate good trail conditions. This is fantastic news. The weather should be good, possibly on the warm side, but I’m not going to whine about that. It isn’t going to be, like, 85 or anything awful. Still, the sooner I finish, the better, so that I don’t end up with a terrible sunburn.

It appears there are 5 climbs in the race, fairly evenly staggered throughout the race. The worst climb is right after the turnaround (or so the elevation chart would have me believe), so I’ll need to be ready for that. The first climb doesn’t look that pleasant, either, but I’m a good climber. Slow and steady. Unfortunately, the elevation chart isn’t as detailed as the one for Zumbro, so I do not know the approximate mile points where they occur. The only actual reference point I have for mileage is the aid station at Oberg Mountain, the turnaround point. I guess to be under 4 hours, I will want to be there by 10:00, and to be under 4:15, I’ll need to be there by 10:07. I figure since I’ll have already gone through 3 climbs at that point, I’ll be in good shape to turn and burn at the aid station. I plan to refill my water bottle there and maybe peruse some snacks, I don’t know. I like to get in and out.

The usual non-running goals apply: I don’t want to puke, become incontinent, pass out, or otherwise have a medical emergency. I need to warm up before this race, since I always say I will and then don’t, and I will start at the back of the pack as I always do, and run my own race. Here’s hoping I am not trampled by too many runners on their way back while I’m still heading out. I have not done an out-and-back race like this before, so it could be interesting.

I’m going to prep my water bottles and baggies and then head to bed. If I can get better sleep than I did for Zumbro, I should be in good shape!