The upcoming 50k on the Superior hiking trail loomed on the horizon, strangely sapping any energy I had for exercising, even though I knew I would need every mile of training I could get. I got in a couple good paddling sessions where I realized I still can't steer a boat, a nice bike ride to the cities and back the next day to hang out with my Mom and Grandma for mother's day, and part of a really killer workout with Nicole the Thursday before my race. I would have loved to run the whole workout, but made myself bike part of it, even though it put me in a category of people who I respect about the least of anyone, guys who bike with girls who are running. It was a terribly windy day, and I'm really impressed how close Nicole came to hitting her target times despite the rough conditions. These last couple workouts left me with a fair amount of confidence going into the race, at least as much as I could have without having done any training runs over 23 miles and racing on a course I had never seen any of before.
I was fortunate enough to find a host family to put me up the night before the race. My coworker and fellow EMVC rider John Stiles has in-laws in Silver Bay, which is less than an hour away from Lutsen where the race started, so I had a bed to sleep in and a bit of ice cream and cookies as a last carbo load snack before turning in for the night. The race start wasn't until 7:00, so I got to sleep in until 5:30, not too bad a deal.
The race morning was nice and cool, but a bit muggy. I had my small water bottle which had served me well on all my training runs, and felt like the cool weather wouldn't necessitate more extreme water carrying measures. I started with a shirt on even, although realized within a few minutes that this was not a good decision. I went out with the front group of 10 or so, and stuck with a group of 4 including Evan Pengelly as 3 went off the front. My reach goal was top 5, so sitting in 7th wasn't too bad. I hung with this group trading off spots up and down hills until the first food stop. There I dropped my shirt off with Evan's dad and quickly refilled my small bottle before charging on. I was feeling great at this point, so I pushed the pace just a little, and got a gap on the other guys I was running with leaving me running alone in 4th place. I gained good time on the descents and lost just a little on the climbs, which I figured would mean I was saving energy on the hard parts without using too much more on the easy. Running on my own felt good; it's what I'm used to in training, plus with the rocky and rooty nature of the trail it is nice to have a clear line of sight ahead.
I stayed in 4th all the way to the turn around atop Carleton peak, where I found out the guys ahead of me had a pretty good lead already (10 min for the leader, wow!) and the group chasing me was not too far behind and had grown to 6 people. I kept my same tactics, although I did start running some hills that I probably would have walked had I not had a target on my back. I went through the 3rd food stop still alone, although I could hear people behind me by this point. I was probably 10 miles from the finish when I knew I would need to start walking hills or things would end poorly for me. It was less than a mile later the first runner went by me. I took a good roll but luckily landed in some soft leaves instead of on rocks or a tree. and was back up and running, if a bit dizzy, in a second or two.
I was still sitting in 5th at the final food stop, but the 6th place runner arrived there with me, and I knew things were going to be rough from here on in. There were still 3 major climbs to go in the last 8 miles, and my body was getting kind of upset with me. I had not taken on enough water early, and as the temps soared into the mid 70's I was quickly learning the error of my ways. I took a heed and 3 waters at the last food stop and filled my little bottle for the last leg to the finish, already knowing it would not be enough water to last. I resigned myself to walking anything that looked like an incline at all, and on some of the steeper climbing sections my heart rate had to have been over 170 just trying to keep moving at a slow walk. There were a lot of people going by me, and I must have looked bad because several stopped to offer me some water. I didn't know how many were 25km racers and how many were 50km, and I didn't really care. It was just a march to the finish line. I did still run down all the hills, and the hamstrings got a bit close to cramping a couple times, but a short walk cleared them back up. Whenever I could run, even at what felt like a painfully slow pace to me, I would quickly overtake those around me, which gave me some motivation to keep it up. I finally broke out of the woods just as Jan Guenther passed me (doing the 25km luckily) and I did my best to follow her and run in to the finish. I crossed the line in 4:32:23, nearly an hour faster than my first ultra. I wasn't sure where I finished place wise, but based on previous years times I figured I still had a shot at top 10. I drank about 64 oz of water and pink lemonade and started to feel a bit better. I checked results and I had finished 8th, and beat the winning woman by about 10 minutes; so I achieved one of my goals at least.
All in all a decent race, or more accurately 3/4 of a great race followed by a few miles of stumbling through the woods in a dehydrated haze. Evan didn't end up finishing, he was in worse shape than me at the last food stop apparently, and decided to drop there. Kevin Johnson came in about 5:30:00, good for a top 30 finish, and Jallie came in at 7:18:00, about 20th for women I think. Not too bad for her first ultra I'd say. I am kind of looking forward to another one, but maybe not until fall. There will be enough other races and such going on over the next month for me to hop back into something too soon, plus I still have a misbehaving copper plater and a new machine at work to get up and running.
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