Northfield to Southfields

After the warm Birkie trail marathon weekend the weather has taken a turn towards fall here in Minnesota. The leaves and temps are falling fast. There hasn't been a frost yet, but we're hovering close. I'm starting to relearn what amount of clothing is appropriate for what temperature ranges and activities and getting ready for snow to fall. This is great weather for being active outside, and I did a lot of that last weekend.

Saturday a number of Vakava skiers came down to Northfield for a long ski. Nine of us started out, but Jeff decided to turn back a bit early since he has been pretty run focused to get ready for his 100 miler this fall. The other eight of us ventured South to Cannon City, had a nice tail wind to push us on the long, flat, straight road to Nerstrand, and then took in the great scenery and big climbs along the Valley Grove section of road before dropping back into Northfield and over to the Porath's for french toast. My total for the ski came out to 56km, including 2x up the Ibson climb on the Valley Grove section, so I'm sure everyone who made the full loop was over 50k.

Sunday morning Nate and I headed out early for the cities to bike around and cheer at the Twin Cities Marathon. Twin Cities is the first marathon I ever ran, way back in 2008. I also helped pace a speedy gal named Brooke when she ran Twin Cities as her first marathon in 2012. It is a difficult course, mostly due to the long climb up Summit ave from miles 21 to 25 and the steep drop to the finish afterwards. We were there mostly to cheer for my friend Erik Teig. His goal was to run a 2:24, so to stay ahead of him we didn't have time to wait and cheer for other runners we knew. As is we had to ride pretty hard to get ahead of him, and failed to do so a couple of times. Even so we saw him at several points along the course. He was in a good pack and running very consistently. He came through the half at 1:11:56, about a close to perfect pacing as it gets, but started to fade on the long slog up Summit. He finished in 2:26:30, a 10 minute PR and good for 22nd in the race. He is an awesome guy and a great runner, I had a blast cruising around yelling at him. Afterwards I biked back and forth on Summit cheering on anyone I recognized before heading off to get a rollerski in and meet Erik and friends to hang out for the evening.

What I did not do all of last week is go running. I finally got out today after not putting on running shoes for 11 days. My longest stretch without running since March I'm sure. It was nice to have that down time after the Birkie Marathon, but now I better get my legs back under me before I head East to run the Columbus half in a week and a half.

I have made good use of my reduced training hours though, catching up on some house projects and yard work that had gone neglected for far too long. The leaves are starting to fall, so yard work will kick up in earnest when I get back from Columbus, but late October / early November is usually a good time for working outside and a nice place to cut back on training for a week or two before ski season kicks off.

On a blog related note I realize my posts have been less picture filled lately, I'll have to get back on the photographing band wagon going forward.

Birkie Champion

It has been a busy couple weeks. I tried and mostly failed to taper for my race last weekend. Rollerskiing intensity is ramping up as the ski season gets closer, and my friend Jallie is starting up a Tuesday night rollerski group, so now I'm skiing Sundays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. This has cut into my running a bit, so the Columbus half marathon in a few weeks might be rough.

Even if that race doesn't go well however, it has been a pretty good running season. I typically collect a win here and there at some races depending on who shows up, but this year either I've won a majority of the races I've entered. So even though I had never won a marathon before I went into the Birkie Trail Marathon last weekend with the intention of running for the win.

Start of the Birkie Trail Marathon - Photo: Bruce Adelsman, Skinnyski.com

I knew I wouldn't be ready for the hills, too much running on flat roads, but my tune up half marathon a few weeks ago went well, so I felt confident that I could handle the trails. There were two guys who took off fast, but since the first 3 miles of the race were almost entirely uphill I let them get a gap. I was hiking most of the climbs while they were running. I tried to keep as relaxed as possible while still keeping them in sight. Then the course left the wide open ski trails and turned on to the single track. Racing on singletrack is really wonderful. The trails were flowy with fun curves and lots of places where picking a good line and good footing can let you make up ground fast. So over the course of a couple miles I put in a surge of pace and passed both of the runners ahead of me, and the pace bike.

Holding my lead - Photo: Bruce Adelsman, Skinnyski.com

After I took the lead I felt like I had to keep the pace up to keep a gap on second place. I was confident in my ability to run hard, but wasn't sure how I would hold up in a close race. I tried to be fast on the flat sections and continued to hike the steep uphills. I was bombing the steep downhills, knowing it would take a toll on my legs and just hoping they would hold out until the finish. The high point of the course was about 4 miles from the finish, and then it was all downhill, both the course and my running. I struggled to make my legs work right. I was no longer racing down the hills, I was just trying to keep up with my feet. I wasn't thinking too well and in the last singletrack section there was a split in the trail around a tree. I couldn't decide which way to go, then decided to change directions at the last minute and my feet came out from under me. My hands were way too slow to even think about stopping my fall, so my chest and head hit the ground hard. Luckily it was sand and soft, loamy soil, so no damage was done, but I was shaken up a bit. My water bottle nozzle was entirely coated in sand after this incident, so drinking didn't seem like a great idea. Then I found a water bottle just laying there on the trail! I picked it up as I ran past, but finally my fuzzy brain decided that it probably wouldn't be a great idea to drink from a random water bottle that had been laying on the trail for who knows how long. 

The last 1k of the race goes around a big open field where you can see the finish the whole time but just keep turning away from it. At that point I was just hoping my legs didn't cramp. At last I struggled across the finish line and was so happy just to stop moving for a bit.

Crossing the finish line, with my bonus water bottle still in hand.

After I took the lead the guy in second had me in sight for quite a while. I carried my own water with me however, so I could breeze through aid stations where he had to stop and refuel, so eventually I got out of sight of him. The last I saw him was at the bottom of a large hill just as I was going over the top, but when we got to the open field I could see he was still not far behind me. I ended up winning by about a minute, my first marathon win ever. I'm going by Elspeth's marathon classification rules, since it was advertised as a marathon and run on the full course it counts as a marathon, even though my watch only recorded 40k. I figure that the short course is more than made up for by the hills, so I was pretty proud of my 2:54 finishing time. This is probably the only time I'll get to call myself a Birkie Champion, so I did my best to enjoy every minute of it.

First Marathon Win!

The fun didn't stop there however. Last time I ran the Birkie Marathon was my 28th birthday. Jeff and I decided to run 28 miles instead of just a marathon to celebrate the event. This was a big deal for us, as we had yet to run an ultra at that time. Long story short we missed the start of the race while doing our bonus miles and both had rough races as a result. This year I saved the bonus miles for after the race. Most of the cabin crew joined us for a couple miles when we got back.

Taking a photo for Buckeye on our bonus miles.

These two miles hurt. The very best parts were when Nichole called for walk breaks. After finishing the excursion I had no intention of finishing the 5 miles I had remaining to reach 32 (I just turned 32 last Thursday). We took a boat ride, made some fantastic pizzas and eventually everyone wandered off to bed. It was a gorgeous night out, and I knew I would regret it if I didn't get those last few miles. Jeff needed no prompting to come along for the fun. We wandered off into the darkness. I knew the roads close to the cabin well from running them at the TNC camp this spring, so we ran and picked out constellations with nothing but the stars and the occasional yard light to show the way. It took almost an hour to run those last five miles, but we got it done, and sleeping felt amazing afterwards, a successful weekend!

Lazywork

I missed putting up a post last week for a couple reasons. First, not much of note happened in the week previous that would have made for an interesting post. Second, because I was busy getting ready for the adventure of last weekend. Thursday evening I headed up to the cities after work to my friends Annie and Andrea’s to play some board games and spend the night so I didn't have to deal with traffic driving up to the cities Friday morning. I got up early on Friday to get a run in with Annie before she headed to work, then drove up to North Oaks to meet Vakava skiers Cheryl and Angie for a morning rollerski. The roads around North Oaks are quiet and gently rolling, pretty fun rollerskiing terrain. Then Cheryl and I loaded up in her truck for the trip up to the North Shore.

Jeff fueling up at Tettegouche

 My friends Jeff and Rob were running the Sawtooth 100, a gorgeous and epic race on the Superior Hiking Trail. Jeff’s wife Christina, Cheryl, and myself were planning to crew and pace for these two endurance fiends. The race started at 8:00 am Friday, so Cheryl and I drove up to Tettegouche state park (mile 35) where we met up with Christina and waited for the boys to come through. Rob came through about 15 minutes before Jeff, both of them were running well, eating well, and staying in control. Over that long of a distance keeping fuel in the tank and keeping the pace manageable is vitally important to finishing the race.

Rob and Cheryl at mile 50

We saw Jeff and Rob at a couple more spots down the road. At the halfway point Cheryl and I donned cow suits to encourage the boys to keep Moooving (and because it was getting cool out and the cow suits are warm). I had Cheryl and Christina drop me off at Mile 62 where I would pace for a while. I ran back up the trail until I found Rob and ran with him back to the aid station, helped him move through, and accompanied him for a little over a mile down the trail before turning back. He was running well, taking the technical downhill sections at good speed, even though it was 14 hours into the race and we were running by headlight. I turned back so I could make sure to find Jeff. When we had last seen them the gap was around an hour, so when I got back to the aid station I tried to lay down in the grass for a while and save energy for the trek ahead. I had worked up a sweat running with Rob though and soon got cold. The kind and very enthusiastic aid station volunteers fed me some bacon (they got a kick out of a cow eating bacon) and I hiked around to warm myself up. By the time I saw Jeff at this aid station Rob was over 3 hours ahead of him. Jeff was in good spirits but moving slowly. It took him a while to get used to running the technical trails in the dark. I chuckled when he first came in, because his attire was almost identical to what I was wearing for my Ragnarok ride this spring.

Pretty much how Jeff looked, minus the plastic bag and helmet

I took off hiking with Jeff for the next 10 mile stretch, one of the most technical of the race. It was 2:00 AM and chilly out, I was glad to be running in the cow suit. It was a gorgeous night with a nearly full moon and great star cover. Navigating by headlight was not bad once I got used to it. Jeff was moving steadily but I could tell his enthusiasm and energy levels were not high. These miles were hilly and taking a long time, but I kept reminding Jeff that we weren't getting passed by anyone, so we must be covering ground as well as anyone else out there. Even for me, who was relatively fresh, this section was a lot of work. There were times where I was took a step back and marveled at the circumstances that led me to the absurd situation where I was spending my Friday night literally in the middle of nowhere, tromping over hills and through mud by headlight at 3:30 in the morning, in a freaking mad cow suit.  That this seemed like a perfectly good use of a Friday night may explain why I am still single.

Jeff working on his Selfie skills

Another monkey with selfie skills

When we finally reached the next aid station at about 5:30AM I knew Jeff’s mood was low enough that him going on alone would not be a good strategy, so I made sure he sat down for a couple minutes and refueled and I found Cheryl’s truck to drop the cow suit and refuel myself. I gave Jeff my remaining Clif bars so he would have solid food for the next section and then started to scrounge for things to feed myself with. I ended up filling the pouch on my waterbottle with Peanut Butter M&M’s and stuffing the back pocket of my shorts with a ziplock bag filled with apple cake. Not traditional race fare, but it served me well. I sent the ladies on ahead to find Rob and make sure he was still doing well, planning to meet them a couple stops ahead at mile 90. So what I had planned to be a 10 mile run was now going to be 26 miles. We marched on and it was a very welcome sight when the darkness finally began to give way to morning. This rallied my spirits, and I egged Jeff into picking up the pace a bit. I could tell this was hurting him, but we both knew the faster we could cover ground the sooner the next aid station would arrive. It was also good for morale to be passing other runners. Eventually this good mood snapped though and we were back to hiking. The mud was relentless and Jeff constantly had waterlogged, blistered, and increasingly sore feet that still had to carry him for many more miles. He stuck to his eating and hydration plan though, so physically he wasn't getting too much more tired, the mental battle was in full swing though. I did everything I could to keep his mind off the miles ahead and in the present moment or in a happier place.

Jeff Early in the race (a happier place) - Photo: Todd Rowe

We passed the marathon to go mark about 20 minutes before the marathon started, so we were soon being passed by many marathon runners who were all encouraging Jeff as they went by. Eventually we fell in with a group of marathoners moving about our speed and formed a bit of a pack. I pushed Jeff to keep him with this group and keep him moving. We did a lot of singing and told some fantastic stories, which I’m sure the marathoners around us got a kick out of. Eventually we got to the aid station at mile 90. I left Jeff with his wife and drove ahead to meet Cheryl and Rob at the finish. Rob had already showered and was hanging out in the hot tub. He had finished in 26:49, 12th place overall, what a beast! Long technical Races are definitely Rob’s strong suit and he had a blinder for sure. We headed back to Tettegouche so I could get Christina’s car and they could head home.

I went back to the finish to wait for Jeff and Christina to finish after just missing seeing them at mile 96. I chatted with all kinds of friendly folks, cheered in finishers, and after drinking a beer from Eric Nordgen proceeded to fall asleep in the grass. Sleeping worked much better in the warm sun than it had in the wet, cold grass the night before. I’m sure I looked super classy sleeping in the clothes I had been running in for the last 12 hours with an empty beer bottle laying next to me. When I woke up a couple hours later I went and ate some more food and got my camera so I could take some pictures of Jeff and Christina coming in to the finish. Then I saw a couple guys come in that I had seen at mile 96, meaning they were behind Jeff at that point. I worried that I might have missed Jeff while I was sleeping, so I wandered around a bit to make sure he wasn't in. I didn't find him, so I headed back out to cheer, just then I saw Jeff coming down the home stretch. I managed to get a couple pictures then helped him to the food building so he could sit down and start refueling. He finished in 34 hours 28 minutes, a long haul for sure. I'm really proud of him for sticking with it even when things were not going to plan. Finishing a race like this is a major accomplishment.

We eventually collected up all our stuff and got on the road. I drove a while, and then Christina drove most of the way back to the cities. Jeff slept the entire ride back, no surprises there. We got to bed about 3:00 AM and I got just enough sleep to make it a bit late to Afton for skiing the next morning. I was pretty wiped out by Sunday afternoon, but knew I would have a couple easy days ahead because of the other fun I had planned for the week.

Jeff and Christina coming in to the finish

Tuesday night I went in for my final lab visit for the TrainMeUp study I mentioned in a previous post. This visit was an overnight stay where I was given a marked fat infusion. Then in the morning I had a muscle biopsy done and was switched to a different marked fat infusion. I got to wear a space helmet like thing that measures resting metabolic rate, then I sat around most of the day then had a second muscle biopsy done, was fed a meal, and was turned loose. The muscle biopsies did not hurt as much as I was expecting, or at all actually thanks to the power of lidocaine. So far the most painful part has been removing the bandages to change them, although walking down stairs today isn't super fun. This study has been a fun experience in general, and for the most part I did well with all the needles until the last night where I got a nurse that wasn't very good at putting in IV's and stabbed through my veins a couple times before another nurse finally took over and got things put in correctly. I learned fun things like that if I were to just lay in bed all day and not move at all I would still burn about 1860 calories, and that even if I haven't eaten in 24 hours or more if I'm having glucose pumped into my bloodstream I don't get hungry.

Chilling in the Space Helmet

Biopsy needle going in, can't feel a thing.

This has been a long post, like I said at the start it's been a busy week. For those who have stuck it out this far, a last little bit of fun news. I registered for the first of what will probably be 3 spring marathons on Monday, and got this email last night.

My first major

I guess this means I better run this winter, because racing time comes early next spring.