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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Wild Duluth 100k

I don't really know how to start this one.  I guess there was some excitement, so I'll just go with that.

I'll start by describing the week leading up to Wild Duluth.  I didn't sign up for the race until Thursday because I was unsure I was going to attempt the race in the first place.  I'm glad I did, but I'm not glad about how it ended up.

Normal work week aside from a meeting on Friday afternoon which I needed to ask for permission to leave.  I was granted permission and was from SLP LTF at 2pm on my way home.  From there Jesse would meet me and we would check in at Bayfront park on the south west shore of Lake Superior.  That is where the race was to leave from on Saturday morning. 

Backing up a couple of days...  A friend of mine from work is from Duluth so it came up that I would be there over the weekend.  I did not have a place to stay and would gladly take a warm bed over the inside of a wind shaken tent.  It was windy too.  Not too cold, but really windy that Friday night the 14th of Oct.  It was worked out and I will talk more about that experience later on in my chronicles.  A blessing nonetheless that saved me hundreds of dollars and gave me the opportunity to say "thank you".

It was mid month so I felt that I would not be missed too much around the club on a Saturday.  This race was to be my last of the year.  Actually Superior 50 mile was to be the last of the year, but I decided to try and parlay that finish in early September into this race in mid October.  I really didn't even have maintenance mileage going into it.  I was well trained for the 50 mile, my nutrition was even tighter heading into this 100k and I had learned a lot about race day nutrition from the 50 mile as well.  I made my stop on Friday morning at Running Room MG for oodles of sport beans, purchased a new jug of EFS as I was running low, headed to the chiropractor for one final adjustment ( I love those boys over at Broman Chiropractic), and headed to SLP for some leadership development.  Life Time Fitness is a great company to work for and I am so thankful for the opportunity to develop as a leader within the company, transcending into all areas of my life. 

Was fed a bit ( thank you DK), and took off for home in MG.  Once I got there I took a nap on the bottom bunk.  I guess it was a nap as my 3.5 year old Elli kept coming in to tell me something ( I just love her).  I obliged and re-dozed for 45 minutes or so.  Then Jesse came, I packed all of my necessities and we hit the road.

We could feel the wind leaving MG hopping onto 610 (which is now just .25 miles from our front door; how nice is that!!).  Bro drove and talked about feeling the wind all the way up.  We stopped only once on the way as I was eating constantly (lot's of fruit, nuts, cheese, and drinking a ton of water).  When we got out at the rest area it was windy.  I didn't think I'd be in it much since I thought I would be in the trees for a good majority of the run (I was).

Although our journey was shorter and less painful ( in some ways) than I had anticipated, it was not without adventure.  It's all an adventure when your life consists of wake, work, play, dinner, tubs, stories, bed, repeat for 5 days of the week and the same with a bit more "me" time and football on the weekends.  That reminds me, I better get the garage cleaned out this weekend. 

We got to check in at 7 ( it was supposed to close at 7).  The folks were cranky and frankly not very nice either.  We got free hats and "cuzzies" (is that how you spell cuzzies?).  I filled my drop bags (ziplocs/ small ones) with help from Jess and we were off to Olive Garden.  I could not think of a better meal to eat the night before a 100k race than Olive Garden.  It was late enough we though that we wouldn't need to worry about being seated right away.  Then we got to the parking lot, walked in, heard 50 minutes to an hour, and walked out. 

We drove around for 10 minutes or so seeing parking lot after parking lot full of cars before settling in at... yep... Super 1 baby!!  Yeah, the grocery.  They did have a deli.  They did have pasta, and fried chicken (go Jess).  They also had buns, peanut butter and hard boiled eggs (for the morning), and water to drink.  We saved $20 and 45 minutes!!  I definitely feel that we missed out on Olive Garden though.  Bonding.

From there it was lodging.  First, we stopped at the Holiday to pick up a thanks card for saving us over $150 bucks to stay the night.  An interesting place, perfect accommodations.  Slept great and even got some bonus snoring while showering at 4:45 on Saturday morning.  We were out by 5:15 and at the race start by a quarter to 6.

Headlamp... check.  Everything else that I would need for the entire day and into the night on the trail... check.  Fleet feet... must have forgotten  them at home. 

I got to a mile (all things considered; dark, rock, leaves covering all debris, lack of maintenance trail training, and a momentary lapse in trail concentration)... TRAIL WINS TODAY!!!

Mile 1 or just beyond on a downhill, I think the first one, standing tall and confident, I heard two pops in the right ankle.  I roll all the time on the trail, but it is usually just one pop and it works itself out.  I had a feeling with two pops, this was going to be different. 

I didn't know for sure right away as adrenaline has a way of masking the pain for a while.  Also, I knew I would be in it, just not yet and not this kind of acute swelling and focused pain.  I came to aid at 4-something and mentioned it to the station attendant.  He said, "be careful out there."  I proceeded.

I got to about 6 miles and the pain was really setting in.  Especially when I would step a certain way or bear to much weight on the right side.  I was forced to walk in running situations which was very frustrating for me to do.  I felt great and knew that ,particularly my nutrition, was tight leading up to this race and I was poised to finish a 100k race on my way to 100 miles next summer.  I was passed by a number of folks, they all asked, "are you alright". 

"Yeah, have a great day," was my reply.

The battle was this.  Grandma saying, "you only have one body."

Caden saying, "persevere daddy."

I love my son, but my grandma has more wisdom.  At mile 8.8, I listened to her and declared myself a drop.  Peacefully

Jesse was to wait for me at the next aid so they called him to come and pick me up.  He did then I made some phone calls, we drove to Broman Chiro, then to Urgent Care for an X-ray and treatment prescription.  That's a great story in itself...