I have a difficult time on where to start. What a great weekend we had, the three of us. Dad, Jesse, and myself headed up 35 on Friday about 1pm and got to "The Nest" in Little Marais on Friday about 4:30 or so. It was a beautiful day. Sunny and 80 (a bit hot; perfect really). We settled in and headed up the north shore to Lutsen, where the race would finish on Saturday night. We checked in for the race, put all of the drop bags in the big bags to the aid stations and waited around for 40 minutes or so for the pre race briefing. What a beautiful night to be on the north shore. The hills just tower over you in that location too, especially knowing that it will probably be dark when you see them again and I'll have run 40+ miles by then too. Anyway, once the briefing was through, we went into the Moguls cafe and had dinner. It was 8ish by the time we finished so we headed back for "The Nest" and were settled into bed by 9:30. It always helps to be well rested going into a long run. Saturday the race started at 6am and I finished at 8:45 that night. Thanks for reading my story...
I'll write more details:
I had this race on my radar last year too but due injury I was unable to participate. I signed up early for it this year which means I committed early. This would be the longest I had run by 21.5 miles and it is a little bit intimidating going in knowing what the terrain looks and feels like on these trails. I was excited though as 35 miles of this adventure were new to me. I'll get to run another 31 in a couple of weeks as I plan to run "Wild Duluth" 100k (62 miles). That's an out and back course. Still need to sign up for that one and I'm going to need to get a few more good training runs before I'm ready to commit to that one. I think Jesse has agreed to come aid for me on that one. Back to "Superior 50 mile".
Dad and Jesse and I had been in communication all week as to when we would leave and how the weekend would go. We didn't even know that Jesse would be able to make it, but I'm so glad he squeezed this Saturday trip north into his schedule. He left on an airplane Sunday morning at 10 something, but still stayed to see me finish and drove home in the wee hours Saturday night. Thanks Jess!! It means a ton to me that you made that happen. It was great to have you there supporting me. I visited Broman Chiropractic twice the week leading up to the race, just wanting to make sure everything was lined up. Thank you guys (Doug and Chad), met with my dietitian on Thursday before taking off as well to talk about day before race nutrition and race day nutrition as well. Thank you Theresa. With that information I headed to Target on Thursday night to pick up my food for Friday. I got a lot actually. In the previous couple weeks, I had been starving myself of carbs, even fruit. I had been getting them all from beans or veggies. We decided on Friday leading up to the race on Saturday, I would eat as much fruit as possible. We also decided that a big pasta dinner on Friday night would be a good fill up for Saturdays cross country trip as well. That was real good and left my muscles feeling full of fuel.
Friday morning I was up early with a client at 5am - 10am. It was a busy morning, but it was good to see those folks, be on my feet and busy working. It was a productive 5 hours for me. At 10 I left and went home. Kate was home that day with the kids as Hannah had a doctors appointment (that morning, no afternoon, well whenever) so it was nice to see everyone before leaving. Dad was at the house about 11. He brought his big cooler with to pack all the food for the trip. Lots of fruit, peppers, hummus, grapes, bananas, peanut butter, apples, raspberries, strawberries, and lots of water. I made the list of what I would need, we packed it all up, said goodbyes to my beautiful wife and three lovely children and off we went. Dad and I made one quick stop at Sipes to get ice, drove by the old house, and headed for the new 610. We found that Jesse would not be far behind us so we actually ended up meeting him in Duluth and driving up the north shore front and back. It was a beautiful day.
Once we got checked into "The Nest" it was time to start thinking about what exactly tomorrow would hold. Back to "The Nest". I don't know how this place was still available 3 weeks prior to the race as all of the rooms at Caribou Highlands were booked. "The Nest" is a little 14x16 cabin just off of HWY 61. Like just on the lake side of the road. Great accommodations. Just perfect for the three of us. We got settled in and I grabbed all of the things I would need to create my bags for the aid stations. I packed a lot of "shot blocks" and "sport beans". I would start off eating blocks and finish eating nothing but beans. Next time, I'll start and finish with them. I packed more fuel towards the end than the beginning and I had two scoops of EFS waiting for me at each aid station as well. Electrolyte Fuel System. I have trained with it and with water on the trail, this stuff is a muscle saver. I learned a couple of things from this race. One, drink water at the aid stations and EFS on the trail; two, sport beans instead of shot blocks for me. I really didn't eat "real" food at any of the aid stations. It didn't taste good and when I did, I didn't feel well for the first 20 minutes or so once I got back on the trail. I talked about the pre race briefing, the dinner, and that night. It was pretty uneventful really but so nice to share that time with Dad and Jesse. I have run 50k races before, in fact two on the final 15.5 miles of this trail, and each time I was here alone. It was so much better to share this experience with those two. At the race check in they were selling last years shirts for 2$ and sweatshirts for 5$. I got a couple of T shirts and a sweatshirt. What a great deal!!
Saturday morning. It was game time. Slept well and had everything laid out from the night before (race number pinned onto my shorts and everything set up to put on in the morning). I had 3 hard boiled eggs for breakfast with a banana and peanut butter spread on top. That's what Theresa and I had agreed on to have for a pre race meal. It was perfect. We all hopped in the pickup and headed to new Finland Rec Center where the race would start. The 100 milers had been through that aid station hours before hand and we would catch some of them and finish with them near the end. Each time I saw one running that race, I was in awe of their triumph over these hills and their minds. Incredible. Thank you Dad for writing the times on the aid station direction sheet. It is great to go back now and figure averages and remember each leg of the race. I am looking at that sheet that you and Jess got to know so well that day. Thanks! It was dark at the start and the energy was high. This was it and I was FIRED UP and ready to go. The race began at 6:05 and what a beautiful morning. The sun had not yet even peeked up, but we all knew it would be a beautiful day. As I headed out this morning, I wondered what was to come. How was I going to do this? What pace would I be able to keep up? I felt more prepared for this race than any other and there was a huge calm in that. I really could feel a ton of support too and that makes a huge deal. I knew that Dad and Jesse would be waiting for me whenever they were allowed and I knew that there would be times when I would feel like I couldn't go on.
I left the start at 6:05 and settled in behind Bob, a 60 year old who had done a number of ultras even a few 100 milers. I figured early on in my first 50 he would be a good one to settle in behind for the first few miles on this day. It was great conversation and aside from some roots and uneven trail, the first couple sections really were pretty manageable. It was 7.5 miles to the Sonju Lake Road aid (there was no crew access there). They had a fire going and the people were very friendly. We were all feeling great at this point. 4.2 to Crosby Manitou and I was actually on pace to run a sub 12 hour. I made that point to some more experienced ultra runners and they brought me back down to earth. At this point, I hadn't eaten anything which is how I had done a number of my training runs. If fact, just three weeks prior, I did a 23 mile run with no food at all. Just EFS and I had some of that this time around too. I got into Crosby Manitou at 8:47 so I averaged almost 14 minute miles up to this point and was really feeling great. There were a couple of great climbs to come on the way to Sugarloaf.
It is 9.4 miles to Sugarloaf and I got to see Dad and Jesse. This is the first time I've seen them since the start of the race. Very nice to see them and they were so helpful at all the aid stations. I'm sitting here looking at the topo map of this next section and there were some pretty good climbs at the front end of those 9.4. I had a strategy for the big hills. I would climb until I could feel my heart rate getting close to threshold and then I would stop, drink, and have some beans. Let my HR come down a bit and continue on. I would only have to stop once maybe twice per hill, but I do feel like this helped a lot with the way I felt especially at the end. A couple big climbs early on in this section, then some rolling hills (rocks actually). There were a couple miles of rolling rock piles. Climbing up and over, and even coming to some places where there were extra signs to make sure that the 100 milers doing this section in the dark didn't end up going over the edge as I was pretty high up in some parts. This was a beautiful section of the trail and it was still morning when I was traversing the rocks. It seemed that the section to Sugarloaf went on for quite a while. It is a 9.4 mile section. I'm pretty sure I went through all of my EFS on this section and was ready for more by the time I hit Sugarloaf aid. One mistake I had been making up until the next aid in the race is I had not drunk any water at any of the aid stations. I only had been drinking EFS. Once I got to Cramer Road aid, I started to drink water at the aid stations and that really helped. The last couple miles of this section were pretty flat if I remember right and I cruised into Sugarloaf. I got in at 11:13 and averaged almost 16 minute miles on that section.
I was 21.1 miles into my adventure and felling decent. I knew I had a long ways to go but was excited to see some new trail. There were a couple of spots on the trail that I was not looking forward to. One is Carlton's Peak and the other is Oberg Mountain. Turns out Carlton's Peak was a wretched as advertised and Oberg ascent was much easier than the descent. I wasn't there yet, but had already begun to think about getting there and overcoming these obstacles. I don't remember much about this leg of the race as I was out of it. This was one of those times that I was just pretty much hanging on. I think we have them in races like this and I think we have them in the race of life too. Each step is a difficult one to take, we just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other and gaining on our final goal or destination. I think on this leg, I was trailing another runner who was obviously struggling but running at the same time. There was a section of roots that seemed to never end. Roots and I don't get along real well (although on this race, on this day, I kept my feet all day). We were not moving fast but just having that someone else running with me was real helpful and I needed that right here. Dad and Jesse worried about me when I staggered into Cramer Road. I knew I was in rough shape and really no support was going to help from anyone at this point. I think after Cramer is the only time Dad called to update the folks back home what was going on. It was bad timing. I had meant to reapply glide on the previous aid but had left without doing so. I did reapply at Cramer but I had already started chaffing. That was the message that was received at home. Thankfully, it never really became an issue as I reapplied at each aid thereafter. At Cramer, I got in at 12:44 and averaged a little over 16 minute miles.
I headed towards Temperance feeling like I imagine a beaten dog to feel. Not good. It was 7.1 to Temperance and I knew that I wasn't going to have to tackle Carlton's Peak yet. Thanks God for that. This was actually a beautiful section of the trail. For really the only part of this section that I remember, there was a stream running on the left of me for a good distance. I kept looking at it and thinking I should stop and dunk my head in the water. I needed that so bad, I could almost feel it before, which would turn out to be one of my last opportunities, I stopped, dropped my water bottles next to the trail, splashed water onto my face and over my head, soaked my bandana in the water, wrapped it onto my head, and hit the trail. If it were not for that decision, I may have not made checkpoints near the end. That one thing is the thing that I attribute to changing my attitude and entire make up for the remainder of that leg and the remainder of the race. I ran a couple of pretty quick miles coming out of that creek and then remember hitting a big hill where I had to employ my hill strategy to keep my HR down manageable. I got to Temperance at 2:50 and averaged 17.5 minute miles. Looks like I'm getting a bit slower as the miles accumulate.
Carlton's Peak sucks to climb. Especially 35 miles into a 50 mile race. I left Temperance and until I got to Carlton's Peak, all this trail was still new. From Temperance to the base of Carlton's I saw a lot of people. There was easy access to the Temperance river and day trippers were all over the place. I passed one guy and asked him how he was doing. He said, "fine, How are you?" I said, "I'm on 35 of 50." He said, "laps?". I said, "No, miles." He said, "Holy Shit." And that was it. It was just 5.7 to Sawbill and I knew what to expect from there. This leg was uphill from the start until the Peak. It started climbing gradual and progressed to more intense, until finally I was climbing over car sized rocks to get to the top. This is the first time I came in contact with the guy in the red shirt. I'll call him "sleepy" cause that what he said was the hardest part for him, not sleeping all night. Sleepy is a 100 mile racer and I seemed to see him on all of the major climbs from here until the end of the race. I didn't actually see him finish, but would have liked to. That ascent seemed to never end. I would say this is the other spot on the trail that I really felt like I didn't know how I was going to keep going. Once you get to 2.8 miles on this leg though, it's actually quicker to keep going forward than it is to go back anyhow. That's what I did. I made it to Sawbill and Jesse greeted me about 400 yards from the aid. It was good to see him and it was good for him to see a bit of the trail too. It's tough out there on that trail. Other ultra runners I know have great respect for how technical that trail is up there near Lutsen and some won't run it for that reason. Absolutely beautiful country! I got in and felt kind of like I did coming into Cramer. A major difference now is that I knew I was less than 15 miles from the finish and knew what all of this trail looked like. I got into Sawbill at 4:37 and averaged 19.25 minute miles. Carlton's Peak climb is a doozy!
I left Sawbill thinking I had a fairly easy section of trail in front of me. It is much easier than Oberg, but not easy. I had some "real" food at Sawbill aid and didn't feel right until I was on the trail again for 30-40 minutes. I was moving slow, walking a lot. I got to a point and told myself, you've got to run and keep moving, and keep moving faster than you are. That's what I did. It was 5.5 miles to Oberg aid and it took me awhile to cover it. I just wasn't feeling right for most of this section. I knew I was close, and I also knew what was coming. Oberg section is one of the toughest sections of the whole race and I knew that. I was talking to a guy at the pre race briefing who confirmed that information. The Sawbill section is rolling hills with a lot of roots. I went slow but made it to Oberg. It took me 120 minutes to cover 5.5 miles and I averaged almost 22 minute miles. It was a slow section. I haven't done the math yet on the Oberg section, but it may have been the slowest of the whole race. How great to see Dad and Jess and hear all of their support. I really think they had a great time getting to know some of the runners and their family's. I had a cup of hot soup, put on my headlamp, got some final words of encouragement, and the guy from TC Running said, the first couple miles of this last section are runnable. I listened to that, had forgotten that, and ran as much as I could of the first 3 miles of this last section.
I did run as much as I could coming out of Oberg aid. One of the hardest parts of the race for me I knew would be the steps up Oberg. They have put in railroad ties, I remember a hundred of them from the spring. I expected this thing to go on forever. It went on for awhile, but not forever like I remembered. I was to the top fully prepared to continue climbing. I thought that the toughest part was now behind me. It wasn't. On Oberg there is the climb, then a mile or so of just cruising on the top of the mountain, followed by a real technical descent. Especially in the dark. This was probably the slowest portion of the race for me. Big old rocks and at this point my quads were not well. I was alright, but this really shredded my quads. They held up pretty well. Lots of hill training leading up to this race. Practicing downhills as well as uphills. That's the ticket on the hilly trails. Slow descent. I cruised around the bottom for a while, then came to the switchbacks. Once I got here, I knew I would be coming out of the woods pretty soon. Also, I had a GPS and knew that I was getting pretty close. Again it was the way down the hill that proved the most challenging. I thought it was pretty cool running through the woods in the dark only being able to see a few feet in front of your face. I was the only one running at this point by the way. All others were walking slowly and shocked that I was tearing past them. It felt like tearing (in reality it was probably just creeping faster than them). In any case, it felt really good to run. There was a stretch that I didn't see the markers for the course for quite some time and began to wonder if I was lost in the woods this close to finishing. Finally I came to some markers and I could see the lights to the lodge. A welcomed sight for sure. I was moving pretty good by now, then I heard the Poplar river and knew it was about a mile to the finish. I got to the road as I passed another runner and it was on. I ran by far my fastest mile of the entire race right there with the end in sight. I looked down at my Garmin and read that I was running a 7:30 mile on the road. It was flat for the first time all day which was nice. I started to hear cheering and saw some lights. When I crossed the finish line, Dad and Jesse were waiting there with open arms to welcome me to the end. I thought I would have a real emotional reaction when I finished, but this is not my end goal in this running phase. I would like to do 100 miles next summer some time. I'll attempt a 100k race in a few weeks this fall. What I did feel instead of a huge emotional reaction was everything that I had put out of my mind all day. Like my body was pretty sore and I wasn't going anywhere fast. I ran this last section in just over 2 hours 124 minutes and averaged 17 and a half minute miles. That is with some 30 minute per mile hills. I was flying at the end and moving pretty good at the beginning of the Oberg section as well.
That's it. What a great experience that I am so thankful to have gotten to share with my Dad and brother Jesse. Thank you Kate for allowing me to train. I hope my dedication to these ultra events can teach our children about preparation, determination, and pushing through adversity. I love you and am so blessed to have such a wonderful wife and life partner.
Dad and I hit up Betty's Pies on Sunday morning and made our way back to home for a recovery day with football and family.
