I had researched the race in advance and had
read race reports. One report talked about mud, hills, ticks, and a river crossing. Sounded like a lot of fun to me!! Well, truthfully, I
wasn't that excited about the ticks, but I bought an industrial sized bottle of
bug spray with DEET and was ready to go. The race was also an environmentally
aware race. All racers were required to carry bottles, and no paper cups would
be used on the course. In addition, it was an automatic disqualification to be
observed dropping any litter on the course. I was totally on board with that
and thought this was a wonderful way to run a trail race.
As we made our way up and across the Mackinac
Bridge the weather was perfect, sunny and beautiful. The water was beautiful
shades of turquoise and blues. However, as we headed out the 2 and got closer
to the MI/WI border, it was looking dark and cloudy. Finally we had a bit of a
downpour. Yikes. I was worrying then about the condition of the trails and the
water level in the river. On a previous year the river crossing had to be
canceled because conditions were too treacherous for the runners to cross.
By the time we got to Keyes Peak, the storm
had mostly passed. As we were driving down the road looking for the campground
we were staying at, I saw a sign that said Keyes Peak Ski Resort. That was the
starting line and packet pick-up. Then just about 300 ft. down the road was the
entrance to our campground. What great luck!! The campground I had booked us at
was literally next door to the race start!
Most people had questions about the river
crossing. He explained that there were two options: swim across or cross with a
rope. The water this year would be about "waist deep" and very
doable. There would also be a guy there to help with the crossing. Some people
looked a little worried. I thought it sounded like loads of fun.
"No Nonsense" arm warmers |
Race morning was an unusual one for me.
Because we were so close to the start and the race was so small, there was no
need to get to the race early. Even with the 7 am. start time, I was able to
sleep until 5:30 and still get to the race with plenty of time to spare, even
with stopping for three applications of bug spray. (I was very serious about
avoiding ticks).My improvised arm warmers worked well to keep me warm waiting for the start, but by start time, it had already warmed up to the upper 50s, so I ditched them before I headed out.
The group at the start for the 50k/marathon
was probably around 100. The start was the typical low-key ultra start, with
the race director saying something like "Ready. Go!" We sped, jogged, or hobbled off the start
line. The race was at a ski resort. The finish was down the ski hill, but the
start went up a dirt road that paralleled the slope. It was a pretty good hill
with just enough mud to make it interesting. It was similar to the start at
Gnaw Bone, only not as long and not as muddy.
Once we hit the top of the hill and got to
the ridge, we began about 6 miles of mostly downhill, some of it pretty steep.
This suited me fine. I love downhill running and ate up this part of the course
(including one mile split of 7:40 -- what was I thinking??). As I was doing it,
though, I was not naive enough to think that I would not have to pay. Southern
Michigan around where I live has no place to train for a sustained 3 or 4 mile
downhill stretch. My quads were not prepared well for this type of pounding,
and I knew there would be big pain in the future. I put that thought to the
back of my mind, though, and decided to take maximum advantage of the parts of
the course that played to my strengths.
The course itself was not what I expected. It
was almost entirely on dirt roads, with very little of the single track that I
love so much. On the positive side, the footing on the dirt roads was very
good, and unlike some roads, these were very flat and easy to run on. It would
be a good course for a road runner, not used to technical trails. The scenery
was also beautiful, lots of trees and greenery, and lots of shade, which became
important as the morning progressed. In general, I was cruising along and
having a pretty good time.
Along about mile 13, though, things turned
not so fun for me. First of all, the second half of the course is predominantly
uphill, which is never fun for me. It was also warming up, which for me is not
a horrible thing, but when mixed with uphills just adds to the overall
discomfort level. However, my real problem was the nausea. Despite having taken
S-Caps religiously from the first hour on, I was having waves of nausea. There
is nothing quite like being nauseous, hot, and climbing a hill, knowing that
there are still 10 more miles of hills to go. It made me cranky.
On top of that, I was hungry, but there was a
little battle going on between my brain and my stomach. The conversation went
something like this:
Brain:
"If you want to avoid a total shutdown here you better send us some more
of those carbs."
Stomach: "If you send us any more of
that gooey, sweet stuff, we are sending it right back out!"
I went through this almost continually for
miles. I had a lot of time to think about it too because there were some really
hellacious hills in this section. The worst hills on the course tended to be
right after the aid stations. One of them was so steep I wondered whether
vehicles could really make it up.
The one bright spot on the horizon was the
river crossing. For the marathoners, this is between mile 18 and 19. As we
approached there was a volunteer there asking us whether we were doing the swim
or run option and yelling it out for the volunteers on the river. I took the
run option, which meant crossing with the rope. There was a volunteer to help
me down the steep bank to the water and another to help with the crossing. The
guy on the rope was awesome, giving really helpful advice and letting runners
know where the big rocks and deep spots were. The water was moving fast in the
middle and up to chest deep for me. I got knocked off my feet one time, but had
a good hold on the rope so did not go under. Mostly the water just felt really
good and the crossing was fun. That one experience was worth the trip.
This is not me. It is a representative picture of the river crossing from Running in the USA. |
After the river crossing was an aid station.
I was not changing shoes, but I did need to do something about my nausea. I had
Gatorade in my hydration pack and decided that I might be better off with just
water, S caps, and gels. I had pretty much drained the pack by then, so I had a
volunteer refill it with water. She was so sweet. She filled it with the pack
on my back, which I was very thankful for. I didn't want to take it off since
it had taken me about three miles of fiddling to get it to sit just right.
The water in the pack helped a bit, but I was
still nauseous in those final miles. I was cheered a bit by realizing that it
looked like I was going to break 5 hours, but it was not a guarantee at the
rate I was moving by then (mostly a walk). There are some really cruel hills in
the race between miles 22 and 24. Things were not going well. I got passed by the only woman I had seen
since about mile 7 of the race. She was very sweet and tried to encourage me to
run with her to the end, but I was in my own private hell at that time and was
not able to rally and join her, especially when we hit some runnable (for her)
uphill. At about that time, I realized that I could break 4:45 if I picked it
up just a bit, so I tried to pull myself together for one last push to the
finish.
Me with my bottle of syrup |
I was so happy when I finally started to get
glimpses of the lake, ski lodge, and finish line through the trees. The finish
was down a big ski hill which was fine for me. My legs could handle one more
downhill with the finish in sight. I finished with a 4:34:35, which was a new
trail marathon PR for me. I was also 6th woman overall, but only 3rd in my age
group. The age group award was a bottle of Wisconsin maple syrup, which was
cool. I also really liked the finishers medal, which was wooden and hanging
from a piece of twine.
The finish line treats appeared to have been
homemade, and the whole race had a really homey, small town feel. I would have
enjoyed it a lot more, though, if I had not been in so much pain. My legs were
not ready for the amount of continuous downhill and made that very clear to me
when I stopped. I was in more pain after this race than even the Gnaw Bone 50k.
Still it was a great experience and will be good training for the Leading
Ladies Marathon which is also a downhill course.
Friendly Volunteer! |
It is exactly the type of low key race that makes me love trail and ultra running. The experience was definitely worth
the trip.
Great race review and congrats on a PR! Sounds like a race I would love, especially the river crossing portion!
ReplyDeleteGreat report!
ReplyDeletecongrats on the pr! what did you think of the up? were you able to do any sightseeing on your way back?
ReplyDeleteJessica,
DeleteI loved the UP, but unfortunately we did not get enough time to really do any sightseeing. I am hoping for another trip up there before too long with more time to look around.
I love reading your posts............such interesting races you do!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteLinda,
DeleteThanks. I am getting to the point where a race has to have something different to attract me for me to want to go. I look for interesting ones, but I also find that most trail races have something interesting to them.