2008 FANS 12-hour

Weather was the big question mark hanging over FANS in 2008. A warm front had pushed up from the South and caused a lot of severe weather in the days preceding FANS. Would it rain all day? Would there be severe weather that would cause delays? We didn't get either one. We got hot humid weather with full sun for the first 6 hours. Thank goodness the clouds rolled in later and gave us a few hours with only sporadic sun exposure.

The FANS course is not a good one for full sun in the middle of the day. As the sun rose in the sky we would lose precious shade every lap. I think it was about 70F at the start and reached mid 80's from several accounts throughout the day. I decided Friday that I would go out at my planned pace regardless of weather conditions because I had no idea what to expect.

Arrived at the lake about 6:45am for packet pickup, weigh-in and set up. Helen was there as an early volunteer prior to heading to the Kettle Moraine sauna. My Dad came down early to help me out...unfortunately I told him to 'look for the tents, you can't miss it.' As he arrived the first tent he saw was the middle aid station, so naturally he stopped there and waited for people to start showing up. Eventually he realized that something was wrong and made his way over to the actual start a few minutes before we were taking off. At the start I saw Kurt with his baby. What I didn't know was he was there to support his wife Sonya, who had been a last minute entrant of the 12-hour event.

FANS is one of the best, most social, well run events I've ever been a part of. It's 2.4 mile loops with 'tent city' starting at the lap counter tent and extending about 220 yards with all the competitors' tents. You see your support crew and other races very often throughout the day, and there is a lot of great camaraderie developed throughout the day. With that said, I'm not sure I'll do the race again. The continuous flat running that pounds the same muscles in your legs the entire day is just an excruciating experience for me. A few friends asked how my legs felt later in the race and I had no words to describe the feeling. I just shook my head, not able to come up with words for the agony. I'm guessing that a greater dose of walking would help in this area, but when the race is only 12 hours (only!) I can't really walk that much. Trail ultras with lots of hills are much easier for me. Who knows, maybe a week from now I'll have FANS back on my 2009 schedule.

As we start the race I find myself running next to a woman that I come to realize is Sonya Decker. She has quite an impressive resume and is a great person to run with. We had slightly different pacing strategies, but the overall pace per mile was the same so we played a game of 'slinky' for the first 20 miles. It was nice because when I was ahead or behind her I'd turn on the Shuffle and listen to tunes. When we came back together I'd turn it off and have nice conversation. 20 miles never passed so quickly. We were averaging about 8:30/mile at that point and we knew with the increasing mercury all hell was going to break loose at some point. Little did we know how hot it would really get, and how much shade you lose around the lake as the sun reaches high into the sky.

Somewhere around the 20 mile mark Cindi stopped down to run a lap with me. It was nice to have the company, even though I wasn't extremely talkative due to the damn sun beating on my head;) Cindi is beginning a training cycle for her first marathon and is making tremendous progress. I'm assisting her with training so if her first isn't a success we'll blame it on the 'coach'.

My hydration/electrolyte strategy started as one full 20oz bottle and 1 S-Cap every other lap. At the 4 hour weigh-in I was down almost 2%. By this point it was very hot and muggy and I knew the weight loss was accelerating rapidly. I changed the format to an additional 6oz of water every other lap at the 2nd aid station, and 1 S-Cap each lap. That was the equivalent of dumping a coffee cup of water on a forest fire.

I passed the first marathon in about 3:46. Too fast. For those interested in PR's, I set a few yesterday. I passed 50K in 4:28. Shortly after that the sun became my kryptonite. It was becoming increasingly more difficult each lap. My avg HR was 141 at the time, and I knew I'd only be able to average about 134 for the race.

In the mean time it was really nice running a local ultra. I had friends and family showing up left and right to run a lap with me. On a few laps I had 2-3 people running with me. I felt like Lance Armstrong running New York! It was clear that eventually I'd have to take a couple very slow laps in order to deposit some of the early withdrawal I'd taken. It came somewhere between 42-45 miles. To be honest, the entire stretch of miles between mid 30's and mid 50's are very blurry and I'll probably butcher the details. Whenever it was,the nausea hit me like a ton of bricks and I spent the second half of that lap walking and vomiting. Really fun when you've got Mpls residents out enjoying a walk on the same trail. I was laughing as I was puking thinking about Wynn doing the same thing at a recent race. When I finally got to the tent I informed my lap counter that he wouldn't see me for a while. I was calculating how slowly I could walk in order to just hit 50 miles. 100K seemed completely out of the question at the time. By the time I got to my tent, I felt somewhat better. I popped a few S-Caps, drank some water and walked out not sure what was going to happen. The sun went behind the clouds for the first time and the next thing I know I'm running again.

The aforementioned Wynn was at the race cheering us on. Also at the race were Eve and Duke Rembleski, and John Storkamp. It was nice having them there because they've been through so many of the same battles and know exactly what you're going through. It was nice to finally meet Duke and Eve, I look forward to running with them in the future.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes my wife and some other neighborhood friends were providing me with the best crew you could ask for. She had all my supplies neatly laid out. My sponges had fresh water to wash off with every lap. I was looking for excuses to hang at the tent for a minute but had none. It was grab and go, and for that I am now grateful. After about noon, at every stop I'd remove my hat and quickly sponge off. She would fill my hat with ice. I'd put the hat back on, grab 2 S-Caps, a fresh bottle and a handfull of assorted food and roll out.

Eventually none of my food items were sitting well in my stomach. I learned the power of Coke for the first time in this race. I'm convinced that it saved me. At a time I couldn't get any other calories down, I could down Coke like crazy.

Sonya Decker was looking for a 100K finish. She has had some really bad luck with weather in previous 100K starts and this was going to be her vengeance. I was looking forward to running with her all day. The heat got to her and didn't let go. She struggled mightily for several hours and couldn't get to the goal. Unbelievably, there she was the last 10 minutes doing short laps to add to her total. That impressed the hell out of me. You'll get it next time. If I'm not mistaken, I passed 100k at about 9:40 which is also a PR. I could be mistaken though, things were a bit blurry at that point.

The last few hours was an interesting experience. I felt as if I could continue, assuming two 'hot' areas held out. My left calf and right achilles both felt as if they could go at any moment. I just kept plugging along waiting for them to blow, but fortunately it never happened. Todd Rowe, Zach Pierce and my running partner Tom joined me for a couple laps toward the end which was awesome...thanks again! Wayne Nelson was also out there supporting the runners, and pulling a double shift as a volunteer.

I finished the 30th lap (71.8 miles) with about 40 minutes left and started short laps. At FANS, any time you finish a whole lap within an hour of the end of the race, you begin doing 440 yard loops. This way they can chart you every 220 yards for total mileage. I had my wife check with the timers to see where I stood against the competition. The 2nd place guy was about 4 miles behind so I knew I had the win. My secret goal was to do the equivalent of 3 marathons. With 40 minutes to go, I knew I'd be able to put a few more miles in. Last year a friend, Joe Ziegenfuss, did almost 78 miles in the same race. I would have liked to hit that number, but I got to 75 with about 15 minutes left and knew there was no way I'd be able to get there. Knowing that the win was sealed up I shut it down at 7:45pm and walked into Lake Nokomis to ice my sore legs.

The 24 hour runners kept pounding away into the long night. Carl, Julie, and Steve all went the full 24 and will have race reports up soon. Edited to add Karen Gall to the 24 hour crew...sorry Karen, can't believe I forgot you!

2006 Edmund Fitzgerald 100K

My first RR, I hope to capture a fraction of the great detail some of you include in yours. The EF has been on the calendar as my first ultra since the day after Boston. I began the Maffetone training method then in prep for longer distances. In the months leading up to the race I ran a couple of 30 milers, back-to-back 20's, and a 40 miler. Going in I was very apprehensive with 22 unexplored miles looming large. A friend of mine, Vikekingdan from this message board, was kind enough to crew for me. His efforts made a tough race much better and the presence of a friend along the course helped immensely in the latter stages. Mother Nature did her best to make him regret his decision to crew, I'll touch on that later.

I picked up Dan Friday afternoon and we made the 2.5 hour drive to Duluth for race packet pick-up. Luckily my remaining questions were answered there so I was able to skip the pre-race meeeting. We had another 1+ hour drive North to our hotel, which was closer to the start of the race. The drive was lengthened slightly by heavy snow (now you know where the weather story is going). I enjoyed an elegant pre-race meal of brown rice, turkey and veggies in the car from a tupperware bowl. We checked into the hotel room and noticed immediately that every room in this small place was filled with runners. I was happy to know it would be a quiet night. We laughed at what our wives would think of the accommodations...two tiny beds about 6" apart, handwritten directions on how to operate the old TV with cable running through the VCR, etc. We set the alarms for 2:30am and eventually drifted off about 10:00pm. A cold front moved down from Canada into the Great Lakes area earlier in the week, so I knew it would be a bit chilly for the race. Temps at the start would be under 20F, warming to about 35F in the afternoon. There was also very heavy wind in the days preceding the race but they were scheduled to die down Friday afternoon and evening. Cold doesn't bother me at all but I was hoping for a calm day. So 2:30am rolls around and the first sound I hear following my alarm clock are the windows rattling. Heavy wind. Oh s**t. Get everything loaded back in the truck and hop on the bus that takes us to the starting line. The bus driver was a bit too amused about announcing that winds would be in our face, 20-25mph sustained, gusting to 40mph. Great, thank you for the positive energy.

The Fitz is a solo race that incorporates a relay event as well. There are two start times for solo 100K runners, two start times for relay teams, and a final start time at the halfway mark for 50K solo runners. The early solo start time is 5:00am for the slower runners. Being my first event I didn't know what to expect for time so 5:00 seemed like the place to be. We get signed in and hop back on the bus because it's about 15F outside with 25mph winds. Suddenly a guy pops his head in and says "we're starting in 45 seconds". It's amazing that in an event that will take half a day to complete, at the starting line I still feel like it's a 400 meter race in high school. Garmin is locked in and ready, IPOD turned on, let's go. The Fitz is a road event. The entire distance of the course is rolling hills with little flat anywhere. The first 10 miles take you from about 1400' elevation down to about 700' close to Lake Superior. The next 15 miles go back inland and up to about 1400'. We then head back toward Lake Superior and Two Harbors, MN which is down again to around 650'. The final 20 miles are run along Lake Superior, and are the first 20 miles of Grandma's Marathon. We start at 5:00am so the first 10 miles are very dark. No problem, we all have lights. The problem is that the roads are iced over from the snow the night before and you can't see which areas are clear vs icy. Luckily I never went down but the stabilizer muscles were getting quite a workout. When the sun came out things started to improve but some of the hills still had ice all the way through about 25 miles if I remember correctly. Instead of complaining about the wind all day I'll just say it sucked all day. Otherwise the weather was wonderful...lots of sun and it warmed up into the 30's by the end.My decision to start at 5:00am ended up being great for a couple of reasons. First, I was on the fast end of that group so I was "leading" the race for a long time. Even though I knew the faster folks were starting at 7:00am, it felt cool to be out front and I ran faster in order to keep that "lead". In addition, there was another runner that was very similar ability with me. We ran together for the first 20 miles. When I say together I mean he ran 50 feet behind me. We probably said 10 words in 20 miles. At an aid station around mile 20 I stopped for a brief restroom break and he went ahead of me. He proceeded to knock off about a 23:00 5K. I have no idea what the strategy was, but over the next 10-15K he put about 9:00 on me. I figured he was a much stronger runner that was just very conservative the first 20 miles. At about 40 miles I heard from Dan that the gap might be closing down a bit. That's all I needed to hear and the hunt was on. Wow, what a great feeling instead of looking back wondering when you'll be caught. I took my first Starbucks Doubleshot and felt like Superman. Unfortunately I indulged in too many over the next couple hours and they turned into my Kryptonite after the race. Without him out in front it would have been very easy to run slower and walk more. At 42 miles I wasn't sure how I'd get to 45. At 45 I didn't know how I'd get to 46, etc, etc. I think my personal pain threshold was redefined about 5 times Saturday. Eventually I see him ahead. Still about 1/4 mile up, but I'm gaining quickly. By this point volunteers and other crew are engaged in the chase and giving updates. It was neat because I got a small taste of what the elite runners feel like when they engage in these battles out front, commanding the attention of all the spectators. In my semi-delirious state I didn't care about the 7:00 starters any more..I was about to be leading this damn race. As I came up on him he was walking up a good sized hill. I decided to walk behind him so at the top I had the energy to go by with some embarrasing semblance of authority. The guy was totally spent due to what looks like a tactical error earlier in the race. I was hoping we could work together to get each other home faster but it wasn't going to happen. He got home but unfortunately it was more of a struggle for him so I was on my own again. Now the race was against the relay teams and faster solo runners looming behind me. At about 52-53 miles a relay member went by me so fast I didn't have time to offer any cheers. By the time I saw her she was gone. They were the only relay to pass me, and the winner of the 100K solo beat me by about 1:45:00 so he didn't catch me either. That was nice because I was able to see him finish.My run walk strategy began as run 3 miles, walk 0.1. This was due to the aid stations being every 5K. This worked very well until about 50 miles when the running portion began to shorten significantly. I quickly realized that I could still walk very fast fairly comfortably. By then end it was a continuous argument between my brain and my legs. Run to the corner and then walk, etc. The other amusing change that took place was the hill strategy. In the beginning I walked the steep hills to conserve energy for later. By the end I was timing my walk breaks with the downhills and "charging", if you can call my horrible hobble charging, the uphills. My quads feel like, well, like everybody's do after a long race. Awful. The combination of my first ultra with inadequate mileage and far too much caffeine intake led to several hours in a dark hotel room thinking I might need to go to the emergency room. So when all was said and done I came across the finish line in 9:55:00, breaking my goal of 10 hours. By 8pm I was able to crawl out of bed for the awards ceremony, where I watched in misery as many others indulged in great food and drink. Without the other guy on the course I never would have come close. Without my crew, Dan, I never would have come close. I don't know how many people started the solo event, nor how many finished, but I ended up 4th place overall. Third man. What a great experience, I can't imagine how some of you do these things over and over. Thanks for listening!

Still pretty cold a few hours after the start!

Struggling on Scenic Hwy 61, wondering why I thought this was a good idea.

A nice shot of Lake Superior...beautiful!

2007 Superior Trail 50 Mile

Superior Trail 50 Race Report
Here’s the shorthand if you’re short on time…this one’s long because I don’t want to forget any details.

2nd place overall

8:58:01

Avg HR: 136, 77.7% of max (for my fellow data geeks)

New friendships: Numerous

New favorite race: Superior Trail Races

It was a great weekend but this race is a monster the likes of which I’ve never seen before. From what I hear from more seasoned ultra runners I may never see the likes of her anywhere else either. Rewind to June, I’ve just finished Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth and don’t really know what’s next other than ultras are the direction I’d like to take things. One night over dinner my father-in-law begins talking about taking the family to the North Shore for a fall weekend. Eventually I mention that there is a race up there that I’d like to do someday, still not considering 2007 as an option. Well about 15 minutes later I’m writing the entry fee check and he’s on my computer booking a lodge at Caribou Highlands. Then it hits me…I don’t do any hill training, what the hell am I going to do in the next 90 days to get ready for the hills of Superior????I’m very lucky to have a nature conservatory near my home that has numerous large hills, about 2000’ of incline and 2000’ of decline in a 6 mile loop. I did as much as possible on this trail hoping that it would prepare me for this unknown entity called Superior Trail 50. Race weekend approaches and we head North on a beautiful Friday morning. The weather forecast called for rain all week but the weather and the trail conditions were perfect. We stopped at Canal Park in Duluth for lunch then made the drive up the shore to Lutsen. It’s about 90 minutes from Duluth to Lutsen but it seems like nothing due to the beauty of the landscape. Checked in and unpacked in our lodge which was awesome…4 bedrooms, 3 levels with a deck overlooking the woods and the sounds of a nearby rushing river in the background. Anybody who hasn’t spent time on the North Shore of Lake Superior cannot appreciate the beauty of this area. There’s only one way to learn and this race would be a great excuse! I went to drop off the drop-bag and pick up my race packet where I met the race directors, Larry and Colleen Peterson. Great people that put on a great event. I met several runners from the 50-mile and the marathon. The 100-milers had started at 8:00am Friday so I didn’t meet any of them until after the race, and they probably don’t remember me anyway! At the top of my list for this race is the quality of people involved. From the race directors to the volunteers to the registered runners, every person I met the entire weekend was a class act. During the run you frequently encounter runners from all 3 races and even under the duress of racing this course every interaction was 100% positive.The 100-milers leave Gooseberry Falls Friday morning and head North toward Lutsen which is 100 miles away be trail, about 50 miles by car. Saturday morning at 6:00am the 50-milers leave Lutsen and head South for 25 miles, then turn around and come back. The marathoners are bussed from Lutsen Saturday morning down to the 50-mile turnaround and run back to Lutsen starting at 9:00am. They add a 1.2 mile spur trail in the beginning to get them the correct mileage. Race morning I’m up at 4:00am for breakfast. Realized I needed something from the car and went outside to the darkest dark I’ve experienced in a long time. You could see 100 times as many stars as at home. I laid on the front step looking up at the stars and listened to the river in the back, and had one of those moments where you feel so small in the scope of the world. North Shore always does that to me but not in a negative way…it’s very peaceful. The 50-mile start was within 200 yards of my lodge. Stopped by the registration room at 5:30 and hung around until 5:50 chatting with some other runners. At 6:00am Larry sent 35-40 of us off into the darkness….The course follows a paved road for about ¼ mile which turns into a gravel road for another ¼ mile which leads us into the woods and on to the Superior Hiking Trail. Slightly more than ½ mile into the race my peaceful resolve begins to crumble. For the past several weeks I’ve read about the power of this trail. Rocks and roots make for a difficult journey. I incorrectly assumed that due to human nature, these obstacles were being dramatized and embellished quite extensively. As we entered the trail I made a comment to another runner something along the lines of “wouldn’t be very fun if we had to run on trail like this for 50-miles would it?” The return look was something along the lines of “where the hell do you think we are? This is exactly what we get for 50 miles”. Okay, I’ll just shut my rookie mouth and run before I embarrass myself further. Being the data geek I am, I researched several methods of determining a logical finishing time. 9:10 was the end result which is about 11:00/mile pace. Unfortunately due to the severe undulations of the trail I wasn’t confident my Garmin would be useful in tracking average pace so my strategy was to go out very easy until the first aid station at 6.6 miles and evaluate pace then. This strategy worked well for a couple reasons. First, it obviously kept me fresh and eliminated the mistake of starting too quick. More importantly, it allowed me run with several other competitors while we were still fresh and in the mood to chat. I ran the initial ½ mile with Matt Patten and then said goodbye until later. Great guy, I wish we could have spent more time on the trail together. I quickly hooked up with two guys that led me for another mile or so until it was light. We said our goodbyes and I hooked up with Brent from Mpls. Another great guy, Brent won the Master’s division. We spent a couple miles together as well. At the first aid station I felt that I may have gone out too easy but saw that I was on about 10:30 pace. At that point I was in 7th place. Good news. Even better was the fact that I saw my father-in-law and two kids at the aid station. I didn’t expect to see the kids so it was a great surprise as I came out of the woods. They had made “CREW” T-shirts and were wearing them with pride.Other than the ½ mile start and finish segments the remaining 49 miles are single-track covered with gnarled roots and rocks. Some areas have small rocks, some large, one section involves more bouldering talent than running. Many of the downhills are slower than the uphills due to the danger involved in trying to descend quickly. In addition to the physical difficulty of this course, you have the mental strain of having to strategically place each step for almost the entire race. As beautiful as the landscape is, my eyes were glued to my feet almost every second of the race. Any diversion to this tactic leaves you on your face. I kept thinking, how in the world can anybody do this race without breaking ankles and stubbing their toes to the point of insanity and submission…At mile 8 I must have been deep in that thought and not paying attention because that’s when my right ankle went. I strategically placed my right foot on an elevated root only to feel it roll out from under my foot. It was actually a piece of wood that had been cut in order to clean the trail from debris, only it was laying among the other roots and looked like one of them. I rolled my ankle but it was the top of my foot that hurt like mad. Really stretched something there, hope nothing is injured. Eventually the pain subsided and I was back to business as usual. On three or four more occasions I would roll the same ankle very slightly and it would hurt like crazy for about 5 minutes but the pain always disappeared. Wish it would disappear right now as I write this. Just as the first bout of pain was saying goodbye I caught up with Geoff Hanson from Madison. Geoff and I ended up running together from 9-25 miles and had great conversation, he’s a great guy and I hope to be able to race against him again in the future. In the mean time we had passed a group of two ladies and one gentleman so we were 3rd and 4th place at halfway. This is when I received the first update on where our competitors were. The first word we received was that 1st and 2nd were about 45 and 30 minutes ahead of us although I’m not sure how accurate those numbers are. From Geoff’s experience at the race I knew that one of the front runners was Dan Harihan who won the race in 2006. Didn’t have much confidence that he would be caught. The other guy was either way out of my league as a runner, or a maniac that went out way too hard and would limp home very slowly. Both of them passed us on their way back after the turn but I didn’t realize who they were at the time, we just said great work and kept going.When Geoff and I reached the 25-mile turnaround I felt very strong. Checked the watch and saw that I was at exactly 4:29. Pretty close to what I expected, feeling great. I decided to leave the aid station alone but figured Geoff would be back on my tail in no time. I really did feel strong so I made tremendous time from 25-33 miles. Periodically as I passed 100-milers or marathoners runners they would say “great job, you’re in 3rd place”. Eventually people started talking about how one guy was absolutely flying and I didn’t need to worry about catching him. Turns out his name is Chris Gardner from Duluth, MN. It turns out he wasn’t a maniac that started too quickly, he was a maniac that was way out of our league and a stud that broke the course record by about 40 minutes ( he was under 8 hrs). Okay, so the race is for 2nd or 3rd…where is that guy in 2nd place?? I didn’t have any idea but I just wanted to keep going as hard as possible in case he faltered and I had a chance. When I came into aid station number 6 at about 37 miles my family was there. The last I’d heard was that 1st place was long gone and 2nd place was about 30 minutes ahead. To my surprise the family let me know that 2nd place was now about 5 minutes ahead. Could that be right???? At that point I wasn’t really capable of thinking about anything too hard but my legs still felt strong so I put my head down and kept grinding.It turns out that 2nd place was Dan Harihan, the same guy that won the race in 2006. From what I was told by Dan and others, his day was difficult due to not being able to train the way he wanted leading up to the race. I caught Dan at about 40 miles. We enjoyed a walk up a long incline and said our goodbyes for then. So now I’ve got the course record holder running behind me and Geoff Hanson back there somewhere…I didn’t know where but I kept waiting to hear his footsteps and saying “hello, I’m baaaack!” Oh, I forgot to mention that Geoff is also a finisher of the Hawaii HURT 100-mile race, sounds like an awesome race as well. As I arrived at the final aid station (about 43 miles) in 2nd place my family went crazy seeing me come out of the woods. It was nice to see them so excited, and before I know it I’m informing them that they’ll see me in 2nd place at the end…I promise. Before I even got back in the woods I was kicking myself, “you idiot, what the hell was that all about?” I still felt strong but not to the point that I should be throwing out these cocky guarantees. Shortly after I remembered that we still had two major climbs in the final 5 miles and I’ve got two experienced ultra runners chasing me…this is going to hurt bad. Moose Mountain comes first. I input my Garmin data to Motionbased.com for elevation data, it is much more accurate than the altimeter in the watch itself. Motionbased says we climb from about 1050’ to almost 1700’ in less than a mile. Ouch. Total course elevation according to Motionbased is 9700’ gain and 9700’ loss. This is where I passed Keith, another new friend from the weekend. Keith was running the marathon, his FIRST marathon. Quite a challenge to pick as your first marathon. Congrats to Keith who finished strong, he’ll be back for the 50 someday. I went up Moose as hard as possible, hoping that I could extend my lead, but didn’t really know if it had worked. At the top things started to unravel a bit. Legs were getting heavy, and worse, my stomach wasn’t emptying. It was sloshing with every step which I know means trouble. At that point I couldn’t remember exactly what that meant though. Did I need more salt? Had I taken too much salt and that was causing the trouble? Shit, what do I do now? Just run for now and see what happens. Then we come to Mystery Mountain. Data tells me that Mystery goes from 1300’ to 1650’ in a short distance. Felt a lot bigger than that. That one was tough…like curse out loud the whole way up tough. Finally we got a stretch of fairly benign course (still rocky and rooty, just no big hills to climb). After what seemed like forever I spilled out onto the road with about ½ mile to go. I probably looked back about 5 times on that road expecting to see Geoff and Dan sprinting toward me, knowing there was no way in hell I could hold them off. Fortunately nobody was back there and I got to enjoy the last section by myself. They angle runners off to the right, off the road and behind the main lodge, around the back of the swimming pool and up toward the big outdoor patio. You finish 10’ from where everybody is sitting and partying with a great standing ovation for every finishing runner.I crossed the finish line, walked about 25’ to a table where my family was sitting with Chris Gardner and his family, told him how amazing his race was, and had the best tasting hamburger ever. The final time was right at 8:58 so my 2nd half was almost exactly the same time as the first. I feel good about the race from that aspect, the strategy worked well. A few Linenkugels later and Larry was hosting the awards ceremony and handing out hand-made plaques to the top finishers. I couldn’t have dreamed about a better race or meeting as many great people as I did this weekend. Having my family there to help me and share in the experience made it all that much better!

2008 Chippewa Moraine 50K

The first annual Chippewa 50k was an incredible event that has made its mark on the upper midwest ultra community. I'm guessing it will be a staple on most local ultra runners' calendars from this point on.Wynn Davis is the race director for Chippewa. His ultra experience combined with the experience of his volunteer team made this a first class event in its first year. To pull off such a smooth event in the first year with 200 runners is quite a feat. I was able to get out of town early Friday and showed up to help Wynn, Larry and Wynn's entire family put the finishing touches on the race preparation. A friend of mine has a family vacation property about 5 miles from the Ice Age Center so I had great lodging very near the race. Two neighborhood friends, my running partner Tom and I stayed at the cabin, taking it easy Friday night before the race.The 200 runners eventually turned into about 140 due to the weekend weather forecast. Unseasonably cold and snowy weather leading up to the race kept quite a few people home, but approximately 140 braved the cold for a very interesting 50k experience.Saturday morning I was up with the alarm clock and coincidentally received a wake-up text message from Matt about 5 seconds later. Tom and I tried to get dress quietly not to wake the other guys, and headed to the course at 6am. To my surprise, I wasn't the only one eager to get an early start because there were already about 50 runners milling around in the parking lot and building. Saw all the familiar faces...Carl, Keith, Steve, Brian, Andrew and many others, sorry if I miss your name here. I immediately headed out behind the port-a-potties to where the trail comes near the parking lot to assess trail conditions. About an inch of soft wet snow made for great conditions. I passed on my optimism to several runners that were wondering what I found. What I didn't tell them was what I didn't know. Friday night brought rain followed by a couple inches of snow. What we didn't know was the existing snow remaining on the trail got deeper as we went East on this out-and-back course....Wynn gathered everybody around at 7am and went over a few instructions. His nephew then played the Star Spangled Banner on his saxophone and received a huge ovation from the runners. Shortly after Wynn sent us down the snowy hill toward the Ice Age Trail. Which reminds me...this race includes a truly evil finish, by evil I mean awesome...more on that later.A solo runner who I believe was Matt Howard went out ahead of the pack. I was in the middle of a group of about 10 including John Storkamp (Race Director at Afton and true Badass as recent winner of Arrowhead 135, arguably the toughest race on the planet), Jim Ramacier, Joe Ziegenfuss, Tony Kocanda, Erik Lindstrum, Steve Schuder and a couple guys I hadn't met. We caught Matt after a few miles and ran as a group until the turnaround at 15.5 miles. The Youngblom brothers (Erik and Justin) caught us at some point and ran with us until the turn as well. It was a lot of fun chatting with the guys during the first half, it felt more like a training run than a race. Some of the guys probably think I talk too much. It helps pass the time and I like to hear about other people's experiences so I like to chat until it's time to race.An interesting phenomenon began to take shape as we moved East. The snow depth became two. Then four. Then 8. Then areas of 12. We were taking turns leading so one person didn't have to break trail the entire way. What made this interesting was that the 9 guys following the leader were at the mercy of his stride length. Any hesitation usually led to a domino effect. We all questioned the intelligence of being out front expending this kind of effort, and agreed somebody back in about 20th place for the first half would probably win this race. We also made two incorrect turns during the first half leading to about 0.3-0.4 miles of 'bonus' distance. During one of these 'bonus' sections I was running in second position following John Storkamp through incredibly deep snow. We hadn't seen any flags and were uncertain whether it was the right direction. Suddenly John stops, and says 'this can't be right'. He was standing in hip deep snow with no flags in sight. We agreed, turned around, and realized that we'd missed a flag sending us in the right direction. Surprisingly, there was no outward frustration from anybody, just laughter and good natured jokes. We simply went about our business of finding the trail and moved on. This attitude is what made the race so enjoyable for me.Due to none of us racing in these conditions in the past (other than John), I don't know if anybody really knew if we were going too fast or too slow. We were just making progress. Occasionally I would tell them how far we'd gone from my Garmin data. What I kept to myself was my HR data. Time to go data-geek for a few sentences;) I estimated going into the race that I'd be able to average 145 bpm (82-83% of max) for the duration based on a 4.5-5 hour finish time (Official Final average HR: 145 bpm). As we ran I kept an eye on that avg HR and was happy to see it staying very close to 145 . From this I was confident it was a good pace for me, and I'd be able to maintain a similar effort to the finish. I also knew that everybody in the lead group was at a different fitness level, but had no idea who was where. I contemplated my second half strategy the final couple miles before the turn. Those final couple miles before the turn represent the most significant climbing in the race so if anybody was getting fatigued they would definitely feel it now. The decision I came to was to blast out of the aid station in the lead and go hard for a couple of net downhill miles to see who came with...The out-and-back was wonderful because I was able to see all my lunatic friends on the way back. Friends and complete strangers alike were so supportive it was a great feeling. As everybody said, I was concentrating so much on the ground that hopefully I didn't miss saying hello to anybody. If I missed you it was unintentional!So back to the racing...about 2 miles into the return trip I was caught by Joe Ziegenfuss, Saturday's lead dog for the Team Ortho contingent. Joe, Tony Kocanda and Erik Lindstrum all run for Team Ortho and if I'm not mistaken alternate as first finisher depending who is having the better day. They're all great runners, but more importantly they're great guys. If you read this I look forward to running more with you guys in the future. Sooo, Joe catches me and I can tell from his breathing that he's not working very hard. I wanted him to go ahead so I could analyze his effort level from behind (that sounds a little weird doesn't it...LOL!). Unfortunately when I let him pass he put about 100 yards on me in 2 minutes. Analysis was over, and so were my chances of catching him again.The course is one Wynn calls a 'silent killer'. It's not hilly by Superior standards, but not anywhere near flat. There is rarely a flat section anywhere on the course. Elevation data shows about 4700' of gain and 4700' of loss in 50k without any big climbs so there are many small ups and downs.At 20 miles Tony Kocanda caught me (I was beginning to hate the look of those Team Ortho jerseys...just kidding guys). We chatted briefly, and Tony passed and put a gap on me as well. I started thinking the quick 2 miles at the turnaround wasn't the greatest idea and had visions of the entire train coming by one by one. Luckily I was able to shove those thoughts aside and decided to go get him. We played a game of 'slinky' for about a mile or two...Tony would pull ahead on the uphills and I would catch him on the following flat or downhill section. Every time, it was like clockwork. Eventually I passed and hoped not to see any more friends until the finish. What I did see...every step the last 9 miles...was the ghost of Joe Ziegenfuss. There was only one set of fresh footprints going my direction and I knew exactly whos they were. I could see where he ran and walked...more often than not, I could see where he was running while I was walking. That's really good for morale.Anyway, things were getting extremely difficult. I made a deal with myself to power hike all the uphills and run every single step of all flat and downhill portions. I found that power hiking the ups didn't cost me that much time and gave me much needed recovery, allowing me to make up great time on the flats and downs. Many people have difficulty with their quads late in these races but luckily mine never get sore...that helps a lot. I kept waiting for all the guys to come get me...John, Matt, Erik, Jim, Steve, Tony, others...with some luck and a whole lot of hurt I was lucky enough to come into view of the Ice Age Center by myself, still in second place...Which brings me back to that evil finish of the Chippewa 50k. About 2 miles from the finish you get to pass within about 100' of the Visitor's Center...oh what a bummer it is to begin the gradual downward slope AWAY from the Center. With about 3/4 mile to go, you can see the Visitor's Center and get to look at it the entire way in, which seems like an hour. The final stretch is a long uphill climb to the finish line. Evil? Yes. Masochistically Awesome? Definitely!Cross the finish line to see Larry's approving smile, and Wynn ringing the cowbell. Pause for a moment to be sure everthing you consumed during the race isn't going to reproduce itself on the snow at your feet...and hike the 20' up the hill to where there is a huge spread of salty food and dozens of Leine's stuck in the snow just beggin to be consumed...I had to indulge. Standing at the finish line watching everybody come in was extremely inspirational. For some it was their first ultra finish. For others it was one of dozens. For all it was a unique experience and the look on every runner's face as they finished was priceless and emotional. A great end to a great event that I'll be at every year. Thanks again to Wynn and all the volunteers that made it so wonderful!