Race #7/17 Afton Trail Run 25k

This year was my first year running the Afton Trail Race 25k. I have ran out at Afton about a dozen times and felt the most comfortable going into this race as I knew what to expect on the course. The only variable that was unknown was the weather as I have heard stories of how hot and humid this race can be. The weather turned out great! It was hot but not humid and with the breeze it felt even cooler than the predicted 80 degree high temps.

25k UMTR Members running and volunteering

25k Start

I know that I should not start in the front of the pack as I am a back of the pack runner. I ended up about in the middle. After announcements and instructions we were sent on our way. With the amount of runners this is a slow start as we all try to funnel onto the double track trail. A little walking occurred until the bottleneck slowly started to clear. Typically if I start too far forward (normally pulled along by visiting with my fast running friends while we wait for the start) I then watch as runners pass me by. This can get discouraging at the beginning of a race so I am trying to pay attention to where I start my races.

It is always nice to start a race running downhill.  This does not last very long, however, as we hit the first set of hills. My plan for the day? Run the flats and descents and walk the hills. This mostly carries me through in all my trail races. I suppose if I ran the uphills like some of the front of the pack runners I might finish with quicker times but knowing my luck instead I would not finish at all! So safer for me to stick with my plan. Have you ever noticed that most of the photographers seem to position themselves at the top of a hill? How can I get good running pictures going uphill? If I run for the picture I just look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame and if I walk, well am I really running this race (says the non-trail running friends) after all?

I have noticed that as I run further distances and more miles it is taking me about 3 miles to start to loosen up and feel good about my run. Today was no exception. The calves were tight and I think if my muscles in my legs had a brain of their own they thought I should not be running this race after all. After about 3 miles they finally started to loosen up and get with the program. It is always a waiting game for my muscles to finally figure out that I am not quitting. 

Climbing Campground Hill. Note: taken while walking up the hill!

The bench at the top of Campground hill is really inviting but I did not sit down, I promise!

Running the Prairies; the breeze kept this part of the race cooler than average for this time of year.

I ran with my Nathan Hydration pack (I have the H20) today in the hopes that I could save time by not stopping at the aid stations. I did pass up the first two aid stations, although I grabbed some fig newtons running by the second aid station so I would not have to take mine out of the pack. Shaved off a few minutes with that strategy! I did end up stopping at the next two aid stations (this would be the Break the Stigma sponsored aid station, of course). I thought I should start drinking some heed just in case I needed it. Woman does not live on water alone in these types of races you know. I also needed to get my Break the Stigma T-shirt from Julio. This was very important as I certainly did not want to walk back to the aid station after completing my race! I guess I am just lazy that way.

I know other runners are setting A, B or C goals. I think with all my races I basically figure out what avg pace I need to maintain to set a new PR and then a goal of  "it better not take me longer than X hours!" For this race the new PR goal was 3:36 or better. This was based on the first time I ran this loop last Spring or Summer. To be fair, however, that time I actually ran 16 miles in 3:37 as we were running the loop backwards and my running partner and I took a wrong turn and had to turn back which added that extra half mile. I finished this race in 3:25:09 officially so I will count this as a new PR for this course. My average pace finished out at 13:20 whereas the average pace for that last loop was 13:38 (had to check just to be sure!). I did decide that I would run this race on feel rather than checking my Garmin and average pace. I set the watch to mileage and current pace and resisted the urge to check my average pace. I wanted to see how I did on feel instead. I figured being that I had a side ache on my last few miles I must have been pushing myself fairly hard, either that or I had too many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at the last two aid stations! I have noticed a correlation to side aches and eating protein too close before running.

What's a race without at least one selfie?

 

The wonderful view of the river!

The never ending river stretch. Where is that hill so I can walk again??

Need to learn how to stop the Garmin watch without looking down for better finish line pictures!

As usual awesome race shirt and I just love the race bib with my name on it!

Race Finishing Stats:
Overall 280/341
Women 114/154
Master Female 39/46

And there you have it. A back of the pack runner! I will have to take solace in the fact that I am running farther and faster than the average person sitting on the couch!

As with all of Rocksteady Running races the quality and organization for this race was exceptional. The volunteers were awesome and the party after the race was enjoyable. With the level of craziness in my life right now both at work and home it was great to be able to stick around and talk to other runners and just hang out after the race. I think this is what I enjoy about these trail races the most is the feeling of community in addition to the enthusiasm and positivity of those involved.

Next up is Eugene Curnow Marathon on the Superior Hiking Trail from Duluth to Carton, MN.   

Race #6/17 Sour Grapes Half & Half Trail Run

This marked race number 6 in the UMTR Trail Race Series. This was also the start of my much needed vacation to the Grand Canyon and Southern Utah. Just a quick car ride (well okay it was about 3 1/2 hours in the wrong direction!) to the race and then once complete many hours in the car driving to the Grand Canyon.

Weather for this race was looking wet. Up at 3:30 am and out the door (with family in tow) by 4 am to make it in time for the start at 8:15. My husband did the driving so I was able to sleep just a little bit longer. When I awoke it was raining cats and dogs! This did not bode well for a dry race. It turned out, however, as we continued to drive north the rain stopped and the roads were dry!

After arriving at the race I sent my husband and son on their way to find something to do as I expected to be running for several hours. I met up with several other UMTR members and we chatted as we waited for the race to start. After brief instructions we were off.

The trails were surprisingly dry and relatively flat. The total elevation gain was only about 500 feet. (not complaining as flat trail races can be a nice change of pace) 

This race was mostly ran alone. It seems that each of my races I find myself running my own pace that does not seem to coincide with others running. This is okay though as I am finding it nice to run alone and spend this time thinking. With all the stress this summer this is working well.

I wore my rain jacket for this race expecting it to start raining on us at any minute. Should have left the jacket behind! The weather was good and the rain held out until the very end. After my initial warm up with tight calves everything felt great. I could tell though that it was time to invest in some new shoes. This race marked about 400 miles on these trail shoes and my heels were starting to feel it.

The only mud to be seen and they brought in wood chips to cover it up!

Even when it did start raining towards the end of the race it was light rain and not cold at all.

A rare half decent race picture!

Erica, Nora and I at the finish.

My official finish time for this race was 2:31:50 which is a PR for a HM trail race. I went into this race without pushing myself too hard as just getting to the race was the difficult part.

Results Stats:
Overall 96/125
Division Place 9/15
Sex Place 40/65
Age Graded Place 86/125

Next race is the William O'Brien 10 Mile Trail Race (this race was postponed until Sept. due to severe rains and the potential for runners damaging the trails)

Race #5/17 Chester Woods 10 Mile Trail Run

Location; Eyota, MN

I went into this race under a lot of stress due to some major events happening in my life beginning just a week before the race. I had originally signed up to run the 50k and had dropped back to the 10 mile distance a while ago when we decided to go on vacation to the Grand Canyon just one week after the race. I was glad I had made this decision in light of the difficulties that arose. On the morning of the race I was ready to lose myself in some trails with an easy trail run/race.

This course is where I completed my first 50k race last Fall and have fond memories of the trail. It is a 10 mile loop that includes many different trail conditions including some asphalt in the park, section of gravel which then turns into horse trail with wood chips. There is plenty of dirt double track trail and a good portion of prairie with some sand thrown in for good measure. The elevation change on this course is mild compared to Afton or Superior so it is a very runnable course.

I arrived at the race debating with myself if I should attempt a PR (last year ran this in 1:58:11) or just enjoy my race. I rode down with a new friend from Red Wing that I had told about the race so the drive down was enjoyable. Met up with many trail running friends at the race and the time until race start went quickly after registration.

Road through the park run to get onto the trail

This years course was changed slightly for the 10 milers so we had to run a loop around the parking area which turned out to be about a mile on asphalt. I ran this much too quickly with an average pace of about 9:38. This is much too quickly for a 10 mile trail race but everything was feeling great. I was happily surprised that I did not experience the calf tightness that I have been experiencing lately during the first two miles of my runs. I had been using "the stick" to roll out my calves so think this may have helped greatly.

The weather was overcast with the threat of rain but other than hearing a few booms of thunder the rain held off for the entire day, including after I was done running the race.

Overcast skies

Nice double track trail

I ran this race alone but chatted with fellow runners as I passed them or they passed me. I was happy to be out running and was in a good place emotionally considering recent events. I was hoping I would see a few of the 50k runners I knew out running the course and saw quite a few on the various out and back loops on the course.

Coming out of the prairie loops headed for the big hill

I remembered this hill being larger last year but with Superior under my belt this turned out to not be as steep as I recalled.

Overall this race went well and I did end up with a PR finishing the race in 1:54:51. I stayed for several hours when the race was over visiting with many of the UMTR trail running friends, having a beer and just enjoying the down time and nice weather.

Race #4/17 Spring Superior Trail 25K

This weekend I ran my 4th trail series race in Lutsen, MN on the Superior Hiking Trail. This was the first time that I have ran this trail that far north. I decided to make a weekend of it and drove up Friday afternoon with a friend and met many other friends up there that evening. We started out with dinner, pre-race meeting and then a walk about a mile up the trail to check out the raging Poplar River and to get look at the trail conditions.

Me, Robyn, Stephanie and Mike

Poplar River

Poplar River

With the race starting at 7am for the 50k runners (Mike and Robyn) and us 25k runners at 9 am we called it an early night going to our rooms.

Woke Saturday morning earlier than I needed to so I went down to registration and watched the 50k runners start their race. The weather was great, the sun was shining and there were not many clouds in the sky.

Mystery Mountain (the first hill to climb)

Moose Mountain (the second hill to tackle)

After relaxing for about another hour I got ready for my race. It was hard deciding what to wear as always. I decided on full tights, calf compression sleeves, thick wool socks (expected to get very muddy and was not at all disappointed!), Short sleeves, thin running jacket, thin gloves, buff and my Nathan hydration pack. I packed my wind/rain jacket just in case the wind picked up and it got cold on the top. Ended up not using that jacket at all and peeled off the running jacket rather quickly.

Pre-race; Stephanie, Melissa, Janet, Nora and Shawn

Nora's friend, Shawn, planned on running the race in the hopes of finishing in 4 hours which was exactly what my goal was so we planned to run together. We left the others behind right away as we took off down the road to get onto the trail.

I felt great for all of this race, similar to running Chippewa. It was definitely great having someone to run with and we kept pace with each other fairly well. At one point we were in a train of runners with one runner ahead of Shawn setting the pace. This continued on for most of the way up Mystery Mountain and then across the top of Moose Mountain. Finally, while we were walking up a small hill I was ready to run again and the lead runner was walking so we found an opportunity to pass her up. We picked up the pace quite a bit and realized that it was possible her pace was just slight slower than we had wanted as we lost the group pretty quickly. We made one wrong turn coming off one hill and realized our mistake and was able to correct it quickly. At this point in the race we thought that it might be possible to come in sub 4 hrs and this became our new goal.

We got into the aid station at the turnaround and both decided that we would not spend any extra time there. I had my bladder refilled to the half way point grabbed a few peanut butter and jelly wedges, had some coke and was back out of the aid station in a matter of minutes.

Out of the aid station we had a steep climb up the Oberg hill which was very challenging. I was still doing well at this point and Shawn was starting to struggle. We stayed together for the most part but I started to pull ahead. He caught up again somewhere during one of the incline's but I soon passed him and then by mutual decision I pulled ahead as I was ready to move on at a quicker pace. According to my Garmin it looked like we would miss our sub 4 hour goal as our average pace was around 17 minutes instead of the 16 minutes we needed. I readjusted my goal to 4:15 and just powered on, power walking the major inclines and running the flats and downhills. My downhill running has improved and I am now less timid on the downhill's which is giving me quicker finishing times overall. (It turns out our Garmin's were not keeping accurate distance so this average pace was slower than our actual average pace.)

Walking up the very steep hills

We encountered lots of mud on the trail.

Awesome trail conditions on most of the trail.

There was still snow on the trail but not enough to really slow us down

Coming down off Mystery Mountain I was still feeling great and a friend told me that when I started hearing the roar of the Poplar River I would know that I only had about a mile left. After crossing the river there was still a little trail left and a small climb but all of a sudden I popped back out onto the gravel road and I knew I was getting close. I picked up my pace and was running sub 10 minute miles trying to speed up my finish. I was no longer paying attention to my time and just pushed myself trying to get under the 4:15. I crossed the finish line at 4:02:42 and was very shocked that I had made up so much more time than I had anticipated.

I am very pleased with how well this run went and after peering at the mountains in the distance pre-race and being told stories of how rough the climbs were I am thrilled that I finished this race so strong. I waited for Shawn at the finish line and he came in only about 6 minutes behind me. I will definitely have to run this race again and who knows maybe next year it will be the 50k instead!

The trails were very muddy in spots. Too busy navigating the ankle deep mud to get good pictures.

Memorial Park Trail Review

Memorial Park Trail Report

Red Wing, MN

Memorial Park is on the bluffs and is located south of Hwy 61 just outside of Red Wing, MN. There are two ways you can get to the trails. You can drive to the top and start at the trail head at the Lower Quarry parking area or you can drive to Mississippi Golf Links and start at what is considered the Clubhouse Trail head. If starting at Mississippi Golf Links you will be climbing the bluffs at the start of your run whereas if you drive up to the top you will be running on the top of the bluffs on the trails. There are still many hills to traverse on the trail so it really just depends on whether you want to climb the bluff for about 2/3 of a mile to start your run.

Clubhouse Trail head with maps

Map showing the Bike trails in blue.

This is ascending the hiking trail to the top of the Bluff. Pavement changes to dirt quickly

 

Hiking trail to the top of the bluff.

There are many trails available to run while out there;

The Mountain Bike trail is single track and includes many switchbacks. It is fun to run. There are a lot of rolling hills along this route. There are some difficult offshoots to the bike trail which includes steeper hills so if you are looking for some more intense hills the black diamond paths are the ones to take.    

Single track Mountain Bike Trails

Single Track Mountain Bike Trails with Switchbacks

There is the hiking trail which is geared more towards hikers and includes more of the Prairies with grass and less dirt. These are also wider trails and do not include the switchbacks like the bike trail. 

Prairie Sections of the trail. There are three Prairies,

Prairie sections. Mostly you just run small sections of Prairie before getting back on the bike trail.

Snowshoe trail has sections that are single track dirt and skirt the Prairies. If starting at the Clubhouse trailhead you can actually take the snowshoe trail up the bluff. This is a steeper route than the hiking trail to the top. It is also single track with lots more branches and leaves on the trail. This is a fun trail to run down but definitely more technical than the hiking trail to the clubhouse. 

Snowshoe Trail I discovered while running back down to the Clubhouse Trailhead

The terrain on the Mountain Bike trail includes dirt, many roots and sticks with some possible sections of meadow running to link up the different sections.  

Each time I go out there I find myself on a different trail. I like to run the Mountain Bike trail counterclockwise as the bikers ride it clockwise. It is safer to run opposite so you can see the bikers coming and can get out of their way. It is the runners that need to yield the trail to the bikers.  The bike trail is marked as a 7 mile loop but when out there running I tend to get about 6 miles on my Garmin watch. This may be because I do not always run all the difficult (black diamond) sections.

Here is a map for the Mountain Bike Trails:

http://www.livehealthyredwing.org/originals/maps/Memorial%20Park%20Trails%20-%20M.B%20LQ%20location%20final2.pdf

Here is the map to the Ski and Snowshoe Trails:

http://www.livehealthyredwing.org/originals/maps/Memorial%20Park%20Trails%20-%20Winter%20clubhousefinal.pdf

Overlooking Red Wing as you run the edge of the bluffs

Overlooking Red Wing residential areas

Overlooking Hwy 58 which goes south of Red Wing

Today I ran 5.8 miles and discovered new trails that I had not discovered last year. This is a fun trail to run and it is fairly technical. Each time I run this trail it seems I get my foot caught in one of the many roots and end up in the dirt. This time I only fell once and practiced my tuck and roll technique! Must have done well as only managed to carry out some trail dirt with me and left no blood behind. 

This is a great trail to run and I would highly recommend it.

Just a little bit of dirt

Good thing I did not hurt myself when I landed on my hands.

Garmin Elevation Chart for my run today.

Just a quick selfie after my run!

Race #3/17 7@7 Trail Race

After the anxiety and anticipation of my last 50k race going into this race was much less stressful. I saw this race as mostly a fun run on a new trail and I was looking forward to an easy race.

This race was held at Seven Mile Creek Park between Mankato and St. Peter, MN. It was a 2 hour drive for me so not a very close race. With a later start at 9 am I did not have to get up super early which was nice.

Upon arriving at the park I picked up my race packet and started looking for the friends that would be running the race. Nora had brought the UMTR banner to get a picture and I figured with a similar pace Kelly and I would run the race together.

This race advertises itself as a hilly challenging course. I studied the elevation chart before the race so knew there would be 4 major hills.

My Garmin Elevation Chart

Without elevation markings it was hard to determine just how steep the hills really were

We started the race and ran out towards the highway to hit the trail. The first hill was right after we turned onto the trail. I know better than to make judgements about the course but after tackling that first hill I told Kelly "was that the first hill? That was nothing." I would soon be eating my words.

Kelly and I kept a pretty good pace and at times were running 10 1/2 minute miles. It took about 2 miles for my calves to loosen up and my ankles to quit hurting. At one point I told Kelly that she was a hard task master and she said she was trying to keep up with me. It seems we were both thinking the other was pushing the pace. Funny how that happens when you run together. We walked a few of the small hills but otherwise ran for quite awhile. There were several water stops on the trail (more than were necessary) but I wore my Jurek waist belt so did not stop at any of the aid stations. It was my goal to see if I could get this race done in the shortest amount of time possible. This race also included a stream crossing that could not be avoided. It was fun to run through it even if my socks and shoes were wet for the rest of the race.

The second hill was also moderate but the third and fourth hill were long and steep. After power walking the third hill you ran a loop at the top and then descended the same hill. This was also true for the fourth and final hill. These two hills were long and quite steep and were definitely hills for walking. As I ascended these hills I made it my goal to power walk them and not to stop to rest until I got to the top and then I walked until I could catch my breath to start running again.

Somewhere along the way I had decided that I would try to beat Kelly to the finish line. We are in the same age bracket of the race series and I had decided I wanted to try my hardest to come in ahead of those I knew to be in the trail series (it turns out that Erica, whom I thought was in my age bracket is actually not).  I pulled out ahead of Kelly a little before the fourth hill and wanted to stay ahead of her both going up and coming down the hill. I managed to stay ahead (just barely). With only about a half mile to go I picked up my pace to try to get ahead. I figured she would be doing the same. As I rounded the last corner and off the bridge I totally expected her to come flying by me. This never happened. As I came up to the finish line I saw the timer said 1:23:17. I sprinted into the finish to try to make it in under the 1:24. My official time in the results shows 1:24 with a pace of 12 minutes miles. I had come in before Kelly and was very pleased with myself.  Overall I am very pleased with how well this race went.

At Kelly's suggestion we snapped this picture at the finish line.

Race number with the tech shirt.