I had not preregistered for this race being so close after the Zumbro 50 mile race just two weeks previous. I started thinking about running this race during the week of the race. By Friday I could not get the race out of my mind. I knew there would be race day registration so made my decision to run on Friday evening. With the decision being made so late I had no time to put together my formal pacing plan. I took the time to look up my past times so I would know what a potential PR would need to be. My tentative goal was to get at least a sub 8 hour race. Last years race was run with a cold so was over 8 hours whereas the previous year my time was about 7:54.
I arrived at the visitor center with not much time to spare. I almost took a wrong turn but realized something did not look right so figured it out without too much trouble. I parked down the hill and walked my way up to register for the race and drop my drop bag for the turn around aid station. I saw many running friends, including, Angela, Karen, Jim, Wendi, Jamison, and Dave. Dave's goal was to run a sub 8 Hour race so I decided to try to keep up with Dave for this race.
With a few announcements and little fan fare we were off. I start towards the back so after running for a few yards we come to a walk as everyone funnels down the hill. Yes, the nasty hill that we are required to tackle at the end of the race. This race circles the visitor center and runs some prairie before hitting the ice age trail which is dirt single track. We run north of the visitor center so get some spectator encouragement about 1 mile into the race.
Although this trail does not have any major elevation climb the never ending rolling hills start to add up. There were a lot of leaves covering up all the roots and rocks on the trail. This course is very technical with roots being the number one obstacle. If you take your eyes off the trail for one second while moving you will end up tripping. I was lucky enough to stay on my feet but did have a few stumbles along the way.
Dave was just ahead of me and I stuck to him like glue. He kept a good pace, just enough to challenge me, but not enough to leave me gasping for air. We hit the aid station just before the turnaround aid station and I kept it quick and got out of the aid station as soon as I could. Dave got out after me and I did not see him on this next section until we were at the turnaround aid station. We made it within 15 minutes of the cutoff time so I had time to spray on some sunscreen and eat something before heading back out. I started the race with Dave in front of me and somehow on the section back I kept in front of him. My stops at the aid station were quick and I continued to run whenever I could. I decided that I would actually try to run faster than my normal shuffle I adapt towards the second half of the race. I figured it hurts to run slow or fast so I might as well go fast, or at least as fast as I could. I made it to the last aid station and decided to make that stop super quick. Dave needed to get more water in his pack so I told him that he could catch up with me and off I went. This last section of the race is mentally tough as it takes you just below the finish line where you can hear everyone and you continue to run away from the finish line for a couple of more miles. I was alone on this section of the trail and pushed myself to run whenever it was runnable, meaning on the downhills and the flats. I pushed myself at this point all the way to the bottom of that hill. Remember the hill? Well I power hiked up that hill and when I get to the top I ran that last bit in, which can be difficult after that big hill!
I was able to PR my race with a finish of 7:52:20 with the help of Dave's pacing.
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| All ready to go! |
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| Watching the Sunrise on the early drive |
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