Here's a recap of the 2007 running season for me.
Taste of Delafield 5K June 23 23:13 (first ever race)
Pewaukee Run to the Beach 5K June 27 23:50
Race to the Taste of Chicago July 1 22:48
Hartfest 5K July 7 22:32 (2nd place age/gender group)
Delafield Log Cabin Trail Run 5K 25:10 (2nd place age/gender group)
Lake Country Half Marathon Sept 2 1:41:00
Tosafest 5K Sept 8 20:44 (Personal record for 5K 2007) Try to beat that!
Fox Cities Marathon Sept 22 3:35:00
Glacial Trail 50K Trail Ultra Oct 14 5:58:00
Devil's Dare 45K Trail Ultra Dec 1 5:15:00
No real injuries except for a lingering IT band issue in the ultras. Seems to be a problem in both legs. The right side hurts when running long distances on uneven ground but goes away a day after the run. The left does not hurt during the run but hurts a day or two after the run. It too goes away within a week after an Ultra. It will be good to give it some time off.
What a great 1st season of running!! I hope to be able to run longer Ultras after our travels with a goal of running some 50 milers and even a 100 miler in 2009. 2008 looks a bit light running and long on hiking. Life's good.
Except of course for the 5K on New Years Day in Chicago I just registered for :)
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are all getting out!!
Friday, December 7, 2007
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Devil's Dare 50K Dec 1
The Devil's Dare 50K was held at Devil's Lake State Park. home of the rock climbing center of the Midwest, and one of my favorite parks in the Wisconsin system. I'm not here to climb today. I'm here to run my second and last Ultra of the season.
This race is put on by the fine people from the Madison running group Fat Thigh Thursdays. Brenda, the race director, did a wonderful job. Thanks Brenda!
The race started in nice weather with a a small group attending due to the weather forecast later in the day. Turns out, the drive home would be the crux.
Pics are of the whole group and of me at mile 21 aid station.
This was a grass roots race. Such an awesome group that invited me with open arms, large plates of food, a large fire and after the race a few Millers! Below is a write up from Brenda. She sums the race up as well as I could:
Devils Dare 50k, Devils De-lite 45k, and Beezlebum 23k
The Day started in excellent running conditions. Temperatures were
in the low 20's with highs expected in the mid to upper 20's. It
looked like the course change may have been unnecessary as the
runners queued up for the run. The original course would have taken
runners out to Parfrey's Glen, a steep, rocky, treacherously hilly
run, and then a flat out and back. With 5 inches of snow and sleet
predicted the day before, I decided to use the flatter second half
of the course for the entire run.
All runners left in high spirits, and headed out for the inaugural
event. A light dusting of snow from earlier in the month was still
on the ground, and was quite picturesque as we made our way of the
woods and into the open prairies surrounding Devils Lake State
Park. Runners continued to chat and cheer and happily prance
through the trails on their way to the turn around at mile 7. The
Aid station was expertly manned by Dave Sarocka and Jason Dorgan,
and boy did all the runners appreciate them! By the time runners
were on their way back from the turnaround, the snow had started and
had changed from picturesque to slippery and the wind picked up.
The Start/finish was also the turn around point for the 14 mile out
and back, and is located right on Devils Lake. By the time all the
25k runners had finished, you could no longer see across the lake in
the sideways blowing snow and dropping temperatures.
The weather continued to worsen as the run progressed, oftentimes
causing runners to point their head sideways in some of the open
prairies when the wind picked up and the sleet whipped on their
faces. The snow accumulated to several inches and running became
even tougher. Somewhere around mile 18, the race director (me)
decided to add a new distance to the race. It was originally
designed as a 50k and a 25k, but at that moment I decided to add a
new distance of 28 miles (45k) thereby allowing runners to
officially finish, but skip the brutal 3.5-mile lake loop. It would
also allow everyone to get home faster as the roads were getting
worse by the minute.
At 6 hours and 3 minutes, the last two runners finished the 45k, and
thereby set a PR for that distance. Perhaps not the fastest time
they'll ever run at that distance, but certainly the toughest!
Everyone had a great time, and everyone got back safely. Gene
Taylor had a lovely, warm fire going at the Start/Finish, and the
runners supplied plenty of delicious hot food. Gene and Robert
Wehner helped with the food and fire, and generally made sure
everyone was taken care of while I was out running the course.
(Thanks guys, you're the best!) I love grass roots events like
this, as it shows everyone at their best as they pitch in to make a
great day for everyone.
The "official" results follow.
Name Distance Time
Joel Lammers 50k 4:35:07!
Kevin Radel 50k 5:23:25
Name Distance Time
Adrian Korosec 28 mile 5:17
Laura Clark-Taylor 28 mile 5:37:25
Kristen Johnson 28 mile 6:03:05
Brenda Bland 28 mile 6:03:05
Name Distance Time
Robert Wehner 25k 1:42
Brian Watzke 25k 2:07:58
Jenny Meyer 25k 2:13
Mike Sproul 25k 2:18
Chrissy Wittleder 25k 2:18
Shana Sheiber 25k 2:18
Brian Fuhrmann 25k 2:18
LaDonna Radel 25k 2:42:42
Andrea Cox 25k 2:42:42
Linda Dunk 25k 2:42:42
Brenda
So you can see I opted for the 28 miler. The 3.5 run around the lake is not hard in most conditions, but in 4" of snow, I opted out. This race, thoug flater than the Glacial Trail 50, was much harder due to conditions. A great challenge for true!
My choice of travel home was stupid and I got caught in a huge snow storm with a two-wheel drive pick-up truck with no weight in back. What is normally a 1.5 hour drive took me 3.25 hours. EPIC!
Well that's it for the running season, except for maybe a New Years run. Sad, but true.
Race Day
Up at 5am, at the start at 6am and the gun at 7am. The race starts at the fire station in Greenbush. There were about 200 runners amassed. 104 for the 50K and rest for the 50 miler. Above is a glimpse of the course.
The gun goes off and what seems like the whole group of runners pass me by. I don't look back, but I'm sure most of the runners are ahead. Fine by me I'm thinking. These are seasoned vets. Deep down I know most are going out too fast. It's a long race.
After a few miles I hook up with a group of 4 runners who appear to be friends and running this race together. Their pace suits mine, and I latch on to the rear and enjoy the run.
Aid stations are 8 miles apart and loaded with good food. Soups, chips, pretzels, pickles, olives (see a salt theme here?), and vitamin I as in ibuprofen. Very cool people are ready to help. Coming to the Butler Lake half way aid station I see my Mom, Tanya, Karina and Sierra! How's that for a cheering section?! It's so nice that they were able to meet me for my first trail ultra. Thanks you four!!
As I hit the turn around, this is an out and back race, I look at my watch and it reads 3:00 hours exactly. How cool! I'm feeling strong and my time is better than what I had expected. I'm a bit worried that I'll have the quad pain around mile 20 or so like I did at the Fox Cities Marathon, so my elation is tempered by caution.
I'll keep walking the up hills and shuffling a long with my pacesetter group of four a head of me.
The miles tick by and around 26 I feel like its time to reel in the group and pass them. As I take off a guy from Madison latches on and we start running up hills now too. 5 more miles and still feeling great! A bit of pain in the right IT band by the knee, but nothing a few Advil doesn't fix.
I hit a wall around mile 30 and my buddy passes me, but not before we pass a bunch of other runners. The last mile is tough but I know I'm close when I see the streets of Greenbush. Then, with just a few people amassed, the finish line comes into view. I cross at 5:58!! A negative split finish! I ran the second half faster than the first. I might be getting a hang of this sport after all!!
My time is good enough for a 39 place finish overall, 5th in my gender/age group and 29th out of all males. I'm tired but happy!!
First Ultra Glacial Trail 50K
I was nervous the day before the race. Because the race was over 1.5 hours from my house, I decided to camp out at Mauthe Lake State Park friday night. I packed up the Henry Shire Tarptent to be used on the PCT, and the Western Mountaineering Alpinlite Down bag to be used on the same, and drove to the campground.
The colors were beautiful and the weather nice. I had arranged for my buddy Scott to save me one of the two last spots when I found out he was up there already. He stayed for a while after I arrived and then headed back to Brookfield.
I cooked a light meal, had a couple beers (for carb loading of course) and stoked a fire before kicking back to read a book. I miss the days of solo camping and this was a nice mellow night before what was surely to be one hell of a tomorrow. After a couple hours I let the fire die and crawled into my bag for the night.
I want to take a moment to talk about carb loading before a race. I believe you should run your own run so don't take this as pontification. Take it for what it is, that which works for me. When running long distances, we need to rely more and more on stored energy, rather than immediate simple sugars. Without the stored energy, we'd bonk after 10-15 miles. Stored energy comes in various forms, but complex carbs are most important for runs under 50 miles. So, yes, we must carb load before a race. When, though, becomes the question.
Previous knowledge has taught me that carb loading the night before a race is the way to go. Hence the popular pasta dinners we hear so much about the night before a marathon or other long race. I have found that this does not work for me. Because the race starts early, I do not want a big plate of pasta in my digestive tract minutes prior to the race. Even if you do manage a good "movement" that morning, I still feel heavy. It's the same with water. If you are trying to hydrate the morning of the race, it's too late. I taper the water and food off before the race, replying on the days prior to prepare my energy stores. Water I drink though out the race to replace what I'm losing.
My advice to budding long distance runners is to hydrate and carb load 2-4 days prior to the race. Have a light meal the night before, and keep drinking lots of water until the morning of the race. That morning, if the race starts at 7am like the Glacial 50K does, get up at 5am, have some coffee or tea and a light breakfast. i had pop tarts and a banana. Drink small amounts of water until one hour before the start and then taper to little or no water until the gun goes off. Now you have an empty digestive tract, empty bladder and are ready to go.
During the race, make sure to drink often and eat often. Since you are burning calories and water, you need to replenish. This will not add any weight, rather just keep you even. That's the ticket.
That's just what I did and it worked great.
Up next, the race.
The colors were beautiful and the weather nice. I had arranged for my buddy Scott to save me one of the two last spots when I found out he was up there already. He stayed for a while after I arrived and then headed back to Brookfield.
I cooked a light meal, had a couple beers (for carb loading of course) and stoked a fire before kicking back to read a book. I miss the days of solo camping and this was a nice mellow night before what was surely to be one hell of a tomorrow. After a couple hours I let the fire die and crawled into my bag for the night.
I want to take a moment to talk about carb loading before a race. I believe you should run your own run so don't take this as pontification. Take it for what it is, that which works for me. When running long distances, we need to rely more and more on stored energy, rather than immediate simple sugars. Without the stored energy, we'd bonk after 10-15 miles. Stored energy comes in various forms, but complex carbs are most important for runs under 50 miles. So, yes, we must carb load before a race. When, though, becomes the question.
Previous knowledge has taught me that carb loading the night before a race is the way to go. Hence the popular pasta dinners we hear so much about the night before a marathon or other long race. I have found that this does not work for me. Because the race starts early, I do not want a big plate of pasta in my digestive tract minutes prior to the race. Even if you do manage a good "movement" that morning, I still feel heavy. It's the same with water. If you are trying to hydrate the morning of the race, it's too late. I taper the water and food off before the race, replying on the days prior to prepare my energy stores. Water I drink though out the race to replace what I'm losing.
My advice to budding long distance runners is to hydrate and carb load 2-4 days prior to the race. Have a light meal the night before, and keep drinking lots of water until the morning of the race. That morning, if the race starts at 7am like the Glacial 50K does, get up at 5am, have some coffee or tea and a light breakfast. i had pop tarts and a banana. Drink small amounts of water until one hour before the start and then taper to little or no water until the gun goes off. Now you have an empty digestive tract, empty bladder and are ready to go.
During the race, make sure to drink often and eat often. Since you are burning calories and water, you need to replenish. This will not add any weight, rather just keep you even. That's the ticket.
That's just what I did and it worked great.
Up next, the race.
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