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.