Minnesota Voyageur 50 Mile Trail Race

First 50 under my belt!

Started thinking about doing a 50 in mid-May when I found out how many of the KC Trail Nerds would be heading out to Oregon for the PCT 50 Mile run near Portland/Mt. Hood. Considering that I have lots of friends out there, throw in the possibility of a cross-country road trip, and ice it with a nice ultramarathon - what else could you want?

Well, for starters, $$$. Flying would be too expensive, and in order to drive the route, I'd need a traveling mate to split gas costs with. After over a month of searching, no such mate could be found. BUT, it'd be a shame to waste the 6+ weeks I'd spent optimistically training, so I started looking for another possibility. After finding out about the Minnesota Voyageur 50 Mile race the same day up in Duluth, MN (calculating that it would be barely within my gas budget) and getting a hearty recommendation from 5-time finisher Bad Ben, I decided to do that instead.

Got some serious running karma beforehand. A group called Sage Hospitality is sponsoring a promotion called Give A Day, Get A Night, in which they'll give you free lodging in exchange for 8 hours of documented volunteering for a registered non-profit. With the hours I've spent race volunteering and weed whacking, and having one of their participating hotels in Duluth, Bad Ben was more than happy to sign off on my time. Running volunteering pays for running lodging. :D

Arrived Friday afternoon to Carlton, MN (pop: 810) for packet pickup, and found out that the race was part of (or at least coincides with) the town's summer festival. Headed over to the hockey rink(!) for a spaghetti feed and to hopefully chat up some other runners. As was mentioned two years ago in Gary Henry's Voyageur race report, no luck for non-beef eaters, so I had two heaping plates of unsauced spaghetti.
Met a family of ultrarunners - the 33 year old daughter (Kathleen) and her father (Norm, 70) would be running tomorrow, and the mother had a broken arm, so she would "only" be running the 5K that night before. Found out that Norm was the same gentleman mentioned in Gary's report who in 2007,
"A few miles out of the turnaround ... had realized he wasn't going to make the 6-hour cutoff. But instead of going on and taking himself out at the 25-mile mark, he turned around and headed back to DNF at the finish. He said he didn't come to the race to just do 25 miles." I like this guy - instead of legitimately being pulled off the course after 25mi, he actually bends the rules so that he could run 44mi.
Ended up eating with a nice 26-year-old guy from Colorado Springs named Brooks, who was hoping for a sub-8 hour and was planning on spending the night in his car. Just had to pass the good running karma along, so invited him to room with me. We watched most of the 5K together, talked with some local residents (who had lived in town all their life and had no idea Voyageur existed!), and headed to the hotel.

Duluth is beautiful! Driving into it on I-35 coming over the hills to see it laid out before Lake Superior made me gasp!

Only the second ultra I've used drop bags for, still feeling out what I'd need, so packed my three for the next day with everything I thought I might conceivably want. Hope to pare that down once I get a bit more experience. (Comments welcome here) Forecast called for scattered rain pretty much all day, so waterproofed things in ziplock bags, finished reading Once A Runner (not really related to ultrarunning, per se, but the author does an excellent job of communicating the intimate details of running in general) and drifted off to sleep.

Arrived an hour early, milled around, got stuck in the line for the john (as usual), and geared up.
Goals:
1. Finish
2. Sub 10 hour would be nice
3. Mark Inbody & Steve Plumb were also up representing the Nerds, and it'd be nice to finish near (or beat) them.
Plan is to reign myself in for the first 25mi and then let loose whatever is left on the way back.

142 starters. Down the city street three blocks, onto the asphalt bike trail and out of town onto a trail in a half-mile. First section was nice & technical, bordering the St. Louis river. Slick rounded river rocks instead of the sharp edged rocks we have here in MO/KS made footing a bit more tricky, but pleasant way to start. EXCEPT. Hornet. Or biting fly. Whatever it was, 2 miles in I yelp as a sudden sharp pain erupts from the back of my thigh and I see something twice as big as the biting flies at WyCo fly off, laughing at my attempts to swat it. Couple locals running behind me get a guffaw at my expense.

Quite a few fellow runners remark on my Trail Nerds jersey. :)

Swinging bridge! Over a beautiful river gorge! Can't help myself - turn a few pirouettes to take in the full view, start bouncing on it, hit it just right to get about 2' of air. :) First aid station, 3.4mi in at 32min. Too fast. I feel like I am noticeably reigning myself in, but still holding sub-10min pace. Hmmm....

Trail broadens to double track, no too technical. Still feeling good, taking salt every half-hour and a goo every hour, plus various aid station pickings. Trying to polish off at least a liter of water between each aid station. Keeping a nice, even pace with little effort and somehow I'm still right at 10min pace.

Fun little deep ravine that we go in & out of gets me thinking of a fun race concept - Rim to Rim to Rim to Rim to Rim (Etc). Find myself a nice deep gulley, whack out 5mi of trail, and sponsor an out-and-back race that has zero flat sections, just weaves in & out. I'd love it, at least. We'll see...

Hit the infamous Power Lines at mile 10.6 - whee! I love hills! I'm told that there are 7 hills in this section, but only two are beyond ordinary - super steep, non-switchbacked medium length hills of single track bare dirt. Would be quite hard if there was any mud, but dry as a bone and very runnable. I do remember Ben's advice to resist my inclination to burn them - for one hill - and generally enjoy myself. :-D

Keep ticking along steady until Fond du Lac, 15.5 mi in. Still not feeling a thing, so start letting myself stride out a bit on some fun downhills. 10min pace going strong. Start thinking my sub-10hr goal is a piece of cake (if I hold 10min, I'd be in at 8:20!). Taking goos & salt regularly, drinking, just enjoying the beautiful woodland scenery.

Race leader Andy Holak passes me heading back around mile 21, looking fresh. I hit the last aid station before Turnaround Zoo at 21.7 miles in, letting the pace slow up a bit (finally) as I'm starting to feel it in my legs a bit, and suddenly OH CRAP PAVEMENT. Lots of it. 0.7+ mi pavement uphill, and then interspersed pavement & mostly gravel trail until the half-way point. It's hard to describe how horrid pavement feels after 20+ miles of trail.

Count myself around 45th as I meet people coming out from the turnaround (Brooks is running 10th). For the first time ever in an ultra, decide not to change my socks/shoes halfway through. Yay Merino socks! Yay Sophia, Mizuno Rep & Pub Trivia night teammate extraordinaire! My new Ascends are holding up great! Hit the turn around just under 4:30. Sub-10 is in the bag, right?

See Mark Inbody only 6min behind. Really start to feel the pavement heading out from the turnaround. By the time I hit that long paved downhill, my feet are quickly becoming hamburger style. I feel the toenails committing seppuku with each step. Insert walking here. Mark catches me.

Then my arch-nemesis comes into play. I've consistently dealt with major leg muscle soreness on practically every run I've done over 18miles since January. Tried adjusting fluids, salt, calorie intake, shoes, etc to no avail. Didn't occur at Psycho WyCo 50K a few weeks beforehand, so I was hoping I had the problem beat. Nope! After the pavement comes major soreness - no cramping or sharp pain, just an impossible-to-ignore loud ache. Struggle to keep 12-min pace, more walking. First thought of "20 more miles? How am I ever going to finish this, let alone a hundred" enters my mind.

I stop to pee! For the first time ever in an ultra! It's rather yellow, but the fact I'm peeing means I'm doing a good job of hydrating during an ultra, right??

Hot spot on my big toe, stop to get it taped up at Fond du Lac. Thanks for the Duck brand Duct-Tape bandages from Christmas, Mom. See Steve Plumb & father for the first time, they've been gaining steadily on me since the turnaround. Also 15 miles to go seems much more manageable than 20.

Aid station workers have been frustrating thus far. The elementary school brigade was out in force in the morning, which was cool to see, but they knew little about aiding a runner. The one kid I handed my waist pack to to fill ended up completely twisting the hose & water sack inside the pack, which cost me a few minutes to undo. Also - no pitchers, just lots of cups. So I could refill my water pack at a rate faster than "trickle", ended up reaching under the table (or in one case, grabbing out of a guy's hand after a frustrating exchange) for the gallon jugs of water they were using to fill the cups. Good selection of food though, and the turnout at each station is impressive. Just wish they could have perhaps placed one experienced ultrarunner at each station who could teach the rest of the volunteers how to help runners. If I was one of the folks there running Voyageur as my first ultra, I would have sorely missed the valuable counsel ultrarunners can give you mid-race. The Nerds have spoiled me.

After a few walk breaks, feeling good again and ready to show the Power Lines who's boss. And I do. I can't help it - I burn the hills, catcall, laugh, suck oxygen, and generally act like a speeding goof. Despite the forecast, it hasn't more than misted yet, the hills are perfectly dry, and I just power up them. Know I'll pay for it later, but am having too much fun to care.

Once the mental boost from the hills passes, the next five miles are rough. A fellow I'm running with tells me that "You run the most even pace I've seen", which I happily take as a compliment, considering that's exactly what I'm trying to do. As Dory from Finding Nemo says, "just keep swimming, just keep swimming". Sore sore sore, but alternatingly refusing to whine or looking around to make sure no one has a shovel.

Hit the 5.2 mile aid station with my right calf completely locked up, soreness almost overwhelming. Have realized by this point that it's major lactic acid build-up, and am drinking as much as I can handle (which evidently isn't enough). Take a look at my watch (which I purposely put away at the turnaround) and see that I've really fallen off pace - I'm at 9:30 with 5 miles to go; no way I'm pulling a sub-10 now. Sad. Decide to walk the next stretch, rather than continuing my soreness-shuffle, in hopes of being able to run the last 3.4mi technical fun finishing stretch. Have about a dozen people pass me, which is frustrating this close to the finish.

Successfully prevent myself from running the one tempting hill on that stretch, hit the final aid station feeling...better. Less sore. Start moving again, realize that, at least for now, I can ignore the pain enough to put some mental energy into moving my legs faster. Suck it up and tell myself it's no different from hitting the three mile mark at Clinton Lake long run, start moving at a decent pace. NOW it starts to rain, a regular down pour before too long. Can't help but think that I would have avoided this completely if I had just met my goal time. But I'm in cruise control on towards the finish, legs pumping, soreness ignoring, rock hurdling, and actually re-passing a half-dozen of the folks. Half-mile of pavement at the end almost breaks the tiny bit of zone I've built up, but bring it in strong for a 10:50 finish. Oh well, it was my first 50, and sub-10 will come this fall at Heartland or Blue Springs

Except for the ending rain, weather was perfect - started high 50's / low 60's, finished in mid-70's, scattered clouds all day, humidity nothing noticeable for this Midwestern boy, temperature regulation didn't merit a stray thought from my mind all day.

Also first ultra that I haven't fertilized the trail somewhere along the lines of the race. *Shrugs*

Showers are available in the school after the race! But the hot water is gone. Enjoy my third pasta meal in a row with the post-race lasagna & salad. No Jello salad, though - I've been in MN 24 hours and am quite disappointed. Look for Brooks - he's nowhere to be found, but his car is there. Find Kathleen, Norm & wife and sit to chat for a bit. She finished well, just over 11hrs, and Norm didn't make the final aid station before the 6-hour cutoff, so he had to drop there. They say they'll be at Rocky Raccoon, so looking forward to seeing them again.

Sit around for much too long getting cold & stiff, since there's no awards until 8p. Directors end up moving the ceremony to 7:20 so people can head out. Was somewhat surprised to get a mug instead of a medal. Nothing was mentioned in the literature, but in my experienced, I just assumed all ultras give medals or buckles.

Still no Brooks, but his car is still there. Wonder if he made his goals of top-10 and sub-8. Expect that I'll see him at the hotel later, and head back. Stop off at the grocery store for buffalo wings, salt & vinegar chips, and Naked juice. Mmmm... Watch some of the Transformers movie and drift off.

Am tired enough in the morning that I decide not to take any scenic routes on the return trip home, and head back to KC, tired, happy & sucking on my new Voyageur water bottle. :)

Lessons learned:
-I'm at a level where I can easily tick off at least 15 miles at 10min pace. :)
-I get sore because of lactic acid build up. I need to drink more. I am already drinking much more than my body is telling me I need. Grrr. Reading/research shall commence.
-How you feel at mile 30 is not how you feel at mile 47 (or 35, 40, 38.1023, etc)

Post-race note: someone posts a link on the UltraList Monday after the race with an article about Voyageur. I skim it and find the next-to-last sentence says that Brooks Williams, 26, of Colorado Springs, CO was taken to the hospital after collapsing a half-mile from the finish. Oh, crap - I don't have his phone number, and am trying to find him on Facebook. Prayers are appreciated.