Tonya and I ran the first pavement section together and chatted. It's tough to know what kind of a speed one should be running when the first half mile or so is flat pavement. As we approached the entrance to the trail, we both slowed down to let the other ahead, which made me giggle. I went for it and hopped in front. Spoiler alert - Tonya glided back by me somewhere around mile 40 and I didn't see her again until the finish.
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I had a couple guys who followed close to me for the first few miles, after peaking over Enger. They weren't from Duluth and since I didn't need to look for the markers in the dark, I just knew where to go, I guess it was easier to just follow me. I had to ditch them for a bathroom break not too far in and then spent the next couple of miles trying to remind myself that it was not necessary to sprint to catch back up with them.
In related thoughts - when you stop to go to the bathroom in the dark, even if it's just kind of dark/mostly getting light, do NOT set down your turned off flashlight. Especially when it's not even your flashlight to begin with. You've stepped off the trail and it's darker in there. No worries, though, since it was getting light out, I was able to find it again after a few moments of telling myself not to panic.
While I managed to not sprint, I did still catch back up to the two guys and bounced around them. It's definitely a big advantage to be so familiar with the trails - I can think things such as, "Okay, this section is covered in leaves, but I know it's not terrible rocky/rooting so I don't have to slow down and watch footing too much."
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Sometime between Haines and Highland/Getchell, I heard these fast steps gaining on me. Along comes Roberto! We greeted each other and then he loped away like a deer through the fog in front of me. He was pretty cool to watch glide away.
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I've realized on longer runs lately that sometimes, I just get sick of water. I don't generally drink a sports drink but will often nab some Coke at aid stations and I think the main reason it looks so good is that it's something that's NOT water. I decided, though, to try carrying a flask of something not water, just to have a sip now and then. So I decided on ginger ale, as that could also help settle an angry stomach. Sometime after Highland/Getchell (8ish miles in), I realized my little flask was leaking all over. Yet another Nathan product that leaks terribly. How fabulous. I was, of course, heading into the longest section between aid stations (which still isn't terribly far, but still). At least once it emptied down, it stopped leaking out the top.
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One of my favorite sections of in-town SHT (of which I have many, I know) is between the zoo and the stairs going either direction. It's another section that I was very happy to know that the footing would be fine under those leaves and I could just coast. The light was just amazing here, too. The sun was up but couldn't make it through the fog and everything had this gorgeous surreal glow to it. I was grinning through most of this :)
When I got to the stairs (134ish steep stairs which are down in this direction), I looked around for a nice stick. Turns out, going up the stairs is so much nicer with a good hiking stick. So I found a nice one for the way back up and stashed it at the bottom of the stairs. Not in a very smart spot, as it turns out . . .
I was also spending a decent part of this section trying to figure out if I would run into the Half Marathoners after they started. I decided I would just miss them and then figured out later that there was no way I would miss them and couldn't figure out why I never ran into them. Turns out, I had the starting time wrong for them so that would explain it and good to know for the future.
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I came into the Magney Aid Station the first time (I'd see them 4 times throughout the race) to be greeted with - COWBELL! Now, I have an irrational love of cowbell during a race, so this was fabulous. Misty could also tell that I enjoyed and so she gave it a few more enthusiastic rings for me. Never enough cowbell! Also a positive - I came into the aid station from the right direction. Apparently some of the people in front of me took a wrong turn and came the wrong way. There was really only one confusing crossing for me. It was a crossing that was talked about in pre-race babble but it was still confusingly marked to me (and apparently to others since that's where they turned wrong). I was able to reason it out without too much difficulty, though.
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I started seeing 50kers a lot earlier than I expected (including a guy I recognize from the trail series who was plugged into his iPod and singing along, which was amusing). I decided I wanted to cross Skyline before seeing any women 50kers and I almost made it! Just the women's leader came by me before I hit Skyline, so I figured that was okay :) I just love out and back courses - it's so fun to see everyone. With Wild Duluth, the 50kers start at the 100K turnaround so we get to see all of them, too, so even more fun.
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I beat my crew to the Munger aid station. This, of course, being one of the times when I needed more e-gel. Happily, he drove up just as I was trying to decide if I should grab the Hammer gel Molly was offering! And I seem to have only mentioned my awesome crew in terms of where he almost missed me, which simply won't do. My friend Jeremy came up from the Cities just to drive around back roads for 18 hours for me. He's pretty awesome. This is a race that doesn't really need a crew - the aid stations are well spaced, there are drop bag options, and the volunteers are, of course, awesome and helpful. However, I like having crew. It's nice to not have to worry about the number of gels you have or dig/search for a drop bag and then dig in the drop bag. It's also nice for things like switching from a water pack to a hand held - which I did for the middle 14 miles. It was nice to get the pack off my back since I was getting hot with it on and didn't want to shed a layer of clothes. Plus it's just nice to get weight off of your back. I'll have to continue to remember this.
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I caught back up to Roberto after the Munger aid station. Which worried me a bit - was I running too fast? I'd wondered this a couple times previously but mostly came up with the same thing - I could tell I was still holding back some but was running a nice, comfortable pace so that must be the pace I should be going.
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When the Superior Hiking Trail crosses the four wheeler trail right before the Voyageur course is when we got off the SHT and started on the detoured part of the course for 10 miles or so. Very shortly, we joined back up with the Voyageur trail and headed for the river crossings - three of them. Well, one river (creek, that is. Mission Creek) crossed three times. I decided ahead of time that it would probably be worth taking the time to step on rocks to keep my feet dry and happily, that turned out be very do-able and easy.
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The only time my stomach was annoyed the whole race was while running down the flat DWP trail. It was probably the shock of suddenly running a consistent speed! I had caught up to Kevin Mackie coming out of the Skyline/Becks aid station and we ran together and chatted for a while. I let him go ahead and a bit later - BAM out of nowhere I'm dry heaving. Luckily, Lisa had given me some ginger chews to experiment with. I dropped to a walk, popped one of those, and maybe a minute later tried running again and was fine! It was fabulous! I will now have those things on me at all times!
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As Ron and I crossed paths, he told me this fabulous rumor that the turnaround had soup! I was very excited for some soup! Yum. Yum. Yum. Time for soup. And then I got to the turnaround and completely forgot to ask for it. Ooops. However, I did have a happy surprise waiting for me - Jeremy had somehow managed to get Kyle to come out. Granted, he didn't look too happy about it, but it was nice to see him anyway and he got a sweaty hug. Even more shocking was seeing him a second time - at my last time through the Magney aid station. Thanks for coming out, husband!
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Downhill was starting to be a bit painful now. Not a good sign since I was but halfway through but . . . onward! I also did a lot of walking on the DWP on the way back. This is where I decided that an all flat ultra would be no fun because you feel just plain silly walking a flat. I had some bikers head by me while I was walking. Then I would run some, and walk some, and run some, and I walked through the tunnel since it is all dark and lit by glowsticks (and a hidden Halloween motion detector noise maker which for some reason didn't spook me the first time by). Only to find the same group of bikers sitting on the trail and watching me walk by. I felt like reassuring them that I hadn't been walking this whole time when they asked how far I was going. When they passed me again, I had just finished walked across the last railroad bridge and though I started running after the bridge (which is rather sketchy and not so runnable at that point) I again felt like calling out to them "Look! I'm running now! I haven't been walking this ENTIRE time! Really!" I restrained myself, though :)
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Tonya passed me strongly in the next section. I had pulled over to water some leaves and on by she zoomed. I thought I might pull her back in but while my uphills stayed strong, my downhills only got worse so away she continued to zoom :)
Since this was my second bout of leaf watering in a very short period of time, I dug out the wet wipes and have now discovered the (mostly) joy of wet wipes instead of leaves. Next is to search for ones without alcohol and that's all I'll say about that particular topic. . .
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Somehow, coming into the Munger aid station, I was all confused and thought I was not making the Munger cut off for some reason. After several minutes of worry, I was able to solve the problem by LOOKING AT MY WATCH. Seriously. This all started because I thought it was much later in the day than it actually was but did I take that first moment of worry to check my watch? Heavens, no. First I stressed for a while. Then I double checked the card I wrote aid station distances and cut offs on. THEN I checked my watch and coming into the aid station, I was three hours ahead of the cutoff. Awesome. No need to worry about that.
Also awesome? It was time to pick up my pacer! I was chanting the list of things I needed to do in my head (and out loud once I came into the aid station), so I didn't forget anything - gloves, gel, body glide, flashlight, not necessarily in that order. I was super worried about forgetting something and while I seemed to have lost my gloves some time during the day, I had packed mittens, too, and so all was good. Time to head up Ely's Peak! Let me tell you - that was something I had been a little worried about ahead of time. Silly me. I was SO EXCITED to head up. Uphill felt great and I was excited to have Marcus with me and excited to head uphill I think I bounced out of that aid station.
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Coming over Ely's Peak, there were two high school kids walking around off the trail and singing Phantom of the Opera at the top of their lungs. I don't think they saw us running along and so I sang the next line back to them, which seemed to startle them a bit but I enjoyed it :) The song was then stuck in my head for the next while . . .
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Part of what was awesome about Wild Duluth for me is that I knew someone working at almost every aid station. Not only does it make them fun and more comfortable, but you have a new way of mentally going from aid station to aid station - only 2 miles and then I get to see Wayne! Again!
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A good thing I learned was that I am not someone who needs to beware the chair. I sat down at Munger to dig through my bag and it was quite comfy and it was no problem getting back up. I was actually really looking forward to being able to sit at aid stations from then on while I guzzled some soup and I had no trouble with getting myself going again. This is good to know! I did, however, avoid any cozy looking campfires, since those DID seem like a bad idea. If I was getting cold, it was clearly time to eat on the move and get going.
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Wild Duluth is before Halloween. Which means the Timber Twister at Spirit Mountain has this haunted ride thingy going on. So here we are, running nicely through the woods in the dark among people randomly screeching their way down the hill. Not scary but definitely strange.
Have I mentioned how downhills sucked? It's strange to go through the "W" of the SHT and be excited for the uphills . . . I was telling myself "Okay, only two more downhills left. Except there's that one right before 40th. Three left. Wait, you have to come down off of Piedmont Knob, too. Time to stop counting."
We came to the stairs and I immediately saw that my suspicions from earlier were true - my carefully dropped stick was nowhere to be found. Completely expected since I had dropped it right in front of the direction sign . . . I had realized that was a silly place to put it back when I dropped it there but wasn't going to turn around and move it. It was just as well, though - I was doing uphills just fine so someone who needed it more than me was able to use it.
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Right before the 24th Avenue aid station, there were these lovely tin luminaries set along the trail. Quite nice in the dark and they made me smile. Or that could have been the joke Marcus was cracking at the time. We'll go with both.
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Somewhere in here I reminded Marcus that I had run up to Enger at every Wild Duluth thus far and he was supposed to remind of that later. Of course, once we got there, I found I didn't so much care, even though two guys came zooming by us and Marcus tried to get me interested in chasing them back down. I decided I need to save my strength for going DOWN the hill. So by now I'm just moving slow in general as opposed to just moving slow on downhills. And downhills were just plain no good. You don't want to know how long that last 3 mile section took me. In fact, apparently, Marcus was laughing at my poor shaking legs! Punk. The happy news is that mostly, it was my IT bands that were weak super early on and that is so very fixable.
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Coming over the bridge over the highway, my brain heard a familiar sound but didn't really register it. As we turned the corner and came down the ramp, however, I realized that there was a train coming at us. A train. At whatever middle of the night time it was (somewhere around midnight). And we had to cross railroad tracks and there was NO way in hell I was going to stand there and wait so . . . time to speed up. Turns out we made it to the tracks well before the train and didn't have to worry about it at all. In any case, the trail turned out to be only a single engine chugging along (at midnight? What was it doing?) so it's not as though it would have been a big deal, anyway.
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Once we hit the sidewalk, I decided I needed to run the rest of the way in. After all, it was flat - right? My ability to do this clearly indicates that I could have lugged myself up Enger while running and I shouldn't have worried that it would make the downhill worse. I even picked the pace up a little coming into the finish. Waiting for me was the cruel taskmaster who kept making my night happy by showing up at all the aid stations. And here she was, demanding a heal click jump across the finish line. I obliged. Sort of. It felt like a great leap to me, anyway, though I didn't even try for a heal click and I probably got MAYBE a couple inches off the ground. Then I gave Lisa a nice sweaty, tired hug for being out there for me.
Finished!!! Slower than I wanted but happy and Kim gave me my awesome finisher hat, which I now wear everywhere.
Lisa then led me into the building to get warm. Where I was greeted by applause from those who had already finished and were still hanging out. I have to admit, that was pretty cool. I was already grinning from finishing but now I just kind of stood there and grinned more. I also got to pass it on to those who came in after me and it was fun to watch others enter to applause, too.
I really enjoyed this race. The 100K distance is pretty great and I'm sad there aren't more of them around. I also currently live in my hoodie since it's awesome and comfy and I'm damn proud of it.
