(Mis)Adventures on the North Shore: Lake Superior 50k Race Report.

As you can probably tell from the title, everything did not go to plan this past weekend.

The short version: This post got long, as they tend to do, so if you don’t have a lot of time, here’s the short version. I wanted to mix it up at the front of the race this time, so I went out quickly. I ran through the halfway point, feeling strong, in 6th place, but at mile 17 or so my quads cramped and I fell off the pace. The next 5 ½ miles were a sufferfest, until a friendly fellow runner suggested I take in some serious calories. I ended up rallying over the last 8 miles of the course, passing two more runners while being passed by one, and finished strong  in 13th place in 5 hours, 10 minutes (a PR by over an hour for the distance).

And I learned more about these long trail races.

Friday: The day before the race we spent 1) getting to the North Shore, 2) poking around several state parks, 3) attempting (unsuccessfully) to start a campfire and 4) attempting (semi-successfully) to sleep.

Lutsen is a bit over 4 hours from my house in St. Paul. We took the straight shot up I35 to Duluth, where we stopped for lunch (smoked lake trout from the Northern Waters Smokehaus), wandered around Canal Park, and filled up the tank before heading the rest of the way up the Shore. On the way, we stopped by one of my favorite places: Gooseberry Falls State Park, where the eponymous falls were raging with the spring melt and recent rains. When I was young enough to live in Duluth, but old enough to drive, I used to make the hour trip on a regular basis and climb around on the various rock formations (occasionally startling unsuspecting tourists who were unaware of just how sure-footed I am).

After a brief stop in Lutsen to pick up my race number and shirt, we grabbed firewood and checked in at the Cascade River State Park campground on our way up to the Angry Trout in Grand Marais for dinner. If you ever happen to find yourself on the north shore, I highly recommend the Pissed Off Perch (as it’s known in my family). The meals are pricey, but the fresh lake trout, wild rice, asparagus, and salad was well worth it.

Once we set up camp, we turned to the firepit with the hope of getting a fire going, because what’s a camp site without a fire?

Not a chance of that. We tried for two hours to get the fire going. We eventually resorted to torching the wood over my Biolite Camp Stove in the hopes that we could dry it enough that it would light. When that didn’t work, I drove to the nearest town to find more firewood, only to find that the gas station was closed. The firewood was just sitting on the porch, but I just was not about to take it.

Finally, a bit before 10PM, we gave up and turned in. I think I slept until about 3:30, before I had to step out of the tent to dehydrate a bit. At that point, I realized that my pad had been leaking the whole night. And while I hadn’t noticed it while I was asleep, it did keep me from falling back asleep. I’m not sure my fiancee ever fell asleep at all. This is the last time I try camping for a spring race in Minnesota. It isn’t worth the money you save.

Gooseberry

Cascade River. Shutter Priority mode is pretty fun for water picks. Now I just need to find my little tripod. 

Again, shutter priority mode. I think this was 0.6s exposure.

Saturday (the race):

Despite the lack of sleep and other misadventures of the night, I still felt pretty good at the start line. After checking in, I chatted with a few of the other runners before being ushered up to the start line, mostly discussing (as ever) why I chose to leave Colorado, given that I am a trail runner. Some day I will touch on that here, but not today.

At the start line, the RD proceeded to quite literally call out the runners who had picked up their packets the day before but not checked in the morning of. Asking for “Eric Olsen” in a crowd of Minnesotans is, unsurprisingly, not specific enough. And then, with zero fanfare and no warning, it was “5-4-3-2-1-go!”

No gun. No anthem. Just the announcement.

Start to Oberg (7.75 miles, 1:06:30)

I had several goals for this race: number one was to mix it up at the pointy end of the race (the top ten or so) for as long as I could.  With this in mind, I took off for the first half mile of road with a group of 6 others who had sprung off the start line. The pace was quick, but felt sustainable to me. At the start of the single track, where the course hit the Superior HIking Trail, the group spread out a bit, and I found myself both passed and passing as we sorted out order by who was better at the uphills.

I found myself somewhere around 8th place for a bit, talking with a guy from Iowa named Andrew (he was behind me, and I never did see what he looked like). I mentioned having moved from Boulder, and he said “the thing that amazes me about you Western runners is how quick you are on the downhills.”

Bam! There was my strategy. I had passed fewer people than had passed me on the uphill. But as soon as we hit the first descent, I shot off the front of my group, and quickly caught and passed the next group ahead of me. I consider myself a mediocre descender in Colorado, but it seems I am comparatively much better here in the Midwest. At the bottom of the first descent off Mystery Mountain, I tacked myself onto the trail of a guy in Salomon gear and would stay on his tail until the halfway point. In the saddle between Moose and Mystery mountains, we encountered the first major stretches of mud, which would be our constant companion through the rest of the race.

The ascent and descent off of Moose Mountain went similarly, but being closer to the front of the field, I stayed in the same position the whole time, losing a bit of ground on the ascent and gaining it back on the descent. We (Salomon and I) ran into the first (Oberg) aid station together, with a spectator telling me I was in fifth position. I was in sixth, but either way was closer to the front of the field than I thought.

Oberg to Sawbill (5.5 miles 52:45)

With a quick refill for my 2x10oz water bottles and a quick gulp of water from the station, I was off again at 1:06 on the clock, chasing Salomon down what was supposed to be the smooth, runnable section of the trail for the day. It was smooth, and runnable, and muddy as all get out. I had kept my feet mostly dry up until this point, but quickly gave up on that as we splashed through (so far) ankle-deep mud in this boggy section of the course. The pace was still pretty quick this point, but I was well within my estimated splits for a 4:30 total time, and feeling remarkably fresh for the 10 miles or so we had finished to this point.

Sawbill-Carlton-Sawbill (4.5 miles ~33)

I continued running with Salomon through the Sawbill aid station, where I refilled my bottles again and he ran through onto a short boardwalk section. This stretch, with just about 2 hours on the clock, felt fantastic after the rough, muddy, rocky trails we had just traversed. I would guess I hit upwards of 6:30 pace on the boardwalk, slowing considerably as I hit the rocky, technical, and washed-out trail up Carlton Peak. This is also where the race leaders started coming back to me, likely as much as twenty minutes ahead of me and moving quickly.

The top of Carlton Peak, and the turnaround point at 15.5 miles, came with 2:17 on the clock and the race marshall at the top saying “you’re 3 ½ minutes late, and I have water, juice, and beer, but you’re too soon to be wanting beer, I bet.”

Have I mentioned I love goofy race marshalls? This was exactly the ridiculousness I needed at the halfway point of a long, hard race. I rounded the cone and headed back downhill, going for several minutes before I saw any more racers coming up behind me. Down the technical trail, along the boardwalk, I got the first inkling of what was coming: twinges in my quads suggesting I was heading for a major cramp fest.

In retrospect, at this point, I should have immediately taken in calories, salt, and as much water as I could before the aid station. But this is only my second 50k, and I am still learning. And let’s face it: I was surprised. I had been hitting my nutrition well, draining my bottles between each aid station, and taking water at each as well. But as I hit the station at 14 minutes or so down from the peak, I was not thinking clearly, and did not do enough.

Sawbill to Oberg (5.5 miles, ~1:11)

The next 5.5 miles over to Oberg were a sufferfest. This section took me 52 minutes on the way out, and would take me 1:06 on the way back. I had to walk anything beyond a gradual uphill, and the muddy patches had been churned up enough at this point that I had to pick my way through them as well, lest i lose a shoe. For the first half, I kept looking back over my shoulder, wondering where the heck the runners behind me were, since despite the encouragement from the slower 50k runners I felt like I was barely moving.

It was also in this section that I thought about DNF-ing. I was wobbly, and uncertain of my footing. I knew that, unless I turned things around, I would risk injury on the 7 ¾ mile section from Oberg to the finish: the most technical section of the course.

Eventually, inevitably, the runners behind me started to catch up. It seemed like there were trains of them passing me, and eventually, I worked up the energy go tag onto the back of a train of two. I talked a bit, and they gave me the (seemingly) brilliant advice of “Eat as much as you can, right now.” Thank you Peter and Cody, wherever you are. You remind me why I love trail running so much.

I followed their advice, eating my Honeystinger Chews and downing a VFuel. I immediately felt better and tagged after Peter and Cody to the Oberg Station. I lingered here a bit, downing a couple cups of Coke, and four blonde Oreo cookies. I also watched the lead woman run by, still looking pretty smooth and fast.

Oberg to the Finish (7.75 miles, 1:27:30)

I managed to pick it up here a little bit, losing about the same amount of time over an extra 2.25 miles of distance as I did between Sawbill and Oberg. I think the added food helped quite a bit. But this was also where we picked up the 25k runners, who had started two hours after the 50k. Passing runner after runner, who were after all running half the distance, gave me a huge mental boost.

I ran much more of this section than the prior section. I had scouted the route on the downhills outbound, and on the way back I ran everything but the steepest sections. Well, the steep sections and the muddy sections, which were now even more torn up from the added pressure of the 25k. It got to the point where I felt bad that we were tearing up the trail so much, but there we were.

I was only passed by one other 50k runner during this section, and I passed two, which is always a boost mentally. More than anything else, though, I passed one 25k runner who yelled “You look so good! You’re my inspiration!” at my back.

Up and over Moose, and over Mystery again, and I was on the final downhill into the finish. I really picked it up the last mile of doubletrack and roads, party due to one 50k runner I had passed passing me back. I was not going to allow that.

A few yards before the finish line, I patted a young 25k runner on the back, said "let's kick it in," and I crossed the line in 5:10, good for 13th place over all.

Reflections:

I did a lot right this time. I trained well for the distance, with more speed workouts, and one very long training run.  I knew I could go the distance, at the very least. And I knew I had some speed if I needed it.

I went for it. I wanted to go out there and try to mix it up at the sharp end of the field, and that’s exactly what I did for the first half of the race. But if I’m going to do that, I need to take in calories at a higher rate: on the order of a gel every 35 minutes rather than 45 minutes.

The other thing I need to do is find technical trails to train on in and around the Twin Cities. I had been lulled into complacency with regard to the trails around here, but the Superior Hiking Trail is a different beast entirely. I think that is where the cramping came from (combined with the inadequate calorie intake), because it was focused in my adductors. With a little extra training on the technical stuff, I think I have a chance at doing better next year.

I am happy to report, though, that I don’t seem to have lost any of my prowess at the technical trail, just my fitness. Three days after the race, my legs are feeling pretty decent, all things considered, and I’m pondering my next race. I am already signed up for a silly 5k (the Electric Run) in a few weeks, and am considering a 5k trail race a week from Wednesday.

Gear

Shoes: Altra Lone Peaks 1.5

Shorts: Salomon Exo Skins 2-in-1.

Belt: Ultimate Direction Jurek Endure

Fuel: VFuel Gels (5), Honeystinger Chews (1), Endurolyte Caps