Despite being my first DNF at a race longer than 5k, I would consider this race a success.
I went into it with the mentality of using this as a test event. I wanted to try out fuels, pacing, and strategies I might use on my hoped-for run on the Border Route Trail later this year. I also wanted to see how well my training was going. And to truly do all of that, I needed a bit of a unique event.
This “race” is formatted much like the Barkley Marathons, though it is much less intense on the whole. It consists of three approximately 10-mile laps in Seven Mile Creek park in Mankato, Minnesota. Each lap, there are 11 books you have to find and take a page from, and one hole punch, to prove you went in the proper order. There was an aid station at the start and finish, and one in the middle of each lap. All told, a very intriguing format, and something I was very much looking forward to.
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| First Campfire of the Year |
I headed down to Mankato the night before, planning to stay the night in Minneopa State Park.
I learned quickly that my idea of camping is different than many other people’s. As far as I could tell, there was exactly one other tent in the campground, the rest being approximately a third full of RVs of various stages of ridiculousness The nearest to me, unfortunately, was running a generator Nonetheless, I set my tent up for the first time this year, got a fire going, and after some ukulele in front of said campfire, turned in at around 9:45.
The generator droned on.
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| Alpine Start: Complete with red headlamp |
Despite myself, I must have fallen asleep at some point, because I woke up only twice in the night, before my alarm went off at the (you must be joking) hour of 4:15.
With a true Alpine start, I had my coffee brewed, tent stowed, and running gear on by 4:45 and, with a quick stop by the vault toilet (the restrooms, despite what the website had claimed, were not yet open for the season) I was off and out of the campground.
Race Start:
Being me, I was the first one to the race start. Granted, there were only 25 people in the race all told, but still.
Scott, the local Doctor who puts the race on, met me with his wife Rita in his garage. Turns out, he has officially registered the race with the USATF in order to get insurance for the race. That made me much more comfortable with the ordeal, as it was clear he had gone about things the right way, and was not just throwing a race out of his garage (even though he technically was).
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| The Bell |
I got the race map, and description (insert picture below), and a written description of the course. I quickly realized that I was not likely to gain much from studying it, but would have to learn as I went. The added fact that the course was flagged (for the most part) helped that decision.
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| The Start in the Garage |
So, until the race started, I drank my coffee, chatted with Scott and Rita, and made friends with the other victims, or runners. Whichever you prefer. The race wasn’t slated to start until 7:00 so I had plenty of time to arrange, and rearrange, my vest and my drop bag.
Lap 1:
The race started promptly at 7:00, and the 25 or so runners who had shown up and paid the fee took off down the road together. I found myself running with the front group rather quickly. This was fortunate, as several in the group knew the park significantly better than I did (which is to say at all). About a mile on gravel roads and trails, and then we saw the first pink flag and trekked off up the hill into the woods.
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| Off the trail, to the books. |
As you might be able to see from the map above, most books were at the top of a hill, off the trail and into the woods a ways. Most were semi out-and-back sections on deer trails, though some were on marked “trails,” often little more than game trails themselves.
I ran and trekked well within myself in these sections, trying at the same time to conserve my energy, get a mental image of the course for the remainder of the race, and talk with the runners around me. For the moment, I was more than content to just sit with a group of five men, including myself, who were rapidly separating themselves from the rest of the field. We would remain more or less together for lap one and part of lap two.
Halfway through each lap, we hit an aid station, where we had to do a short loop down into a gully, then climb out and check back in with the folks manning the aid station. They were incredibly friendly and generous, to be sitting out there on a Saturday in their own backyard letting a bunch of, let’s face it, wackos wander through and eat food.
First lap, I took a few cookies and some gummi bears. I had filled my reservoir, the way it would be on the BRT trip, so didn’t need to refill until after lap two. This let me jump ahead with the leader, John, and follow him on the aid station loop.
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| Fortunately, the only muddy spot on the course. |
There was one small navigation error on loop two, where, having gotten split up, three of us ran right past the cutoff for book eight.
Around book eight, I started to notice a theme to the books. Getting separated from the other leaders, I started looking at the covers of the books we were tearing pages from and noticed their titles: “Desolation,” “Black and Blue,” “Too Far to Go,” and other cheery thoughts.
Our race director, it seemed, has a sense of humor.
Somehow, despite the separation that occurred in this lap, we still entered the aid station at the start and finish of the race a group of four.
Lap 2:
We left a group of four as well, along with one “fun runner,” who basically just showed up and realized what was going on and decided to tag along for a while. Lap two was run in the opposite direction, so we started with book 11 and worked our way back to book one.
As happens, the group of four split up quickly. I stopped to answer the call of nature briefly (when we had passed all the runners still on their first loop. I have some modesty still.), and the other three quickly gapped me. I caught up to another, John, after book 9, who said the two leaders had “been shot out of a cannon” down the hill and we likely wouldn’t see them again.
That proved half true. We caught up to Austin, a senior in college who’s off to Colorado for the summer, shortly before the aid station. TJ, the race leader, was nowhere to be seen. That was even more remarkable since he had left his map and course description at the start/finish, and was running the course from memory. Given my two small navigational errors, I was quite impressed by him.
At the aid station, I once again needed very little, as I was still good for water. I took some more gummy bears, and decided to make a move for second place. I left the aid station alone, took off down the hill, and pushed it on a long trail section that led to the turnoff for book five.
I must have gained time quickly here, as by the end of the loop they were a good two minutes back, and I was not pushing myself hard on the off-trail portions. I later found out from my GPS data, that I was, relatively easily, hitting sub-7 minute pace on this trail section.
Unfortunately, I also started to notice something creeping up on me: on the off trail, off camber downhill from each book in this section, my left knee started giving me trouble. It felt like a tendon right at the tibia-fibula-femur junction was irritated. It only got more so as the loop went on, and by the aid station, I was worried enough that I grabbed my trekking poles to see if I could ease the stress on it.
Lap 3:
Trekking poles in hand, I started off on my third loop in second place.
I knocked off book one quickly, but on the descent, despite the poles, my knee was still bothering me. I tried book two as well, but the descent made me realize that I could not keep going. Muscle issues I can run through. Joint pains are another matter, and I chose to stop rather than risk further injury.
Turns out, something around 50% of the participants dropped, so I can’t feel too badly about it. And the DNF allowed me to get back to my friend’s novel launch party in the Twin Cities.
That’s it for the race. I learned a lot. But I will put that in another post.
Times
Lap 1: 2:12:17
Break 1: 6:16
Lap 2: 2:13:07
Break 2: 6:37
Partial Lap 3: 40:46
Total time: 5:18:58
Total distance:23.5
