Eugene Curnow Race Report

That was one for the books.

Let's start with a little background. As you know, if you read this blog, I haven't been posting for a rather long time. That is because, between a move and a couple trips, I haven't been running all that much yet this summer. As a result, I came into this race underprepared, without a suitable long run, and having not trained seriously in a month or so. I had managed to get a couple solid runs in while I was on a trip to Colorado the week (!) before, and I think the move qualifies as good training (our entry is on the third floor).

Even so, I felt cautiously optimistic about my chances on the day. I thought that, if things went ok, I would run around 4 hours. If they went well, I could probably do 3:50 or 3:45. If they went poorly, I figured it would be around 4:15. Spoiler alert: I ran 4:11. Things went poorly.

The short version for those who want it: I started fast. I went for it from the start, taking advice from others who noted that the trail got more technical at parts as you went along. Despite some insole issues (I ended up taking them out entirely), I ran well through the first three aid stations. I averaged 8:30 pace or so through those sections, even with stops to take out my insoles, but then the wheels fell off. Right at mile 11, the cramps set in, and they didn't quit the rest of the race.

I considered dropping out. I didn't.

A more detailed description:

Pre Race:

I drove up from the Cities the night before. My dad was driving the same route as well, so we met up in Carlton, giving me the chance to leave my car there, and thereby get an extra hour of sleep. They had buses from the finish to the start leaving at 4:45AM. I wanted to avoid that.

It was somewhat surprising to me that my dad offered to get up early and drive me to the start. It should not have surprised me, as he has always jumped at the opportunity to watch any of the three siblings race or compete in any sporting event. His schedule for the day allowed him to come to the start and at least a couple aid stations, depending on how I was moving.

I can't think of a better motivation to move quickly than the chance to see your father at an extra aid station.

Start to Skyline: Cruising in the Early Morning Light

The low-key start was typical of trail races: a non-line in the dirt (seriously, there wasn't any indication of where the start line was), a few brief instructions, and "Go."

The likely race leaders sped off up the hill. I settled in with the following group. I had inklings already that the day might not go well. My legs didn't feel any spring from my taper. Nonetheless, I cruised this section easily, settling into the 3-2 breathing pattern (3 steps inhale, 2 steps exhale) that I would return to again and again over the course of the day.

Out of the dirt road and across the Spirit Mountain ski hill, the sun's rays still seemed almost parallel, and I reveled in the cool, clear morning. The forecast was for a pleasantly cool day for Minnesota in July, but I still wanted to take full advantage of the coolness of the early morning. On to Skyline Parkway, and I remarked to another runner how easy it seemed so far, to which a runner farther up the road said "Just wait, it's a little early to be saying that."

I cruised into the Skyline aid station at sub-6 minute pace, 3.5 miles into the race, 400+ up from the start, and 26 minutes into the race.

Skyline to Becks: Jarrow's Beach

Out of Skyline we took a turn uphill into the Magney-Snively nordic ski area. The trails here were deceptively smooth, but with the recent rains there were many low, swampy spots.

Partway through, still feeling good, I came up behind and older runner who had evidently started the race early. He was moving well, and I asked if he was the one runner who'd finished the race all 24 prior runnings. He was not, but was still inspiring.

I almost missed the turn for Jarrow's beach, but fortunately (I believe) Jarrow himself directed me down the hill and into the "beach." This was the first, and most, technical section of the course. It was an ugly mix of soccer ball-sized rocks, roots, water, and mud, and I picked my way more carefully than sometimes, not wanting to turn an ankle so early. I also took the opportunity to tighten my shoelaces.

Some more technical-minded runners passed me at this point. I don't often get passed, in Minnesota, on technical downhills, and I admit to being a little annoyed. But with new shoes (they were a week old) and uncertain training, I opted for discretion over valor. Soon enough, we came out onto the old railroad bed, where I again dropped the pace and passed the technical guys right back.

(One of the guys who passed me on Jarrow's beach mentioned that he would be running The Rut 50k in the fall, a race I hope to run myself some day)

This is where my left insole started causing me problems. My shoes were already soaked at this point, and the higher pace on the railroad grade caused my insole to bunch up in the front of my shoe. I've had this trouble with Altras before, but hadn't had ample time to test these shoes to see if they had the same issue.

At Becks, after seeing my dad for the second time in the race, and while getting my water bottle filled, I untied my shoe, adjusted my insole, and kept on running down the old dirt road, 7.5 miles and almost exactly 1 hour elapsed.

Becks to Fon-du-Lac: Speeding in frustration.

Not 100 yards from the aid station, my insole had already started bunching up again. In frustration, I knelt down to take off my shoe and remove it for good, to find my shoe was too tightly tied and I couldn't undo it. Fortunately, an angel of a spectator ran over and not only helped me take my shoe off, but took my insole to the lost and found for me.

Thank you!

Frustrated, I took off. I later found out on Strava that I had my third-fastest times (on Strava) for both the 1 mile and the 1 kilometer distance on this road(ish) stretch. I again passed those who had passed me at the aid station before we dropped off the road and into the woods to what was probably my favorite part of the trail.

Off the road, we stepped into a pine forest and a soft, gentle single track weaving along a ridge. I admit, these are my favorite trails: smooth, gliding, and gentle on your feet (especially when one foot is sans insole). There were parts along the ridge that were rather exposed, making me slow down lest I stumble to one side or the other and tumble down the hill. Then, at the end, it dumps you down the only section of ropes on the course. I admit to almost running straight into a log that sat at about chest height right at the bottom of the ropes.

My right insole started bunching up in this section, and I decided that at the next aid station, it would go.  10.7 miles in, 1:27 elapsed, remaining insoles: 0.

Fon-du-Lac to Seven Bridges: Cursing my Calves. 

Much to my surprise, my dad was waiting again at this aid station. I figured he'd be gone by that point, but as he said I was "moving well."

And I was. I was feeling great about how the race was going so far. I was pushing, but it felt sustainable I was sticking to my 3-2 rhythmic breathing. I'd covered almost 11 miles in under an hour and a half. I was moving well, despite my insole issues.

Out of the aid station, and on the first climb, the wheels started to come off: I felt the beginnings of cramps in my calves. I tried to get on top of them: I immediately popped (and bit, and coughed on) an electrolyte tab, and upped my consumption of these from every 45 minutes to every half hour. In the past, that was enough to stave off cramps. Today not so much. I upped my intake of gels and tabs to every half hour, and hoped that would be enough.

Even with the cramping, I managed to hold my own through here and not get passed. But I knew the rest of the morning would be difficult. 12.7 miles in, 1:46 elapsed, properly functioning calves: 0.

Seven Bridges to Grand Portage: The Power Lines

I'd heard, of course, of the infamous power lines. I knew of the 9 brutal hills, the lack of shade, and the brambles. I found them to be both better and worse than I expected.

Not for the first time, nor the last, I was glad I was in the first 20-30 runners. With the wet weather, the power lines were muddy, the creeks were high, and the footing was difficult. I can only imagine that it got much, much worse as the day went on and more people scrambled these hills. Gradients of up to 40% don't make for swift going on the best days.

Even so, I found these less difficult than I anticipated. The steep uphills let do some dynamic stretching on my calves, and the steep downhills were reckless and fun. The descents were steep, short, and muddy enough that I knew I could slide if I got out of control. Save for grabbing a raspberry bush at one point (ow) this section went better than I had feared.

Two hills of purgatory (not nearly as bad as they suggest) and into Grand Portage. 15.5 miles in, 2:17 elapsed, 3 steps in, 2 steps out.

Grand Portage to Petersen's: Quads are Gone

This section just got hard. My quads started cramping up at this point. People started passing me. I could run for a little while, at a slowish pace, but then my quads would seize up and I would be forced to walk for a while as I tried to loosen them up.

Even so, the trails were beautiful double track. If I am calculating correctly, it was about 8:30 in the morning: a little before the time I usually start running in the morning. Despite the condition of my legs and the difficulties I was having, I was still grateful to be out, even as I was debating dropping.

It's not a true race unless you consider dropping out, right?

17.5 miles in, 2:39 on the clock, functioning quads:0.

Petersen's to Forbay: Still Cramping.

I'll be honest, it's Wednesday now while I'm writing this section (I started on Monday) and I don't recall this section all that well. It was difficult again, but I managed to keep going and push through.

And I began to notice something interesting in this section: there were still times where I just didn't feel like I could move. My quads and calves were still cramping horribly. Even so, I found that if I could just focus on three steps in, two steps out, I could actually move at a decent pace. In fact, it was almost as quick a pace as I maintained during the first part of the race. I also found that, as is the case with meditation, focusing on my breath is an excellent way to pull my focus away from anything else.

I could still feel the discomfort and seizing, it just didn't matter as much.

Out onto the Munger trail, and I knew I should really be pushing it again. I managed a solid 7:30-7:45 pace. Even so, I was passed on this section.

"How's it going?"

"Cramping"

"Oh, that's a tough way to run."

"Well, I've been running on it for 10 miles, so I'm used to it."

"Ha. Good luck!"

20.5 miles in, 3:09 Elapsed. No 4 hour marathon likely.

Forbay to Jay Cooke: Flat Trails. 

Not much to say on this section. I knew I could finish at this point. All thoughts of dropping out were behind me. Now it was just a matter of keeping on. I hit a very decent pace on the dam, after devouring a pickle at the aid station. The cramps soon caught up again, and I stepped to the side of the double track cross country ski trail (to relieve myself) as another person passed.

At this point, I was out of all competition except the one with my self. Or so I thought.

During one particularly agonizing stretch of cramp-induced walking, a runner I had been swapping back and forth with the entire race passed me again.

"You're gonna pass me one more time, aren't you?"

I wasn't so sure, but he turned out to be prophetic.

22.9 miles in. 3:34 elapsed. Pickles consumed: 1.

Jay Cooke to Finish: Enter the Gnar. 

Another aid station meant another pickle.

Across the Swinging Bridge! I'd been waiting for this the entire race, and now I found myself a little seasick, to be honest.

A brief bit of smooth, easy trail quickly gave way to remarkably gnarly single track along the St. Louis River. I slowed to a walk often in these last three miles, now counting down the tenths of a mile rather than focusing as much on my breath. When I did, though, I still managed to run at a normal pace, which is still remarkable to me.

I was passed by a couple runners in this section, though fewer than I expected. And I did, indeed, pass my trail buddy for a last time shortly before popping out to the Munger Trail again for the finishing "sprint."

26.2 miles completed, 4:11 elapsed. Marathons completed (total, not including ultras): 4.

Parkour and Trail Running: A Training Update

It's been a while. My posting always comes in waves.

I am coming off two very solid weeks of training for me, of 40 and 45 miles, respectively. I added in four honest workouts in those two weeks as well, along with two solid long runs. I can already tell that this week is likely to be much less intensive. I'm off to Duluth tomorrow, and I went for an hour-long bike ride (with a bit of a misadventure in the middle) instead of running today.

At the same time, I have, with my fiancee, been getting more into Parkour again. Lately this involves going to the local Parkour gym, which we are fortunate to have, three times a week. This gives us two classes per week, and one open gym session on Saturdays. We have been adding a short (15-minute) strength workout before or after each gym session as well, which in the short week and a half we have been doing it has already made a huge difference in our overall Parkour ability.

Better still, I've done two long runs in the last two weeks, each a bit over 15 miles. I ran at Afton a week ago, and ran from home this past weekend to cut down on the overall time my long run took. After all, I had to get to the Parkour gym by 1PM.

All in all, training has been going well. So well, in fact, that I have had less time to pause and take pictures, but I will post the few I've taken in any case.

A humid day at Minnehaha

Happy Place

Oh yeah, I took a trip up to Duluth in there too.  

Good morning, hometown. 

The Importance of Slowing Down

I like going fast.

I'm a runner: it goes with the territory.

But this past week, I was forced to slow down for two reasons. The first is that I was increasing my mileage rather drastically over my average for the past few weeks (about 25% or so). That necessitated me slowing down, particularly on my long run Saturday. The second happened today. I took my car in for service. When I do that, I walk back and forth (forth and back?) to the service station, about a mile and a half total, over streets I run on a daily basis.

There are a number of indications that slowing down has beneficial effects for runners. Running about 80% easy and 20% fast seems to be a solid ratio. Matt Fitzgerald has a book on the subject: 80/20 Running. I don't feel any need to go into that here.

For me, slowing down on Saturday meant I felt more open to slowing my pace, and even stopping, so that I could take pictures. The slower pace also meant that I noticed more minute details to take pictures of. All of a sudden, I noticed deer prints all over the forest floor.

I paused to take a picture of the trail's end.

I spotted growths of some sort of mushroom, I think they may be oyster mushrooms or a similar variety. 

There had been a number of controlled burns in the area of Battle Creek Park, mostly burning downed trees. They were clearly recent, and had not been there the last time I ran in the area, but small flowers were already blooming in the burn scars. 

Later on, in Battle Creek Park proper, I saw a large number of columbines leaning over the path. 

As the run went on, my legs actually felt better. I ran more, and took fewer pictures. But I am glad I started off slowly. 

Today, walking along sidewalks I normally run. This was somewhat of a re-revelation to me. I realized again what a beautiful neighborhood I live in. I stopped and listened to the birds. I stopped and looked at the churches. I gloried in the bluebird skies and cool morning temperatures. 

I and I moved slowly home. 

GoSpring Trail 10k

Looks like I'm excited. I'm really more apprehensive. Photo credit Jamison Swift. 

Once again, I was standing at the start line of a race, with my legs still somewhat shot from the week before. Once again, this was the idea.

This time, though, I was on familiar ground. While I wouldn't say I know the Battle Creek trails like the back of my hand yet, I run them fairly often, and know their character if nothing else. The primary aspects of that character are 1) double track XC ski trails and 2) lots of short, steep uphills and downhills.

As always, I had a few goals for this race. I always want to negative split, and it rarely happens, particularly in trail races. This time,  I had an A goal of running splits of around 7 minutes or a bit under. My B goal was to finish in under 45 minutes (not generally a tall order for 10k for me, but this course creeps up on you). And, as always, my C goal was to finish.  As it turns out, I did all three, finishing in just under 43 minutes, at 6:54 pace.

My warmup jogs let me know that my legs were not exactly fresh. I'd done a typical amount of running the week leading up to this one, including hills and surges with a fair number of miles thrown in. I had also done a strength workout on Thursday. Not the best way to prep for a race, but I was hoping it was a good way to get the most training benefit out of it.

As is typical in Minnesota races (or so I've noticed) nobody wanted to start out at the front, but as the countdown started, a pack moved up and I got swept up in the lead group. I stuck with them for, oh, 400 meters before realizing that probably wasn't a good idea and I let them go. I let the chase pack catch me up, and proceeded to chat my way up the first (and as it turns out biggest) hill of the 5k loop.

On the second mile, I swapped the lead in the chase group with a couple other runners, usually losing ground on the uphill and gaining it back as I recklessly through myself into the downhills and coasted the flats (I've gotten to the point where I can call 6:30s "coasting!"). But as we entered the third mile and the biggest downhill of the course, I left them behind for the last time.

I made a mistake here: I had anticipated that the course would be the same as the course for the 5 and 10k races that take place in October. In those, there had been a huge, steep hill around mile 3. They changed the course this time, leaving that hill out. Had I known, I might have gone harder on the uphills. But given the later stages of this race, I think it's a good thing I assumed the hill was still coming.

Cruising down a nicely woodchipped hill. Photo credit Jamison Swift

I rolled through the lap at a tiny bit over 21 minutes, right where I was ideally hoping to be. The 5k runners gave a solid cheer as I passed by the start line (thanks!), and even better, I could see the runner in front of me.  He must have dropped the pace a lot to come back to me, so I thought I could focus on reeling him in for the remainder of the race.

My pace lagged a bit in the second mile of the second lap, but the guy in front of me was still visible for the most part. I was, however, beginning to feel the race in my legs. Keeping the tempo up started to be a struggle, and I occasionally glanced over my shoulder to see if anybody was catching up.

Nobody was.

Entering the final mile, I was hurting, breathing hard. But I still thought I could catch the runner in front of me. I focused again on reeling him in, letting that pull me through the last section.

I think, though, that I must have been breathing loudly by this point, because he resisted all my efforts to close the remaining 8 second difference. I came in at 42:50 for 7th place over all, and 3rd in my age group.

All in all, another solid, early season race for me. I think these short (ish) races are helping my mental toughness. In my opinion, the 10k is one of the most difficult race distances from a mental standpoint.  It's got nearly the speed of a 5k, but double the distance. All in all, a great test.

Embracing the Urban

After two full years, and a little more, trying to avoid the fact, I have this week decided to embrace that I am now an urban trail runner.

I cut my teeth running on trails in Duluth, Minnesota; Waterville, Maine: and Boulder, Colorado. Running trails in those smaller towns is easy. Duluth has literally hundreds of miles of trails in the city limits. Waterville is a town of 16,000 people, full of wilderness and trails to explore, and not too far from some of the best trails in New England. And Boulder is, well, Boulder. The trails their just begged you to run on them. They were steep, challenging, rocky, and majestic.

The trails around the Twin Cities, while respectable, tend to be a little more quirky and a little less continuous. Most days, the "trail" I run on is a path down the middle of Summit Avenue. It's only a trail in the sense that it is not paved.

My go-to weekend trails are the Mississippi River Gorge and Battle Creek Park.

The trails on the gorge are single track, very often technical, and periodically terrifying. They also tend to end with little or no warning. If you're lucky, they don't dead-end, and you can get back up to the bike path to continue on your run. The first time I ran these was in the dead of the coldest winter in recent memory, which made it easier and harder at the same time (easier because I could just run on the river if necessary, harder because, well, snow).

Battle Creek Park has a lot of double track, which is groomed for cross country skiing in the winter, and single track, which is maintained for mountain bikes. You can get more elevation gain there than you can just about anywhere else in the Cities, but the trails loop in small circles and it is easy to get disoriented. There are great views of the river and the St Paul skyline (such as it is) to be had from certain points in the run, but as anywhere in the Cities, it's hard to gain more than 125 feet at any one time.

Trails in the city: usually compact, often fairly arbitrary, generally quirky.

But they're fun. And you never know what you might see on them. So I'm going to start featuring some of the more interesting sights I see on my daily urban trails. Hopefully they will at least interest, and possibly even amuse.

My first selections come from this past Saturday:

Sometimes (yearly in this case) you run into a race. The guy in first seemed to be wondering if anybody was going to go with him. 

Luckily found a heron. It didn't catch anything while I was watching.

And geese.

A Reaction to Prince from a Minnesotan

I went for a run Friday.

This, by itself, is nothing unusual. In fact it would be far more unusual were I to not go for a run on a Friday. But of course it was an unusual Friday.

I had "Purple Rain" stuck in my head.

This is no surprise either: Prince had died the day before. Along with several thousand others, my fiancee and I had gone down to First Ave for The Current's impromptu tribute concert featuring local artists performing covers of their favorite Prince songs. Basically, it was the "Purple Rain" album plus a couple other tracks.

I noticed a lot of purple flowers. In fact, I was literally running through fields of purple flowers.

This is not unusual either. It's spring in the Twin Cities, and many, many spring flowers just so happen to be purple. This is true from the flowers planted in gardens to the ones that spring up of their own accord in lawns and parkland.

I will admit to being surprised, in fact stunned, by how much Prince's unexpected death affected me. Neither my parents nor my siblings were Prince fans. Sometimes we thought of him as a bit of a joke (particularly during his Symbol phase, though we did not know the why of it at the time).

But I do remember the first time I really, truly, heard Prince. My friend's sister, truthfully my friend herself, as she was only a year older, put on "Seven" and walked into the room singing it along with the CD. I was floored. I'd never heard anything quite like it.

It wasn't until I had left Minnesota for a decade or so and subsequently moved back that I really appreciated Prince. Living in the Cities, you always had this sense that Prince might just magically appear wherever you happened to be. You had this sense because it happened. He'd show up at Record Store Day, or at a club, or a show. He threw regular concerts at Paisley Park.

We always had plans to go to one of those, but it had not worked out so far.

When it comes down to it, that's the essence of why Prince's death had such an effect on us: Prince was unabashedly, proudly Minnesotan. In a state that is so often considered "flyover country," where the celebrities we produce so often flee, Prince came back and lived here. He supported the community in more ways than I probably know. He made donations, anonymously or semi-anonymously, to local organizations. He debuted his music on The Current, and was a member of the station himself.

He was present.

And in Minnesota, that means something.

So as I ran through the purple flowers, I thought "thank you, Prince. Thank you for the music. Thank you for the community. But most of all, thank you for being a Minnesotan."

We will miss you.

Trail Mix 25k

I signed up for this race when I realized that, unfortunately, I had missed the window to sign up for the Zumbro 17 and it had filled up.  I had heard the Trail Mix was a good, fast race. With the strength work I've been doing due to "Training for the New Alpinism" and our Parkour process, I found my pace increasing in my workouts and was curious what I could do for a 25k.

This was not any sort of goal race for me, so I trained straight through it. Tuesday, I ran a hill workout and did Parkour. Wednesday, I ran 7 miles, did a strength workout, and went to Parkour. I ran shorter the next couple days in the lead up to the race, but still wasn't exactly rested by the time race day arrived. A 50 hour workweek and a difficult week in other ways didn't help anything.

I did, though, have a plan for the race itself. I figured I could run around 7:40 pace for the first 12.5k lap, then speed up gradually through the second lap and see if I couldn't finish in under two hours. I chose 7:40 because that's about what I've been running on my easy runs down Summit lately. I knew this was going to be a difficult run for me, because I hadn't done many long runs to this point, and I hadn't even run the full distance yet (something I like to do before a run this short).

The race itself went pretty well.

After the initial blast off the start line, I quickly settled in to a slightly faster pace than I had anticipated. I fell in with a couple high-schoolers out for a long run, and talked for a few miles until they fell off the pace. 3.5 miles in, I hit the second aid station, having run 7:33 pace for the first section.

The second aid station was also the high point of the lap, and I took up with a group of runners at a slightly faster pace (7:20 or so) for this section. I still felt really strong and smooth, so I decided to go with it. It started to get hot by this point (I'd already taken my shirt off in the first 3 miles), and I was dousing myself in water at each aid station once I'd had a little (flat) coke and water.

I ran by the half-way aid station at a little over 58 minutes.

As you recall, my plan was to up the pace a little bit the second half of the race, but I started faster than I planned. I opted to try and push the pace just a bit, but not as much as I had originally planned, then hit it hard from the second aid station. For the first 3.5 miles of the second lap, I managed exactly 1 second per mile faster than the first time through this section.

I attempted to go hard from the second aid station again, managing the low-7s and high-6s for a short while. But once I got to about 12 miles, I started to really feel the training earlier in the week and the fact that I'd been running pretty hard for an hour and a half. At that point, it became a matter of just maintaining speed and trying not to fall off too much.

I pulled in to the finish in 1:56:23, for a significant PR and a slight negative split (or so the pace on my watch said).

All told, I'm pretty happy with it. For a start of the season test, off a relatively hard week of training, it went remarkably well. I made my goal of negative splits for each lap (again, barely), and I PRed in the 25k by something like 20 minutes.

I wish I'd had a little more time to hang out after the race, as I met some interesting other runners there that I would have liked to chat with more. But the day was just beginning, so I was off and on my way within 10 minutes of finishing.

Between that, and testing for Parkour the next day (yesterday as I write this), I'm beat.