Race started at 12:30am, of course one of my flashlights died within the first mile. Lucky for me we had a nice Congo line formed so I didn't need a lot of light for the first ten miles or so.
The course is a ten mile loop, done twice , and a twenty mile loop done twice. Most of the course is rock covered and where there are no rocks there are roots. But most of the time the trail is covered with both rocks and roots. 99% single track trails with plenty of climbing. And you know what goes up Must go down.
It was suppose to get hot so I decided to run hard in the early hours and get as many mile in before the heat hit them just try to hang on to the finish. That is just how my race went, I was totally spent by the time I hit the finish.
Finish time was just under 15 hours, 4th overall with a first place in the old man division.
Aid station were great with real runners running them. Very well run small and growing race.
Le professeur de trail
Did I read that right? 12:30am start??? Only one other race I know that has that kind of a wacky start time - Hellgate 100k which starts just after midnight (and is also run in December).
That sounds like a good finishing time. Congrats! Aren't you running a hundred coming up soon? Superior??? I assume this was one step closer to that.
My favorite day of the week is RUNday
It was my last training run on my way to Superior. I probably over did it a little bit but I'm recovering well and still feel good to go.
The start time was good in a way but also bad. Hard to fall asleep and get any rest before the race , I ended up with only two hours of sleep, but it also got us out of the heat of late afternoon.
Congrats! 4th OA.
Rest up.
Faster Than Your Couch!
Congratulations, and congrats on placing! Great time!
Grindstone 100 starts at 6 p.m., and I think that's so bad that I'll think twice about running it... 12:30 a.m., how did you do your day/night before? Sleep when? That requires some extra time and planning.
Somehow the loops with 2x10 miles + 2x20 miles sounds like a long distance. Did you do well with that arrangement, was the last loop difficult?
All in all sounds like a challenging, yet enjoyable race! Way to croc it down, Gator!
Run for fun.
Glad to hear you did well. 12:30 am start? Yuck. Don't think I'd like that.
Tim
Congratulations on the 1st Old Man prize. Did you pick up another light for the second 10 mile loop, or just go without?
I disagree with most of the comments, 12:30 am start sounds great.
“Paralysis-to-50k” training plan is underway!
I like the two loops run in opposite directions, it allows me to break it down onto do-able sections.
Very nice Gator, 4th overall and 1st in the old fart division, congratulations! Good luck at Superior!
Congrats Gator... that's a nice time and excellent placement. Any goals for Superior? I should go back and do that again sometime. I had a pretty good race there up to 70+ miles then things sort of collapsed. Interesting start time. I did a night 50 miler once in WV but they started just past sunset.
In dog beers, I've only had one.
I would like a 12:30 AM start, too. I like running in the dark, and it probably worked well for your strategy to run hard going out from the start knowing that the heat will slow you down. Congratulations.
LB2
My goals for Superior are to hold back and walk more than I want and hope the quads hold up to the end. No time goals for me on this one, Superior is very intimidating for this flat lander.
Great work at Marquette Gator Eye! Marquette is a lot like Superior in terms of technical difficulty but Superior has a lot more elevation gain/loss. I would do everything you can over the next three weeks to let those quads recover as you are going to get twice the quad thrashing vs Marquette per mile. I'm running Superior 100 as well so hopefully I'll see you there.
Sue
Nice job...wow 4th overall. I think the start time is cool because than you finish in the afternoon giving you more time to enjoy some beers and maybe hang out a bit with the runners.
05/13/23 Traverse City Trail Festival 25K
08/19/23 Marquette 50 dns 🙄