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The North Face Endurance Challenge-Wisconsin 50 mile Race Report (Read 20 times)

T Hound


Slower but happier

    Strava Activity. Trigger Warning Toe Pic Included. 

     

    Race Report: The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 mi-9/14 Southern Kettle Moraine, Wisconsin

     

    Training: 45-60 mpw. This summer has mostly been hot and humid. I have not really gotten any good workouts in recent memory. I sometimes do strides or hill sprints. I usually get out to the trail a couple times per week for some single track and this has become what I like to do the most, just spend a couple hours running in the woods, sometimes finding new routes. With the shorter days, I also have had to start working in some treadmill. That is okay because it is really the only way around here to get significant climbing. Also, I will do intervals with incline to work on hiking which I otherwise neglect. As far as taper for this, I basically ran usual mileage (57 mi the week before), then the week of the race, I just ran a couple times a handful miles, so really steep cutback. I had a could that week, so I was run down and as a result didn’t get any taper crazies. Fortunately, by the end of the week, it was subsiding.

     

    The course: The course is in the Southern Kettle Moraine state Forest. It is on cross country ski trail loops, horse trails and sections of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail, which is a approx. 1200 mile partially completed trail that crosses Wisconsin from the Northwest to the Southeast along the border of the last glacier and so features many unique glacier related geological features. I have done a lot of trail races at Kettle Moraine as it is pretty close to where I live.  Event thought there is a lot of up and down the overall elevation change is only 4000 ft so no real sustained climbs and decents, just what has been called "death by a thousand little cuts."

     

    Goals: I signed up for this race 3 weeks ago after I did the 15hr elimination run making it 37 miles/9 hours (my goal was to do 15 hrs./100k). I more or less concluded I could roll that into my training, keep training and get another “tune up race” before the Indiana Trail 100.

     

    Gear: I have been running pretty much just Clifton 4 and Altra Torrin even on trails (not super tech around here) and I like them. Plus, I am cheap. I chose to use the Torrin’s for the race and then towards the backend switch to Hoka Bondi. If you have never run those, you should try after 30 miles it feels like you have a new lease on your feet because they are so cushy. I get a little concerned about rolling and no toe protection, but again the trails are not crazy technical (though there are plenty of roots and rocks to trip you up as we’ll see). I use a Salmon vest (12 skin set something-annoying names they give stuff btw), Ultraflasks 600 ml with straws, this time I am trying out Drymax socks to see how they go. I have a lot of gi issues, so I am always messing around with fuel. This time, I was going to make Tailwind more of a priority, with snacks like Chex mix, snickers, payday, peanut M&Ms. Also, a couple of ensures, one for breakfast and one for the first part of the race. I am a little wary to have it in the back half of the race. At that point tailwind, mountain dew, coke, and gel shots are basically all I am taking in.

     

    I am a little excessive with packing. Everything is in a Ziploc back with a 3x5 notecard marked with its contents with a sharpie in large letters. This way, in the dark or when I am tired, I can quickly identify what’s what. I haven’t mastered the art of minimalism. That is another way to quickly find what you want-less choices. This race is kind of a dry run for the Indiana Trail 100 next month, so I basically had a vest with everything I would need on the 100 (I won’t have pacers/crew). Same with the drop bags. The lady at the aid station said I need a suitcase, lol.

     

    Race day: The weeks before the race, the weather had gotten cooler lately 60s-mid 70s, which has been nice. I was ready for a break from the hot/humid stuff we have been dealing with. It was clear on race day though that the heat was back. It was a cooler morning projected 70s, but then 80s and sunny in the afternoon. Fortunately, it was not the killer humidity of last month or June when I was last at Kettle for the 100K.

     

    The race starts at 5 am. I am not much of an early person. The race start is at Ottawa Campground which is right by Kettle Moraine and the Ice Age Trail. I checked a couple weeks before and the campground was full, so I just opted for a cheap hotel. I drove up after work Friday night. There was a ton of construction. I got up to the hotel about 10 pm. I put out my stuff for the morning and read through the race brochure which was comprehensive. I slept okay I think, but waking up at 3:30 am makes it seem like it is still the same night and not the next day. I do not know what the turning point is but at some time, you wake up and instead it feels like the next day and that is better. The am of race, I stopped at a gas station, got a ½ gallon of chocolate milk and water for post-race.

     

    Arriving at the start, I could see this was a different kind of race. The had all these high-powered lights, huge tents, a kind of “village” with food trucks, North Face store, beer tent, recovery tents with ice buckets and also those inflatable recovery pants in lounge chairs, basically anything you can think of. Usually the races I do have a check in tent and another tent to sit in to keep warm/have some food at the most. Often less fancy. Oh, and behold, they had like 100 porta-potties. This pretty much set the tone for this race’s organization. It was really organized. Volunteers were great and there were tons of them. The aid stations were solid. Each one had ice buckets with sponges that actually weren’t dirty warm swill water. Everyone was nice and helpful “What can I get for you” Aid stations pretty much had the usual stuff. Along the same lines, the course was marked great. You would have to be an idiot to get lost (more on that later).

     

    Start-22 miles: This section was a loop, a different lollipop loop and then a straight shot down the Ice Age Trail. The goal here was to go as fast as possible keeping a reasonable effort to utilize what I could of the cool hours of the day. Then by the time the heat hit I would slow down. I simplified my watch before this race to just show pace/hr. on one screen and avg pace, distance, time of day on the other. Avg pace is the most relevant, but I have found watching that deteriorate over the course of a run to be no fun, so I don’t want to look at it all the time but principally run by effort. Basically, I was running mostly 70-75% max HR/aerobic effort and not often about 80% max and really spent no time at 50K or higher efforts.

     

    The race course started in the dark. Dean Karnazes was at the start to give a little pep talk and he was going to run the 50 miles. I think he does these a lot as he is with North Face. Anyway, that was neat to see. We do not get any ultracelebs around often. We went out on wide cross-country ski or horse trails which typical of Kettler Moraine, have a lot of short ups and downs- so like 50-100ft high hiking up then down, then a few hundred feet and repeat. For me this makes getting into a rhythm difficult. They are steep enough I cannot run them.

     

    Around mile 5 (still dark), I had the defining moment of the day, I jammed my toe and fell onto my left side pretty hard. I didn’t have time to get into a good roll. I had that sort of blinding toe pain you feel when you do that. Uttered some profanity and started up again. Every step the toe hurt. So basically, I was looking at 45 miles of this with a bum toe. I modified my foot strike so that I was under pronated and dorsiflexed my toe. But I had to go pretty slow down any hills and be careful not to forefoot strike. So really reduce any pounding. Then after a few minutes I noticed my left chest was painful. When I would breath in or move my arm, it hurt a lot. I felt around and a couple ribs were really sore. Great, now an injury that keeps me from breathing in deeply, just what I need running. I felt around for any subcutaneous air which would signal a pneumothorax-and the end of my race for a good reason, darn, no such luck. I would have to keep going. The sun came up, I fell one other time but got a good role and just scraped my leg up, nothing bad.

     

    After the rollers, the good part of the course was really runnable trail, usually double track or grass type cross country ski/horse trails. That part was fast and seemed net descent, it was really fun to run with the light out and the cool weather and the not having to run/hike every 500 ft. I really do prefer a course where it is mostly runnable and this one is like that. The dreaded feature of the KM trails are the prairies, if it is hot they are wide open and wet so super humid. Fortunately for this first 22 miles, it was still cool when going through those and they were hard packed because not so much rain. So really turned out to be one of the fastest portions. Around mile 16 I passed Dean Karnazes. Shortly after he went by me again. His pace was faster, but he hangs out at the aid stations and chats with people. He finished about 45 minutes ahead, so I didn’t see him at the end of the race. It would be cool if more ultracelebs would do this sort of thing. I arrived at mile 22 in pretty good time, it was the drop bag location for the 50 miles.

     

    Have you ever noticed in an ultra you’re at mile 20ish and you feel great like you’re just getting started, but if it was your 20-mile-long run (even similar pace) you feel beat and ready to stop? It was starting to heat up, so I deployed my ted hose which I stuff with ice to hang around my neck and rub down my face and arms. I also put a Ziploc bag full of ice between my back and my vest. They had these wonderful ice sponge baths as well at the AS. The results for this section were ahead of schedule from overall goal: (time 4:18, avg pace 11:30)

     

    Mile 22-35 This was an out 6 miles and back. I started seeing some of the leaders coming back and the races first casualties. It was heating up. This section was more Ice Age Trail and then Cross-Country Ski Trails (rolling grass/dirt/rocks). There was a decent amount of hiking up these for me, pretty steep ones. Going down them was slow with the toe.   I got to halfway (mile 25) right around 5 hours, so well ahead of schedule.   This was good, because I anticipated slowing down in the hot afternoon. The 50K point I think was around 6:30h which again for me on Kettle trails is about what I would suspect. There were more Prairie sections on this trail and it was heating up. I was glad to have the icing down.

     

    At the turn around, you come out of the woods to a road all the sudden. I was looking around for flags, then thankfully noticed a runner up ahead on the side of the road going toward the parking lot. I just followed him. I did think, this is kind of sketchy right on the county highway and I looked for markings in the grass buffer but there were none, so I guess that was that. Then I followed him into the AS parking lot and all the sudden, there clear course.   The AS was like tucked away behind everything in the back, strange. Anyway, I got my usual buckets of ice, mountain dew and filled up my ultraflasks. Then I see runners coming out of the woods right in front of the aid station. It turned out the trail went straight across that county road, and I instead had turned down the road and followed that runner who was likely just a crew or pacer or whatever. I talked to the AS captain, and basically, she agreed I could just go back to where I went off trail and come back around the right way. It was marked fine, I had just missed it and followed the runner down the road. It turned out only to be about a ¼ mile detour, so really not that big of a deal. But the first time I have cut a course (I usually do go off course, that’s not unusual). Hopefully I will not end up on Marathon Investigator website and be electronically shamed for all eternity in the running community. Results for this section: Time 7:29, avg pace 12:53 min/mi

     

    At this point, I had only one more thing needed to complete my typical ultra triad which consists of 1. Falling, 2. going off course, 3. stomach issues that result in death march +/- vomiting. So early on I got 2 out of the way. The third typically is after 35 miles quite predictably, there’s plenty of time to get to that.

     

    Mile 35 to finish: Mile 22/35 is the drop bag. So, I get there at mile 35 returned from the out and back. I decide its time to change into the Hokas Bondis for my reward. I brought some poles to try out in practicing for the end of the 100 mile, but decide against using them. I just don’t want to fuss around with those. This is the first time I see my injured toe and it is not pretty. But I doubt its broken as I have run this far on it and I can wiggle it around some. Basically, when the toenail is jammed back into your nailbed there is a lot of bleeding which looks ugly. I will attempt to attach a picture for your viewing pleasure. The chest pain is still bothersome. I take some Tylenol to help with both. I change shoes and socks. The Drymax done good. No real blister issues. They are a little thicker and sturdier than my other socks. The change to the Hokas was great because the narrow toe box kind of supported my injured toe and cushioned it on the downs.

     

    Then it was back into the prairie sections and this time very hot. I just kept refilling my ice sock pretty much wiping down with that every so often. You could see the heat affecting people coming into aid stations. There were concurrent races like a 50k, marathon, relay, so a decent amount of people. My stomach holds up better than usual. I stuck with tailwind, soda, gel shots. Didn’t get any real sloshing or bloating. I generally found at about 200 Cal/hr. I was taking more around 300 Cal/hr., so more than I would have usually thought. I was really focusing on listening to my body to see what it needed as soon as I could rather than a set program. Plain water bloats me, so I tried to be mindful about having some salt and sugar anytime I was having water. Also, to have a little bit whenever the gps beeped for the mile lap so as not to forget. Then I had in mind every hour to make sure I had at least gotten in a tailwind (200 Cal) and a little extra something or other. This strategy seemed to serve me well. I felt pretty good from 35-50.

     

    I was passing a lot of people walking, moved up 16 places (as per the result page, I don’t count myself!). I was able to pretty much keep running though of course the average pace dropped. No death marching.  Best of all the stomach never really reared its head and no bonking. So, on this day the triad would remain incomplete. At mile 50 the chip time was 11:01 and avg pace 13:29.  including about 45 minutes stoppage time.   I got 5th in my AG and finished mid pack otherwise which is where I tend to hang out when things go well.

     

    Post Race:

     

    I sat down in the shade and gathered myself up, drank some water. They had beer and food tents, but with prior post-race nausea issues, I wanted to go slow so I passed those up. The only downside was the parking lot was ¼ mile away and that’s where my cooler/stuff was. I trudged over there, but there was not there, I was walking around the campground. F-it, where is the parking lot? There was parking right by the start, but for some reason the 50-miler parking was further back. I started off toward another parking lot I saw in the distance (having come in the dark with no real recollection of the layout from 12 hours ago).

     

    While wondering around I saw a wonderful vision. It was a beach, and a lake, with families picnicking, boats fishing, and kids swimming. I though, oh that’s just me hallucinating. I mean there are a lot of lakes around but the fact that there was one with a beach a couple hundred feet from the start was too much luck. I just walked into it to the water to where I could be submersed and then float like a cool sensory deprivation tank with just my mouth and nose out. The water filled my ears, and drowned out the thumping music and enthusiastic announcer on the loud speaker. I would basically do this race again just because of that lake.

     

     

     

    Then End.

     

    Epilogue: After soaking in the lake, I changed clothes and drove 2 hours back to Chicago. My races either go well or are a disaster, there is no in between. This one went well. I wanted this to be a bit of a tune up and confidence builder for next month’s 100-miler. That worked out well. I am still learning a l little each race. Coming up with small improvements each time. It is still the case that I plan for every contingency and pack meticulously but then some other sh-t happens that I didn’t anticipate like bad fall 5 miles into the race. I am writing this the day after and I am pretty beat up. My toe is gross looking but not terribly painful. I will be biting the bullet and buying some trail shoes again-lol. It’s the rib pain and now whole left side pain, left upper back that is hurting. So, I am hobbling around but content-a happy hobbler.

     

    #############

    2020 goal:  couch to 5K, currently working on the couch block

     

    GC100k


      Great report. Thanks.

       

      I grew up near there but haven't been to Wisconsin in many years. My parents just moved from Texas back to Wisconsin, so maybe I can get up there for one of the Kettle Moraine races some time.

      RWD


        Nice job! I wonder what the difference maker was for your stomach? Maybe eating more, maybe the toe slowing you down enough? The lake at the end sounded heavenly. So relaxing and peaceful!

        T Hound


        Slower but happier

          Nice job! I wonder what the difference maker was for your stomach? Maybe eating more, maybe the toe slowing you down enough? The lake at the end sounded heavenly. So relaxing and peaceful!

           

          Not sure but the toe kept me from running down fast which lessens mechanical jostling.  I’ve noticed after jarring descents my stomach acts up.  I’ve not had stomach issues on flat courses like rail to trail as much despite going much faster.  Also, a lot of attention to cooling and cooler weather overall then last month and June.    Yes more calories and in simple form like tailwind, soda, gel blocks, and I do think less water alone.  But who really knows?  So many variables.

          2020 goal:  couch to 5K, currently working on the couch block

           

          a smith


          king of the non-sequitur

            nice job! that lake sounds nice

             

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