2014 Ice Age Trail 50K

Unrealized Potential

This adventure started two days prior to the race when I broke into a cold sweat and had to lie down to wait for it to pass. It concerned me enough with the upcoming race and the stress that it would place on me, that I drove myself to the ER where I spent the next 7 hours undergoing tests, including an echo-cardiogram stress test, and waiting for results. The good news is that all the results came back normal or as normal as they would be for me. That also meant there was no explanation for what happened. After returning home I called my doctor, who was of course out of the office that day. Regardless of what she said regarding the advisability of me running the race, I was still making the trip. I just wouldn't know if I should run until Friday afternoon after I was already in Wisconsin.

The trip itself was uneventful unless you consider an hour plus delay in departure unusual. Unlike my experience in Las Vegas with street signs and directions, I had no problems finding and following signs to Delavan and my hotel, even though the directions I got off the Super 8 website were useless. I never did see signs for 119W from the airport. Staying at this Super 8 was also a totally different experience from the one I stayed at in Nyack, NY last year. My only regret, and there was no help for this, was its distance from the race start. Apparently there is nothing close to the start of the race. There were some motels closer to packet pickup, including a Super 8 across the street, that would have saved driving some miles, but overall that was insignificant. One welcome feature was that the motel started breakfast at 5:00 am. Usually with early race starts I have to find a 24-hour restaurant to get a pre-race breakfast.

I picked up my packet Friday evening, then decided to stay for the pre-race pasta diner rather than driving back to Delavan and dining at the Perkins across the street. I met a couple, Jack and Lori, and another gentleman, Paul, who looked about my age, at the table I sat at. We swapped stories over dinner. I looked for them at the race Saturday, but never saw them in the crowd. The race did have a record number of runners. After dinner I went back and laid out everything for the morning and turned in early. I didn't bother leaving a wake up call because I expected to toss and turn, waking up every hour during the night anyway. Besides the 50K didn't start until 8:15 am.

As expected I didn't get more than an hour's sleep at any one stretch. I was up by 5:30 am. I dressed and went to breakfast, rather skimpy with coffee and a couple small, pre-packaged cinnamon rolls. After I relaxed in my room checking FB and email until I got too edgy. Since the back road route I worked out only took about 20 minutes, I was at the start well before I expected Mandy or Amanda and Todd. I didn't know when to expect Adam and Becky. Those were the only ones I knew and knew were coming. Amanda found me first and took me over to introduce me to Todd and Roxie. Mandy showed up shortly after that and I appointed her race photographer. As I write this I still haven't uploaded the photos so I have no idea what the pictures look like.

The weather was supposed to be ideal, so I kept on my long sleeve shirt. If it warmed up I was going to change to a short sleeve shirt after the initial 13 mile out-and-back section. I half noticed that I wasn't chilly and that should have been a signal to change into short sleeves before the race started. Even the RD was saying the weather was perfect and he expected a record high completion rate. Those words would come back to haunt him.

I didn't notice any type of signal to start the race, but all of a sudden everyone was moving forward, so I moved with them. Initially we were on a broad, grassy trail with plenty of room to get around runners - or for them to get around me. It was flat and I was lulled into thinking maybe the hills won't be too bad after all. Not so! I haven't been able to work out the mileage to the hills, but as the trail narrowed to single track it got hilly. These were longer than any of the hills I've run on when on trails and every bit as steep as the worse I encountered locally at Ridley Creek State Park. Everyone I saw was walking. I didn't bother to count them, but there must have been at least four major hills and a number of smaller ones, each of which I'd have to negotiate on the way back. At first they really didn't seem to bother me and reached the turn around at about 6.5 miles. I was surprised to see quite a few runners standing around at the aid station taking a long break. I stopped long enough to eat some M&Ms and drink, then headed back. Heading back I started to see what I assume were the lead 50-Mile runners. They were certainly moving fast enough. I wasn't until I was nearing the start/finish area that I began to feel how tired my legs were from the hills. I mentioned this to Mandy when I passed by her.

The Nordic Trail loop, which we were to run twice, is broad and grassy. It is also open to the late morning and afternoon sun. I think this is what finally proved my undoing. While beginning to tire I was still moving well and could finally settle into a regular pattern of running and walking. About two miles into the loop I began to feel a lot more drained than expected and noticed I was beginning to hyperventilate a little. Even the small hills were becoming a problem. While I could still move well on the flat and downhill, I could barely make it up the hills. It got to the point where I was almost pausing in mid-stride up hill because I was too weak to fight gravity. The sun beating down was now a major factor and I hadn't bothered to bring my hat. My race and I deteriorated rapidly after that. Not knowing exactly where I was between aid stations I elected to continue forward and hope that I didn't have too far to go, hopefully no more than two miles. It seemed more like four or five, but I finally almost staggered into the area responding, "a ride back to the start", when they asked what I wanted. I sat for a while and drank whatever they handed me while they decided who could give me a ride to the finish. Jody was elected, and when we got back kindly walked me over to the medical tent. Mostly all I needed was a cool, shady place to sit and imbibe fluids. With the issues I've had with high potassium levels, I've been overly cautious about what to drink when running. I;d been avoiding sports drinks because I wasn't sure of their potassium content, As a result my sodium levels were probably low. I don't think I was dehydrated because I had been drinking water and cola, but I was getting salt caked on my forehead, so I was obviously losing sodium with perspiration.

After I'd been there a while I realized it was getting close to the time when Mandy would be expecting to see me finish the first Nordic Trail loop, so I asked about walking slowly about the area to see if we could find her. One of the medical staff had already tried to find her, but couldn't based on my description which included looking for someone with a brindle colored dog. Mandy found us so they released me into her care. The rest of the afternoon was spent eating, drinking, and chatting with old and new friends. When we finally had to start leaving to get home, or in my case, back to the motel, I inherited the few remaining cookies Mandy brought. I was surprised there were any left, but then the race had a good BBQ with brats, veggie lasagna, pasta, and beer, so maybe people weren't as hungry as I thought they would be.

In many ways this was a rerun of last year's Endless Summer 6-Hour race except I handled the hills better today. The sun beating down on me was the deciding factor and I have yet to discover an adequate solution. I will have more opportunities, though, since I'm running a reprise of Endless Summer in July and I also face the possibility at Dawn 2 Dusk 2 Dawn 24 Hours of similar conditions minus the hills. D2D2D is run on a 400m track. With North Coast 24 also having the possibility of hot direct sun during the afternoon, finding a way to deal with that has to be one of my highest priorities.