Marathon #8 Dance With Dirt 07/10/10

Do you want to run the most beautiful marathon in Wisconsin? With the most incredible views of the bluest water in the state? Of course you do. Now, how much are you physically willing to pay for these benefits? Are you willing to risk getting poison ivy, spraining your ankle, breaking a leg, or arm? Are you willing to get your ass kicked by a course? If you are then sign up for Dances With Dirt 2011.

Being anal retentive it’s tough for me to post #8 before #7, but a lot of people want to hear about DwD before Madison. Madison was just HOT, DwD was insane. This will be a long blog because this was a long race 6 hours plus of up, down, rocks, roots, fricken mountains, stone steps, heat, humidity and some of the friendliest runners, volunteers & race personnel you’ll every find.

I decided to do DwD in 2010 to get some of the tough ones out of the way early. 2011 will bring Saturday – Sunday marathons, a different kind of hard.

Early in the year one of my dearest friends, Randi Strand asked if she could do the race with me as DwD was on her bucket list and she was just invited to attend a wedding in Chicago. Since I haven’t seen her since she moved to Colorado I said YES. Randi was the GBRC webmaster, and she’s cool, here is her blog site http://ironstrand.blogspot.com/ . Her memory of DwD is different than mine since she kicked my butt.

Even though Dan Roeder tried to warn me and get me to train with him on his trail in Pound I thought that I could train for DwD by running Scray repeats. Two words for that training program DUMB ASS. After melting in Madison I thought that DwD couldn’t be too tough, but let me put it in perspective. Our beloved Scrays hill has an elevation gain of 260 feet from the first incline to the peak for a total of 1.22 miles, a pretty casual incline. DwD has 4 inclines, the easiest has a gain of 283 feet and it lasts for 1.3 miles and it occurs almost at mile 23. The worst hill starts just after the half mile mark, it’s a gain of 686 feet and lasts for 2.03 miles. Hell of a way to start and finish a race, and there’s a lot of hell in between.

Race day was hot, 60 degrees at the start and the forecast was 85 and sunny, it was going to be a hard run. I of course started too quickly even though Randi tried to slow me down and I would pay for it. We made it up the first two mile hill easily and one of the spectators said that was the toughest part, I guess I wanted to believe him so badly that I just started running like it was, until mile 9.5.

The course description says that this part of the trail is paved, sort of. What they mean is that it’s paved stone steps. Hill running is tough, but you can always adjust your stride. When you’re on steps, your stride length is determined by the height and length of the steps, in this case 1.24 miles of steps with a gain of 517 feet. My butt was burning for about a mile, and I believe that this was my down fall as I never felt good after this.

After this point I was losing more fluid than I could take in. Thankfully Randi has run a 50 miler already and she has some great ideas about hydration, and fueling. She had me try plain old salt mixed in water which I drank and worked for a while. Then electrolyte capsules. At this point it was no longer fun, and a lot of the remainder of the race was a blur. After another incline that ended at about mile 18 I was ready to drop out. Luckily they had ice at the next water stop and I put it in my hat an laid on the ground with my legs on a tree. This allowed me to recover enough to run about another 2 miles with Randi. Like the good friend that she is sje wanted to hang with me, but I was obviously holding her back, she looked really strong. Finally I was able to convince her to take off.

The last 6 miles were just a long run and walk ordeal and of course another hill. I made one last wrong turn to add another half mile to my run and fell for the second time with about three quarters of a mile to go. I have never felt so bad during or after a race before. Of course I’ve never had to run over 6 hours before.

Trail runs are supposed to be easier on your legs, but this one had more rocks, boulders and roots than you would expect. The easiest stretches on the legs were the high grasses that were in the full sun, but they gave you a break.

Even though DwD is a beautiful course I don’t think that I would only do this race again unless I could train on the course, I don’t think that you can train for this race any other way

I’m also convinced that the lack of training this spring has added to the two tough marathons. Two tough marathons in a row are not fun so I’ve embarked on a megamile training program to get ready for Fox Cities and Middleton. I do not want to repeat the way that I’ve felt at Madison & DwD.

#7 Addendum

#7 was actually #6 OOPS.

Also how could I forget the PAi waterstop. It was the most organized of all of the stops and staffed by my PAi peeps.

More to come.

MARATHON #7 Cellcom Green Bay 05/16/2010

Is there anything better than running a marathon in your (new) hometown? No, not if it’s Cellcom.

This is the third year in a row that I’ve done Cellcom since moving up here and the race keeps getting better. The temperatures in mid May in Northeast Wisconsin are perfect for the marathon. The temp at the start is usually around forty degrees and maybe gets up to the mid fifties at the end. The course is run on mostly flat tree lined neighborhood streets to give the runners plenty of shade. There’s just enogh inclines to stretch your muslces. Crowd support is great, the neighbors really come out to support us.

Another huge reason is race director Sean Ryan. He puts on a big time event and his coordination skills are phenominal. The expo is just the right size, with vendors, other races, community groups and running stores like Run Away and Eastbay for last minute needs.

Race week feels like a big party. There’s a ton of energy in town and it’s hard to control yourself. The Green Bay Running Club has a booth at the expo and the chance to talk with runners from around the country is an incredible bonus. No matter where they come from, you can’t find a nasty person in the bunch. You also get to see your buddies that you always train with, but they’ve got more clothes on and no ones sweating or covered with frost.

This year I added something new, pacing, and I can whole heartedly recommend it. You get to meet new people, help them attain their goal and get some extra shirts! Of course the people part is the best part. I paced the 3:45 group with Heidi Gooding and Teresa Moore. This is a great group because so many people in this bunch are trying to qualify for Boston, and we get a chance to take them there. This is another thing that Cellcom got right, Sean allows more than one pacer per group so if one of the pacers has a bad race, the whole pace team doesn’t blow up.

Race day dawned sunny and cool, perfect race weather and it seemed like we had only a few people in our pace group. After the pace team pictures we moved into the atrium to find our pace group. Heidi was holding the sign and as we stretched more and more runners came over to us. Our pace group included quite a few runners gunning for a BQ and also a guy from my high school in Indiana, Bishop Noll, too cool. I can’t remember how many we had in the group, bnut it had to be atleast 20.

We had a good plan going into the race. We would keep the team at 8:35 per mile for at least the first half then Heidi would take the first group out, the Teresa the middle group and I would take the last group. We executed the plan perfectly and had 4 runners qualify for Boston. I was lucky to get the last runner in to qualify for Boston. I met Jo Ann just as we entered Lambeau and told her she could still qualify for Boston if she wanted. That’s all she needed to hear so we took off, and she made it.

Last great things about Cellcom? Brats & beer afterwards and the chance to hang around and talk about the race with your buddies. Most everyone had a great race and Scott Pearson qualified for Boston with an incredible 3:17.

Can’t wait until next year. Even though I still have more Wisconsin marathons to do, I’ll always do Cellcom, I can’t resist it.

By the way, there are now 25 marathons in Wisconsin, Birkebinder just added a trail marathon. This year’s event will be on September 25th.