Superior 50K Trail Run, take II
This past weekend was the Spring Superior Trail Races. Thank you to Mike and Gretchen and all the volunteers for putting on a great event! The weather was rather harsh out in the open, so everyone deserves extra kudos for toughing it out for the benefit of the runners... THANKS!!
My experience:
"Wow that was hard. Really hard."
Yup, I stole that from last year's race report. It's still true.
I've been getting used to the warmer weather 'down south' (Rochester), and just barely brought enough clothes. I'm glad I grabbed the hat and gloves on the way out the door. Got pretty muddy and that's always fun.
(Pictures are from Rick - Thanks!)
Ran with Karen G. and Rick B. for awhile... then ran the rest of the race mostly alone. Every now and then I'd see someone as they cruised on by. It was crazy... people wouldn't slowly catch me and then slowly pull away. Suddenly they'd be there, and then gone. I'd look up 30 seconds after they passed and in most cases wouldn't be able to see them any more.
It was kind of a weird race. I ended up doing well, but I didn't really realize it during the run. I was too negative in my head all day, so I'll have to work on that. It's a tough trail to run, and others seem to cruise along on it better than I do. I'm quite careful and concerned about my ankles, so that slows me down. Anyway, I must've said to myself about 800 times some version of "man, I just can't run very well on this trail". Before too long the other voices in my head started answering back: "yeah, we got it... shut up already!!" And that was pretty much the conversation for most of the day. doh! Like I said, I'll have to work on that.
My main goal was to run fast enough to get my time in the results. Last year they put 'Finisher' for everyone over 8 hours, so I wanted to go under 8 hours. I set up my Garmin to race myself using last year's data, but it didn't work... so I really didn't know if I was ahead of schedule or not. At the last aid station I asked Larry Pederson if I could walk the whole last section in 2 hours and 15 minutes, and he said I'd have to run some of it.
I took that to mean I actually had a chance. So I tried to keep moving as best I could. I don't know the end of the trail all that well so I kept wondering "well how much farther is it, and do I have enough time?" "What if I get to the bridge with 20 minutes to go... can I get to the finish in 20 minutes?" "That last road stretch seems to go on forever... but maybe forever is just like 10 minutes or so." And of course there was the every so often "man I'm kinda tired, is 8 hours really that big a deal??" Thankfully that thought was mostly ignored. I ended up running way more of the last few miles than last year, and I got the sub-8 hour!
So at the end of the day I ran faster than last year, I made my goal of under 8 hours, and my time was in the range I've been running lately. A pretty good day, I'd say. Too bad I didn't figure it out until after the fact.
Congrats to everyone that got out there for a run, and Thanks again to the race directors and all the helpers!!
Oh yeah... I should add a 'Steve Quick' note. No I didn't beat Steve... are you nuts?!? He's way faster than me, even after running like a thousand miles in the last 4 days... or whatever. But I gotta take what I can get, so here it is: Steve and I both ran the Superior 50K in 7 hours and some. :)
My experience:
"Wow that was hard. Really hard."
Yup, I stole that from last year's race report. It's still true.
I've been getting used to the warmer weather 'down south' (Rochester), and just barely brought enough clothes. I'm glad I grabbed the hat and gloves on the way out the door. Got pretty muddy and that's always fun.
(Pictures are from Rick - Thanks!)
Ran with Karen G. and Rick B. for awhile... then ran the rest of the race mostly alone. Every now and then I'd see someone as they cruised on by. It was crazy... people wouldn't slowly catch me and then slowly pull away. Suddenly they'd be there, and then gone. I'd look up 30 seconds after they passed and in most cases wouldn't be able to see them any more.
It was kind of a weird race. I ended up doing well, but I didn't really realize it during the run. I was too negative in my head all day, so I'll have to work on that. It's a tough trail to run, and others seem to cruise along on it better than I do. I'm quite careful and concerned about my ankles, so that slows me down. Anyway, I must've said to myself about 800 times some version of "man, I just can't run very well on this trail". Before too long the other voices in my head started answering back: "yeah, we got it... shut up already!!" And that was pretty much the conversation for most of the day. doh! Like I said, I'll have to work on that.
My main goal was to run fast enough to get my time in the results. Last year they put 'Finisher' for everyone over 8 hours, so I wanted to go under 8 hours. I set up my Garmin to race myself using last year's data, but it didn't work... so I really didn't know if I was ahead of schedule or not. At the last aid station I asked Larry Pederson if I could walk the whole last section in 2 hours and 15 minutes, and he said I'd have to run some of it.
I took that to mean I actually had a chance. So I tried to keep moving as best I could. I don't know the end of the trail all that well so I kept wondering "well how much farther is it, and do I have enough time?" "What if I get to the bridge with 20 minutes to go... can I get to the finish in 20 minutes?" "That last road stretch seems to go on forever... but maybe forever is just like 10 minutes or so." And of course there was the every so often "man I'm kinda tired, is 8 hours really that big a deal??" Thankfully that thought was mostly ignored. I ended up running way more of the last few miles than last year, and I got the sub-8 hour!
So at the end of the day I ran faster than last year, I made my goal of under 8 hours, and my time was in the range I've been running lately. A pretty good day, I'd say. Too bad I didn't figure it out until after the fact.
Congrats to everyone that got out there for a run, and Thanks again to the race directors and all the helpers!!
Oh yeah... I should add a 'Steve Quick' note. No I didn't beat Steve... are you nuts?!? He's way faster than me, even after running like a thousand miles in the last 4 days... or whatever. But I gotta take what I can get, so here it is: Steve and I both ran the Superior 50K in 7 hours and some. :)
posted by Wayne at 10:16 PM
7 Comments:
Great job Wayne! A sub-8 hour finish on THAT trail in THOSE conditions is pretty darn good!
Another PR!!! AWESOME. If it were not for Steve and his crazy accomplishments, I may have to make you my role model?
Does it help any to know that at one point I said to myself, "I can't let Wayne beat me" as motivation? Great job on breaking 8!
Nice job, Wayne. I'm glad I was at the finish line when you came in and got to see you enjoy the accomplishment.
Congratulations, Wayne! Nice job! It was nice to see you as usual...I'm surprised that you of all people have negative thoughts in the head. Work on it!
Great work. Way to work through the negative thoughts, you probably picked them up from me after Chippewa. You met your goals and finished a tough course the right way, now relax and enjoy it.
You did great. I agree that you should work on the negative thought issue. You have come a long way down the slippery slope.
Post a Comment
<< Home