2016 Dances with Dirt 50K Race Recap
I am very happy to report some good race news after my rough
experience at Grandma’s Marathon in June; the 2016 Dances with Dirt 50K went awesome!! I was nervous about this one as it was
mid-July with potentially very hot temps to be combined with about 3,600 feet
of elevation climb but everything went off just as I would have hoped, the temps
were mild and I think I finally nailed my nutrition correctly!
“The Dances with Dirt 50K” is a trail race held annually at
Devil’s Lake State Park in Baraboo, Wisconsin.
The area is beautiful and known for its large lake surrounded with 700
foot tall cliffs, making for some outstanding view and challenging climbs to
get to the peak. The area is littered
with trails and even the famed “Ice Age Trail” goes right through the side of
the park. The 50K event is one of
several distances put on that day ranging from 10K to a 50 mile race distances
and although all races at some point are going on simultaneously there isn’t
much confusion as they do a great job of marking off the individual courses.
My race started at 5:50AM so I camped out the night before
at a close by camping facility along with a few of my DBQ running friends. I really enjoyed the laid back night before
and getting a chance to sit down with Shannon and Rob and just hang out, I didn’t
have the pressure of a time goal on my shoulders like Grandma’s so I really enjoyed
myself a lot more. I went to bed around
10 and slept like a rock too, I woke up around 4am refreshed and ready to rock…
I did the 10 minute tent breakdown, quick cold shower and I was off to the race
start!!
The crew all met up that morning prerace as some had driven
up from DBQ that morning, we had a total of about 15 people at the race and 10
of us doing the 50K distance. We got
some group photos did our pre-race rituals and were off to the races! The gun went off and we wondered off into the
woods on our journey. The course was
great, although very rocky which beat up my feet pretty bad, especially since I
has been doing so much road running in the weeks leading up to this event I
wasn’t lifting my legs as much as I should have and this the occasional tall
rock. But the great views and really
nicely groomed trails made up for the rockiness and the miles just melted away
as we got telling stories and interacting with the runners around us. By the first aid station the group had
already split, some of us in the front had gotten so into our storytelling we
didn’t realize we had separated off from the rest and after waiting a few
minutes at the first aid station and not seeing the remainder of the group we
set off falling into a comfortable pace.
The four of us; Jason, Dizzol and Sarah stuck together for the first half
of the race, unfortunately Dizzol had to drop back due to a groin issue and we
caught up with Joe Kauder about half way through the race and he stuck with Jason
and I to the finish. It was just a
great race as I got to relax, enjoy the course and chow on some great food…before
I knew it we passed mile 20, then 25 and we were at the home stretch!
We finished the race strong feeling very well, for the first
time in two years I was able to finish a run longer than 26 miles without
throwing up or getting sick at all which I attribute to a better intake of both
electrolytes and aid station nutrition, I was THRILLED!!! I love running the long distances and it has
become a real bummer to get sick after every race, I finally felt like I was
making some significant progress with my nutrition and I couldn’t be happier! In fact I was so pumped about finally having my
nutrition on track I decided to take the next step and jump up to my first 50
mile race this September at “The Northface Challenge” in Wisconsin, more info
to come!
So I have a lot more fun to look forward to this year and some
great long runs and races on the trails coming up, I’ll keep you all in the
loop with my training as it goes on and in the meantime HAPPY RUNNING! J
-Cory
https://www.strava.com/activities/635471065
