2016 Dances with Dirt 50K Race Recap

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

Grandma's Marathon 2016 Race Recap

Well Grandma’s most definitely did not go as expected this year to say the least.  After completing a nearly flawless 18 week training cycle leading up to this race I got smacked down hard by hot temps.  The trip however was an awesome time and we had a ton of great performances despite the hot weather on race day!..

Myself and a crew of about 20 members from the Dubuque Running Club all made our way to Duluth this year to tackle Grandma’s Marathon, a huge increase from two years ago with myself, Shannon and Bill.  Same as 2014 we stayed together at the College of Scholastica in Duluth which rents out their rooms in the summer for marathon runners.  It’s a great setup there, reasonably priced and plenty of room for the group who took over one of the dorm lounges to hang out when not prepping for the race.   Race morning they have buses that shuttle runners to the start and then back from the finish later that day.  Since Grandma’s Marathon is a point to point race this is very handy in getting the 26 miles out of the city. 

The morning of the race we had a fun bus ride with the DRC crew and you could really feel the excitement in the bus full of runners ready to take on the race.  It was a warm morning already in the mid to upper 60s and pretty humid so I was chugging down a lot of fluids, specifically tailwind which is my go to electrolyte mix.  I have had major struggles in the heat before so I was doing my best to make sure I had taken in the most fluids and nutrition I could.   Before I knew it we were at the start so we all unloaded, handed off our drop bags and got a group photo prior to lining up.   I made my way to our spot, since there was not a 3 hour pacer I lined up just a little ahead of the 3:05.  With a just a couple minutes to go I made myself comfortable and tried to focus a bit while cracking some jokes with Bill, Jose and Matt.   I was excited and optimistic about nailing my 7^th marathon since I was last here two years ago, but I was in for quite the surprise…

The gun went off and we quickly broke into stride, I felt great and within the first half mile Jose and I hooked up and were pacing each other out.   Cruising passed the first mile we starting feeling the temperature which had already jumped up about 10 degrees in the last hour and decided to cut back the pace to a more conservative 6:55 vs the 6:47 I was training at thinking we could push the last few miles to make up for it.  Miles 2, 3, 4 and 5 went by well and although I recognized I was really heating up, I consequently tossed my hat just before mile 6 to let out some steam.  Just passed the 10K mark is when the first sign of trouble hit, it started with a burning sensation in my quad which over the next half mile turned into a quad cramp.  I was worried immediately as I’ve only gotten cramps in the past after 20 miles in a race and they were pretty debilitating.   I slowed my pace down and even walked through the upcoming water station thinking it was something I could quickly shake off and get back to my race plan.   It was right at this point where Bill came up behind me and I decided I would stick with him for a while, Bill was gunning for around a 7min pace at that point.  I started back up and after only about 20 yards with Bill my quad cramped again and I had to drop back.  This was at this point about 8 miles into the race (18 miles from the finish line) and things went downhill fast in a real snowball fashion.

After the cramps started up I just couldn’t shake them, I resorted to running about ¼ mile at a time then walking for 30 seconds and repeating.  This worked well from about mile 9 to mile 18 although as the race progressed the time I was able to run dropped back and the walking increased.  It was just a horrible experience, I begged for the ability to just run at an easy pace.. heck just 3 weeks before I was able to finish a marathon distance training run around 8 minute average in high heat without issues, the fact I couldn’t run for more than a few dozen steps at a time before my legs seized up was a painful, embarrassing and humbling experience.  I passed each drop spot questioning how much further I could do this and if this was even a good idea, I feared I might be doing more damage by continuing on but no matter how much I wanted to drop out I stubbornly kept pushing on.

By mile 20 heat exhaustion had taken over, I was unable to run at this point and found myself dizzy and wondering back and forth on the course looking for shade.   Around this time the officials had black-flagged the event for temps over 105 degrees on the course and they were pulling people out of the race who couldn’t make it through, I had several race personal try to do the same to me but I wasn’t having it.  The guy I was walking next to fell over the curb and as soon as he hit the ground he was pulled from the race, I made the decision at this point to walk on the center line of the road as not to risk getting pulled if I tripped.  I had to be quite the site at this point I was hobbling along with my head down, holding my weak leg and pushing myself step by step down the spectator packed cobblestone lane that lines the last few miles of the course.

This is where the last phase of horribleness started.  Due to head exhaustion every 5 to 10 minutes from here on out I started vomiting uncontrollably… I was just a couple miles to the finish but it seemed like forever, I remember hitting mile 25 and I didn’t think there was any way I could get any further, I had to walk backwards down the next hill as my leg had completely seized up not letting me bend at the knee... I seriously was thinking about rolling down the hill on my side but I didn’t think I could get back up.  Then about a half mile from the finish my buddy Shannon popped out of the crowd, he got joking with me a bit and it was the total mental boost I needed, I was able to turn the corner and hobble across the finish line, about an hour and one half after what I had expected but I had finished nonetheless!!

 Shortly after finishing I collapsed hard, continued throwing up pretty bad and was starting to get real fuzzy mentally.  A few members of the DRC crew helped me get some ice and carried me to the medical tent where I got some great care to get me feeling better.  The nurse gave me a hard time but also very valuable advice which I was take to heart and use in my future training and runs.  After an hour or so in the tent cooling down and rehydrating I was able to meet with the rest of the crew and learned the heat took it’s toll on everyone.  Despite a lot of missed goals, we had a lot of finishes and some very happy people, it was a great day!

So to wrap up the experience I will say this…  Grandma’s Marathon 2016 for me was a lot of things, I could describe the race as painful, disappointing, and humbling which it certainly was but without all that pain and struggle I would have never known how tough I could be…. and after dragging myself one legged over 18 miles I feel like I can accomplish so much more than I thought was possible.  So I am thankful in a way as I feel I came out of the race a stronger person than I went in and even though I missed my time goal there will be others. 

Happy Running!

-Cory