Free State Trail Marathon (KS) State #23

Free State Trail Run

Lawrence, KS April 21, 2012

State #23

Trail Marathon

My original plan was to run the 100k race at this event but with both ileopsoas injuries and a calf strain, my running mileage was quite low after the New Orleans Marathon. One week before the race I emailed the race director to drop down to the marathon distance, he granted my request no problem.

I flew from Milwaukee into Kansas City, MO and rented a car for the hour drive West to Lawrence. This ended up being the same weekend as a big NASCAR race in the area, as well at the Garmin Marathon in nearby Olathe, KS (pronounce Olathie). I had no real travel issues and made good time to downtown Lawrence where race packet pick up was at the local running store. About 1 block away was an outfitter where I bought a fuel canister for my jetboil as I was camping at the state campground near the race start. Once I got my campsite setup I drove the few minutes back into town for dinner and some interwebs to check on some school work that was going through some final end of term editing. Dinner at a chain pasta place with desert and internet at Starbucks.

I headed to bed early in my tent in the quiet and relatively empty campground. Race morning always comes early.

And then the fun began. A group of campers showed up about midnight and set up 2 sites away from me, proceeding to start a campfire and drink for several hours. Of course I had left my ear plugs in my car, thinking I was in for a nice quiet night. But before going to my car I first had to listen for a bit to see if I was in any danger of harm from them if I were to get out of my tent and attract attention with my headlamp. After getting my earplugs with only minimal noise control, probably an hour later I finally got out of my tent to yell at them. “At least pretend that you are trying to be quiet” seemed to do the trick. But the damage was done, I was out 3 hours of sleep in the middle of the night. I accidentally bumped my car horn several times as I pulled out of my camp spot heading to the race at 5am.

What I found out later that the “right thing to do” was to call 911 to report the noise. Really?!? I work in an industry where 911 is overused, abused, and misused. It did not occur to me to take that action. I was thinking where is the camp host that is nearby? Where is park ranger? Why is the park open for new guests at midnight anyway?

I had also decided I wasn’t going to spend a second night there, and on my phone, as they partied next door, changed my flight for the afternoon after the race, one day early. Ugh.

The race ended up being amazing single track trail in the woods along the edge of the lake for most of the race. Due to the significant leaf coverage GPS watches were off quite a bit as well and this threw me a little. My effort was feeling like 9:30-10 min miles on the trails but Garmin read most of the time 12 min miles, making me feel like I was really struggling for some reason. Nope, turns out the GPS was 2 miles short by the end of the run and I ended up finishing as 3^rd female overall. This NEVER happens.

Great race, great single track trail running. Turns out there are hills in Kansas!!!  If I need Kansas again for a state I would do this one again!!!!

All photos were provided to the participants from the race photographer. 

New Orleans, LA Marathon 3/4/12 State #22

The Trip

HH had never been to New Orleans or Louisiana and when the discount popped up for dollars off the race entry the number of points that the Saints won that week's game by, I jumped at the chance to pick up a new state. Before he knew it, HH was signed up for his second marathon. I think a few weeks later they put a cap on the discount about $15, we ended up with $50 or so dollars off and ended up paying about $40/pp per marathon entry fee. And who wouldn't want an excuse to get some chicory coffee and beignets from Cafe du Monde?

I lived in uptown New Orleans from December 2001 to December 2005 and left to earn my Bachelor's degree from University of Washington (then hike the AT, and move a few more times, etc.). So, we made a long weekend of the trip to play tourist to see the city, nearby plantation homes, and the damage from Katrina. I used to work for a tour company before starting nursing school and we went on 2 tours with that company. Despite living and working there when Katrina hit, I avoided seeing the levee breaches either intentionally or unintentionally in the months following the storm. I had seen the Lakeview neighborhood near Lake Ponchartrain about 4-5 days after the storm when the water was to the rafters and a leaking natural gas line was burning on the surface of the water. I worked at the hospital on nights, and during the day we would ride along with the National Guard in big trucks handing out MREs and water to the surrounding neighborhoods.

We stayed in a few different hotels in the city in a game of picking hotels that had been somewhat properly restored after Katrina as well as those that had no recent or re-occuring bedbug issues, as well as staying close to the race start the night before and after, and in quiet hotels the rest of our stay.

We stayed at Prytania Park (uptown), the Dauphine Orleans (French Quarter), and the Maison Perrier (uptown). If I were to do it again, I would just stay at Prytania Park or their sister hotel Prytania Oaks for the entire stay as I know the streetcar system and don't mind using it or walking if it is a long time between them. We did not rent a car and took a taxi to and from the airport.

Mint Julep at Oak Alley Plantation

View of the oaks at Oak Alley Plantation,
looking towards the Mississippi River

One of Brad Pitt's "Make it Right" homes

Typical cemetery group grave plot

Laura Plantation

The Race

"Practicing" at the expo

I was a little nervous about doing a Competitor/Rock n Roll race in light of the recent debacle at their "night" race in Las Vegas. Even when I was booking hotels, they had not even yet announced the race course so I assumed they were going to start and/or finish downtown and picked a hotel based on that. The weather had been warm and humid in the days leading up to the race but a cold front came through 2 nights before, cooling things down. I was even cold during a complimentary walking cemetery tour we went on the day before the race, provided by an Appalachian Trail section hiker, providing it to us from "one hiker to another." He even adamantly refused our tip!

Back to the race. We had some actually good in room coffee and that was great to get us started along with scones we had purchased the day before. It was about a 10 minute walk to the starting corrals. We were plenty early but not crazy early, and before we knew it we had started. The first half of the race is in uptown (St. Charles Ave, streetcar, big homes, large old oaks), downtown, and then up Esplanade Ave to city park, where the half marathoners peeled off to finish. Running in general went smoother with HH this race because we had spent a lot more time training and running together, where for Grandma's we were essentially training separately.

The race got long on the second half as it sometimes does, as we did a weird out and back "T" along the exposed road along Lake Ponchartrain. The bands were helpful to boost your mood, but it would have been helpful for me to have studied the course map a bit more to know more precisely where the turnarounds were. The last few miles were a difficult mental struggle for HH with all the people yelling "you are almost there!" despite having still 2 miles to go. We walked several times after passing by people cheering this phrase, and each time I worked to rule out any other issues such as hydration or fuel status. After several twists and turns in City Park, we could finally see the finish and we were done in 4 hours 30 minutes, a full 30 minutes faster than HH's first marathon 9 months earlier.

After walking about 1/4 mile to get in a 1/4 mile long line for buses back downtown, we rested for a short bit in the hotel after showers. We had saved 1/2 a muffuletta from the day before for a post race salty recovery snack.

DONE!!!

John Dick 50k DNF Feb 4, 2012

I DNF'd after one 6 mile loop. This was primarily a mental thing for me after hearing at the start that the race had more of a fat ass style to it where most people were not planning on running the entire way. To me, this says, "this doesn't really matter," and it went downhill from there. Additionally, the trails were very icy which was a slight surprise considering there was no snow in downtown Milwaukee. I was unprepared for the ice, without yak tracks or shoe screws. Those with the screws had great days. Other than my own issues the course was well marked and the aid stations were great.

Lesson learned: I do not do well mentally with fat ass style events in pushing myself to continue to run.

John Dick Memorial 50k

Race Photos
I had found a fun one of me running at the start but I cannot find that photo now.

Icebreaker Indoor Marathon Milwaukee

Taken before the race, why not!

30th Marathon or longer race for me! 1/22/12 4:04+

This was a repeat of Wisconsin for the 50 states but it was an indoor winter marathon so I was curious and signed up before it sold out. It is 95.5 laps around the speed skating ice arena where olympic athletes train. The track is a 2 lane rubber track where 1 mile is more than 3 laps but less than the typical 4 laps that equal a mile on outdoor tracks.

There were 2 port a pottys on both ends of the track with 1 aid station. Because it was inside runners were required to bring 2 of their own bottles, have them labeled and volunteers would keep them filled with either water or powerade, whichever they were labeled to hold. As you circled around, when you needed a drink you would yell out to the volunteers your race number and the type of drink you wanted, and then on the next lap they have it ready and would hand it to you. Most people had handheld water bottles and would carry and drink for a lap and then hand them back to the volunteer. Rinse, repeat.

Marathon Maniac Pre race group photo

Start line-up

Aid station during the race

I had not realized they would have this system and just ended up putting my bottle on the "don't help me" table just beyond the main aid station and would just stop and drink as needed. I had HH help me get my bottle refilled and ended up drinking almost 3 liters of powerade. I was worried about dehydration in light of the decongestants I was taking for a cold and focused a lot on hydration. They also handed out vanilla and chocolate gu's at the far end of the aid station continuously after the first hour had elapsed.

Timing and lap counting was via chip timing with several large screens so you could track your progress. Although your name didn't always necessarily appear when you were going by but could ask for a lap count the next time you came by. I had HH help with this task a ways into the race. As I counted down the last 20 laps it ended up that I was one off. For most people the race announcer would say the runners name, race number and laps remaining. However, they must have not been doing it for everyone as I was counting on it for a confirmation. Well, I crossed my finish line and the race announcer said my name and that I was done. I was thinking I had 1 lap to go! The race official at the "finish" did not know if I was finished or not and so I headed out to do 1 more lap, just to make sure! I would hate to stop and have a minute elapse only to be told I really needed another lap. Ooops! Good training for the ultra in 2 weeks, right?

Not sure if I will do this one again but an interesting, well organized race!

1 down, 95 to go!

Tecumseh Trail Marathon 12/3/11 State #21

Tecumseh Trail Marathon is a point to point trail marathon just outside of Bloomington, Indiana where the University of Indiana is located. It goes from one state forest to another. We drove down the night before the race, picked up my race packet and HH registered for the 5 mile fun run. Even though the race started at 10:30am, there was still a 1 hour bus ride from where you park at the finish line to the start line. The race was started about 10 minutes late and we were off. Luckily the first 2-ish miles were on road or logging road so the 700 runners could shuffle and spread out. It was a bluebird sky morning, cool but not freezing, and there had been very little precipitation in the week leading up to the race. It was well run in general, however I felt that 700 runners were too much for the trail, especially one that many people are running trails for the very first time and have yet to develop any sense of trail etiquette (the main one being step aside when you are on single track and holding up people that are running faster than you and bunching up behind you). We were warned to wear blaze orange as we would be running through active hunting areas but only about 20-25% of people actually did this. A few times at aid stations I was told by bystanders "man, you want to be visible today" as I was wearing a blaze orange vest.

Love the area but until the race cap is decreased will not be doing this as a repeat and will stick to smaller trail ultras. No pictures, but I found this link of a video that some folks filmed while running the race this year.

4:50:10 ("chip timed" but there was no timing mat at the beginning, making this a gun timed only event)
Approx 3,100 feet of elevation gain with 3,400 feet of loss (per my Garmin)

Up Next: Jan 22 Indoor Icebreaker Marathon Milwaukee, WI (repeat state, #30 marathon (or longer))

State #20 Route 66 Marathon Tulsa, OK 11/20/11

Headed out on the road at 8:30pm Friday night with 3 other marathoners (2 Marathon Maniacs and 

1 that we hopefully corrupted) to make the 12 hour drive to Tulsa, OK. We were in a 1-2 year old 

hybrid car with already over 100,000 miles on it, with most of the miles from the owner driving 

to marathons (he is on state #40). The only strange thing we saw on the drive down was in Kansas 

City (not sure if it was KS or MO) within a few miles of each other was a car randomly stopped in the 

middle of the 3 lane interstate with a cop behind it with flashing lights and the cop out of his car!!! 

And, a car that had plowed into a concrete support of an overpass with 6 firetrucks and a few police 

cars parked around it working on extrication, with no ambulance on scene.

We got to Tulsa around 8am (expo started at 10am) and stopped by the hotel to see if they would 

let us check in early, and they did! They even still had their continental breakfast out and offered it 

to us, in which 2 out of the 4 people in the group broke down to eat it after trying to fast for the last 

8 hours for the free health screening and cholesterol testing at the expo (they both still had pretty 

descent cholesterol panels). After a 3 hour nap we headed to the expo at noon at the convention 

center. There was a Marathon Maniac booth right next to the 50 States Marathon booth where we 

stopped to get our wrist bands to get entry to the Marathon Maniacs tent after the race.

This race included a 0.3 mile detour at about mile 17 to the "Center of the Universe" and we stopped 
by this spot after we finished at the expo to take pictures and to try out the echo chamber. This was 
a large circular area where if you stood exactly in the middle you could hear an echo, but someone 
standing 1/2 a foot away from you could not hear the echo (also does not work if you can only hear 
out of one ear). This is a very similar echo thing that is in Portland, Oregon at Council Crest Park. Back 
to the hotel for a quick nap before the pasta dinner at Cain's Ballroom, a historic Tulsa landmark.


Up early the next morning to a 30 degree drop in temperature from the day before (almost 70 
degrees when we went to the expo) and low clouds. Got to the start line in plenty of time before the
Maniac picture. The start was in waves, I was in corral B, but did not know how much time had 
elapsed between waves as I had forgot my Garmin watch.

The race started and I noticed that I was feeling pretty good and decided to push the pace as much 
as I could by feel. Chatted with some people along the way but it was either too cold, windy or 
people running at the 4 hour marathon pace are less talkative, but it was generally a quiet crowd. 
Probably another reason why I held a brisk for me pace. Aid stations were well organized, people 
announcing what drink type was first, and they even had people with signs marking speed bumps 
when we ran through campus.

On the out/back section along the river (photo by the famous Dave Mari)

Center of the Universe is in Tulsa, OK. Between mile 17 and 18 of the marathon.

I briefly pondered skipping the detour to the center of the universe but decided to go for it, thinking 
when would I be back to Tulsa? They gave you a commemorative detour coin and had an aid station 
with Michelob Ultra, but I declined the beverage after going for it but being told what it was. More 
hills in the second half than the first half but it is always motivating to know that you are close to the 
finish. Passed by Eric and Rich, two people I carpooled with in the last mile of the race and they 
cheered me in. Once finishing, a volunteer placed a "first marathon" finisher's medal around my neck, 
but I did notice until I was in the line to get my finish time and a lady asked me how I got a gold medal. 
I was able to swap this in the Marathon Maniac tent. This tent was awesome though! It has tables and 
chairs, catered and potluck food, along with the presidents of the club hanging out and talking with 
everyone. But, we cooled down fast and made our way to the car to sit with the heat on and wait for 
the last person in our carpool. 


Once on the road we stopped at truck stop for showers, but they were taking too long to clean the 
showers (as in they weren't cleaning the 2 open stalls during the 20 minutes we were waiting, then 
once we mentioned something, magically they started calling people for showers). So we all got 
refunds and hit the road again. Stopping at a Microtel to talk our way into renting the room for $40, 
the same price for all 4 of us to take a shower at the truck stop, and we were successful. An hour later 
we were on our way. Home by 5am Monday morning, but exhausted and sore.


Checked the results the next day and saw I broke 4 hours when you delete the detour.
3:59:11 with a 9:13 minute/mile average pace.


Next up: Tecumseh Trail Marathon near Bloomington, IN and State #21 (if completed).

Race Medal Holder and Surprise!!

Got my finisher's medal holder (2 wood coat hanger racks from Amazon) re-installed this weekend after moving 3 months ago. Also registered for Vermont 100 miler! It was time to register for my first (attempt) at 100 miles and this will help me get through my first REAL winter. Excited and scared at the same time. Now I have to concentrate on working on a few end-of-term papers for grad school for the rest of the day. 

Let the countdown to July (and VT 100) begin!!!!!!