So, there I was, dredging through a cold, heavy downpour in the Kettle Moraine’s of Wisconsin 36 miles into the Glacial Trail 50 mile race; feeling cold, wet, & extremely sorry for myself when I heard “GO KONRAD GO!” That was all I needed to snap me out of the trance that I had been in for the past 7 miles of the race. Before I even looked up I knew who it was, it my beautiful wife Hope ahead of me in the woods cheering me on. That’s when I knew I would finish the race no matter how much pain and discomfort I was in.
It all started that morning at 3:30 am in a hotel room in Fond Du Lac Wisconsin. I had set my alarm to go off at 4:00 but due to nerves making me very restless I just couldn’t sleep any longer. After I accepted the fact that I was not going back to sleep I got up and quietly got dressed in my racing attire. The previous night I had decided I wanted to get to the race pickup when it started at 5 am and that my wife Hope would unfortunately have to wake up far earlier that she was used to. After I had roused her and finagled some coffee and fruit from the lobby we set out on the wet 23 mile drive to the Greenbush Fire Station where the race start and packet pickup was located.
Hope and I made it to the Fire Station at about 4:50 and I was in high spirits. I was the first entrant to get there but there was a lot of commotion from the race director trying to delegate responsibilities to all of the aid station volunteers. I got my race number, packet, and sweatshirt and went back to the truck to organize myself and my equipment. For my nutrition I planned on using orange flavored Hammer gel, strawberry Stinger waffles, & some other various bars in case my tastes changed during the race. The energy in the building was infectious and everybody was ready to get the race started.
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| Me walking to the start. |
At 5:58the race director Robert Wehner told everyone to move to the start line on the road in front of the building. I walked out the door to find a gaggle fuck of people huddled under the overhang trying to stay dry before the race start. I thought to myself “WTF, What the hell does it matter to stay dry under an overhang if you’re going to be out in a downpour for hours on end? Embrace the Suck people!” I heard mutterings of having a ten hour cold shower which made me chuckle to myself as I walked to the start. I gave my wife Hope a kiss and made my way to the middle of the pack at the starting line.
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| That's me in the red jacket smiling like an idiot. |
“Ready,Set, Go!”, and we were off down the road. The first half mile of the race was on paved roads that led to the trail. I quickly found my pace with three other runners as we ran to the trail entrance. The first part of the trail was extremely narrow due to tall grasses and a few sections of slippery boardwalk that was only about 2 feet wide. After managing not to slip on the wet boards we entered a patch of pine trees where the trail was very hard to follow due to low light and the heavy amount of pine needles on the ground. At this point I was just following whoever matched my pace the best.
After the section of pine trees and a somewhat open prairie we entered what would be the majority of what the trail would be like. The trail was about 2 foot wide at best and littered with large rock and roots. What made it even worse is that it due to it being fall, the rocks and roots were covered by a thick layer of leaves that gave you an false sense of where would be good footing. The trail was not too bad in terms of mud and hilliness but that was soon to changeover the next 10 hours and 200 people running on the trails.
From mile 3 to sometime after the first aide station I followed two gentlemen who,from what I gleaned from their conversation, had run this race before and were very experienced in the ultra-running scene. One of the runners I was following took off and I was left following only one person. At this time I decided it would behoove be to strike up a conversation to try and pass the time. Over the next few miles I learned a few things about him and made friendly conversation. At the first aide station we caught up to two runners that stopped for nutrition and I figured “What the hell, I’ll run with them”. So I left my new acquaintance and took off to try and run with these new guys.
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| Me just before the first aide station. |
The next seven miles felt like a cat and mouse game to which I would lose. I managed to stay within around 100 meters of them but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t make any ground on them. Every time they hit the bottom of a hill and started walking I would get within 10 feet of them and it felt like I had them. That was a huge fallacy because when I hit the bottom of a hill I had to walk and they would always reach the top of the hill and start running again and the distance gap would go back to 100meters. It was more of a mind fuck than anything and I knew that I was breaking the promise to myself to go slower and run my own race. I eventually won the internal struggle to convince myself to slow down & that’s when I started feeling the slight twinge of cramps in my calves.
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| Just before the second aide station at mile 13.3 |
I had a slight urge to pee so I stopped and did my business. I had been so focused on staying with the two runners that I had ignored the fact that I needed to drink water! My pee was dark yellow and it burned a little coming out. I thought to myself “Oh shit”, because I knew I was dehydrated and Ihadn’t taken enough S-caps. I quickly started forcing myself to drink more water and take 2 s-caps every hour to correct the issue. It had been too late to avoid muscle cramps and over the next hour or so I battled the pain of my calf muscles seizing up. Then at mile sixteen I took my first fall.
I had been running/sliding down a steep hill sliding and trying to avoid the obstacles of the trail when my foot caught a root and I took the fall. I would like to say I took it gracefully but that is probably far from the truth. In reality it most likely looked like a mid-air somersault with some barrel rolls on the ground till I came to a stop in the mud. I couldn’t help but laugh at myself while I lay in misery from a calf cramp. After what seemed like 2 minutes I looked around to see if anybody had seen my epic fail and quickly got to my feet and continued the trek through the woods. I took another fall at mile 19 due to an unforeseen rock and ate it in a huge pool of mud and water and had another debilitating muscle cramp. Again, I gathered myself and my dignity and went on my merry way to the next aide station at Mauthe Lake (Mile 20.5).
At the Mauthe Lake aide station I had my water refilled and I grabbed a handful of gummy bears and a cup of Coke. After some friendly banter with one of the volunteers I took off for the next aide station at Butler Lake which was also the 25 mile turnaround point. The next 4.5 miles was a lot more pleasant and uneventful. I was passed by the woman who would get 1stout of the women and I was able to discover what place I was in. I counted them off in my head as they started to pass me at around mile 22. Right before I hit the turn around the last person in front of me passed me going the other way and I discovered I was in 11th place. I really took that news with a grain of salt because my focus was on just finishing. I hit the turnaround point in approximately 4:21. After refueling and grabbing some gels I headed back to the finish.
Getting to the turnaround gave me new vigor and resolve to finish the race. I made the next mile I ran by myself with nothing more than my own thoughts but soon another runner was to catch up tome. I discovered that it was the same guy I ran with at the beginning of the race. I discovered that his name was Bill and over the next 4 miles I ran with him and discussed many things about running and life. Somewhere around mile 29 Bill overtook me and I was on my own once again. This is where the suck really started for me.
Every step started to be painful. The constant up and down and the rocks littering the trail were starting to take their toll on my quads and my feet. I got into a mode of walking the hills and jogging everything else. I eventually got into the “zone” and forced everything else out. I had to keep the thought of failure out. My mantra that I reapeated in my head was, “All it takes is everything you’ve got!” I repeated it over and over in my head till that was the only thing I could think of and time seemed to stand still. Then, after what seemed like hours, I heard the sweetest voice………..Hope!
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| This is where I first saw Hope around mile 36...My savior! |
For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about, my wife’s name is Hope. She absolutely hates it when you use her name as a verb in a joke but I found it to be a little ironic in the condition that I was in. She brought me out of a dark place and back into the light……She gave me hope. Anyhow, Hope had made her way off the main road where she had parked to cheer me on and it was a wonderful feeling to see her standing there. I consider myself to be very lucky to have such a kid ass wife who supports me in all of my shenanigans. After seeing Hope the first time I saw her one more time at the second to last aide station and then I was on my own till the finish.
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| A glimpse of me running away from Hope at mile 36. |
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| Running down the stairs to the second to last aide station with 13.3 miles left. |
The final 13.3 miles where the hardest miles of my life, with every step brought pain and the rain had made me chilled to the bone. I could no longer run so I was reduced to a sashay to traverse the down slopes. The trail was even harder to run on at this point because of all the 50k runners that had run on that section of the trail. Nothing could keep me from finishing the race because of my raw determination and I was so close. I eventually made it to the trail entrance and hit the road.
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| Finisher ahead of me telling me to stop running and shaking my hand. |
After all the rocks, roots, falls, & cramps I made it to the finish line. The timing clock and all the race officials were under the overhang about 100 meters from the finish. I rounded the finish line and kept running towards the overhang because I didn’t realized I could stop. It took the guy that finished in front of me to tell me I could stop and a rush of emotions I can’t describe bum rushed me. I don’t know if any of you have even been so broken down and so proud of your accomplishment that you almost cry because that’show I felt (for the record I didn’t cry).
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| Walking to get my medal. This race had some great swag! |
My finishing time was 9:52:27 for the 50 miles. I can’t tell you how great it felt to finish my first 50 miler in less than 10 hours! The whole race was such an emotional rollercoaster and by the time I was done I was completely broken down physically and emotionally. If it wasn’tfor my supportive wife and my dedication to my training I could never have accomplished this feat. I am no longer a cherry in the world of Ultra-running and now I need to find another race for my calendar. I learned a lot about myself and a lot about race strategy from this race & I will learn much more in the future. I will end this race report with a few words that resonated with me during the race and will have will have a deep meaning for as long as I am able to run.
“All it takes………………………………… is EVERYTHING you’ve got!”
