Birkebeiner Trail Marathon 2010 race report

This year was the first year of the Birkebeiner Trail Marathon for individuals. Other years the marathon was held as a relay along with other races: Half marathon, 5K, and a Half marathon Trek. The marathon course runs mostly on the Birkie ski course from just outside of Hayward, WI to the Telemark lodge outside of Cable. The final several miles of the race are on the Kortelopet Trail.

For those that just want pictures, race-day photos (not mine) are on the Birkie website here.

I grew-up in this area in the small town of Grand View and worked at Telemark during high school. My first job was washing dishes by hand at the Chalet. This was before it burned to the ground. No, I didn't do it. I also skied on the trails around Telemark during High School and College. Back then I had no fear on the trails and skied fast and hard. Skiing is in my past - running is my sport now.

I had been interested the past two years in signing up for the marathon relay but never fit it into my schedule, mainly because I ran the Twin Cities marathon those years. This year I decided early in the Spring that I was done with marathons for the year but I got over that feeling this Summer and found the individual marathon was an option! I heard that it was hilly but my friends know I love hills! Sign me up!

The day before the race

I took a vacation day from work on Friday, 9/24 to get ready for the race. I got my Shot Bloks ready - I cut 3 packages of them in half, and taped the ends shut. This gives me 6 '100cal servings' of 3 shot bloks each. I take 1 serving every 3 miles starting at mile 8. It works for me. I also put 8 S!Caps each into two small baggies. I take one S!Cap every time I take some Shot Bloks. I was also planning to wear my Nathan 2 liter hydration pack. It was going to be a good way to give me supplemental water between aid stations. Since I was predicting a completely muddy trail, I packed a pair of socks in the zippered back compartment. OK....all set with nutrition.

What to wear? I looked at the Hayward weather forecast about 5 times a day during the week before the race. It looked as if the rain was going to letup (FINALLY) around 7pm Friday night and Saturday was supposed to be mostly sunny and 38 degrees at the start. I settled on my standard race-ready shorts, red sleeveless shirt, and my Brooks Glycerin 8 shoes. I remembered to grab my Afton Trail Run cap and I was going wear some Boston Marathon gloves my friends gave me after their trip there a few years ago. I never qualified but they are a souvenir and are good luck for me.

After noon, I left the Twin Cities and headed up to Hayward for packet-pickup where I also got a nice technical T-shirt, see pic above. Then I was off to my Dad's house in Grand View. Never one to have surprises the night before the marathon, I packed my own dinner of spaghetti noodles and a grilled chicken breast as well as an apple. On the way, I picked up a 6-pack of New Glaris Totally Naked beer for my Dad and his wife and a 6-pack of Spotted Cow beer for myself. The beer was going to have to wait until Saturday night, but I did enjoy a shot of Blackberry Brandy with my Dad before I hit the hay.

Race Day - Saturday morning

I set my alarm for 4:45am. Seems early for an 8am start but I also like to have breakfast 3+ hours before race time. I got up long before the alarm at 4:20 and made myself a piece of wheat toast with peanut butter. That's the breakfast that, so far, has helped keep GI issues away! My plan was to leave at 6am for Telemark, a 30 minute drive, and luckily I went out to my car early. There was a thick coat of frozen dew on the windows. Ugh. My ice scraper was in Minnesota and I couldn't find one in my Dad's truck. The defroster worked well and I was on the road at 6am on schedule. I was also lucky that I packed warm gloves, winter running pants, and a sweatshirt to wear before the race.

At Telemark there were buses to shuttle us to the start. Once the runners started getting on the bus, I made sure I got on the first bus. I always like to have a little time to relax and just walk around near the starting line before a race. Well, the bus behind us went first and when we arrived at the Fish Hatchery Park, I had time to hit the porta-potty, take off my warm clothes and put them in my drop bag, and listen to the starting line instructions. Now it was only two minutes until race time.

We were told that one of the race organizers had traveled the course by ATV that morning. There were quite a few areas where water had formed ponds at the bottoms of hills. We could run though the water or run around the ponds through the woods. The race official recommended going around as some of the ponds were up to the tops of the ATV wheels. Yikes. Although it was sunny, I was still imagining mud. The temperature at the start was 34 degrees. Even though it was that cold, I knew that sleeveless was the way to go for me.

And we were off

I had heard a few times that the marathon had about 80 runners. That number looked accurate. I lined-up about where I thought I should be and we were off and running on time. I think we had a couple hundred yards of flat blacktop before we were on the trail. Approaching the first corner I tried to count how many runners were ahead of me and I estimated 25. I still seemed to be in the right position for the size of the race.

This was a race that I was planning to race, not just finish. I trained with my friends Michelle and Aileen for a 3:40 marathon but I knew I couldn't do that here. My goal was to hit the half at 2:00 and if everything went I would like to have a 4:00 finish.

Right from the start I could see the course was beautiful. The sun was out, most of the trees were at or near their peak color, the air was crisp, and we were in the woods. What could be better? Well, some would say a flat course would be better. :-) The hills! The hills! The hills! Rolling. Never-ending. Some small, maybe 12 to 15 feet high. Some much larger. Up and down and up and down and up and down. Were there really any flat areas in the first 20 miles? I don't remember any.

That's all it was - hills and beautiful trees. I was running around 9 minute miles and since I was racing it, the pace seemed appropriate. Wasn't I supposed to be hurting a little? I was not out for an easy long run, I had to push things a bit. A couple miles in my glasses fogged up some and it was hard to see with the bright sunshine. That was ticking me off because I was really enjoying the beauty of the forest. Eventually, my glasses cleared up and thankfully I could see again.

We had aid stations on the course that were stocked with water, Heed, and small Cliff bars. At 5.8K was aid station #1. I asked for water and got one water and one Heed. Ugh. I stop at aid stations for maybe 7 seconds to throw my two cups of water down my throat. The Heed was down about the time I tasted it. I could have worried that it was going to throw-off my nutrition plan but what's done is done. Nothing I could do about it now and off I ran.

A few miles ahead I started running with a gal. We chatted for awhile and she was from Hayward and did her training on this course. She seemed strong and fast and there were only 5 women ahead of her as well as the 20 men ahead of me. The running was great! This trail was W-I-D-E and was mowed grass. For much of the trail there was a dirt path down the middle. I didn't run on the path as it was a little slick and if there were rocks, that's where they were. I ran on the grass which was about like running on someone's poorly kept lawn. It didn't have thick grass like a lawn or a golf course but, in my opinion, it was just wonderful to run on. I would rate the technical difficulty of the running surface as a trail run to be a Zero out of Ten. Note that I'm talking about the surface, not the hills.

The hills were still rolling as we got to aid station #2. I asked for water again and got one water and one Heed. The guy next to me asked for Heed and got water. Everyone makes mistakes. Unfortunately, the water and Heed looked the same and were in the same white cups. Yet again, there was nothing I could do because I drank it down so quickly. We were still clicking off the miles at around a 9:00 pace and I felt good. Coming up soon was mile 8 and it was time to take some Shot Bloks and an S!Cap. It may have been somewhere around here that the local gal moved ahead. She knew we were on pace for a sub-2:00 half and possibly a sub-4:00 finish. That would be nice. [note: she finished with a sub-4:00] I was dividing my race up from here to the end into 3-mile chunks. 3 miles was the distance between Shot Bloks.

Approaching the half way point it was still rolling hills. I felt pretty good and hit the half at 1:58. The way the markers were set it seemed as if the first half was long and the second half was short. This is a trail race so it doesn't matter to me. I knew when I was finished I would have run not less than 26.2 miles. Oh yeah, at this aid station I got two WATERS! Yes! I briefly looked for my friends from the Twin Cites, Karen and Jay that were running the half. I didn't see them as I found out later their bus arrived just after 10am and I went through the station at 9:58. Oh well.

First half done! Now a half to go!

The first 13.1 were good but hard. I was racing but still had power. Things were about to change very soon, and not for the better. Of course, I took my nutrition at mile 11 and was now approaching mile 14 for another serving. It has been working extremely well wearing my Nathan hydration pack and I never seemed too full of water or too dehydrated. Approaching mile 14 both of my calf muscles felt like they were going to cramp. Ugh. Luckily I could still think clearly and decided right then to double up on S!Caps then, and every 3 miles to the finish. I took two S!Caps along with my Shot Bloks. That was my only hope. Well, that and slowing slightly to run under the cramping point. I can't really explain it but I could still move along at a fair, not fast, pace and could feel my calf muscles were shot but not yet cramping. On the hills where I had to walk, I tried to walk at a nice clip because I thought if I stopped, my muscles would cramp and that would be the end of me. So far, so good.

Oh, maybe you were wondering about the hills. We still had hills and I don't remember any flat areas yet. Coming up on mile 17 I popped two S!Caps in my mouth and took a big drink of water from my Nathan. The water partially went down the wrong way and I swallowed one S!Cap and coughed-out the other one like a bullet. I couldn't stop coughing for about two minutes. I came by several Trekers during this stretch and tried my best to look like I wasn't dying. After I passed those walkers, I took another S!Cap and thought about how happy I was that I packed twice the number I was planning to use.

I forgot another great thing about this race! There were bikes out on the course riding around and each time they went by me they asked how I was doing and if I needed anything. Every time I was happy to report that I was doing fine and didn't need anything. These few words I wrote on the topic do not emphasize how great that was to have the support. Thank you race volunteers!

My race plan turned into "run as fast as you can without cramping". I was trying to think of why my calves were shot. My opinion is that my training was not race-specific. Simple as that. I did not train on small continuous rolling hills. In the areas I trained, I just did not have similar terrain. No matter, I was going to do the best that I could do.

The hills were getting bigger now as we climbed towards the highest point on the course. I think it was about mile 20 where we passed the sign that read something like: Point of Highest Elevation 1730 feet. What an awesome thing to pass as the finish would not be higher than we were right now. If someone had given me the choice right then and there to either kiss my favorite supermodel or kiss the sign, I would have kissed the sign.

Not long after this hill, the terrain was net downhill with fewer and fewer hills that required walking (for me). I was still running fairly well but noticeably slower. I was getting adequate water, nutrition, and my doubling up on S!Caps was working. Around this point in time two guy on relay teams passed me. Those guys started an hour after I did and boy were they moving. Wow.

The end was getting closer and closer and that was a good thing. A few half-marathoner's were passing me. These were the ones that would end up finishing sub-1:36 half marathons. Those guys were moving too. At 2.5 miles from the finish I was running a little slower up a hill and a half marathoner runs by and yells: "Hey, C'mon! It's 2.5 miles to the finish! Get Moving!" Well, that helped to motivate me a bit and I picked up the pace. I was still thankful that I avoided cramping calves and the end of this race was near. During this second half I think two guys passed me at a nice pace. Good job guys! I also passed a few.

1K to go!

There was a guy I passed at mile 17. He looked about my age and he caught me at 1K to go. We exchanged just a few words and I pulled out a little kick and figured it was now or never so I pulled ahead of him and never looked back. No way I was going to lose a finishing place that close to the end. I was happy that the finish was downhill and I was extremely happy with my finishing time of 4:06:54. I was 24th of 73 finishers and 3rd of 11 in my age group. Race results here.


Well, it was great to get my medal, hang around for my friends Karen and Jay to finish their half marathon, and then have a beer and lunch under the big tent. As I said in my earlier posting, if I had to pick just one marathon to run every year for the rest of my life it would be this one. I loved it. It was not easy, but I loved it and can't wait to run it again next year.

Since you read this far, you can look at my Garmin data here.

--Mark