Door County Fall 50 2010

I ran the team relay race at the Door County Fall 50 again this year, my third consecutive year. This year I was on a team of 5 including Dave, Brendan & Miaja, and my wife, Kathy. Kathy made a good effort this Summer as a beginning runner and we had run a few races together. Pain caused by a bone spur cut her running carrier very short (about 3 months). So, this year we ran as a team of 4 and our team name was "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out". The team name was a line from the movie A Christmas Story. All it takes is "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out" boxer shorts, being worn in public at our health club, combined with a 'wardrobe malfunction', to provide inspiration for the team name. Brendan would wear those boxers in the Fall 50 this year but we made sure he had the fly pinned-shut. :-)

You can find my previous race reports by clicking on 2008 or 2009. There are many more pics in those reports because of the rainfall this year, I kept the camera in the car most of the time.

Friday night we drove to Sturgeon Bay and stopped at the Ladder House for packet pickup. Packet pickup went smoothly and I said hi to John Storkamp who is one of the top solo runners. John is the race director for the Afton Trail Run which is a great trail race in the Twin Cities area and it's a can't-miss race held in the peak of the Summer heat. We also ran into Kristen/Karl/Paul that I know as they're friends I run with sometimes.

We had dinner, the same as last year, was at the Inn at Cedar Crossing. Unlike the fantastic dinner we had last year, this year's dinner was ordinary. The restaurant was very busy and maybe it was an off-night as far as cooking goes. Of course, this is my opinion.

Saturday morning I got up for breakfast and we were ready to head for the start at 7:30. We had a 9am start time based on our Team's overall pace. Since Kathy dropped from our team, we would have a faster pace than I originally estimated. Before we left Minnesota, I filled out a spreadsheet that showed each of the legs of the race and when we expected to have a runner start from each exchange. I just entered what I guessed our overall pace would be - 8:30 per mile. I tell people that I'm good at guessing a team pace. Last year we were 3 minutes and 7 seconds faster than what I estimated. I guess with confidence!

Kathy also asked me if she could volunteer at the race since she wasn't running. What a great idea! So, I used my chart of when we would be at the exchanges and decided that it would work out best for Kathy to volunteer at the Exchange #3 food/water station. We dropped Kathy off on our trip to the start and we were getting more excited by the minute.

At the start, Brendan got prepared, went to the starting line and in a few minutes the horn sounded and he was off. I somehow didn't see him run by so I just took a picture of strangers (not posted here). I was happy that we had warmer temps and no cold wind blowing on us like last year, and maybe the year before. The weather seemed perfect for running. Not wanting to be last to Exchange #1, we headed down the road.

I was scheduled to run leg 2 and I was ready to go. When Brendan handed me the wrist band I took off and was passed by a runner after about one minute. Ugh. What a way to start the day. Oh well. This darn leg starts on an uphill. I ran hard and fairly fast and after I got to the top it was time to fly (this is all relative). I had expected to run at a 7:30 average for the day but I was runner well today. My Garmin data for this 6.4 mile run is here. I was very happy with a 7:09 average pace for that run and very happy that I ran the hills.

I won't speak much for the other runners but I handed off to Miaja for leg 3 and we headed to Exchange #3. There we chatted with Kathy and picked her up at the end of her volunteering shift as Dave waited to start. I love running leg 4 and it was Dave's turn to run that leg this year. If your team run this race enough years, I highly recommend that all runners get a chance to run leg 4 through Peninsula Park. It's my favorite segment of the race. I believe Dave ran very well at just over a 7:00 pace.

Leg 5 was my turn again. 4.8 miles and this is the leg that had a healthy switch-back thrown in. Nice! I ran this leg at an 7:17 pace and was happy again to run the whole thing - even the switchback. You can see my Garmin data here. Due to the difference between the actual distance and what the Garmin reports, the paces I list here don't match the Garmin. I used the recorded time along with the published leg distances. My day's average pace was 7:13 for 11.2 miles and I am very pleased with that pace. The cooler weather and rain helped me run fast. After I was done with this leg I was done with the race! In addition, I was at the half-way buffet and was ready for some soup. Yum!

The next legs were run well by the team with Brendan running legs 6 and 7, Dave running leg 8, and Miaja running legs 9 and 10. That seemed to be a good way to split up the legs for 4 runners and we each only had to run twice although two people ran back to back legs.

We went to the finish and waited for Miaja to come into the park then we crossed the finish in 7:07:09. My guess of an overall 8:30 pace would have put us in at 7:05:00 so we were just 2:09 over. This puts my two-year combined estimated finishing times at only 62 seconds slower than estimated for 100 miles. I'm predicting this will end with a total.pace-guessing.failure next year. :-)

The test party was great as usual but we left just before the awards were announced to go back to the hotel and get cleaned up. Later, some of us headed across the street and got a little more food and some beverages before heading downtown like last year, we hit some fun places downtown and a few of us stayed out dancing until after 1am. I'm convinced that 2 or 3 hours of dancing is awesome for recovery. My legs feel really good today, the second day after the race, and I think it's mostly because of that late night dancing.


me (Mark), Dave, Miaja, Brendan

Although I have one more race this year, I can confidently state that the Door County Fall 50 is my favorite race of the year for the third consecutive year!

See you there in 2011.

--Mark

Door County Fall 50 and Surf the Murph 50 coming up

The Door County Fall 50 is my favorite team race. This year my team has 4 runners in the 50 mile relay. We'll each run twice for about 12 miles total for the race. This race doesn't need any special training for me since I finished a marathon about a month ago. I can't wait!

The Surf the Murph 50 mile run is a different situation. I've never run a 50 mile race and have never been to the Murphy-Hanrehan Park until Saturday, just over a week ago. That was my first training run there. One of my running friends met me there to give me a tour. I had a course map and we roughly followed some of the course. It was in the mid 80s for temps that day and we had a tough slow run. 13.3 miles in 2:40. Ugh. After that run I changed my 1st-loop race-day target from 3 hours to 4 hours. October 30th is going to be a long day.

Yesterday I went to Murphy-Hanrehan Park again for more training. Just as I was entering the trails from the parking lot, a woman was hitting the trails too. She was running about 30 yards ahead of me for the first mile and while walking up one of the big hills, we met. She was out there training just like me. The 30th was going to be her first 50 mile race too and we set out to run a loop together. Just like at Afton, I can be holding a map in my hand and still not be able to follow the route. Even so, we got a good feel for the course. There was an area, in the far South-West of the park, where we tried to figure out where the course went. We just couldn't figure it out. We decided to abort that little expedition and I guided us across a dry swamp. Based on all the cuts I got on my legs from the nettles, raspberry bushes, and thorny shrubs, I hope my new running friend didn't get cut up too much! Sorry KT! Finding our way to a trail again, we ran most of the remainder of the course and finished with 14.6 miles in 2:28. Not too bad in that terrain but I was definitely going too fast for race day.

The Door County Fall 50 will be a day of fun and the Surf the Murph 50 Miler will be a day of endurance and testing limits!

--Mark

Door County Fall 50 - 2009

The Door County Fall 50 was my favorite race last year and is my favorite race of 2009. Last year we had a team of 5 that also included Kristen, Dave, Karl, and Ted. This year we all signed-up again because of the great time we had in 2008. Unfortunately, Ted double-booked himself and the North Face Endurance Challenge (Madison) 50K won out over his old team-mates. :-( Down to 4 runners, we picked-up Brendan. Kristen suffered an injury a few weeks earlier and was still in on the race but as the race approached, running for her looked unlikely. Karl had to drop out on short notice so now what do we have? We have three runners.... me (Mark), Dave, and Brendan. Kristen was supporting us as our driver and Super-Captain.



Friday noon we met in St. Paul and drove towards Sturgeon Bay, WI. It was quite a drive as we had a large area in mid-WI with snow falling, 31 degree temps, and hazardous driving conditions with the slush that was accumulating on the roads. Numerous cars were in the ditches and thankfully we made it out of that weather cell in under an hour. Rain the whole rest of the way to Sturgeon Bay. Brendan was in Madison on business and was traveling to our hotel with his van, our race vehicle.

Packet pickup was at the Ladder House bar in Sturgeon Bay. We got our shirts and bibs and timing chips and headed for the bar for a beverage. When it was time to leave there and meet Brendan, Dave and Kristen headed out to the car while I chatted with a gal from team wiirn4beer (We run for beer). Next thing you know, I was chatting with her whole team and forgot all about Dave and Kristen who were waiting for me in the parking lot. Hmmm... I wonder why? :-)

I know that I'm forgetting things but it doesn't matter.

For dinner, I'd recommend a place we went: Inn at Cedar Crossing Restaurant. Yum. Dave had Grilled Chicken Risotto, I had Spaghetti with Marinara and Chicken Meatballs, Kristen had Braised Bison, and Brendan had who knows what (maybe walleye). A couple of bottles of wine with dinner and we topped it off by sharing Carrot cake and Cherry pie. Yum again.

Hotel... Hot tub... Made new friends with Team 250... and then it was time for sleep

We stayed at the Best Western Maritime Sturgeon Bay which had good Fall 50 room rates and a free breakfast. Good basic hotel and it was only a mile to mile and a half from the finish line.

The race has a 7am starting time for solo runners and 8am, 9am, or 10am start times for teams. This year we had a 10am start which meant we were in the fastest bunch of teams. After we were down to three runners, I estimated that we could hold an 8:00 average pace which would mean 6hr 40min of running. There are 10 legs so we were all running 16+ to 17+ each. We planned to run in the same order the whole race - Brendan then Dave then me. I took the last leg too and that made our miles work out fairly evenly. Kristen was our driver and awesome team-mate and support person.





I don't know when this was but someone must have said something funny!



The start was 50 miles up the peninsula at Gills' Rock. I think the temp was in the upper 30s when we got there and there was a brisk wind off the water. Cold. Cold. Cold. The picture below was right before the start. If you have sharp eyes, you can see Brendan waving... look below the second 'L' in FALL and his hand is below the lowest big window on the building in the background.



Although he is not in these pictures, I was happy to talk with Bruce for a few minutes at the start. I first met Bruce in the Afton 50K in 2008 and we ran together there for about 15 minutes. I also chatted with Bruce at the Fall 50 start last year and probably will again next year. You Minnesota trail runners will know who Bruce is if I say.... he has a long white beard.

And off they go!



Here comes Brendan after his first leg. Way to go Brendan!



We didn't support Brendan during that leg because it was easiest to take the van on a road different that where the runners were. Brendan told us when he finished that he had pulled his hamstring. Oh no! Would Dave and I need to run the last 46 miles? We had a 'stretching stick' in the van and Brendan started working on his leg right away.



While Dave was running, the rest of us discussed our plan. I could run my 5 and take Brendan's next leg too which was the awesome 7.4 mile run through Peninsula Park. Brendan thought he could take his 7.4 and I could just stop after my 5 miler. I love it cold when I'm running so I don't overheat. Short shorts, sleeveless shirt, Afton hat, and Boston Marathon gloves that my friends gave me after they ran it this year. I've never qualified but will wear my lucky Boston Marathon souvenir gloves. My red jacket will go right before I start.



You can see that I'm wearing my Garmin 310XT GPS. Normally I would be wearing my heart rate monitor strap too but I packed the Polar transmitter and left the Garmin transmitter at home, attached to the Polar strap. Oh well, it lets me run by GPS pace and feel. I never knew what my HR was while running so it didn't really matter.

Dave was finishing his leg I took off my jacket. Dave approached and I asked him to get the hand-off baton ready. Dave yelled, "I lost it". WTF. I yelled to Dave that we had to slap hands to make it legal. I don't know if that was in the rule book but it seemed like the best thing to do. The only thing better would maybe be to smack him on the side of the head. :-)



I am where I want to be! Cool weather and people to chase! I moved along at a good pace and was able to get by several runners. This was Leg 3 of the race and you can see my Garmin recording here. My average pace was a very nice 7:15. A few runners passed me and the only thing I wanted to do but couldn't was to catch two gals in the last mile that were a bit ahead of me. I just couldn't catch them. As I was nearing the exchange point I was strongly hoping that Brendan would be able to run his 7.4. I sure didn't want to run it anymore. Brendan was ready and we slapped hands together and off he went. The Peninsula Park is beautiful and I just love being there. The leaves were still very beautiful.









Rockstar Brendan found a race (wrist) baton that was dropped by another runner. Hooray! We are back in business. Dave promptly peeled off the outer red plastic material of the wrist-band baton so when I got it for my second leg it was uncomfortable to wear. At least we had one. My second leg was around the half way point where the aid station had a nice variety of foods for lunch. I love the chicken noodle soup they have there and was looking forward to it all year. This year I just got broth and had Brendan get me a container of soup for after my run. I almost missed the handoff from Dave and got my jacket off just in time.

My next leg, Leg 6, was 3.9 miles that I ran at a still-respectable 7:19 pace. Garmin data here.

The race continued on as planned. It was a lot of fun every minute of the way. Brendan finished his final leg and we had to have a picture taken. I asked Brendan to stand up for the picture and he said 'No, that's OK'.









Dave kept running strong the entire race.



Brendan is ready to unwind and I'm thinking...... 7.6 miles left for me.













A new friend of mine from Team 250 took this just before the finish.



But... there was a guy chasing me for the last few miles of the race. Every so often I could hear him and I'd just pick up the pace a little once in a while. The rest of the team was going to run across the finish with me but the guy after me was in a race with another guy and they were both chasing me. My team was yelling GO, MARK GO. I took off and kept running faster and faster until I was over the finish line. There was no way they were going catch me and they didn't. If you decide to look at my Garmin log (here), you can see my pace speeds-up significantly at the very end of the run. An awesome way to finish 16.5 miles for the day and 50 team miles!

We got our medals and participated in the all you can eat/drink pizza/beer/wine in the party tent at the finish. Great party last year and great party this year!

WE made it! Remember I predicted a 6:40 finish? We finished in 6:36:53. Beat it by just over 3 minutes!







Following the tent party I had a great time out with new friends until late into the night!

Since this was my favorite race two years in a row, I'll definitely be back next year!

--Mark

note: pics taken by the team and others