50k Race report
by LPTRunner Marcel Uttech...
For those of you not familiar with
the Dances with Dirt Series, there are four races held every year. In the Ultra
division is either the 50k/ 50 mi. If you complete all of them within 2 years
you earn a special belt buckle, which Jodie, Jose, and I are chasing down this
year. Having done the DWD at Dances with Dirt the last two years in a row I
didn’t need to do it again this year, but thought what the hell. If you sign up
for all four they are only 49 bucks apiece…sweet…
Having done DWD Green Swamp in
March (Florida) , GnawBone
(Indiana) was next. So on the 11th
of May I picked up Jose and the two of us headed down there. The drive down was
pretty uneventful (mostly Illinois) however in Bloomington we had a hitchhiker
literally bum rush my car as we were going down the interstate at like 75- who
does that? Did he really think that would make me want to stop? Hell I think I
floored it when he did that .-weird..haha . We made packet pick up, which is
always nice since you get to scope things out in the light like the
start/finish line and the Porto potties- you know, the important stuff. After grabbing our bags we headed back
to the hotel to relax and lay out our stuff for the morning start.
Thank god that most electronics
automatically change when you change time zones, cause I had totally spaced it
that Indiana was an hour ahead of our time! Close call…we awoke in the morning
(on time luckily) and headed to the start…according to the weather it was going
to be in the 70’s with an overcast all day, and a slight breeze- pretty much
perfect conditions! After driving around the woods down there in Brown County
the previous evening, we were both pumped to get in there, especially on new
trails! Jodie Taylor had run this race as her first Ultra last year, and was
always saying that it was very scenic, and an awesome race so I was excited to
get started. My plan was pretty much the same as Chippewa- PR or bust. Being my
first time there, the PR part should be easy…
This would be my 11th
50k, and I decided to push it but really pay more attention to how I was
feeling overall, and try to pace myself more evenly. I wanted to have better
splits than at Chippewa (two weeks ago) where my second half was 40 min longer than
my first half, I used a waist pack carrying an extra water bottle and some
goodies and then a hand held. It was dark when we got there, good amount of
people milling around. Saw some familiar faces, which is always cool- right on
time, it started getting light- and then the Head Goat said “GO!”
We all took off into the woods.
Pretty wide trails starting out, about the width of a car. It didn’t take long
and the trail turned into soup- shoe sucking soup, all uphill. Saw three guys
lose a shoe just on this first climb…lol once we got through that it changed
into mostly narrower trails and lots of single track. Beautiful scenery, bugs
were minimal, and the trails were perfect. First half was lots of climbing, a
few switchbacks and then these
roller coaster hills. It was pretty easy going, and I just hit the cruise
control and went with it. Came up on mile 15 at about 2:45 or so. Everything
felt good, and I was having a blast in those woods. Parts reminded me of
Sawtooth, with quite a few roots. Then there were parts like Voyageur, with
rocks and mud and these neat little bridges and winding single track trails
through the woods. It’s an awesome trail system they got down there, for sure!
Second half went well, with more
silly obstacles to be found. Some pretty steep climbs up the sides of hills,
some bushwacking (actually quite a bit), and then a bunch of navigating over
and under fallen trees. It was tough to get into a groove here, so I just ran
when I could. Coming out of one aid station I went about a quarter mile and
turned into the woods, getting confronted by this guy coming back up who was
yelling “ it’s a dead end! I just ran 2 miles for nothing!” Not wanting a bunch
of bonus miles at this point I ran back to the aid station to confirm the turn
and was told that yes, that was
the turn. SO back again and down and then I see the trail turn AGAIN kind of
subtly again, which is what the
other guy must’ve missed last time…back on track I picked it up, glad it was
only a half mile of extra running to erase any doubts. Wouldn’t be long, and
this would be coming to a close!
We ran past people fishing at a
small lake, past cabins built deep into the woods (nice architecture I might
add), an awesome ancient stone fireplace/shelter in the middle of nowhere; some cool boardwalks, and we never left
the woods. I loved it! Nearing the end there was some nice stream crossings
that felt right on time to splash through. (Sorry to the people walking when I
came through these spots lol) Next up a muddy downhill with footprints about 4
inches deep (good times) a quick little meadow and then the best part- running
the creek in for about a half mile! This was very cool, and refreshing as well!
The water was cold enough (and deep enough) to really cool off the legs, and wash
most of the mud off (my apologies to the people walking through this section as
there was much splashing going on) just in time to fire the after burners into
the finish line!
Crossing the line, I was asked my name and age…turns out I
took first in my age group and was 8th overall with a time of
5:39(only 9 minutes longer on my second half, so the pace worked). They handed
me a finisher medal and an engraved bone ( all the AG placers got one) all this
to some blaring country music that
was being put on by the DJ. DWD’s races are always a party, and down here was
no exception. There were also all these relay teams, that had all these
different ‘themes’ going on…some
were pretty strange but hey, whatever gets you out there, right?
I would really recommend this race
as an awesome spring Ultra event. These are some very cool single track trails,
and the scenery is amazing. Being only a 7 hr drive its close enough to drive comfortably
and even better to ROAD TRIP IT! So put this one on your radar sometime, its
worth it…
 |
| Jose and Marcel |
Solid as Sears!
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