Seaton Soaker 50K - 9 May 15 & Laurel Highlands Ultramarathon - 13 June 15 - The Ugly Ones

Seaton Soaker 50K - 9 May 2015 - Pickering ON
6:54:05
43/67 Overall and 14/26 M40-49
3rd 50K of 2015 and 7th career ulta
197.8 Miles Raced in 2015

Laurel Highlands Ultra Marathon - 13 June 2015 - Ohiopyle to Seward, PA
Drop at 46 Miles and 13:16:26

Both of the ultra's were ugly events with a bad result at the Seaton Soaker and DNF at Laurel Highland Ultra.

Seaton Soaker 50K. I had added the Seaton Soaker since it worked well to fill out three targeted high mileage weeks and it was less than a 45 minute drive from the house.  My race plan was simple, run comfortably and hopefully take advantage of a relatively flat course to go for a sub-6 hour trail 50K.  The course was two loops of a mostly out & back along with Seaton trail with only a few low climbs and a major water crossing over Duffin's Creek.  The first lap went well and I came through midway in under 3 hours feeling good.  Unfortunately it was the first really warm day of the spring and soon into the second loop the heat along with a cold and allergies caught up with me, slowing me to crawl extending the final loop to nearly four hours.  Garmin Connect File. 

Laurel Highlands Ultra Marathon.  The Laurel Highland Ultra is run along to 70.5 mile length of Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail from Ohiopyle to Seward PA in Laurel Ridge State Park.  I had signed up for the Laurel Highlands Ultra as my spring goal race in hopes of achieving a Western States Endurance Run lottery qualifier.  In the weeks prior I had lost three weeks of training following the Seaton Soaker 50K after getting sick.  Although I went into the race not having peaked as much as I had wished, I still felt decent.  I had talked with a veteran of the race at an Ontario Ultra Series event earlier in season who had told me that the course itself was not overly technical, unfortunately I didn't confirmed that their definition of technical trail matched mine.  I had travelled down on the Thursday prior with my wife and daughter who were crewing me and used Friday to scout out the crew access points.  Although I had a couple of looks at the trail during this, I didn't really think about how technical the trail really was.  My race plan was fairly simple, take it very easy on the climbs at the start onto the ridge (2600' in the first 8.5 miles) and then aim to cruise at 12:00-13:00/mile along the trail.  Race day arrived cool but very damp and humid, with the course having received some good rain overnight.  After the 5:30 am start, I was largely able to stick to my race plan until on top of the ridge when I discovered that the course which was soft but not overly muddy was also much much more rocky then I had planned on.  I found that I was rarely able to run more than about a half of each mile because of the rock nature of the trail which cost me considerable time.  Despite that I still felt fairly decent through to the Pennsylvania Turnpike crossing at 36 miles and was still harbouring some hopes of an 19:30 finish along with a Western States lottery qualifier.  I really started to lose time in the next miles and around 43 mile suffered a hard bonk.  I shambled into the Checkpoint 3 at 46 miles running already three hours behind my race plan.  I made a hard assessment at that point, well behind time, struggling for pace that still might meet the 22 hour cut-off which would mean over 8 hours on headlamp on ankle breaking rocks and decided to call it day & return to fight this course on another day.  Big thanks to my wife and daughter for their support and crewing on a challenging day.  Garmin Connect File. 

Ultra ready or so I thought

The crew checking out the falls at Ohiopyle

Ohiopyle Trailhead

LHHT - slightly better than average

Crossing the Turnpike - Bad Things Were About to Happen

Wisconsin Marathon/Kalamazoo Marathon - 2/3 May 2015 - The Mittens Challlenge

Mittens Challenge

Wisconsin Marathon - 2 May 2015 - Kenosha, WI
3:43:31 Chip
128/762 Overall and  14/62 M40-44
Third 26.2 of 2015 and 24th Career 26.2
14 US State and 30th Career Marathon/Ultra

Kalamazoo Marathon - 3 May 2015 - Kalamazoo, MI
3:56:11 Chip and 3:56:43 Gun
102/503 Overall and 17/48 M40-44
Fourth 26.2 of 2015 and 25th Career 26.2
15 US State

166.8 Miles Raced in 2015

I had seen the Mittens Challenge advertised on the Marathon Maniacs webpage back in 2014 and the Wisconsin Marathon/Kalamazoo Marathon double appealed to me.  It fit nicely into heavy block of work-up training for my spring long ultra and it was within driving distance from Toronto.

Wisconsin Marathon Pre-Race.  My key concern heading into the weekend's races was the state of my ankle after having suffered a moderate sprain in a fall at the Pick Your Poison 50K the weekend before.  Luckily for me ice, rest. compression and Motrin worked and I was off to Kenosha. I spread the drive down to Kenosha over two days, leaving Toronto right after work on Thurs, stopped over night just past Lansing MI and finished the drive for midday on Fri.  Packet pick-up was held at the Best Western in downtown Kenosha but there wasn't really an expo. 

Wisconsin Marathon Start Line

 

Wisconsin Marathon Race Day. Race morning dawned bright and a little cool. I drove to the race and found parking relatively nearby easily.  The race has an early 7am start and although it wasn't corralled the start line wasn't really packed and the start was much better then many races I've run in terms of congestion.  My plan for race day was to find a comfortable groove just under 8:30/mile pace and stick with it. The course was very flat with only 233 total feet of elevation gain for the complete course.  I found a comfortable pace for the first small loop of downtown and then headed north along Lake Michigan with a turn-around just after 8 miles when we headed south again.  The half-marathon headed for home just after we crossed the downtown again.  I found I had a bit of a lull from 11-14 miles but soon after got back in rhythm.  The south leg of the course ran through the lakefront homes of Pleasant Prairie before turning around just north of the Wisconsin/Illinois state line just after 19 miles.  The day had started to heat up soon after 9 am and the last few miles were definitely warm.  By mile 22, I was pretty confident that I'd get a sub 3:45 and eased up for a few miles to save my legs a little for Sunday before a good push for the last mile.  My ankle although a little sore was never really a negative factor in Kenosha.  After finishing, I enjoyed a nice recovery brat and beer.  Link to Garmin Connect. 

Race Done, where's the brat and beer

Transition.  After meeting a few Marathon Maniacs and 50 Sub 4 members after the race, I headed back to my hotel, showered and got on the road for Kalamazoo.  I decided to gamble on driving through downtown Chicago in hopes that on a Saturday afternoon it would proved faster than the Tri-State Toll way but I think I lost that gamble.  I finally pulled into my hotel in Kalamazoo around 7:30 pm , grabbed some dinner, got ready for Sunday's race and got to bed.

Mittens Challenge Runners
Photo - Steve Walters

Kalamazoo Marathon Race Day.  Sunday was another very bright day. The race's website had given me some concern about parking and I made sure to arrive extra early, scoring a parking spot less than 100 yards from the Start/Finish Line. I picked up my race packet at the Mittens Challenge tent and made sure to make the Mittens Picture.  The race gun was at 8am and it was a little more congested than Wisconsin but not too bad.  It took the first couple of miles before I was able to loosen up and get into a groove around 8:40-9:00/mile pace. The race started east of the city and first few miles were downhill toward the Kalamazoo river and downtown.  After crossing downtown, we hit West Michigan University where the course took on a more rolling nature for the next ten miles or so.  We dropped back into the valley after the 16 mile point for about six more miles.  The temperatures on Sunday were a little warmer than on Saturday and hit 75F (24C) by noon.  By the 16 miles some of the runner's were starting to show the effect of the heat although I was OK until around 21 miles by which time my ankle was also really starting to throb as well.  After that it was a tough grind back to the finish, with some more rolling terrain thrown in for good measure and I finished just under 4 hours.  I found the rolling Kalamazoo course ran very similar to Mississippi Blues in Jackson MS, Flying Pig in Cincinnati OH and Route 66 in Tulsa OK.  After a little bit of recovery, it was back to the hotel and the long, sore drive to Toronto.  Link to Garmin Connect. 



The last 5 miles were tough

Mittens Complete

Bling and Travel.  Bling from the Wisconsin Marathon included the normal shirt and medal, a head band and for the "mitteneers" a pair of mittens while at Kalamazoo there was a second medal for completing challenge.  I drove from Toronto to Kenosha, Kalamazoo and return which very achievable for a three day trip.  I booked my hotels late and I ended up staying Gurnee IL since many Kenosha WI hotels were full.  The Kalamazoo hotels were similarly full since the race overlapped with Western Michigan University grad. 

Final Thoughts.  I really enjoyed completing the Mittens Challenge.  It was great opportunity to meet and catch up with many Marathon Maniacs and 50 Sub 4 members including Steve W, Cade R, Glen A and Jenn H.  Now it's back to the trails again for this weekends Seaton "Soaker" 50K on the Seaton Trail in Pickering ON.

Toronto based coaching staff modeling the bling

Pick Your Posion 50K - 25 April 2015 - A Solid Race with a Tough Ending

Heights of the Horseshoe Ski and Country Club - Oro, ON
6:45:37 Gun
58/77 Overall and 46/57 Men
Second ultra of 2015 and sixth career ultra
First Ontario 50K

114.4 Miles raced in 2015

When I started to design my training plan for my spring focus race, Laurel Highlands Ultra (70.5), I had looked at the early races in the Ontario Ultra Series for good opportunities for some long training runs.  The opening race of the series, Pick Your Poison 50K, looked like a great opportunity for some solid training.

Pre-Race.  My goals for Pick Your Poison were relatively simple, most importantly getting time on my feet and getting in plenty of vertical climbing.  My training over the winter had gone reasonably well, but as the cold temperatures had clamped down on the Toronto area at the start of February I had not gotten in quite as much mileage and trail runs as I would have liked.  I was also looking to continue to work on developing my race day nutrition for the longer ultra's where it is so critical.

Race Day.  With a 9am gun, it was an easy drive up on Saturday morning from Thornhill and I hit packet pick-up with plenty of time before the race.  The race was held at Heights of Horseshoe Ski and Country Club which is part of Horseshoe Ski Resort just north of Barrie, Ontario.  The course itself was based on a nominal 12.5K loop (although I found it ran a hair under 12K).  It was largely double track/forest road with only a couple of K of single track.  The first third of the course was relatively flat with one small creek crossing.  Most of the course's 1075' of climbing per lap were in the back two thirds with four main climbs up and down the ski hill.  Most of the single track was also in the back 2/3 providing a rolling experience on the valley wall.  The course conditions were remarkably good, fast and dry with the course being very well marked.  There was little mud, only a few damp sections and even though there were still a few spots on the slopes with machine made snow yet to melt, it was largely well packed.  Race morning was cool, just below freezing but sunny and I found myself comfortable all day, although with some sleeves up/sleeves down depending shade and wind.  I got off to a very good start and was able to take advantage of the downhill double track/road to get well spaced out.  I was able to roll through the first lap very well in 1:21:59 and the second lap in 1:27:14.  I slowed a little in the third lap, taking some time to get some photo's and refill bottles at the aid station taking 1:39:15 to get through the lap.  I was largely happy with staying on my practice nutrition plan of a gel every 30 minutes with about 4 oz of Gatorade but I do need to do better at eating a bit more salty food along the way to balance off the sugars.  I started off the fourth lap well, knocking down the opening third section with purpose but lost a few minutes when I needed to massage out a right leg cramp on the first climb.  Unfortunately that was just the beginning of trouble as around 41.5K at the end of long hill, I rolled my right ankle, fell and suffered a moderate ankle sprain.  After ten minutes of walking made it clear I wasn't going to walk this off and get running again, I settled in for a slow stroll back to the finish, crossing line at 6:45 with a final lap of 2:17:09.  Garmin Connect file link for the day. 

Still a little snow of the ski hill

Only creek crossing

Start of the final descent

Second Hill Climb

Midway through the first climb sequence

End of the first loop coming
down the ski hill
Photo: Erin MacDonald Photography

There was a little single track
Photo: Erin MacDonald Photography

Travel and Bling.  Travel to the race from Toronto was easy as it's only 75 minutes north of Toronto.  Race bling was a little different including a semi-tech T-shirt, Pick Your Poison Honey and the finisher's premium of Pick Your Poison technical socks. 

Picky Your Poison Premiums

Final Thoughts.  Although the ending of the race was clearly not to my liking, I did achieve my goals going in: got plenty of time on the feet, got in over 4300' of climbing and got an opportunity to work my long ultra nutrition plan.  Pick Your Poison 50K is small but very well organized race and an excellent way to kick off the Ontario Ultra season.  I'm cautiously optimistic with some rest, plenty of ice and Motrin, I will still be able tackle the Mitten's Challenge this coming weekend with the Wisconsin and Kalamazoo marathons.