Today was day two of the Minnesota Brothers Trail Series. The venue for today’s race was Mississippi
River County Park, which is about 12 miles north of St. Cloud. This park is on the west bank of the
Mississippi, near a bend in the river.
We wear the same race bibs every day, so I didn’t have to
allow extra time to pick up my race packet.
The drive time was longer, however, so I still had to get up pretty
early.
I was so tired last night that I was able to get to sleep
right after dinner. I got a full night’s
sleep, but woke up feeling dry. Today
was another hot humid day, so in addition to my usual pre-race breakfast of tea
and pastry, I also drank a pink of water.
Like yesterday’s course, today’s course was mostly on grass,
and you needed to wear lots of bug spray to keep the mosquitoes away. We ran a longer out-and-back today, so we only
had to run 12 laps to complete a marathon.
The park had a large parking lot and a covered picnic area,
which we were able to use as the aid station.
That’s the good news. The bad
news is that we had to run down a steep hill to get from the aid station to the
trails. That meant we had to run up that
same hill at the end of every lap. Other
than that, the course was mostly flat.
Most of the course was next to the Mississippi River, so we
often had views of the river.
We got a break on the weather. A forecast thunderstorm never
materialized. Heavy rain would have made
this course really muddy. Instead, it
was soft, but not sloppy.
While more than half of the course was grass, there were
long sections over dirt. It was clay
that was just moist enough to be soft, but not muddy. On average, it was less tiring to run on than
yesterday’s course. I didn’t feel like I
was working harder, but my pace was faster than yesterday.
I walked part of the course yesterday, and didn’t notice any
roots. That led me to believe I didn’t
need to worry about tripping. As it
turns out, the section I walked didn’t have roots, but the rest of the course
did. I didn’t realize how many there
were until I tripped on one during my section lap.
The roots were easy to avoid – if you saw them. It’s easy to see the ones that go across the
trail, but I didn’t see this one sticking out of the dirt.
That sent me tumbling into the dirt. Fortunately, the ground was soft. The impact didn’t hurt, and I didn’t have any
scrapes. After that, I paid more
attention to the roots.
Because of the longer laps, I didn’t have as many
opportunities to drink. Each time
through the aid station, I forced myself to drink as much Gatorade as I
could. I didn’t eat much solid food, but
it was more important to stay hydrated.
At the halfway point, I was already 10 minutes faster than
yesterday’s pace. In the second half,
the heat and humidity forced me to slow down.
All morning, it was about three degrees warmer than yesterday. As the temperature climbed, it began to take
a toll on me.
We were right next to the river, so I was hopeful we would
have a cooling breeze. There was no wind
at all. Whenever I looked at the river,
the water was as smooth as glass.
With about three laps to go, I finally persuaded myself to
put some effort into picking up my pace.
Then I tripped on another root.
This one was a thin root going across the trail that only protruded
about half an inch above the soil. I
caught it with the front of my right shoe.
That pulled the root out of the soil and snapped it in two. It also sent me tumbling again.
I landed in an area where the trail was borderline
muddy. My clothes got dirty, and I was
slow to get up, but the only injury was to my pride. I tried to pay more attention to the roots,
but I was having trouble with visibility.
The humidity was making my glasses fog up.
I pressed on and finished in 4:50:28. I was a few minutes slower in the second
half, but my time was 17 minutes faster than yesterday, in spite of the
falls. I attribute the faster time to an
easier course.
After finishing, I added a new piece to my chain of medals.
For the second day in row, my clothes were so wet with sweat
that I could wring them out. For the
second day in a row, my socks were so muddy that I didn’t know if there was any
point in trying to wash them. They may
go straight into the trash.
I’m settling into a daily routine. After each race, I refuel and get cleaned
up. Then I spend about 15 minutes in the
whirlpool. After showering and getting
dressed, I drive out to the venue for the next race, and I walk a mile or two
of the course. Besides previewing the
course, the walking keeps my legs from getting too stiff. Later, I have pizza for dinner and try to get
to sleep as early as possible.
Two down, two to go.
Race Statistics
Distance: 26.2 miles
Official Time: 4:50:28
Average Pace: 11:05
Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:
378
Minnesota Marathons/Ultras:
52
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