On September 9th, I ran the Moose Mountain Marathon on the
Superior Hiking Trail in northern Minnesota.
This is a rugged trail, making this one of the most difficult marathons
I’ve done. I’m out of my comfort zone on
this type of course, but I have a goal of eventually doing every marathon in
Minnesota.
This marathon is held in conjunction with 50 and 100 mile
races on the Superior Hiking Trail. The
marathon is essentially the last 26.2 miles of the 100 mile course. Here’s the elevation profile for the
marathon.
All of these races are popular, so there’s a lottery to get
in. I entered the lottery last January,
when I thought I would be able to run the whole race. A few weeks later, I learned I had a spot in
the marathon.
After my back surgery in June, I initially assumed I would
have to skip this race. Then I
remembered that I had already paid for the first of two nights at Caribou
Highlands Lodge in Lutsen. Not wanting
to waste that money, I checked to see what the time limit was. That’s where I got lucky.
All of the cut-off times are based on the 100 mile
race. The 100 mile race starts at 8:00
AM on Friday and the runners have until 10:00 PM Saturday to finish. The marathon starts at 8:00 AM on Saturday
and we also had until 10:00 PM to finish.
That’s 14 hours, which is pretty generous, even for a race as difficult
as this one.
After my surgery, I was told not to do any high impact
activities, including running, for 12 weeks.
Then I could resume normal activities, as tolerated. Those 12 weeks ended on Friday. I now have a green light to begin running,
but running a trail marathon seemed like too much, too soon. Besides, I’m not in shape to run a complete. Before this race I hadn’t run a single mile
in almost 13 weeks.
If this was a road race, I could race-walk it. Trails like this aren’t conducive to race-walking,
but even at a casual hiking pace I could finish it in 14 hours. I went into the race with the attitude that
this was going to be an all day hike.
Beyond finishing, my only goal was to finish before it got dark. Dusk is roughly 8:00 PM, so that gave me 12
hours of daylight.
While I didn’t expect to do much running, I was planning to run
on the sections that were the most runnable.
I wouldn’t run where there were too many rocks or roots, and I wouldn’t
run where it was downhill. Within those
limits, I would run for a few minutes at a time when I saw a section that was
runnable. I didn’t know how many
opportunities I would have.
I drove up to Lutsen Friday afternoon. I stayed at Caribou Highlands Lodge, which
was also the race headquarters for all three races. My room was a “whirlpool condo.” It was way more than I needed, but when I
made my reservation it was the last room available. It had a kitchenette, a fireplace, a
whirlpool tub, and a balcony with a view of the mountains.
From my balcony, I could see a section of trail leading onto
the lodge property. This is how the
race finished.
Packet pickup was in a conference room in the lodge,
starting at 5:00 PM. After picking up my
race packet, I had dinner in the lodge restaurant. Then I attended an optional pre-race briefing
at 7:00.
The race provided transportation to the start. Buses left the lodge at 7:00 Saturday morning
to take us to the start in Schroeder.
It was 50 degrees at the start, with a forecast high of
61. That’s great weather for running,
but I worried that I would get cold walking.
We were able to check a gear bag at the start, so I wore wind pants and
a light jacket on the bus. Before we
started, I put the wind pants in my gear bag, but I kept the jacket on.
Two days before the race, I bought a new watch. My old one had a broken strap. Also, it wouldn’t have had a long enough
battery life for this race. The new one
had a stated battery life of 10 hours in GPS mode, but I had never tested
that. I switched it into run mode right
after we were dropped off, because I didn’t know how much time it would need to
find the satellites. That cut into my battery
life for the race. I now had another
goal besides finishing before dark. I
wanted to finish before my battery died.
We started on Cramer Road.
This is a wide gravel road. I
lined up in the back. This section was
clearly runnable, so I started out running at a slow pace. After
a few minutes, we turned onto a jeep road.
This wasn’t as wide, but was still runnable. After a few more minutes, we reached the
trail. Only one runner could turn onto
the trail at a time, so there was a big traffic jam as we each waited our turn
to get onto the trail.
Despite my intention of starting near the back, there were
lots of other runners behind me.
Apparently everyone had the same idea.
Not wanting to hold up traffic on the trail, I did my best to keep up with
the runners in front of me. That was
actually fairly easy. Because we were
bunched so tightly together, nobody was moving fast. This section of the trail was fairly
flat. Were there were only a few roots,
I could easily avoid them. Where there
were more roots, I slowed to a walk, but so did everyone else.
After a few more minutes, we reached the Cramer Road aid
station. My bottle was still full, so I
didn’t see any reason to stop. The next
aid station was 7.1 miles away, and I was only carrying one bottle, so I had to
ration my water carefully.
Never having run on these trails, I was expected a constant
alternation between uphill sections and downhill sections. In fact, the early miles were mostly
flat. I was surprised how much of the
trail was runnable. Where I ran, I tried
to have nimble feet for stepping over roots.
I had a short hoppy stride. I
made sure I lifted my feet enough to clear the roots. I touched the ground only with the balls of
my feet. That worked well, but it
probably takes more energy that my usual road running stride, where I barely
leave the ground.
After about a mile, we came to an overlook with a good view
of Lake Superior. I stepped off the
trail to take a picture. That gave some
of the runners behind me a chance to pass.
I also took off my jacket and tied it around my wait. Now that I was warmed up, I wouldn’t need it
again. Had I realized so much of the
trail was runnable, I would have left it in my gear bag.
We had a few more miles that were surprisingly runnable. The grade was usually gentle, and there were
sometimes sections with no roots or rocks for as much as 100 feet. Where I saw clusters of roots, I walked, but
only briefly. In the early miles, I was
running more than I was walking. That
was a pleasant surprise.
There were three races going on at once. The 50 mile runners started at 5:15 AM. They only had 16 hours and 45 minutes to
cover 50 miles. That’s a tight time
limit for 50 miles on these trails. The
100 milers started at 8:00 AM on Friday, giving them 38 hours. Many of them had already passed Cramer Road
by the time we started. Every now and
then, I passed someone doing the 100.
You could identify them by pink flags on their backs.
Our principle obstacles were roots and rocks, but there were
also patches of mud. Sometimes you could
find a way around them. Other times
there was no way to avoid stepping into the mud. In areas that tend to be marshy, there were
narrow sections of boardwalk. In some
places, the boards were old and wobbly.
They also got slippery from the muddy shoes of all the runners. More than once, I couldn’t stay on the
boardwalk, and I stepped off into the mud.
The muddy patches were isolated. I learned from veteran runners that the trail
has been much muddier in prior years.
One of the 100 milers said that the mud was much worse in the first 50
miles of their course. That makes sense,
since it rained on Thursday and they started on Friday. By the time we started, the trails had an
extra day to dry out.
After about four and a half miles, we came alongside the
Cross River.
For more than a mile, we followed the river downstream. Here I had to do more walking. Alongside the river, there was a gentle
downhill trend. Some parts were flat
enough to run, but were it was noticeably downhill, I had to walk. Earlier, the most common trip hazards were
roots. Here there were lots of rocks.
Although this section had a downhill trend, there were still
occasional ups. They tended to be short,
but steep.
Eventually we crossed the river at a small bridge. I quickly learned two things about river
crossings. First, you have to stop and
take pictures. Second, after crossing a
river, you start climbing.
After climbing away from the Cross River, there were more
runnable sections, but eventually, the trail turned downhill again. We had a long decent as we approached the
Temperance River. I couldn’t see the
river, but I started to hear water in the distance. Then I heard voices. I was nearing the Temperance aid station.
So far, I had only been drinking water, so I wanted to get
some calories. I ate a boiled potato at
the aid station, while a volunteer filled my bottle with HEED. As I left the aid station, I got my first
view of the river.
After eight miles, I checked my pace. I was averaging about 16 minutes per
mile. At that pace, I would finish the
race in about seven hours. What I didn’t
know is that the easiest miles were mostly behind me now.
We followed the river downstream for a while before crossing
it. We got lots of good views of the
rapids.
Where we crossed the river, it was another mandatory picture
stop.
After crossing the river, we started a long uphill
section. At first, the grade was gentle,
and I could run most of it. Eventually,
the grade got steeper and more tiring. I
had to take walking breaks. Then the
trail got rocky and much steeper. Now
even walking was tiring.
When the trail finally leveled off, I saw a runnable section
and started running. Almost immediately,
I tripped on a root and fell. I made the
mistake of running before recovering from the climb. I was too fatigued to avoid the roots.
It was a soft landing.
I landed on my right side in a patch of muddy soil, taking the impact
with my arm. I was OK, but it was a
reminder that I shouldn’t run when I’m still tired from a tough climb. After that, I was more cautious about what I
considered “runnable.” After climbs, I
waited to catch my breath before attempting to run,
Soon, I started climbing again. I was on the long steep climb to Carlton
Peak. Near the top, it gets rocky. Then the trail seems to end and you have to
climb over rocks. I knew this was the
right way to go because I was following other runners and I could still see the
orange trail markers.
The course was extremely well-marked. I rarely went more than 10 seconds without
seeing a trail marker.
The long tiring climb was followed by a descent that was
still too steep to be runnable. I was
relieved when I finally came to several long sections of boardwalk over a flat
marshy area. The boardwalks here were
nice and solid, and I could run them. I
was pleased with how fast I was moving on this section. Then another runner passed me like I was
standing still.
The runner who passed me had a blue flag on his back. That meant he was doing the 50 mile
race. I had yet to cover 13 miles. He started only two hours and 45 minutes
earlier, but had already run almost 37 miles.
I was impressed. I also no longer
felt like I was moving fast.
By my watch, I reached the halfway mark in about three and a
half hours. That still put me on pace
for a seven hour finish, but I didn’t expect to do as much running in the
second half.
About a half mile later, I reached the Sawbill aid
station. I ate a PBJ while a volunteer
filled my bottle. The aid station was in
a gravel parking lot. As I left, I
started running on a gravel road. Then I
heard people yelling that I missed a turn.
I was supposed to make a hard right where the trail entered the forest
again. I said, “I thought that looked
too easy.”
The middle miles weren’t as runnable as the early ones. There was more up and down now. I seldom saw long flat runnable sections, but
I still ran where I could. When I
finished 16 miles, I saw that my average pace over the last eight miles was
16:30. I was slowing down, but not too
much.
I kept plugging away for the next few miles to get to the Oberg
aid station. This was the last aid
station before the end of the race. I
ate another boiled potato and refilled my bottle for the last time. What I had with me would have to last me for
the last 7.1 miles. Leaving the aid
station, I crossed a road, and a volunteer pointed to where the trail entered
the forest. I point down the road and
asked, “Can I go this way instead? It
looks friendlier.”
This was my first run in almost 13 weeks, and I was running
much more than I thought I would. I’ve
lost fitness over the summer, and now I was feeling it. I could have walked the last seven miles, but
I didn’t want to get lazy. I tried to
run where I could. For the next mile, I
managed a good pace, but then I crossed Rollins Creek. What happen after you cross a creek? You climb.
The next mile was uphill.
It was gradual, but it wore me down, forcing me to walk. In that mile, I slowed to 19:34. That was my slowest mile so far, and it
dashed any hopes of a seven hour finish.
I caught up to one of the 100 mile runners and he asked if I wanted to
pass. We were just beginning a steeper
section, so I told him I was fine with staying behind him for now.
We kept climbing and climbing. We eventually realized we were ascending
Moose Mountain. It got steeper and
steeper. On a wide turn, I finally
passed him and went ahead on my own. The
steep pitch made my calves sore. Then
the trail got so steep there were steps.
The steps were more tiring, but at least my calves didn’t hurt.
Then the trail leveled off, and I assumed I was at the
top. After a brief descent, I started
climbing again. I couldn’t be sure I was
past the summit until I began a long descent.
I wasn’t there yet. I worked my
way around the back side of the mountain.
I could tell I was up pretty high, because I caught occasional glimpses
of other mountains through the trees. I
started climbing again. I eventually
reached the top of the climb, but it took a toll. That mile took me 20:54.
When I began the long awaited descent, it wasn’t any
easier. It was steep and there were lots
of roots. I walked the whole way
down. Even the walking was slow. There were places where I had to step down
next to roots, and it dropped off too much for me to reach it. I often stopped to figure out how I could get
down. For someone with longer legs, this
would be runnable. For me, it was barely
walkable. I wondered if I was going
slower on the way down that I was on the way up. Not quite, but close. That mile took 20:31.
After descending from Moose Mountain, I began to climb
Mystery Mountain. This was the last
significant climb. It started out
gradual, but got steeper. Thankfully,
this climb wasn’t as long.
The descent from Mystery Mountain also wasn’t as bad. There were a few steep spots, but the grade
was mostly gentle. In one spot, the
trail leveled off, and there weren’t any roots for about 200 feet. This would have been runnable, but I kept
walking, so I could drink the rest of my HEED while I could safely take my eyes
off the trail.
There was one spot where I was gaining speed on a gentle
downgrade and saw a sharp drop-off ahead of me.
It was one of those places where there’s a big step down after a tree
root. I grabbed the tree to bring myself
to a complete stop. The abrupt stop gave
me some discomfort in my lower back. I
stepped down gradually and then resumed walking.
For a long time, I wanted to make a bathroom stop, but the
trail was narrow, and the woods were thick.
There wasn’t any place where I could get off the trail. With a mile and a half to go, my watch gave
me a low battery warning. I didn’t know
how much battery life I had left, but I dismissed the warning so it would keep
timing my run. I was hoping I had enough
battery life to make it the rest of the way.
A bathroom stop was now out of the question. I had to press on to the finish.
In the last mile, I crossed a bridge over the Poplar
River. I hadn’t taken any pictures since
Carlton Peak, but here I had to stop.
After crossing the bridge, I saw runners ahead of me leaving
the trail to get onto a dirt road. At
our pre-race briefing, we were told there would be a short road section leading
us to the property of Caribou Highlands Lodge.
I was getting close.
Once I was on the road, I could count on sure footing the
rest of the way. My legs were sore, but
I ran. Every so often, I looked at my
watch. It was still working. I followed the runners off the road and onto
a short trail that went around the condos and behind the lodge. As I neared the final turn, I heard them
announce my name.
I cross the line in 7:18:45 and received a finisher medal
made from a tree and twine.
This was my slowest marathon by far, but it wasn’t actually
a bad time for this course. I finished
170 out of 302 finishers, putting me roughly in the middle of the pack. It’s worth noting that this is the second
most difficult marathon I’ve run. The
only one that’s harder is Pike’s Peak, and it’s hard to compare those two
races, because they’re challenging in different ways.
I was tempted to take a whirlpool bath, but first I had to
shower to rinse off the mud. It took
some scrubbing. Then I went back outside
to have post-race food and watch for friends.
I compared notes with two friends who were doing the 100 mile race, but
missed cutoff times. Mud was a much
bigger obstacle for them. I eventually
got to see another friend finish the 100.
By then it was late, and my legs were getting sore and stiff. I used muscles that I haven’t used in
months. I should have taken that
whirlpool bath when I had the chance.
It’s a day later, and I haven’t noticed any symptoms that
would indicate a problem with my T8-T9 disk.
It should be fully healed, but I’m nervous. I ran much more than I intended to run. I also fell once.
The discomfort in my lower back was gone by evening, but
returned today after the drive home. It’s
not a sharp pain, but it also makes me nervous.
I had an L5-S1 disk injury earlier in the year. Hopefully that’s not becoming an issue
again. I’ll keep an eye on it.
Mostly I have sore, stiff quads. Stairs are a real challenge today. That’s the inevitable result of doing a bunch
of trail running after 89 days of not running at all. I may stick to walking for the next few days.
I’ve crossed Moose Mountain off my to-do list for Minnesota
Marathons. Now there are just two
Minnesota Marathons I haven’t done. Next
up will be the Ely Marathon.
Race Statistics
Distance: 26.2 miles
Time: 7:18:45
Average Pace: 16:44
Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:
340
Minnesota Marathons/Ultras:
44
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