June 14
For
the sixth time, I am in Wisconsin to run the Kettle Moraine 100 miler. I dropped in 2010, 2018, and 2021. I have finished in 2022 and 2024. So, this year’s race will determine if I get
my finishing rate to 50%. Overall, my
100-mile race finishing stats are 14 finishes and 12 drops.
James
is with me again this year to crew and pace me.
The plan is for him to start pacing me at mile 64. The weather forecast has now settled on
decent weather with no rain and a high temperature in the mid to high 70s. A week ago it looked like it was going to be
a rain event, but now it looks like the trails will be dry.
I
start with a short-sleeve shirt and a buff for my head. I have slathered sunscreen on my upper torso
for when I decide to take off the shirt.
I feel good, and my training has gone well the past two months.
 |
| Ready for the Start |
Mile
5.1 53:18 (10:27 avg./mile) Tamarack
I
have decided to try to gently push the pace.
My legs feel fresh and springy like they should be well tapered for a
100-mile race. I don’t have any extended
conversations with anyone during this section.
The weather so far is overcast with temperatures in the high 50s. I feel like it could be a fast day for
me. I drink a cup of water at the aid
station. Note, this is not a cup-less
race so I don’t need to carry my own cup.
Mile
7.4 30:27 (13:14 avg./mile) Bluff
I
settle into my pace nicely after the first quick section. On this section I talk with Katherine from NC
who is also 56 years old. On the
outbound leg, crews cannot come to this aid station as parking is rather
limited. Later this evening, crews will
be allowed, but not this first time. I
grab a PB&J sandwich quarter and move on up the trail.
Mile
11.2 48:44 (12:49 avg./mile) North Tam
I
pass through the last aid station much quicker than Katherine so I find myself
around other runners. One of them lives
in central Ohio, so we have plenty to chat about. After a couple of miles, I let her press on
ahead as the sun has now burnt off the clouds, and the temperature is
rising. At this aid station, I grab a
couple of cookies to eat.
Mile
15.5 54:25 (12:39 avg./mile) Natalie’s
Katherine
catches back up to me early in this section.
We run together for a mile or so before I let her go on ahead. I am still running pretty quickly, and I
don’t need to run any faster. This aid
station is run by a lady named Natalie, and her family helps her run it. It is interesting to see how her kids are
growing up. I grab a handful of potato
chips at this aid station and douse my head with cold water from an ice bucket
with a sponge.
Mile
19.5 59:07 (14:47 avg./mile) McMiller
I
think McMiller is at the highest point on the course and the climb up to the
aid station slows my pace somewhat. All
of the morning clouds are gone, and the sun is really warming up the
temperature. So far, there is a light
breeze, so I don’t feel too warm yet. On
this section I talk with Shane who is from Indiana and attempting to run his
first 100 miler. Last year, he said he
ran the 50-mile race at Mohican and said that was hard. I hope he is better prepared for this race
and distance. At the aid station, I get
to see my crew for the first time since the start. James is ready and waiting for me with a
grilled egg, bacon, and cheese sandwich.
I eat the whole thing, which is unusual for me these days, and wash it
down with a cup of chocolate milk and a few swigs of CR02. CR02 is my homemade electrolyte drink that I
have been using for the past two years.
With the rising temperatures, I decide to remove my shirt, but I stay
with the buff for now and don’t go to the Iced Cap.
Mile
23.8 58:00 (13:29 avg./mile) Wilton
Road
Initially
taking my sweating shirt off feels really good.
The light breeze feels very nice on my exposed back and chest. As I start across the prairie section,
though, the sun is heating up the atmosphere and all of the ground water. It doesn’t feel too warm yet, so I continue
to maintain my nice and quick pace. I
just drink a cup of water as it feels like the sandwich I ate an hour ago is
still in my stomach.
Mile
27.1 46:12 (14:00 avg./mile) Highway 67
I
maintain my steady effort, but I am running conservatively in order to keep my
core temperature from rising too much. I
am sweating quite a bit and drinking water every time I take a walk break. I estimate the temperature is now in the 70s
so it is going to be warm for many hours as it is not yet Noon. I still feel good, and I like my pace at this
point. I just need to continue to run 15
minutes a mile or better until the sun goes down. I take off the buff and put on the Iced
Cap. The aid station has plenty of ice,
and James and an aid station volunteer pack my hat full.
Mile
29.4 34:54 (15:10 avg./mile) County
Road ZZ
The
immediate feeling with a head packed with ice is brain freeze! Then I usually feel cool. I guess I felt a little cooler, but not too
much. On this section, I banged my sore
left toe not once but twice. This hurt
of course, but not as bad as it did last year when I would bang that toe. I originally hurt my big left toe over two
years ago, and it is still letting me know about it. When I get to this aid station, James is just
hanging out expecting that he missed seeing me.
I eat some potato chips and get my Iced Cap refilled before starting the
Scuppernong loop.
Mile
34.5 1:31:52 (18:01 avg./mile) County
Road ZZ
This
loop comes right back to the same point so the elevation change is zero. However, it feels like 70% of this section is
uphill. Now before you think that it is
all in my head, it could be. It is just
a matter of the downhill sections being steeper and shorter than the gradual
uphill portions. I don’t know if this is
true or not, but I mentioned it to a few other runners, and none of them
disputed my view. The good part is that
starting in 2021 when the McMiller section was added, we only have to run this
loop once. Previously, it was run
counter-clockwise and then back the other direction clockwise. It is officially very warm—I won’t say hot
because it is still in the 70s, but given the cool, wet spring that most of the
eastern half of the US has experienced this year, this is quite warm. I think I only got one good day of heat
acclimation and that was only a week ago.
Thus, my pace is definitely slowing.
It is usually slower on this tough loop anyway so hopefully I can pick
things back up heading back south. At
this aid station, James has some Ramen and a hash brown for me. I eat the hash brown and about three
spoonsful of the Ramen. Then I get my
Iced Cap refilled before heading out of the aid station.
Mile
36.8 34:14 (14:53 avg./mile) Highway 67
This section is more downhill than up going this direction, and I am able to run it 40 seconds faster. This gets me back under 15-minute miles so perhaps I can hang on through the afternoon heat. I get half of a bagel at this aid station and of course get the Iced Cap repacked. Everyone has never seen an Iced Cap before, and they marvel at the design. I saw these on the Western States livestream last year and ordered one.
Mile
40.1 57:07 (17:18 avg./mile) Wilton
Road
Across the heart of the prairie, I am content to let the pace slow some. I don’t feel overly hot, but I have lost a ton of fluids. I have been drinking water liberally from my Camelbak and have refilled it several times. I have also been taking an S-Cap every few hours. In between S-Caps, I take a couple of antacid tablets. At this aid station, I get four or five club crackers to eat as my stomach is not great. The Iced Cap is again refilled, and I press on to the next aid station where I can see James again.
Mile
44.4 1:23:41 (19:28 avg./mile) McMiller
The climb back up to McMiller is tough, but I am happy to keep my pace under 20-minute miles. Now I just need to wait to make back a little time once the sun starts going down. I make a point of drinking a lot of water on this section, draining my Camelbak just as I am getting to the aid station. I sit down and eat about half of the grilled ham and cheese sandwich that James has made. It is good, but I don’t want to push my stomach. Even though it is almost 5pm, I leave the shirt off and get the Iced Cap refilled once more.
Mile 48.4 1:19:30 (19:52 avg./mile) Natalie’s
I make slow and steady progress across the last prairie sections. Coming down from McMiller I was hoping to make better time, but the culmination of the heat is taking its toll on me. I grab a few more club crackers at this aid station after getting my Iced Cap refilled.
Mile
52.7 1:29:02 (20:42 avg./mile) North
Tam
My slow and steady progress continues, albeit at an even slower pace. I am leapfrogging with a couple of other runners who are struggling as well. They start quickly from an aid station thus passing me, but then I have been repassing them later in the section. As I near the horseriders parking lot, two volunteers are coming towards me on the trail. They ask if I just left the aid station, and I tell them no it is the other side of the parking lot. Actually, it is about a mile on the other side of the parking lot. They hang with me for a few minutes before we get to the parking area where their car is. They are supposed to go to North Tam to pick up a few runners that have dropped out of the race. When I finally get to the aid station myself, I sit down and eat a bag of Doritos. My thinking is that I need to keep eating, and I am ready to pick up the pace a little as it is starting to cool down slightly.
Mile
56.5 1:21:45 (21:31 avg./mile) Bluff
When I leave North Tam, I am moving slow and I know I need to pick back up the pace a little. My original goal was to get back to Nordic and mile 64 before 10pm. Now, my goal is to get there before 11pm, which will give me about an hour buffer on the cut-offs. Given this, I decide to go to the whip—a caffeine pill to give me a little boost. The caffeine does the trick (or at least it felt like it did) as I pass a few other runners. I make it into Bluff just as dusk is falling. James is ready for me with another bowl of Ramen and a hash brown. I sit down and eat about half of the hash brown, and I don’t think I even touched the Ramen. There is other good food at this aid station, but I can’t stomach any of it. I trade out my Camelbak for a full one, put a shirt back on, and strap on a headlamp. I also trade out the Iced Cap for a buff. The time is now 9pm, and I need to make great time to cover the 7.4 miles back to Nordic if I am to get there around 11pm. James reminds me that the cut-off isn’t until 12:30am, but that cut-off is very generous. I need to be at or really close to 11pm if I have any chance to finish under 30 hours.
Mile
58.8 59:32 (25:53 avg./mile) Tamarack
I feel like a dead man walking at this point. I can still shuffle the down hills, but obviously I am moving rather slowly. There are dozens of runners coming towards me heading outbound for the last 36+ miles. When I finally get to this aid station, I grab a cup of Coke and a few more club crackers. While I haven’t thrown up, I know I cannot push the pace hard. The time on this section basically seals my fate, but I cannot drop here as this is a non-crewed aid station. So, onward I trudge.
Mile
63.9 1:53:56 (22:20 avg./mile) Nordic
The last five miles are a slog, but as the clock nears midnight, I know that I will be dropping out. A few of the slow 50k runners that I passed earlier are now passing me back, and they are walking as well! My overall time reads 17:55 when I get to Nordic. I tell James and the race officials that I am dropping, but first they give me a 100k finisher belt buckle since I made it this far.
While I didn’t
get any real heat training in for this race, I thought with the temperatures
remaining below 80 that I could get it done.
Obviously, on this day, I could not.
The two times I have finished this race were both over 29 hours, so
there really was not any time to spare.
Also, the forecast for tomorrow is a high of 82 degrees. Last year, when it was in the mid 70s on Sunday
morning, it felt extremely hot to both me and James as we made our way over the
last couple of miles. So, I will chalk
this race up to needing more heat training and begin working on that as my next
race is the Twisted Branch 100k in upstate New York in August. I will need to finish that one for my
qualifier for the Western States lottery in December. Until then…
Never stop
running,
Darin
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