Grand Island Trail Marathon

As you all know I completed the Western States Endurance Run near the end of June. It was without a doubt one of the toughest things I have accomplished in my life. The only thing I can think of that was more difficult was Marine Corps Boot Camp. Think of that as a 90 day endurance event with 3 screaming drill instructors following you around 24 hours a day. And I'm not sure what the elevation profile of Mount Motherfvcker (part of our boot camp experience) is/was but it surely was a motherfvker. And we did that in boots and cammies with a pack on our back and an M-16 strapped over our shoulder. But that was a long time ago (1982). Since then life has been fairly easy. Up until my name was drawn in the Western States lottery. But I digress. This thread is about Grand Island. 26.2 miles of running in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

My point in bringing up Western States is to have an excuse for a lazy July. I only ran about 10~12 times all month and then decided to tackle a marathon. I thought that my training from Western States would carry me. I was perhaps a bit overconfident. The elevation profile of the GITC is nothing compared to WS. Surely anyone tough enough to finish Western States could run 26.2 miles in Michigan! And it did end up being the true - it just wasn't pretty.

Actually the day/weekend was perfect. A group of us from Ann Arbor went up for the weekend and had the opportunity to enjoy each other's company in some beautiful surroundings. If you haven't had the opportunity to visit the U.P. Munising in a nice place to start. In addition to Grand Island you also have Pictured Rocks (which I have yet to go on one of the hikes or boat tours). It is quite beautiful in this area. If I were smart I'd allow myself a couple of extra days to hang out in the are pre or post race. Maybe next year?

Any way as I said the weekend was quite pleasant. We were greeted with sunny skies and cool temperatures for race morning (I've been lucky this year - we saw some fairly mild temperatures for Western States as well). The course ran counter-clockwise this year and included the thumb area of the island. We ran mostly on dirt roads and two tracks. About 3/4 of a mile was in the sand along the beach. That part was tough but still quite enjoyable. The views along the course were spectacular including views of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. There were a few challenging hills but I am not sure how challenging they would have been had I run this thing in early June when I was better trained. The longest climb came after the little run along the beach and led up to the aid station about 8 miles into the race.

I ran well for the first 15 miles and then I started to crash. I was wondering how far I would be able to go before falling apart. It was around this point where Elisa passed me and left me in her dust. I didn't see her again until I crossed the finish line at 5:23. Elisa finished in 4:44 so I can say with certainty that she kicked my butt. She ran an awesome race and made me very proud. She has been training hard this year and it's good to see all of that tough training paying off. It's incredible that she has time to train for ultra marathons while in school pursuing her PhD. My hat is off to her.

Everyone else who traveled up with us did well. Mark finally beat Vicki in a marathon. ktea ran her first marathon in a long time and did well. Charlie ran his first 10k (his second race) of his new found life as a trail runner. Carol won her age group as did Marit. Julie and Vicki both placed in their age groups. Overall it was a great day for all of us. Best of all is that we all got to share the experience of running on some beautiful trails on a nice sunny summer day.

You can watch the trailer from the film that Pozole Films shot of the marathon. I haven't ordered a copy yet but am quite impressed with the trailer. It looks like the crew put together a fantastic keepsake for anyone who ran this race or is interested in trail running. You see a great shot of Elisa and her wonderful smile right around the 1:41 mark and if you don't blink you can catch me and the orange shorts around 2:17.

It was a great weekend but I learned a valuable lesson. Even coming off of a 100 miler one needs to respect the marathon distance. I don't think I would have had to log a ton of miles but I should have known that it would take more than a handful of runs to prepare properly.

Now I need to see how wise it is for me to run a 50 miler in September. I'll make that decision in the next week or so. I need to quit being lazy and get out there and run.

See you on the trails.

p.s. To those of you who have encouraged me to keep the blog alive I will do my best. Truth is I didn't have much to write about in July.

Here is a picture Mike Swaney took of me approaching the finish line. I got ugly early but managed to smile for the cameras as I approached the 26.2 mile mark.