We should probably label the pickle juice: The Glacier Ridge Trail Race and Ultramarathons

The third race in my four weekends in a row of races is in the books. Southern Discomfort and I ran the Glacier Ridge 30k Trail Race yesterday, and the course is a beautiful one.  

Glacier Ridge Trail Marker, Moraine State Park

Before I go any further with this post I'd like to acknowledge how amazing my wife is. The race had an 8:00 AM start, so we arrived around 7:00 AM. My wife joined us so that she could take pictures of us at the start/finish, and along the course. Because that isn't enough, she also volunteered from 3:00PM - 8:00PM, which included handing out finisher medals to 50k and 50 mile runners, making sure runners had water and food, and even began a rescue mission to find a missing runner (turns out the runner was OK). She was there for over 13 hours, on her feet most the time (because she felt that sitting would be insulting to people that just ran 18-50 miles), and helping everyone out. Not to mention seeing her smiling face waiting for me from time to time along the course gave me a boost to keep going. Yeah, The Commander is a pretty amazing person.

What she lacks in choosing life partners, she makes up for in helping others.

I'm a geologist and that shit fascinates me so you are going to have to deal with a bit of geology right now. Or, since reading is kind of a choose-your-own-adventure sort of thing you can just skip this part and have a much more lame adventure. Interestingly enough, Moraine State Park is a bit of a misnomer. Moraine is a term for deposits left by glaciers. As they move they rip up, grind up, and transport rock material from wherever they happen to be coming from and deposit it as the melt and retreat. You can find boulders from northern Canada lying around here. You can tell because they don't don't look like any of the rocks around here, they wear sweaters, are extremely polite, and occasionally you'll hear an "eh" on the wind when you approach them. Only one of those statements is true. What is true, is that the present day Lake Arthur is a slightly smaller (about 70' shallower) version of Glacial Lake Watts. This lake formed about 140,000 years ago when advancing glaciers dammed Muddy Creek (around the location of the present man-made damn) and flooded the up-stream area. And that's about all there is to the glacial geology of Moraine State Park. The closest glacial features are about 2.5 miles north of the park. You can find more details about the bedrock and glacial geology of the area HERE. Well that was an enriching experience wasn't it? OK, fine, I'll write about the race.

Map of glacial lake boundaries. Dashed and solid lines represent extent of glacial advances. 

The Glacier Ridge Trail and Ultramarathons offers three distances. For the badass, they offer a 30k, a 50k for the ultra-badass, and a 50 mile (and relay) for the super-ultra-badass. This was my first experience being at an ultra event. I can tell you that these people are more than deserving of the badass moniker. I was passed by 50k runners, and the Commander handed medals to 50 milers and we both could not believe how good a shape many of the runners were in coming across the finish line. Ultra runners have my respect. Southern Discomfort and I ran the 30k trail race option. The course was almost entirely on the the Glacier Ridge Trail (I know, I didn't see that coming either), with the exception of a connector from the start line at McDaniel's boat launch through a crushed stone trail and a bit on a paved bike trail.

Southern Discomfort and myself stoked to run a 30k.

We got a brief set of announcements from the team of race directors and we set off from the start line just a few minutes after 8:00, an hour after the 50k and two hours after the 50 milers started.

That's me looking like I am in first place but not in first place. Nice camera work there.

The course took us on a mostly out-and-back. One exception was to take a trail that cut off the trek down to the lake and back up again from 7.3-9.3. Fair enough. My GPS was a little wonky at the end, but I still had ~3200' of gain logged and about 19.3 miles. So maybe it was a bit of a heavy 30k. Not to complain though, I paid for 18.6 miles and got 7/10ths for free. whaaaat?

Course map. GPS wigged out for a bit around mile 16.

I didn't find any of the hills to be overly absurd. Lots of people seemed to be OK with running them. Coming off back-to-back halfs, I was not one of these people. Still, with one exception we never hit anything much over a 20% grade. The one hill we did climb on the way back was super steep and super shitty, so well done to the race directors for throwing that at us 14 miles in. Again, the hills were not really bad, they just never let up for the entire length.

Lots of hills. Didn't jump off a cliff at mile 16.

I know I should but I don't do any warm up running. I figure that's what the first couple miles are for. And as usual, my legs feel like garbage and I wonder what I got myself into. However, after turning off the bike path and on to single track, things started feeling much better. Most of the trail was in really great shape and offered soft dirt with just occasional small roots to deal with. Very runable. I topped out on one of the first major climbs at about 3.8 miles and hit some flat and gently descending terrain. At this point I was feeling really good and thinking this 30k was a good life choice. I rolled in to the first aid station at mile 4.8 and I was really stoked to see my wife there. They only offered water at this aid station, and I had a pack full of Tailwind so I didn't see the need to stop. I waved to the Commander and I kept on trucking.

Me and a dude rolling in to the aid station getting ready to keep on trucking.

From here the course continued on along the north side of the lake, at some points coming right down to it with the water lapping at the trail edge. Some thunderstorms with heavy rains moved through the evening before and this left some spots pretty muddy, but nothing that wasn't manageable. I ran up some hills, then down some hills, then up hills and then down, and then... You get the idea. Eventually I could hear the commotion of the aid aid station at mile 10. This aid station made use of the parking area at the Rte. 528 trailhead and was the only fully outfitted station on the 30k course. They had everything a runner could have possibly wanted there. Apparently on the list of things a runner could possibly want is cups of pickle juice. This is not however on the list of things Southern Discomfort could possibly want, so boy was she surprised when she threw down a cup of it. While volunteering the Commander saw a note that read "we should probably label the pickle juice". From the story SD relayed, the volunteer told her it was pickle juice, but it was too late. She was already committed to the chug when she realized he was talking to her. I'm glad it happened because 1) I'm a bad friend, and 2) I needed a title for the blog. I was pretty stoked to see the Commander. Then she scolded me for not drinking enough Tailwind. Who am I kidding, she was right. I was over halfway through with the race and I had only drank about a third of it. Still, I was feeling pretty good, if a bit tired. I had a quarter of a grilled-cheese sandwich, an orange, and a banana, and I turned around to head up the hill I had just come down. The mile or so into and out of the aid station was fun. You could see the leaders coming back at you, and you were passing those still a bit behind you. Lots of "hell yeah's", "way to goes" and so forth. The camaraderie of the trail running community is a pretty cool thing to be a part of.

Your's truly hoofing it in to the 10 mile aid station in my smashingly purple purple shirt.

 You know what else is cool to be a part of? Popsicles and oranges at the 13.9 mile aid station (the aid station formerly known as 4.7). On the run back I felt like my left calf muscle was at incipient cramp and I was keeping just ahead of it. I hit the Tailwind hard and that definitely helped. I would feel that shitty feeling in the muscle, not quit a cramp, but certainly not feeling good. I'd drink my Tailwind and shortly after it would be feeling good enough to keep running. I never did cramp during this race, which was good, because apparently I took the Commanders scolding to heart. I finished off my hydration with about four miles left to go.

The last four miles were mixed feelings for me. On the one hand, you know you are almost done, on the other, when you hit the crushed gravel between the bike trail and the finish line, you become Bill Murray in Groundhog's day. The F'n trail just would not end. Like the Grinch's heart, it grew three sizes that day. Specifically that part of the day between the start and the finish of the race. The race staff even had a sign posted eluding to how long that stretch seemed. 

That trail went on for ever, but I found the strength of ten Grinch's, plus two.

However, like all good things, even crappy things like that crushed gravel trail must come to an end. You actually run right into the parking area for the race goers. Right next to the trail was the Commanders car so I knew she was there. That's all I needed to get this thing done. I rounded the corner picking up the pace to finish strong across the line.

Minus two hours for the 50 mile start time. Missed my goal by 5 minutes. C'est la vie.

This was a great race. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to try some longer distance races without insane terrain. On top of that, all the proceeds are donated to the two local parks. Its a win no matter how you look at it. You can find out more at the race website. 

An excellent set of races.