last sunday my speedy running buddy
paul and i lined up for the "dances with dirt" 50k trail
run at the Pinckney Recreation Area near ann arbor, mi. the perfect
weather, cool and sunny, and nice trails along the potowatomi
trails promised a memorable experience ahead.
nonetheless i could not quite shake the bad taste of the leadup to the race. this mainly centered on the fact that the organizers had promised to provide details about the course for many weeks and going into this race the only thing they managed to publish was that it consists of several 3-5 mile legs with silly names like - "The Beast", "The Wretch" or "Don't Get No Worse" - but no word on the actual course. with a few days to go, their website was still filled with talk of upcoming gps locations and 3d maps. i am realistic, i don't enter ultras with the hope of winning, i enter them hoping to finish and not to end up as trash at the side of the trail. being forced to run a race without a chance to prepare adequately feels as bad as getting up to give a talk without an idea of what i will say. several voices on the ultra and drs lists had warned of dwd based on last years experience when a large part of the field went off course due to insufficient and moved course markings. i did not need promises of fancy-schmanzy gis data, i just needed some idea of where the race will be held in advance so i could do some of my long runs on as much of the actual course as i can. finally, with a few days left to go before the race, rob french a runner last year, had mercy on us and was kind enough to put together a website with what he thought some features of the course might be based on previous experience.
as we headed out of bruin lake
campground, we were crossing meadows on rolling hills, steeper
inclines and descents through wooded areas and my irritation quickly
dissipated with the beauty of the place and the pleasure of finally
stretching out those legs after a week or two of tapering. we
had started in the latter parts of the field and now passed several
runners as we were settling into a comfortable rhythm. i entertained
the folks around me with two well-deserved, clumsy faceplants,
one of them into a patch of poison ivy - then things started to
click. for several hours i was now trying to stick with paul's
pace as well as i could, just interupted by the nice smiles from
the friendly folks at the aid stations. we did not see that many
people except in a section somewhere in the middle when a group
of lost runners assembled. we explored several possible trails
but could not find any markers anywhere. so we picked a likely
option and were quite happy when we found more markers after another
mile or two. the nice coincidence in this was that i hooked up
and chatted with ultra running legend ingrid honzak, who originates
from an Austrian town very close to my own home place but has
now lived in ohio for 30 years. ingrid had just come back from
china where she ran the 60.000 steps at the great wall marathon
a few days earlier - thats dedication :-). the group again stretched
out and i encouraged paul to leave his anchor behind - me - and
to go on at his own pace. as i entered the 17 mile halfway turn-around
aid stations, he and a few others were just heading back out.
the return leg blurred into a pleasant
and uneventful run. this is what has me hooked on ultra running,
the feeling of physiological balance, the dull pain of low energy
reserves, the desire to really sit down on a couch, and the strength
to keep going and punch that ugly, fatso couch-potato-self in
the face - life is good. a mile to go, crossing a meadow, with
spirits high, i can already hear the voices of the kids at the
campground, thats when i hit the ground hard out of absolutely
nowhere. an old metal fence post lay across the trail in the deep
grass - all but invisible. a bit shaken and with a bruised knee
i went on - just to find myself again smooching the nightcrawlers
a few steps later. this time it was a broken off base of a fence
post - no chance to see it in the grass. with a stumped toe, and
a slightly crumpled ego i get back up and start running again.
my fifth face plant of the day and the third within a mile comes
on the next downhill when i trip on barbwire strung across the
trail - all but invisible in the deep grass - now the irritation
was back in full force and i walked the last few minutes to the
finish line at the campsite rather than get hurt by something
that stupid. i probably won't be back at this race anytime soon.
executive summary: finished a good run in 6:21, 34 of 61 finishers, the dwd is in a pretty area, with interesting and pleasant trails, and annoying organization
back to lobsterman's running page