Trail Mix Race 2010 Map

When I first signed up for this race, I couldn't find a map anywhere of the route for this race.  So, now that I have run it, I proceeded to create my own rough map using Google Earth overlay for others to use as a reference.  The resolution got pretty low, so sorry about that.  Without buying some map software, I'm not sure how to improve that.

Word on the street is that this route does change from year to year, so don't assume this is the way it will always be.  When trail conditions permit, the race loops through the down-hill ski and snowboard area.  This was not the case this year and instead a loop through the wood chip trails near Richardson Nature center substituted for the ski hill.

The loop as detailed below is 12.5km (7.75 miles).  The 25k would obviously be 2 loops and the 50k race would be 4 loops.  It sounds like the aid stations ran short near the end of the 50k race, so those participants should plan accordingly for future races.  It looked like a lot of the 50k runners set up there own little aid stations near the start of the loop alongside the trail.  I thought this was a pretty smart thing to do if you want to make sure you have the water and fuel you need to push through to a strong finish.

The Race (red line) started at the green start button and headed north and stayed left up through to Richardson Nature Center.  It loops back to the south and stays to the east of the northbound traffic.  This creates a couple places where there is 2-way traffic, but the trail is plenty wide for this.  The loop near the Richardson Nature Center is all on wood chip trails that felt somewhat like running on a mattress, not easy!!  There was an aid station set up at the south end of the 2-way traffic that provided water and gatorade.  I'm not actually sure if they had anything to eat as I brought my own gels.  The race loop pushed across to the east side of the park and followed the east side of Hyland Lake where once again, there was 2-way traffic.  At the split of the 2-way traffic, there was another aid station set up.  Both aid stations are pretty strategic in that you won't run any farther than about 2.5 miles without a station.  After the second aid station, the loop heads south and then west up a good size hill.  This hill was pretty defeating for me on my second loop and end up being my slowest mile split of the whole race.  The loop then circles back north and then east to meet up with on-coming traffic on the east side of the lake.  Looping around the north end of the lake, the trail heads west to finish up where it started.

Trail Mix 25k Race Report

This being my first race ever, I had no idea what to expect going into it.  Fortunately this one is pretty low-key, so I just went with the flow.

The 50k race was scheduled to start at 7:00 am and the 25k race at 7:30 am.  Race numbers were available for pick-up at 5:30 am.  I was there around 5:45 am and there was hardly anybody there yet, so I picked up my race number and then wandered around for a bit.  Not finding anything to do or anybody to talk to, I moved my car down closer to the race start.  Most everyone that was there was hanging out in their vehicles at the time.


At about 6:30 or so, I walked back over to the Visitor Center to the restroom.  After doing my business there, I had my first and only VFF siting of the day.  I tried to strike up a conversation with him and he ended up taking off while I ended up chatting ti up with a couple other guys about them.  One guy had a pair that he wears off and on for training for the last three years but hasn't run a race in them.  The other guy I chatted with a little longer as we walked back to the race starting area.  He seemed pretty knowledgeable about the VFF's, but did not have his own pair.  He was running the 50k and took off to finish prepping for the race as it was only minutes away.

I cheered on the start of the 50k and noticed there was a guy wearing a World Vision shirt.  I had thought about running this race as a World Vision sponsor, but just never got my logistics together to do it.  Maybe I will get this set up for the Superior Trail Race.  It's a great cause that I have supported in the past.

I took off my "warmth" layers, grabbed my water bottle, gloves and headed for the race start.  It was warming up nicely and I suspected I wouldn't have to wear my stocking cap for very long.  I hung around the back third of the pack or so and couldn't hear anything the race director was saying.  There seemed to be some confusion as they were trying to line us all up behind the race start.  All of a sudden the starting horn bellowed and we were off.  Somewhat anti-climatic and unexpected start, but I guess that's the way it goes for such a low profile race such as this one.  In the excitement of the start, I forgot to start my watch until over a quarter mile into the race.  Oops, now my splits are going to be a little off.

I really had to hold myself back the first few miles and still felt like I was going out too fast.  I can't stand running on the heels of other people, so I found myself pushing hard to get around several groups as it was really cluttered.  After the third mile or so, I fell into a groove and stayed there for quite a while.  Turns out that miles 2-3 was my second fastest split, but no harm done looking hindsight at my overall splits.

There were places where the trail was a bit wet and muddy, so I picked my way through those trying to keep my feet dry as long as I could.  Inevitably, my feet got a bit wet and muddy.  Wet feet has not bothered me yet in any of my running except for a little discomfort.  Didn't even phase me during the race.

The 25k race consisted of two loops and at the beginning of the second loop, I was feeling pretty good.  I felt I had maintained a pretty consistent pace throughout the race thus far and was content with continuing that.  Fortunately I remembered to suck down a gel between miles 8-9, otherwise I probably would have crashed pretty hard.

I struck up a conversation with a couple guys at around mile 9 and the three of us yo-yo'ed with each other for most of the rest of the race.  It was nice to hear their perspectives as they were both experienced runners.  One of the guys at a couple titanium rods put in his leg a few years ago as a result of a hockey injury, so it was pretty impressive he was out running this race and maintaining this pace.

At about mile 12, I hit the wall as a small hill loomed in front of me.  I walked up the hill hoping that it would give my legs enough rest to push hard through to the end.  This was the ticket and I was able to push through to the end after the walk.  The last mile was my fastest split at 7:43 and I was able to pass several people and got passed by one, a girl.  I fought my pride and let her push on ahead.  ;-)

Here's a pic of me coming into the finish line taken by my beautiful wife who was cheering me on and my little boys watching.

My overall official time was 2:16:11 resulting in a pace of 8:47 for the 15.5 miles.  I am very happy with that for my first race ever and am looking forward to the next race!!

Here are the top 5 finishers for the 25k and 50k races below.  Their times are absolutely amazing to me!!

25k Race

Place Name Age S City St Time Pace

===== =================== === = =============== == ======= ===== 

    1 Fish Wilson          25 M Onamia          MN 1:35:25  6:09 
    2 Brett Busacker       24 M Orono           MN 1:37:38  6:18 
    3 Kirk Walztoni        38 M Eagan           MN 1:38:05  6:19 
    4 Josh Riff            35 M Edina           MN 1:38:23  6:21 
    5 Alex Hooke           26 M Rochester       MN 1:40:12  6:28

50k Race

Place Name                Age S City            St Time    Pace  
===== =================== === = =============== == ======= ===== 

    1 Brian Peterson       25 M Minneapolis     MN 3:16:52  6:21 
    2 Chris Gardner        33 M Duluth          MN 3:28:34  6:43 
    3 Kelly Mortenson      38 M St Paul         MN 3:37:40  7:01 
    4 Aaron Drevlow        36 M Woodbury        MN 3:42:14  7:10 
    5 Jim Ramacier         46 M White Bear Lake MN 3:43:51  7:13 


Thanks to O.C. Williams (the race director) and all the volunteers for putting on such a great race!!

irunfar.com gear giveaway

In honor of earth week, irunfar.com is giving away a bunch of running gear.  Go check it out.

Minimalist Shoe update and Trail Mix Race

As most of you know, I picked up a pair of VFF KSO's last fall for running.  Prior to "retraining" myself to run in minimalist footwear, I was not able to run more than a 1/2 mile with out severe knee pain that would force me to stop and walk.  I also had major knee problems backpacking which was very disheartening since it is a major passion of mine.  One year ago, I backpacked about 16 miles in two days with a really light pack and that was about as far as I could go as my knees started to hurt too bad.

Last summer I visited a sports doc and received some PT for my knees, gluts and all around core strength.  This seemed to help some, but didn't seem to really fix the problem.  It helped balance out my muscles some as well as my flexibility, but that was the extent of it.

Fast forward to last fall, within minutes of starting to run in the KSO's my knee pain was gone and to this day has remained mostly at bay.  I can still feel twinges of pain here and there, but it is nothing like what I experienced prior to using minimalist shoes.

As I've discussed in previous posts, running in a minimalist shoe forces you to run with the proper form.  Most people will need to completely retrain themselves to run and walk in minimalist footwear and this takes time and patience!!

Since January, I have been averaging over 20 miles per week with a high of 32 miles and a long run of 14 miles.  Generally I run on a paved trail (or next to) during the week and to a long trail run on the weekend.  It has been great and a joy to run with minimal pain.  The pain I do have I attribute to my body adjusting and is very different than the pains I experienced before.  When my body is fatigued, I can feel my form start to deteriorate and strangely enough, 'old' pains start to surface.  These 'old' pains quickly remind me to pay attention to my form and I correct it immediately and the pain subsides.

In December I day-hiked 12 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia in my Inov8 295's with no knee pain and this included some running and wearing a 10 lb pack.  I was super excited about this as there were some major downhill sections and this was where my knee pain would previously surface.  Being able to run down a big hill with a pack on and not have knee pain was a tremendous encouragement for me and I was sold on training in a minimalist shoe.

Per my previous post, I backpacked about 24 miles in 2 1/2 days on the Superior Hiking Trail with no knee pain and a 25 lb pack.  I hiked it in my Inov8 295's as much of the hike was either in snow, on ice, in icy slushy water or muddy conditions.  I thought about wearing a minimalist shoe for this, but conditions were just not right for it.

Any way you look at it, I feel that training in minimalist footwear has cured my knee pain that I was previously experiencing in traditional running shoes.  It has also made my feet and legs much stronger and greatly increased my sense of balance as well as core strength.  Running in minimalist footwear has also improved my form tremendously and for the first time in my life, I enjoy running!!

This weekend I will run the first running race of my life (admittedly, I'm not counting 8th/9th grade track as it was all less than 2k.)  The race I am running is the Trail Mix Race that takes place in Hyland Park in Bloomington, MN.  I will be running in the 25k race and will be quite content to be in the middle to bottom of pack for finish times.

One month from now, I will be running a much more challenging race that takes place on the Superior Hiking Trail. The Spring Superior Trail Race will be a very fun race and again I am running the 25k portion.  I will post more on this race later.

Wish me luck for my race on Saturday!!

Winter camping more spring-like on the Superior Hiking Trail

I apologize as I am very delinquent at getting this out, but here is my trip summary from our trip to the SHT the weekend of March 12-14th.  I forgot to charge the battery on my camera, took three pictures, then the camera died... bummer!

What was initially planned for a winter camping trip, turned relatively warm.  Temps were in the 35-45F temp range and mostly cloudy until Sunday when we saw a little sunshine.  The early spring warm-up we had this year provided for some rains just prior to our trip that would normally have produced an incredible amount of snow.  We were really hoping to use the snowshoes and truly set up camp winter style with a pyramid tarp and 0F bags.  But, we ended up leaving the snowshoes in the car, donned regular shoes, lightly insulated clothing and my Tarptent Rainshadow.

I was wearing my ULA Ohm pack, my brother Bryan had my GoLite Pinnacle pack (2008) and Barak was wearing a old Mountainsmith pack that he picked up at a secondhand store for $7.  He was very proud of that purchase and it really wasn't too bad of a pack.  Fairly light and yet carried weight pretty well.  We each had somewhere between 25-30 lbs in each pack (including food and water).  At that weight range, mine was a little overloaded and I ended up with some chaffing on my hips.  The hipbelt is not really designed to carry much weight as it is more for just stabilizing the pack.  This was an error on my part to try and transfer too much weight to my hips.  Both of the other packs carried really well.

On Friday, we hiked from Castle Danger to a multi-group site just west of Gooseberry Falls State Park.  The trail had up to 12" of wet slushy snow and occasional clear spots.  The lower lying areas provided us with trails that were all or partially under water.  As we neared the gooseberry river, the trail was largely under water as it followed the banks of the river.  This left us but now choice to walk in cold, slushy water.  I elected to wear my Inov-8 Roclite 295 trail running shoes with a pair of merino wool liner socks and my Simblissity gaiters.  My feet did get quite cold when walking in the water, okay, they were numb!  But would quickly warm up as soon as I was out.  I might try and find a pair of neoprene socks to wear in these kind of conditions.

Since we got a late start, we push hard and hiked about 8 miles in 4 hours and ended up setting up camp in the dark.  Not a big deal unless you are trying to find dry wood to heat up water for dinner and a cocoa.  We ended up bypassing three campsites as all the tentpads were under hard-packed snow/ice.  We finally came upon the multi-group site that offered a nice dry tent pad under a large pine tree.  We had almost given up and were going to bushwack our own tentpad, so we were very thankful that we found this one.

It had been raining for the last couple days and while that had quickly melted a lot of the snow, it also saturated all the wood we could find.  We took some risk in taking my DIY J.Falk Compact Wood Burning Stove, and in the wet conditions we were in and trying to melt snow for 3 guys, either the stove or our skills fell short.

After trying to boil 1.5 liters of water for about an hour, we decided to set up a tripod over our campfire and that's how we melted snow and heated up water for the rest of our trip.  This worked out much better for us.  We just had too much trouble finding wood that burned hot enough in the stove.

In the future I will definitely be bringing my MSR multi-fuel stove for these kind of conditions.  Although, heating up water over the campfire wasn't such a bad thing, it just took a lot of extra time.  It's nice to be able to have a hot drink within about 10 minutes of reach camp when it is cold out.  Even though it's heavier, I think it will be worth it.

I was testing out my JRB quilt inside of a TiGoat Bivy and Bryan and Barak used a standard sleeping bag inside of a couple of bivy's that Bryan made out of reflective tyvek.  They had pretty major condensation inside the bivy and I had a little.  I think the their bivy's were just not breathable or just reflected too much heat back into the insulation.  As for me, not sure why I had the condensation I did.  From what I've read, it's really hard to eliminate condensation in these conditions (35F and humid).

On Saturday we hiked from down to Gooseberry Falls and then northward to the Split Rock River.  This section of the trail proved to be much drier of which we were very happy about.  However the last few miles were very icy and made for very slow going.  I was really wishing I had my Kahtoola Microspikes through this section.  Either way having our hiking poles saved us from falling numerous times.

Once again we bypassed a few campsites as the tentpads were either icy or too exposed of a site.  We ended up setting up camp on what I think was an unofficial campsite, but it had a fire ring and a tentpad and that was good enough for us.  As we were preparing dinner, Bryan announced to us that he just threw up...  poor guy! Turns out it was just a little stomach bug that thankfully, neither Barak or I caught.  He ended up not really eating anything and went to bed early.

Enter, a BIG advantage of a tarptent.  I decided to roll back the mesh door in case Bryan needed to make a quick exit during the night. (See picture of Tarptent from previous trip.)  While I was staking out the sides to give us a little more room, I hear him puking and as far as I can tell he is still inside the tent.  My first thoughts ere 'My tent is going to stink like vomit for the rest of it's life!!'  Fortunately, he was able to clear the tent and all the stink ended up on the dirt ground.  With a sigh of relief, I found a couple big chunks of birch bark, scraped it up and through it deep into the woods.  Some little critter will get a nice snack tonight I thought.

No more episodes for Bryan overnight and we all slept well.  I slept pretty warm all night, and woke up to discover quite a bit of condensation on the inside of my bivy, more than the night before.  I had been pretty warm the night before and didn't wear as much clothing, but I think I was still too warm.  My sleeping pad (CCF) was under my bivy which meant I was sleeping directly on the sil-nylon.  This definitely did a good job of trapping any moisture!!  Next time I will bring the pad inside the bivy to put a little buffer between myself and the sil-nylon.  In hindsight, we really didn't need the bivy's at these temps inside the tarptent, but personally, I just wanted to test it out to see how it works.  Bryan and Barak went without the bivies the second night and thus no condensation.  It's almost as if you need to sleep on the verge of being cold versus sleeping warm to reduce this condensation.  More experimenting will need to take place on future trips.

Next morning, the sun was shining, temps were very comfortable and Bryan was feeling a little better.  However, he was pretty weak from not keeping any calories down, so I lightly loaded my pack and let him carry it while I donned the GoLite Pinnacle (my first time carrying it).  The Pinnacle definitely felt much better at the ~30 lb weight range than that of the ULA Ohm with about the same weight.  Certainly not a fault of the Ohm as it's just not designed to carry that much weight unless you are willing to carry most of it with your shoulders.

The hike out was about 4 miles through Split Rock Lighthouse State Park.  The hiking was much easier as there was very little ice.  The last couple miles were especially as it was mostly downhill and on a mowed grass trail.

Overall, we enjoyed the trip and look forward to another!!

I used to wear orthotics

After being prescribed orthotics almost 3 years ago due to Patellar-Femoral syndrome (knee pains), I bought various different orthotics depending on my shoes. Initially they seemed to help a little, but after time, they didn't seem to fix the underlying problem

Last summer I went to a different doctor (MN Vikings Sports doc) and he looked at my issues as more of a muscle imbalance than a need for orthotics, prescribed some PT and sent me on my way. This sent me down a road of research on why the muscle imbalance?

At the time, I was unable to run more than a 1/2 mile without severe knee pain or hike more than about 6 miles without relying heavily on my trekking poles.

Late last summer through my research, I discovered that maybe it was my shoes and how I am walking and running that is causing the issues. Here are a couple articles that I came across:

http://nymag.com/health/features/46213/
http://treklightly.blogspot.com/2009/12/painful-truth-about-trainers-are.html

Last fall I started running and training in a minimalist shoe that offered no support, no structure, and no padding. I bought a pair of Vibram Fivefingers, put them on and went for a 3 mile run with no pain. Granted I was forced to run very different than I used to, but that was the whole idea. My calves were super sore and my achilles were really tight for about a month during this transition, but I could deal with that kind of pain. The minimalist shoes were allowing my feet to function the way they were designed to.

It didn't take too long for me to realize that my orthotics and structured shoes were not allowing my feet to function properly. They were like casts for my feet. In fact, wearing the orthotics and stiff shoes quickly became very uncomfortable as my feet got stronger and wanted to be able to move. I have since discarded all my orthotics, and rarely wear a shoe with a raised, padded heal.

I do hike in a pair of Inov8 295's with the insole removed, but they have no arch support and have a minimally raised heal. I wear them primarily for the traction as there are not very many options out there for a minimalist shoe with traction.

That's my food for thought. Wouldn't it be nice not to have to wear the orthotics??

Winter Camping Trip in planning stages...

My brother, a friend and I are trying to pinpoint a date to go winter camping.  We have elected to go somewhere along the Superior Hiking Trail, but not sure where yet.  I will be posting an update once we nail dates and location down.

Once again as I approach another trip, I am making gear list modifications.  My updated gear list can be found in the right-hand column.  The major modifications I have made are:

Sleeping System:
I Purchased a Jacks 'R' Better Sierra Sniveller Quilt.  This will be my goto quilt for most of my trips and should easily get me down to 25F by itself.  When combined with my BPL Cocoon Pro 60 Insulated Pants and insulated jacket/vest, it should take me down to 10-15F.  When called for, I will add my 45F poly fill quilt and use it as an overbag to give me another 15F+ of insulation.  I would like to test this sleep system out in my back yard in the coming weeks.  The great thing about this quilt is that it can be used as a Serape which is why I purchased the Sleeves Accessory.  Down to about 20F and maybe colder, this will eliminate the need to bring along an insulated jacket or vest.  This is a great way to reduce some weight.

I picked up a second-hand (unused) Titanium Goat Raven XL bivy which I am stoked about.  It was a little too small for the guy that I bought it from, so he was happy to pass it off.  The Titanium Goat website is outdated, but basically this is the long version as described with a full net hood and side zips added.  I will use this when camping with a tarp or any time it will be below freezing.  This will also be great to through in when going out for a long dayhike as an emergency shelter.  Here are a few links to this bivy if you are interested in seeing it in person.  Pic1, Pic2, Pic3  These pics were taken by William Puckett and posted in this Backpackinglight.com forum.

Shelter:
I also purchased (at a great price!) an Oware 9x9 Pyramid Tarp made out of a heavy duty 200d urethane coated nylon.  This fabric is way overkill for me, but there is no way I could fork out $240 for a silnylon version much less $225 for a similar version to the one I have.  Oware had some special deals going at the time and I was able to pick this up for $50 (very slightly used).  The version I have also has a 1' skirt around the bottom along with some additional height.  This should shed snow extremely well!  It is not ultralight at 5 lb 10 oz, but if shared amongst 4 people, it is only 22.5 oz each.  That's actually really good for a heavy-duty 4 season shelter!

Cooking:
I am experimenting with a couple wood stove comments from J. Falk at Trailgear.org.  He has plans available on his website to make your own wood stoves.  I made both his compact wood stove and his bushwhacker wood gase stove.  I have not decided if I will be bringing both of these or just pick one and run with it.  I ultimately would like to go with using wood for all my cooking as it eliminates the need to bring along fuel of any kind.  The only thing I would bring is some goods to aid in fire-starting.  This is also something I will be experimenting with on this trip.  I am very confident in my fire-starting ability, I am just trying to find ways to speed up the process.  I will blog more about this another time.

Pulk/Tobaggon:
On my last winter trip (10 years ago), I was far from being ultralight and would venture to guess I had close to 60-70 lbs of gear.  I had a Lowe Alpine Contour IV 90+15L backpack and a tobaggen that had gear on it.  Now that I think about it, it was probably much more than 70 lbs, maybe even approaching 100 lbs.  I weighed most of that gear just out of curiousity, so I should go back and add it up some time.

As posted, my base pack weight is 12 lbs 3 oz and the base pulk weight is 22 lbs 7 oz.  These really are not bad weights in themselves for winter camping, but if I could eliminate the hassle of the pulk, that would be nice.  On the flip side, if I can put all the weight in the pulk, it would save getting my back all sweaty which is inevitable for me. 

In reviewing my list posted in the right hand column, I could remove the following things from the list and drop significant weight:

1. Just use snowshoes and leave skis at home.  (-8 lbs 8 oz)  Is it realistic that we will be able to use the skis with much success on the SHT in terms of giving us that much of a speed advantage?  From my experience hiking it, probably not.  If we were going into the BWCA, it would be much more reasonable to bring skis and leave the snowshoes at home.  Skis would be great for going across lakes or open areas of which the SHT is neither.

2. Leave shovel at home.  (-1 lb 4 oz)  Can I use my snowshoes as a shovel if needed?  The shovel would really be for fun if we brought it, as it's not really a need.  I'm sure my brother will be using a pulk, so we can lash it to that if we want to bring it.

3. Leave Bushwhacker Stove at home (-8 oz).  I can always test this out on another trip or in my back yard.  The Compact Wood Stove will probably be the ticket for winter camping as constant feeding of the stove will be necessary when melting snow for water.  This is not as easy with the Bushwhacker Stove the way it is designed.  The Bushwhacker Stove will be a much more efficient stove for conditions when melting snow is not necessary.

What would this accomplish? The Pulk is no longer necessary...  Subtracting the weight of the Pulk and associated stuff sacks (~9 lbs) and it brings my base pack weight down to 19 lbs 11 oz. This is really pretty decent for a winter set-up! I will work on getting this gear list posted as this is probably the direction I will be heading...  I have posted this updated list in the right-hand column as well.

My ULA Ohm backpack is designed for weights less than 30 lbs, so it is my goal to stay well under that including consumables. This is easily manageable although I am more concerned about the bulk of the winter insulation and the pyramid tarp as this may fill up my pack quicker than I would like. I will have to check to see how full my pack gets with this gear set-up...