My good friend Amie convinced me to return to Minnesota to see one of her favorite places. Maybe convinced is a strong word, she merely asked what would sway me to sign up for Superior 100, that was all it took, I was on board and excited to see the north shore of lake superior.
We were fortunate enough to get there a couple days early, and camp at Gooseberry Falls campground. Amie had a couple friends that were going to help crew and pace her, I was going to focus on enjoying the trails and experience. Based on our runs together, it was highly likely we would be pretty close throughout, and I'd be able to reap the benefit of Amie's crew.
I immediately understood Amie's attachment to the area, it is incredible, the rocks, the water, forests and trails, all breath taking. i will definitely return here and spend some time enjoying it. For now I will skip to the details of the run.
Friday morning, we awoke, had a good breakfast of oatmeal and yogurt before heading over to the start. At 8am, John (the race director) sent us on our way to enjoy 103 miles of some of the most incredible trail i've had the pleasure of traveling.
Early on I took it very easy, splashing in the puddles left from the previous days rain (to the dismay of several fellow runners). I was running with or close to numerous runners through much of the first 20 miles. Though this wasn't ideal, i wasn't interested in pushing things too much too early, and didn't feel like slowing down.
Amie and i passed much of the first 25 miles within a couple minutes of each other, though never really running together. We did more of the traditional back and forths that occur throughout such a long endeavor.
From Miles 25 through 35 i stopped on several occasions marveling at the views and thinking how it would be awesome to share them, though Amie and my paces had diverged a bit. At this point nutrition was coming in well for me, my stomach was settled, and I was moving comfortably along, enjoying the views and quiet.
There were several sections that ran along exposed cliffs overlooking lakes and valleys. I found myself running along the edge of these cliffs, looking down the sheer drop and remember the runs with Victor along sunset cliffs. Victor likes to skirt the edge of the cliffs. This made me smile and allowed me to relax and enjoy the miles that much more.
At the Tettegouche aid station, Amie rolled in slightly behind me. I may have been dragging my feet a little getting out. I asked if she wanted to run together for a bit, and was very happy when she agreed. I have a slew of excuses for asking, but the bottom line is we were running pretty close together, I enjoy her company very much, and was anxious to have someone to share the views with. After we restocked our food and hydration, we were off.
I had run out of gels at this point, and asked if Riccardo or Steve had any gels. Steve handed me 4 hammer gels, i thanked him through a grimace. Hammer gels have never set well for me. I would take them with and hope i could get through without needing to eat them.
Riccardo noted it's a long 8.6 to country road 6, and we should take our time so as not to arrive before 6:30, or he wouldn't be able to start pacing us. We were leaving Tettegouche at around 5:30, so the likelihood of covering even 8 miles of this course in 1 hour was small, even on fresh legs, which neither of us had at this time.
We continued to move well through the early miles of this section. We would settle into a steady hike on the climbs, take a quick moment to enjoy the incredible views at the tops and jog through the descents and flats. Nutrition was still going well for me, though i was out of my preferred gels, and the carbopro mix was a bit diluted, making it hard to get enough calories without drinking too much water.
I finally caved, and ate one of the hammer gels. it was every bid as glorious as i remember them being (a huge amount of sarcasm on this). I think i ate 2 or 3 of them through this stretch, and would pay dearly for this later on. Both Amie and I were starting to feel better at this point, and began rolling pretty well along.
Before long we could hear the noise from the aid station, coming from way below us. We joked about not being too keen on that much descent in that short a time, and hoping the road would come up to meet us. As we were rolling along the top within 10 steps, both my big toenails caught on my shoes and folded back. lovely, the good news is i'll have lots of time to remember that.
The road did in fact raise up a bit to meet us, though we wound up making a good descent down to the aid station. As we got closer, i could see Amie's excitement growing, and feel the pace quickening. I did what i could to stay reasonably close without getting caught up in the excitement.
Both Riccardo and Steve where there to greet us and tend to our needs. I made a b-line for the drop bags area hoping to find my drop bag and get some proper calories (read carbopro and roctane gels). After searching for several minutes, I was unable to find my drop bag. Buggah, fortunately i had some gels and carbopro in my previous drop bag which Steve had taken from Beaver Bay.
I was able to restock my carbopro and get 3 more good gels. Amie was tending to some blisters, and Riccardo was ready and chomping at the bit to join us for some night running.
We left County Road 6, and again Amie took off, Riccardo was in good spirits, and Amie seemed to be feeling good. i held on figuring this is probably just a bit of excitement focused around the aid stations and it would fade to a more sustainable pace shortly. Before too long, I took the lead for a while, and dialed things back to a more leisurely effort.
Riccardo was telling stories about this and that, and we were moving along pretty well. We discussed our progress, and i commented that we should reach mile 80 around sunrise. I didn't get much buy in from Amie.
We were moving really well power hiking the technical stuff and climbs, and running the flats and descents pretty well. Before long dark settled in and we broke out the headlamps.
My stomach was not doing well, those hammer gels were catching up, and started to twist things up in a pretty bad way. I did what i could to stay with Amie and Riccardo, thankful that they were there. If i'd been on my own, i would likely have dialed things back to a walk and spent much more time out there.
The course is full of muck crossings. Riccardo was not a big fan. Amie would call out mud, and you could hear Riccardo stop, searching for the least muddy way to cross the mud hole i presume. After several of these, I offered to give Riccardo a piggy back ride over the mud. Fortunately he never took me up on this offer.
Amie and I would trade out the lead regularly. Darkness had fully settled in, we were slowing a bit, and it was getting chilly. I had an extra shirt which Amie opted to take advantage of, at least until we got into Finland, and she was able to get her warm clothes from Steve.
After a little longer we turned off the spur trail that would take us to Finland. I was getting excited, looking forward to real food. It had been right around 12 hours since i'd had any real food. As soon as we got into the aid station, i was checking out what they had.
I had a hot dog and some soup. Grabbed some pickles, and a few snickers for the trail. Steve wasn't at the aid station. We got our sustenance, some warm liquids, and pressed on for the next aid station: Sonju.
This stretch would prove to be one of the tougher ones we would experience. The vast majority of it was walked with frequent pauses due to stomach issues on my part, and some fatigue and unexplained dizziness for Amie. Riccardo was in good spirits, and kept Amie and I cheerful under the circumstances.
We rolled into Sonju between 12:30 and 12:45, and opted to sit by the fire, get some warm soup and try to recompose ourselves for the next 5 miles into Crosby aid station. After almost 2 hours, Amie continued to get colder.
After a bit of back and forthing, Amie agreed that it was best for all 3 of us if She and Riccardo got a ride to the Crosby aid station. I was happy that she was being sensible, and looking forward to being done with the ordeal. At that moment, she looked me in the eyes, and quietly stated: "You're going to finish, right." A smile crept over my face, even at her lowest, she was unwilling to accept defeat, I wasn't getting out that easy. I nodded and spoke a low "yes, i'm going to finish, you just worry about getting warm and feeling better".
She and Riccardo were taken by car to the Crosby aid station to see if they could get Amie warmed up and sorted out. I set out from Sonju with fresh legs and a heavy heart, an interesting juxtaposition of emotions consumed me through the next 5 miles. I wanted to run as fast as my legs would carry me to see Amie and Riccardo warming themselves by the fire and know everything was going to be ok.
I pressed the pace pretty good for much of the distance, over some of the most rooted and swampy sections of the course, passing people and trying to remind myself that I still have another 40 miles to cover, it would be light in several hours, and I was better served by saving energy and dialing the pace back. emotion is no friend of reason, I continued pressing, waiting for the 1/2 mile stretch of road which Amie and Riccardo said would take me into Crosby.
Finally, the path gave way, and I was spat onto the road. I looked ahead and saw orion laying low on the horizon directly in front of me. Very fitting that one of the constellations which carries so much meaning for me was guiding me into the aid station and hopefully to a much warmed and improved Amie and Riccardo.
I followed the road and orion's lead into the aid station. Upon arriving, I asked if anybody had come in by car from Sonju, and was told of a young woman trying to get warm in the back of a van. I crawled into the back of the van, laid next to her, putting my face in hers, and asked "how are you doing?"
She commented "warming up."
I asked "Are Riccardo and Steve going to get the other car?"
She responded "I don't know a Riccardo"
I apologized, "I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else. I hope you continue to warm up and feel better soon, best of luck." and I exited the van, returning to my search for Amie and Riccardo.
I ran into Riccardo getting some warm soup. He said Amie was improving, and sitting by the fire. A wave of relief swept over me, and I went over to talk to Amie. We talked a bit and continued warming ourselves by the fire. I ate and restocked my nutrition and hydration for the coming sections.
I ate and drank and rested a bit at the aid station. It was time to move on, when Steve came by, and we decided it would be good if he ran with me into the next aid station. He just needed to get a few things together, and we'd be off. I wasn't honestly in a big rush to get out of there. I was pretty content talking to Riccardo and Amie and seeing she was doing better.
After an extended wait, I decided I was ready to head out, and told Riccardo and Amie that if Steve wanted to do this section, he could catch up to me, and was off into the darkness. Again, I was feeling pretty fresh, and making good time. This lasted about a mile when I stepped down of a small ledge and rolled my left ankle.
I went down in a heap, I saw stars and blackness (not the night sky or those lovely celestial bodies, but rather images entirely created within my head). I had rolled the same ankle 6 weeks earlier on a section of the ice age trail, and it was bad back then. Since then I re-injured it 2 or 3 times, the most recent of which was about a week before superior. I lay there in the fetal position for what seemed like several minutes waiting for the pain to subside.
Normally I am able to run off a sprained ankle, within a couple minutes it's as if it never happened. This sprain was different from the very beginning (6 weeks ago). I finally stumbled to my feet and tried taking several steps forward. Oh f' that, this is pretty bad. I contemplated turning around and making it back to the aid station before they left. Not likely, and then I remembered Amie and my agreement back at Sonju.
I started moving forward as best I could, and before long was limping along at a meager jog. Steve caught up to me shortly after this incident, I explained my fall and that I'd be limping along trying to work it out, so things would likely be slow going for a while. We continued like this for quite some time before I noticed the sky was turning that lovely gray which precedes sunrise.
My spirits lifted a bit, and I started to press things more, hoping to reach sugarloaf before sunrise proper and share the experience with Riccardo and Amie as well as Steve. It didn't take long for me to realize that wasn't going to happen. I carried on, moving well when the trail was smooth, and picking my way gingerly when it was rooted and technical. The pain of rolling my ankle fresh in my mind, and nothing I was even remotely interested in revisiting anytime soon.
After what seemed to be an eternity, I rolled into sugarloaf, mile 83, and was greeted by Riccardo. I asked how Amie was doing, got the updates, and tended to my nutrition and hydration, then requested a blister kit (it was time to take care of my toenails, the last 40 miles were wearing heavily on them), and an ace bandage or something to give my ankle some more support.
After sorting through this, I headed over to the car to talk to Amie for a bit, and get Steve's ankle brace to provide some support. I sat in the car with Amie went over how she was feeling and how I was doing, put the ankle brace on, and had some pudding. Despite this being her first go at 100, Amie is much more logistically solid than my cowboy approach to these things. I will have to sit down and see if she will be so kind as to help me plan out my next one (if there is another in my future).
After getting the ankle brace situated and enjoying the pudding, I was on my way again. Heading for the next aid, Cramer. This section went fairly smoothly, my pace was still decent, though it slowed a bit, I was still pressing forward. This section was fairly uneventful, and I was hurting pretty good.
I was also getting tired of drinking water, it wasn't quenching my thirst, and I was in need of something with flavor. Amie to the rescue, she had some pink tailwind mix, which I grabbed several packets of, and mixed them in her handheld amphipod, which i'd carry for the remainder of the run and sip on tailwind from said amphipod. A bit sweet, but a welcome change at this point
I rolled into Cramer, and learned Riccardo would be dragging me to the finish, unless I got sick of him before we reached Caribou Highlands Ranch. I smiled and commented it might be him that is sick of the slog long before we reach the finish. Again I got updates on Amie, continuing to improve. Cramer and Temperance were the only 2 aid stations I did not see Amie at, and I was a bit sad about that.
Before long, Riccardo and I were off again, making our way towards temperance at as solid a pace as I could muster. We moved pretty slowly into temperance, my ankle was doing better. At temperance, I sat down and ate any and all real food I could find as well as drinking a couple cups of water while Riccardo was attempting to fill my hydration pack with the last of my carbopro and water. This was quite an ordeal as the plastic slider which seals the bladder was super sticky and jammed from all the carbopro.
After several minutes we were on our way again. The section between temperance and sawbill was much more runnable, pretty smooth trail for the first several miles and we made good time. I stopped and took off the ankle brace, as it was starting to get very annoying, and I was feeling more stable.
After a little bit of gradual climbing, there was this thing. a roughly 500' foot climb with some sections that were like low grade bouldering (remember my perception may be skewed by being awake for some 26 hours at this point).
I pressed this climb pretty hard (a solid power hike punctuated by running on some of the flatter sections). As we came over the top, there was a group of rock climbers who were kind enough to point us in the right direction and commented that it was pretty fast once we got to the base of the hill.
I gingerly picked my way to the base of the hill. At that point I was feeling pretty spent, and we plodded along between a walk and a slow jog. Nutrition wasn't coming in too well, and I wasn't too ambitious. It's that funny section of course were it's too far from the finish to be excited about and too long into things to have much motivation. That funny in between spot.
After a little while we came to a road crossing, and were promised the aid would be coming up pretty soon. I got a bit of a boost from this, and mustered a pretty pitiful jog into the aid station. I was pleasantly surprised by Amie welcoming us in.
Riccardo took my pack and was handling the restocking of gels and nutrition. Amie had a chicken sandwich, some beef jerky bits and dried apricots and a Gatorade. All of which sounded pretty fantastic. I ate most of the sandwich, several beef jerky bits, and some apricots as well as drinking some Gatorade. I continued on the tailwind regiment and Riccardo and I left for the next 5.5 miles to Oberg aid station.
This was a pretty bad section, lots of walking, and lots of people going by me. I struggled through, Riccardo kept up the motivation and tried his best to keep me moving. I guess all the food was sitting a bit heavy in my stomach, and I just didn't have much ambition right now. This slump lasted for 2 - 3 miles. During which I tried to jog on several occasions, but never really mustered anything.
In the final couple miles of this section, I decided it was time to put this thing to bed, and started running as best I could. I figured i'd keep moving, start pushing in simple nutrition, gels, carbopro, and tailwind. This was working, I started to feel better, and we started moving along better, passing people again.
On the climb up to Oberg mountain, we gained several places. As the descent started, I was feeling pretty good, and moving along pretty well, allowing gravity to pull me down. It was a very runnable grade, not to steep, and not to shallow, so I went with it.
My brain started working, and I was strategizing how to break out of this group we had been consumed by. "All right Riccardo, what do you have in line of nutrition, cliff blocks and tailwind in particular?" he had 1 pack of tailwind, and 1/2 a pack of blackcherry cliffblocks. "Awesome, here is what we are going to do at Oberg. When we get close, you take the amphipod, fill it with water, ice, and tailwind, give me the 1/2 pack of blocks, i'm going to drop my pack with Amie, and we are going to blow right through the aid and press the last 7 miles to the finish".
Solid, 1 bit of descent and 1 good climb right out of the Oberg, then we would be pretty well done with things. We blew through the aid, thanking Amie briefly and promising to see her at the finish.
The descent went well, again very runnable, so we put more time into people, and were passing 50 mile and marathon participants at this point. This continued through the climb up moose mountain. I pressed this very hard, power hiking solidly all the way up. The descent off moose mountain took about as long as the climb up it. my feet were pretty thrashed at this point, the toenail situation hurt.
As the descent leveled off we ran a bit and I was getting excited about being done with this and being able to sit down and really see how Amie was doing.
I suspect she was doing worse than she let on in order to keep me from worrying. I know she was solid as a crew, despite her situation, I would never have know she had any issues had I not been there with her. She is that tough a person.
I pressed through this section, and up another climb, pretty similar to that up moose mountain, though this time, it was up mystery mountain. this is were course knowledge is handy. Had I known about this climb I may have gone up moose mountain a bit slower. This one broke me, and I walked a good bit, and continued walking and slowly jogging the descent off mystery mountain.
After quite a drawn out bit, we were dumped onto ski hill, Riccardo commented that we were pretty close at this point, and I mustered a bit of a run down ski hill and onto the final stretch of road that would bring us into the finish, and back to Amie.
almost 35 hours in the making, this is one of the toughest courses I've been on, very technical. This is also the only course I've been on and never once wondered why I was out here. I was too busy enjoying the views and the experience. Riccardo and Steve were a solid crew, providing me support early on when they weren't helping Amie, and really stepping up to the plate after Amie dropped.
Amie was incredible, I truly enjoyed the sections we spent together, and was incredibly sad and concerned during our time at Sonju, and honestly through the remainder of the run, about her. She is a super good and incredibly stubborn and driven individual. At no time did she seriously give though to dropping, not even at her lowest point in Sonju. The only reason she agreed to drop was for the best interest of the 3 of us. After discussing how f'd we would all be if she couldn't keep warm on the stretch to Crosby, she agreed to stop.
Even after stopping, she never left the run, she rallied and took on the responsibility of making sure I had everything I needed to carry on. Never has someone so reminded me of the plight of a moth drawn to the beauty of the fire with no regard for her own well being. I hope to find that level of desire someday, and even more so hope to be able to balance it with the same level of logic Amie showed.
