Superior Spring Trail 25K

At the end of last year, J. asked me while we were running together one morning if I would be interested in a trail running race in May of 2016. Without hesitation, I said 'yes'. I did not know about the race, just started trail running about a month, and was very naive about what I was about to get into. She said her friend was looking to enter the Superior Spring Trail race as a team. To form a team, it must be a group of 6 people. I looked at the calendar and it's after the finals week so I thought I should be fine.

Due to limited number of space in the race, the registration was via lottery process. If the team got chosen, all team members would be able to run the race together. I signed up for the race during the winter break and our team was selected to run this race! 

The next step was training. 25K is about 15.5 miles but trail running is so different from road running and it requires training on trails. In my head, I thought I'd already run a half marathon (13.1 miles), 2 more miles would not make any different?!?! It's scheduled to be 3 weeks after the Eau Claire half marathon so I should have enough time to train on trails. 

Anyway, training was okay and I ran long runs at Lowes creek twice (12 miles and 10 miles), weekly hill workouts, and some speed work. I thought I was NOT ready at all as I heard (later on) that the Superior Trail race was hilly and technical. 

On the race weekend, we left Eau Claire on Friday morning and stopped for lunch in Duluth. One of our group members is from Duluth so she knew the way around. Got to the hotel around 3pm. The race check in was from 4 to 7pm. We got our bibs, ate pasta for dinner, went to the briefing, and relaxed a bit before going to bed. 

On the race morning, we woke up early and had routine breakfast. The 50K race started at 7am and 25K started at 8am. Some of us went down to cheer on the 50K runners. I did not go as I wanted to get ready for my race. 

Since I don't have a goal time for this race, I decided to take it easy and enjoy the race. I also told myself that I would take a selfie every single mile. The race director said the trail was dry this year with some muddy areas but not much. 

This picture was taken at the start line. We represented Chippewa Trail Runners group. 

The beginning of the race was mostly running on the road leading to the Superior Hiking Trail entrance. Because everyone started at the same time, it was crowded at the beginning when we tried to go through the single track trail. We ended up walking up the mountain for the first few miles. 

Mile 1 - Still happy and energetic

Mile 2 - Climbed up the mountain but still cool

Mile 3 - Life is good. Trail had a lot of bugs. Tried not to open my mouth when I breathed.

Mile 4 - Time to refill energy

Mile 5 - Some of the fast runners had turned around and passed us

Mile 6 - More runners had come back and we decided to give them the way. This picture was taken while we were waiting for the runners to pass us. 

Mile 7 - Aid station/turnaround point. I made it to the half way point!! Woo!! Stopped to refill the water and had some PB&J. Aid station people were very helpful. They were all volunteers and they knew what runners wanted. They offered us water, food, snack, etc. It's like an oasis. You did not want to leave if you stopped for a while. However, my legs started to get stiff. So, I had to keep going. 

Mile 8 - pretty uneventful. Took another gel. 

Mile 9 - I took this picture before I climbed up the steepest hill in the race. That's also when I started to question my sanity. 

Mile 10 - Climbed up the mountain. Walked slowly and tried to sip water. It's very warm and I was sweating a lot. 

Mile 11 - This was the longest climb in a damn hot weather. I saw people including myself struggling to walk up the hill.

Mile 12 - seemed like the hill never ended.

Mile 13 - Passed a pool of mud on stop of the mountain. Decided to take a picture to remind myself how muddy the course was.

Mile 14/Finish - I felt really good toward the end of the race. When I was at Mile 14 (according to my GPS watch), I thought I had a mile left to. It turned out that I was back at the trail entrance and I was still surprised. I kept running and people told me I was almost there. 

Finish line - Got the medal. I finished under 4 hours, which was kinda surprising to me. I thought the race would take me about 4-5 hours to finish. It was very fun and scenic (even though I did not look up much). The finish area had some food (chili and cornbread) for runners. They also had hoses to rinse off the mud and dry towels provided by the hotel. 

These are pictures of the aid station. A lot of food and drink!

The medal

Thank to our friend who booked the hotel. We got to stay at the race hotel and did not have to commute. I came back to the hotel room, showered, and went back to get the chili. Drank some beer and wine, and chat with the group before we went to dinner. Left Lutsen, MN on Sunday morning and drove back to Eau Claire. It was a really nice runcation with great people. They all are motivated runners and love to run. I couldn't have asked for more.