Thursday, July 9, 2009

Dances with Dirt Devil's Lake Marathon (#10)... Race RUNdown

This weekend will be the start to my summer marathon series!!! What's big about THIS race? There's always something isn't there?...

1. This will be my 10th state! I can officially join the 50 State Marathon Club upon completion of my 10th state!
2. This will be my FIRST trail marathon (yikes)... I MAY get eaten by a bear!
3. There will be 2 ultra-trail marathons going on at the same time- I've never seen an ultra so this will be a good opportunity... to get me hooked on something else (yikes)
4. I've never been to Wisconsin!!! There are brats and cheese after!!! Yum.

The RUNdown #10 Dances with Dirt Devil's Lake Marathon
When: Saturday July 11, 2009
Where: Baraboo, WI
2008 Field: Was RAINED out!
2008 Avg. Finish Time: DNE
Anticipated Field: Currently there are 28 people signed up for the full marathon,
...Females: 10
...Age Group: 2
Weather: It looks like rain the day before (lovely, the trails will be a mud pit!). By Saturday it will be clear and about 64 degrees. Being in a trail, I hope the sun will be a little less intense than usualy. But, I'm a little worried about the day of rain prior to the race as it got rained OUT last year!
Course: Ummm ... I think "Scary" is the only word that comes to mind, thus the reason for 28 entrants! You can see the elevation chart below, but this is a series of VERY large steep hills. I may or may not be rolling DOWN the mountain in my last mile... BTW they also sent us a packet with a detailed description of each "leg" of the course. It's intense, but I'll just have to look at it as a good hill workout!









Race 411:
~The Course... Crazy! And it's a single track so I'm hoping to just stay out of the way of the really good trail runners.
~The Hosts: Dances with Dirt is actually a series of a couple trail marathons & ultras. Since they have so much experience I expect a lot out of the race!
~Atmosphere: Dances with Dirt is nothing short of UNUSUAL! The head of the race is called the "head goat" and the language they use throughout their website screams nothing short of a relaxed free-for all type of a race! The volunteers are "mud critters" and I'm pretty sure the word "yo" is used more frequently than a 16-year old boy! ... Sounds like my kind of people!

Race Plan:
Don't get eaten by a bear and don't fall off any large hills. Besides that I HOPE to get under 4:15 for my first TRAIL marathon. This is a little over a half hour SLOWER than my road marathons. I think this half hour gap is necessary for my first trail, especially a trail course this wild!
I'll try to post tomorrow night when I get into WI... wish me luck and hope I don't get eaten by a bear!

5 comments:

  1. Am I brain-dead or are you saying you plan to run the trail a half-hour FASTER than your road courses?

    My plan? 9 hard legs + 2 bad knees (yes, now the right hurts, too) = plan for an hour per leg, but pray for 45 minutes per leg.

    Are you planning on wearing gaiters? I don't have any, but I'm looking for a Madison, WI running store that sells them.

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  2. Phew, you got me there! I changed it and NO, I meant 30 min SLOWER. This isn't a suicide mission! Although... the bears MAY think otherwise!

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  3. As for the gaiters... prior to this moment when I thought of gaiters and running I thought of the things to wear to make your neck warm. Wellll... Ilooked up these trail "gaiters" and HAHAH-- NO! I will NOT be wearing those. I know, I know Ill regret it, especially with my affinity to poison ivy- OH WELL!!!

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  4. Spray for bugs!!!! you wouldnt think but that is BIG! Dont push yourself, go with the trail dont fight it, my 1/2 marathons on trails are 35 mins longer then on roads so it might be obtainable but they didnt have hills like that, good luck call me when you are done...Only 28 people?

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  5. Hey Stephanie! Thanks so much for participating in the giveaway and including a pretty little link! :)

    Good luck on this CRAZY race tomorrow.

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