Kettle 100

It is Monday morning and I am resting up from the Kettle 100 mile race last weekend. Let me start off and say that I finished in a good time (21:01) and I am pretty happy with that.

It was a crappy looking day, cloudy and cool and looking like rain in the afternoon and evening. Bad weather for anything but running. My wife, Geri and I had planned to camp out at Whitewater Lake the race weekend. We met up with Tom Schlaefer (my running buddy and pacer) and his partner, Cindy. Friday night was great and we had a fire, good food and company before turning in.
The morning came soon enough and the start was cool (low 50's?) and we all headed off. The Kettle 100 is basically two out and back loops. The first loop heads north to Scuppernong at 31 miles and the return makes the 100k course. The second loop is out again south to Rice Lake and back. The loop is mostly single track and since it is run at night my hope was to be able to get a piece of this in before dark.

My plan was the same as always: start reasonably (5 miles/hr), hydrate well and try to eat enough to keep my body moving. I headed out on towards Tamarack station along the roller coaster of hills. Since this section must be covered 4 times in 100 miles, I knew that the up and down hills would be a pain later in the race. The run up to Emma Carlin aid station went fairly well. I was keeping my pace and feeling a bit leg tired but still strong. After Emma Carlin you go through about 4 miles of open prairie and I felt pretty good and passed a few people there. The rain was still holding off and the thick overcast sky protected the runners from the sun. When I got closer to Scuppernong, I saw the 100k and 100 mile winners fighting it out along the single track. Wynn Davis was leading Zach Gingerich but I guess they fought it out over the first 100K. I met my crew (Geri, Tom and Cindy) and had some food at the turnaround and quickly headed out. I started having stomach problem at the next aid station. I think it was a coke and salty potato combination but I burped my way onward.

The rain started about 45 minutes out from the turnaround but it was not too bad. I noticed running through the prairie area that I was feeling more tired that I had hoped and my feet were getting wet from the wet grass but I caught up with Scott Meyers who I had run with about a 1/4 of the Ice Age 50 race 4 weeks ago. Scott was struggling a bit but he was still powering. At Emma Carlin, I saw my crew again (a bit of a surprise) but I was thankful as I could change my socks before heading out. The rest of the first loop back to Nordic passed uneventfully except for the last 5 miles from Tamarack through the rollercoaster which played a mind game on me as there were countdown mile signs which seemed to always took longer than I had hoped. I made it to the welcoming 100K finish at about 6:15PM and hooked up with Tom, changed my shirt and grabbed by headlamp and headed back out.

Tom and I pushed it pretty good for a while. I really wanted to get as much of the trail under my belt before dark which normally would have been around 9PM but because of the clouds would be around 8:30 (unless you were in the thick woods). We made it out to the open area before HW12 aid station around 9 and got in around 9:30 if I remember right. I downed a cup of soup and some crackers and about 50 feet from the station, everything came back up. I decided to head back and try to get something in my stomach so I grabbed a few more saltines and put a sandwich in my pocket and we headed out again. Its funny how you do feel better after barfing so we pushed on through the tough rocky section. This last 4 1/5 miles to Rice Lake is really three parts: the first rocky and hilly, the second pretty smooth and the last a rocky section with stairs down to the Rice Lake turnaround. We made it to Rice Lake around 10:30PM and after lounging around for a few minutes, headed back. It is a bit dreamlike to be running through the woods at night and seeing lighted runners approaching from the distance. Glow sticks at road intersections also added to the dream elements. There also seemed to be alto of moths that would light up in the glare of the headlamp and fly towards up. I will admit that this last bit was a bit of a plod. I tripped and fell a few times but I think that is normal.

I knew we were doing well because we saw runners coming towards us most of the way back. By the time we got to Duffin Road, I knew it was less than 10 miles to the finish. At Tamarack, it is only 5 miles to the end and even though it was the dreaded roller coaster, I knew That it was doable. We were still running the flats and downhills so I was surprised to be passed about 2 miles from the finish (turned out to be a 38 mile 'fun runner'). Anyway, the finish came soon enough. The crowd of 4 people cheered us in and Tim Yanacheck gave me my kettle and a surprise 2 place plaque in the Senior Masters division.

Anyway, that's the raw race report. It was a good run. It was well supported and my thanks go out to all the volunteers who made it possible for me and the other runners.

Now to deal with the soreness and pain.....