avondale
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Hurt the Dirt Trail Marathon, April 22, 2023 - near Grand Rapids, MI
Yay! This marathon turned out very well for me: 6:01:34!
The marathon was held in Luton Park, a county park a little northeast of Grand Rapids. The marathon is 4 laps of a 6.55-mi course. They also offer races of half-marathon and quarter-marathon. There were 73 marathoners, about 150 half-marathoners, and almost 200 quarter-marathoners.
Since I was a marathoner, I was allowed to park right at the starting area - non-marathoners had to park at another lot and use the shuttle bus. I got there a little before 6:00am for the 7:00am marathon start. Got my bib, race shirt, and socks (in lieu of finisher's medal). The nice thing about small races - there were four real bathrooms! Plus port-a-potties. Used them three times (!) before the race.
The start times were:
The crucial thing for me was that if I didn't start my 4th lap by 4 hours and 30 minutes after starting (chip time), then I wouldn't be allowed to continue. I knew that was going to potentially be close for me, so I really kept an eye on my pace: 13:45 per mile would get me there on time.
The course is very pretty. It's mostly single track with dirt, roots, and some rocks. The surface is not very technical, and the hills are low and rolling. This was what I wanted when I chose the race.
Within the first mile or so, we all got sorted out by pace, and I'm pretty sure I fell back to last place - I definitely did not go out overly fast due to excitement. I walked the longer/steeper uphill parts, like I had done on training runs. The first six miles went just as planned: 12:42, 13:35, 13:42, 13:40, 13:30, 13:08.
Unfortunately during the first six miles, I realized that I really need to pee again (!). With the loop course, the only port-a-potties are at the start. So when I got back there, just a couple of minutes before 1.5 hours, I had to run out for a pit stop. Grrrr. Apparently I need to stop drinking more than 2 hours before a race to make sure it all gets through me. (I had gotten up at 4:30am and immediately had breakfast, finished by 5am.)
But even more unfortunately, this delayed me so that I ended up getting back on the course in between waves of quarter-marathoners. So I ended up getting passed by nearly 200 people, spread out over a couple of miles. Some of the trail is a little wider, but all the passing definitely slowed me down when I had to walk more on a "berm" along the trail. It was also just really frustrating. Eventually I also started to get passed by the half-marathoners. Even so, my splits were still on target: 13:39, 12:56, 13:53, 13:38, 13:25, 13:44, 13:43. It was interesting to see that I managed to make up the pit stop time somehow, because I didn't pause my watch since it was a race.
After the second loop, a half-marathon was completed, and I took advantage of the drop bag next to the course at the start. I had two 0.5-L water flasks that I had finished and traded them out for two replacements. These were plain water; I had a 1.5-L reservoir in my hydration vest that was water + Nuun. I generally alternated drinking from them.
The third loop was where I was really starting to feel things. My lower back was the most unhappy, and then my hamstrings. But I kept on pace in order to make the 4.5-hr cut-off. My splits were 13:35, 13:51, 14:03, 13:50, 14:05, 13:56. A little slower, but I knew I was still on schedule for the cut-off. The course was very well-marked about which trails to use. They also very nicely marked the miles at the integer miles for the first loop, with smaller print giving what the mileage was for the successive loops. My GPS was generally about 0.2 miles behind - odd that it didn't accumulate to be more different.
Once I completed the third loop with clearance to finish the fourth loop, I was golden: they said they would give runners 2 hr 15 min for the last loop. I could in principle walk the rest in. I was really hurting - not sure that I was truly happy that I made the cut-off, LOL, and so I did slow it down a bit. I was also unsure if I was still in last place for the marathon (and thus last runner on the course) or not. I had passed a couple marathoners, but then didn't see them again, so I don't know if they were able to do the fourth loop.
My splits for the first few miles were 13:27, 14:12, 15:13, 15:44. Somewhere in the last mile or two, I started to see a marathoner ahead of me that I might be able to pass. It was hard to tell since there were so many switchbacks and turns in the course. But, yes, I was catching up with her. Somehow this gave me a bit of a second wind. I got the last couple of miles in 15:27, 14:38, 14:10, and for the nubbin, 12:41.
My official chip time was 6:01:34 - I didn't quite make the 6-hr goal they were looking for for marathoners, but I was very happy with the time. I finished in 57th place out of 66 marathoners who finished. My loop splits according to the chip were 1:27:56, 1:28:31, 1:30:21, 1:36:12 (my potty stop would have been counted in the second loop). I was 18th out of 23 female marathoners. My Garmin (corrected on the website) says I got 1819 ft of elevation gain.
I placed in my age group because there were only three women in the 45-49 age group! LOL But this was a little odd. My chip time put me in second place, but they awarded me third place. Another woman in my age group started the race early (this was allowed upon request if runners thought they might not make the cut-off), and so she crossed the finish line ahead of me, but her chip time was slower than me. Oh, well. I didn't make a fuss because it's kind of silly to worry about when I got the medal essentially for showing up.
The fastest man finished in 2:55:08 - he passed me twice, and he was really moving! The fastest woman finished in 4:18:46. I'm sure she passed me, too, but she didn't stand out to me, apparently.
When I finished, my Garmin hadn't gotten quite to 26.2 miles - and I wanted the darn marathon badge - so I walked in the parking lot to finish it out. They did still have a reasonable amount of food left, but I don't really feel like eating heavy food (pulled pork sandwiches, some deli sides, etc.) after a long race. I got a banana, some trail mix, and a bunch of Oreos.
Then I sat in my rental car with the heat way up and in my sweat suit to warm up and eat the snacks. The race folks did really pack up things pretty quickly after that, but I give them credit for sticking around for us few racers at the tail end. It was also pretty cool that with so few runners and with us all spread out, every time we finished a loop, they called our names over the loudspeaker.
I've done five road marathons before this trail marathon, and this race definitely wiped me out in a different way. First, four of my five road marathons ended up being in unseasonably hot and humid weather, so the high T+D just killed me. Hence why I chose this race - very likely to be in conditions I like. So, I didn't get worn out in that way - in fact, by the time I finished the race, I really had to pee again - I did not sweat like a pig like usual. My HR also did not get all that high - the average was 146 BPM, which is on the low end of my long run zone. But my breathing was tough - although I wasn't ever really panting in the race, I feel like I lost "depth" in breathing. Around the beginning of my fourth loop, I made a joke to a volunteer as I passed, and my laugh almost turned into a huge coughing fit. I've never been asthmatic, but it was something that was a thing in the last loop and for a couple hours after the race. But probably the biggest issue was that my legs and the rest of my muscles were getting so, so tired and just hurt. My longest training trail run was 18 miles, and I think that showed a bit.
With all that said, I consider this race a huge success. I feel like it validated my training plan and also my strategy to seek a race where the T+D would be in what I consider an acceptable range: up to about 90ish. I had originally hoped to go for a 50k in December or January, but given how hard this race was, I'm wondering if I need to try another marathon first. I will have to think about it, since I would potentially have a lot of training time.
I would recommend this trail race - the marathon or the shorter distances. The course is very nice and for trail races, it's pretty flat and not technical. The organizers mark the course very well. There are also race volunteers all over, cheering on the racers. The aid stations seemed well-stocked (although I didn't use them), and there was a lot of food post-race. The only part that bothered me was the passing by shorter-distance runners, but I'm not sure what they could do about this. If they started the marathon last, then they are committing the volunteers and services (like medical) to be there for longer, or they would have to pick a tighter course cut-off.
For my notes, to summarize my fueling: I took 1.5 L of water+Nuun and finished most of it. I took 2 L of plain water and finished almost all of it. I ate three Honey Stinger waffles and two sleeves of GU Chews. I had brought a serving of Swedish Fish with me, but ended up not eating them because it was cold enough that they would have been hard to eat. On the plus side, the cold air temperature kept all of my water at a good temperature!
I may think of more things that I want to record and add to this later.
Some photos!
Yay! This marathon turned out very well for me: 6:01:34!
The marathon was held in Luton Park, a county park a little northeast of Grand Rapids. The marathon is 4 laps of a 6.55-mi course. They also offer races of half-marathon and quarter-marathon. There were 73 marathoners, about 150 half-marathoners, and almost 200 quarter-marathoners.
Since I was a marathoner, I was allowed to park right at the starting area - non-marathoners had to park at another lot and use the shuttle bus. I got there a little before 6:00am for the 7:00am marathon start. Got my bib, race shirt, and socks (in lieu of finisher's medal). The nice thing about small races - there were four real bathrooms! Plus port-a-potties. Used them three times (!) before the race.
The start times were:
- 7:00am marathon
- 8:30am quarter-marathon
- 9:00am half-marathon
The crucial thing for me was that if I didn't start my 4th lap by 4 hours and 30 minutes after starting (chip time), then I wouldn't be allowed to continue. I knew that was going to potentially be close for me, so I really kept an eye on my pace: 13:45 per mile would get me there on time.
The course is very pretty. It's mostly single track with dirt, roots, and some rocks. The surface is not very technical, and the hills are low and rolling. This was what I wanted when I chose the race.
Within the first mile or so, we all got sorted out by pace, and I'm pretty sure I fell back to last place - I definitely did not go out overly fast due to excitement. I walked the longer/steeper uphill parts, like I had done on training runs. The first six miles went just as planned: 12:42, 13:35, 13:42, 13:40, 13:30, 13:08.
Unfortunately during the first six miles, I realized that I really need to pee again (!). With the loop course, the only port-a-potties are at the start. So when I got back there, just a couple of minutes before 1.5 hours, I had to run out for a pit stop. Grrrr. Apparently I need to stop drinking more than 2 hours before a race to make sure it all gets through me. (I had gotten up at 4:30am and immediately had breakfast, finished by 5am.)
But even more unfortunately, this delayed me so that I ended up getting back on the course in between waves of quarter-marathoners. So I ended up getting passed by nearly 200 people, spread out over a couple of miles. Some of the trail is a little wider, but all the passing definitely slowed me down when I had to walk more on a "berm" along the trail. It was also just really frustrating. Eventually I also started to get passed by the half-marathoners. Even so, my splits were still on target: 13:39, 12:56, 13:53, 13:38, 13:25, 13:44, 13:43. It was interesting to see that I managed to make up the pit stop time somehow, because I didn't pause my watch since it was a race.
After the second loop, a half-marathon was completed, and I took advantage of the drop bag next to the course at the start. I had two 0.5-L water flasks that I had finished and traded them out for two replacements. These were plain water; I had a 1.5-L reservoir in my hydration vest that was water + Nuun. I generally alternated drinking from them.
The third loop was where I was really starting to feel things. My lower back was the most unhappy, and then my hamstrings. But I kept on pace in order to make the 4.5-hr cut-off. My splits were 13:35, 13:51, 14:03, 13:50, 14:05, 13:56. A little slower, but I knew I was still on schedule for the cut-off. The course was very well-marked about which trails to use. They also very nicely marked the miles at the integer miles for the first loop, with smaller print giving what the mileage was for the successive loops. My GPS was generally about 0.2 miles behind - odd that it didn't accumulate to be more different.
Once I completed the third loop with clearance to finish the fourth loop, I was golden: they said they would give runners 2 hr 15 min for the last loop. I could in principle walk the rest in. I was really hurting - not sure that I was truly happy that I made the cut-off, LOL, and so I did slow it down a bit. I was also unsure if I was still in last place for the marathon (and thus last runner on the course) or not. I had passed a couple marathoners, but then didn't see them again, so I don't know if they were able to do the fourth loop.
My splits for the first few miles were 13:27, 14:12, 15:13, 15:44. Somewhere in the last mile or two, I started to see a marathoner ahead of me that I might be able to pass. It was hard to tell since there were so many switchbacks and turns in the course. But, yes, I was catching up with her. Somehow this gave me a bit of a second wind. I got the last couple of miles in 15:27, 14:38, 14:10, and for the nubbin, 12:41.
My official chip time was 6:01:34 - I didn't quite make the 6-hr goal they were looking for for marathoners, but I was very happy with the time. I finished in 57th place out of 66 marathoners who finished. My loop splits according to the chip were 1:27:56, 1:28:31, 1:30:21, 1:36:12 (my potty stop would have been counted in the second loop). I was 18th out of 23 female marathoners. My Garmin (corrected on the website) says I got 1819 ft of elevation gain.
I placed in my age group because there were only three women in the 45-49 age group! LOL But this was a little odd. My chip time put me in second place, but they awarded me third place. Another woman in my age group started the race early (this was allowed upon request if runners thought they might not make the cut-off), and so she crossed the finish line ahead of me, but her chip time was slower than me. Oh, well. I didn't make a fuss because it's kind of silly to worry about when I got the medal essentially for showing up.
The fastest man finished in 2:55:08 - he passed me twice, and he was really moving! The fastest woman finished in 4:18:46. I'm sure she passed me, too, but she didn't stand out to me, apparently.
When I finished, my Garmin hadn't gotten quite to 26.2 miles - and I wanted the darn marathon badge - so I walked in the parking lot to finish it out. They did still have a reasonable amount of food left, but I don't really feel like eating heavy food (pulled pork sandwiches, some deli sides, etc.) after a long race. I got a banana, some trail mix, and a bunch of Oreos.
Then I sat in my rental car with the heat way up and in my sweat suit to warm up and eat the snacks. The race folks did really pack up things pretty quickly after that, but I give them credit for sticking around for us few racers at the tail end. It was also pretty cool that with so few runners and with us all spread out, every time we finished a loop, they called our names over the loudspeaker.I've done five road marathons before this trail marathon, and this race definitely wiped me out in a different way. First, four of my five road marathons ended up being in unseasonably hot and humid weather, so the high T+D just killed me. Hence why I chose this race - very likely to be in conditions I like. So, I didn't get worn out in that way - in fact, by the time I finished the race, I really had to pee again - I did not sweat like a pig like usual. My HR also did not get all that high - the average was 146 BPM, which is on the low end of my long run zone. But my breathing was tough - although I wasn't ever really panting in the race, I feel like I lost "depth" in breathing. Around the beginning of my fourth loop, I made a joke to a volunteer as I passed, and my laugh almost turned into a huge coughing fit. I've never been asthmatic, but it was something that was a thing in the last loop and for a couple hours after the race. But probably the biggest issue was that my legs and the rest of my muscles were getting so, so tired and just hurt. My longest training trail run was 18 miles, and I think that showed a bit.
With all that said, I consider this race a huge success. I feel like it validated my training plan and also my strategy to seek a race where the T+D would be in what I consider an acceptable range: up to about 90ish. I had originally hoped to go for a 50k in December or January, but given how hard this race was, I'm wondering if I need to try another marathon first. I will have to think about it, since I would potentially have a lot of training time.
I would recommend this trail race - the marathon or the shorter distances. The course is very nice and for trail races, it's pretty flat and not technical. The organizers mark the course very well. There are also race volunteers all over, cheering on the racers. The aid stations seemed well-stocked (although I didn't use them), and there was a lot of food post-race. The only part that bothered me was the passing by shorter-distance runners, but I'm not sure what they could do about this. If they started the marathon last, then they are committing the volunteers and services (like medical) to be there for longer, or they would have to pick a tighter course cut-off.
For my notes, to summarize my fueling: I took 1.5 L of water+Nuun and finished most of it. I took 2 L of plain water and finished almost all of it. I ate three Honey Stinger waffles and two sleeves of GU Chews. I had brought a serving of Swedish Fish with me, but ended up not eating them because it was cold enough that they would have been hard to eat. On the plus side, the cold air temperature kept all of my water at a good temperature!
I may think of more things that I want to record and add to this later.
Some photos!
