Eugene Curnow Trail Marathon Race Notes

On Saturday, July 11th, 2015 I ran the Eugene Curnow Trail Marathon.

I drove up to Cloquet on Friday, the 10th and got checked into my hotel. Then I headed over to The Jack to watch my friend's band rehearse for a couple hours. We grabbed dinner afterward at a local Mexican place. I tried to be careful about what I ordered and ended up getting the fish tacos. They turned out to be the perfect choice - not too heavy or greasy and tasted great!

Shortly after dinner I headed back to my hotel and took some time to organize things for the morning. At this point, I didn't really feel race jitters. I was more concerned with oversleeping and missing the race altogether! I ended up setting five alarms on my phone and one on my computer. I watched a little TV and then called it a night. It wasn't the soundest sleep, but it felt good. I woke up with my first alarm at 3:20, snoozed once and hopped out of bed. Then I made some coffee and oatmeal to help wake up my body and started getting dressed. By 4:15, I was ready to roll. Since the hotel wouldn't do a checkout later than noon, I took everything with me and headed to Carlton.

Once I found a parking spot where I wouldn't get towed, I grabbed my hydration pack and drop bag and walked over to the Munger Trail parking lot - a couple blocks away. Not sure what to expect, I was pleased to see three school buses parked and waiting for runners. I got into the first one and found a seat. Not 30 seconds later, friends Stu and Jay climbed aboard and sat immediately behind me. I spent the next 30 minutes or so catching up with the guys and gleaning any helpful tips that I could. The guy I shared my seat with had run the Curnow 12 times and told me that if I remember nothing else to "pick your feet up". That seemed reasonable.

Once we arrived at the race start next door to the Duluth Zoo, we grabbed a picnic table, signed in at the registration table and met up with the rest of our crew. It was great seeing so many friends both old and new. After sharing some bug spray and taking care of a few last minute items, we were ready to go. The trail from the start is nice and wide and brings you up to the top of Spirit Mountain in what seemed to me to be a nice, gradual ascent. The view from there was great!

After reaching the top of Spirit Mountain, we ran some rolling hills and down into a valley and out again a couple of times. My memory of this part of the course is a little fuzzy for some reason. Probably due to the time Jay and I spent catching up along the way. It's funny how much can happen in the timespan of twenty-five years! We had plenty of talking to do. I do recall that I was working hard to stay on top of my pace and felt pretty good holding tight between 12-13 minutes/mile. This might seem like a pretty slow pace, but it was intentional as I knew what was ahead. During a larger chunk of this time we were on a large loop that brought us to the Seven Bridges AS. Leading up to this point, I had grazed at the aid stations and refilled my hydration bladder at every other. As we would be heading onto the power lines soon after this AS, I made sure to fill my pack again and topped it off with ice. I also ate some salted watermelon, bananas and chips and swigged it down with PowerAid and ginger ale.

After reading as much as I could about the power lines, I ultimately was not surprised by anything I found. The first hill was quite muddy and steep, but after that the remaining ups and downs were fairly dry and I was able to keep my footing pretty well. Here's a shot of that first hill:

The power lines were tough. After climbing several more hills of varying length and grades, we headed into the woods for a bit and then hit Purgatory - a smaller section of power line with two very tough hills. After that we were brought into the Grand Portage AS where I took some time to refill the water bladder and eat some more fruit.

After refueling, I began a slow climb into Jay Cooke. I was at the tail end of a group of other runners that were hiking this section for the most part. During the uphills, I was fine hiking, but once it leveled off a bit, I decided to pass this group and continue on my way to the next aid station. While much of this section looked familiar from my training run on Father's Day, I was slightly confused as it seemed we were running the wrong direction. But I kept following the trail markers and signs and soon enough took a left and was led into Peterson's aid station. Of all the aid stations, I think this was one of my favorites. There was a group of about 30 spectators cheering each runner as they came in and the volunteers were tremendous as usual. I had decided to move through this one more efficiently so I could stay ahead of the folks I had passed. So I grabbed more salted watermelon, chips, ginger ale and coke, refilled by hydration pack and hit the trail.

Coming out of Peterson's the trail took me down into and out of Gill Creek. This was a pretty tough part of the course - not super technical, but the hills and switchbacks were draining. After that, the course went out onto the paved Munger Trail for a bit. While the smooth, level bike path was nice in some respects, it also felt hot and hard. I was glad to veer back onto dirt trail as I headed toward the Forbay AS. Coming into Forbay, I noticed a spectator with a funny grin on her face and realized that must be Jay's wife as she had 6 pb&j sandwiches in her hand. Jay had called ahead and requested these and I even asked for one for myself. So I introduced myself, grabbed a sandwich, thanked her and hit the tables. Jeff Rock was working this AS and snapping pics the whole while I was there. He also was very helpful, asking questions, recommending S-Caps (I took two) and offering general advice about what the remaining course was like. At one point during my stop at Forbay, I noticed swelling in both hands and showed Jeff my "sausage fingers". He told me to just keep clenching and unclenching my fists to keep the fluids moving.

I don't remember anything too specific about the trail leading out of Forbay, other than running across the new spillway built after the floods of 2012 destroyed the old one. It was very hot and dry running in this first portion of the trail out of the AS, but then we were back in the woods on the Carlton Trail (I believe) which led us along to the last aid station right before the famous swinging bridge.

After re-fueling and topping off my water I took off down the trail to tackle the last 3.4 miles to the finish. I snapped the picture above right before crossing the bridge. As I ran across, I realized with each step that I was making the bridge bounce slightly and it seemed to make some of the tourists uncomfortable. What can you do?

This last section of the race course was not especially hilly, but it made up for it with its rocks and roots. Normally, I might have tried running/hopping along on a trail like this, but in my fatigued state decided it would be much safer to power hike and keep my skull intact. The scenery in this section was beautiful as the trail wound along parallel to the St. Louis River. Besides the rocks and roots, there was one fun little rock ledge to cross and then some rocky steps to descend, but nothing too bad. As I left Forbay, I realized I had a shot at finishing under 7 hours, but by this point knew that wouldn't be the case. I kept chugging along and finally found some runnable trail which led me up to the Munger Trail again. At this point, I knew it wasn't far to the finish and ran into a couple runners that I had seen on the trail coming back to cheer their friends on. So I picked up the pace and was able to run in at a decent clip (decent after having run for 7 hours). It felt great to cross that finish line, have the Curnow medallion draped over my head and know that I was done.

Overall, I was really happy with how the race went. Leading up to the race, I was confident that I could run the distance, but not sure what the power lines and other hills would do to me. In the end, my plan to go easy during the early part of the race proved to be a good one. I was able to finish the race in a time that was faster than expected and I had no stomach issues whatsoever.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Eating real food was key to keeping my stomach happy. Salted watermelon (which I've never liked before), bananas and potato chips were my mainstays during the race. I also drank PowerAid, ginger ale, some coke and also water.
• At the Forbay AS, I took two S-Caps. I was a little apprehensive since I hadn't tried them before and didn't want anything to mess up my stomach, but it was so hot and I really wanted to avoid cramping. So I took them and had no problems either way.
• I ended up not using anything from my drop bag. I considered changing socks, but in the interest of time decided not to. In the end I had one small blister on one toe on my left foot. Other than that, my feet were in great shape afterwards thanks to the combo of my Hokas and SmartWool socks.

Pictures

The view from on top of Spirit Mountain

Running a ridgeline trail with dropoffs on both sides

Fond Du Lac AS with creek bed in the background

More Fond Du Lac AS

Power Lines!!!

On top of a power line trail

Going up a steep, muddy trail

Mud! I stepped in a deep hole with both feet. What can you do? I ran through the next creek that I encountered to rinse off a bit.

A long view of the power line trail.

Not sure what body of water this is. Was thinking Thomson Reservoir.

After the main power line section, you run through some woods and then...more power lines. The last two power line hills are known as Purgatory.

Game face

I was never so glad to see the swinging bridge. Can't be long now!

This last section was the rootiest, rockiest of any of the previous sections and made for slow going. I hiked most of it, ran when I felt I could do so safely and was able to run it in to the finish once the trail improved.

Ahhh, it felt good to sit down!

Finishers medallion

and, the shirt.