Earlier this week the wintery weather finally hit Bloomington, starting off with a days worth of rain and followed up by freezing temperatures and snow. I was expecting a nasty day for the Tecumseh Trail Marathon and luckily the weather was perfect, with a high of 50 degrees I think!
After my ill fated "birthday" run I resolved to rest until the race to be sure any lingering issues were gone with my feet / hip. I hoped that what I lost in fitness I would at least gain in being well rested and injury free for the marathon. I ended up getting sick right after Thanksgiving so still had a runny nose and cough going into the race, so I really wasn't sure how that might affect me.
With the lingering issues and sickness I probably could have skipped this race, but I registered a few months in advance and planned on this being my last event for a little while so I really wanted to run it. This race fills up fast and registration closes once 700 runners are entered, which might have been even before November this year.
These course maps got emailed to runners a few days ago. Basically this is a point to point run beginning from the Morgan Monroe State Forest (North of Bloomington) to Yellowwood Lake (East of Bloomington) following the first part of the Tecumseh Trail (replacing the tricky single-track on the Low Gap trail at the start with wide open fire road).
Race Start 10:00AM
Katie dropped my friend Alex Potter (running his birthday marathon . . 26 on his 26th!) and I off up at the Morgan Monroe park office so we didn't have to ride the buses up from the finish at Yellowwood. It was a little chilly but still great for December so I wore shorts, a technical shirt and arm warmers. Since the trail would be mostly dry I even skipped the trail shoes and wore the Nike Lunar Racer 2 road flat yet again. Katie stayed to watch the start before she had to leave.
The start was pretty low key, basically everyone just lined up about where they wanted to, with a pack of about 700 squeezing onto a small patch of road by the race office. I planned to attempt to run with Alex so we lined up together in the second row of runners behind the very front.
We started off running together, and a string of runners pretty quickly took off in front of us. I saw Scott Breeden's neon yellow jersey up around the front as he seemed to be pulling away for an early lead. Going from the second to third miles there looked to be an evenly spaced spread of around thirty runners in front of us. Alex had his GPS and we had been running around a 6:30 mile pace which was comfortable on the long flat or down hill fire road. I kept trying to push our pace since it felt good, and was ecstatic to feel no hint of any of my recovering injuries in my hip or feet. Alex wisely kept pulling back to try and keep me from pushing us too fast.
I started feeling a small twinge deep in my right hip, but tried to ignore it hoping that I was just manifesting a hyper awareness of that area since that was my major problem injury that lead me not to run the last two weeks.
Catching Up
Alex and I started bumping into packs of runners. I saw a few familiar faces and we hung with a pack of probably seven or eight runners for a while on some single track and on past Bear Lake at mile 4.5 till at least mile 7. It was somewhere around this time that I spotted Jim Kirkham's (another local runner that I always end up running into) unmistakeable red hair up ahead so I felt like I had to take off and catch him. I took off around the pack of guys, and threw in a likely foolish surge to make up the hundred meters or so still separating us.
I think Alex ignored this foolishness and kept an even pace. I ran with Jim for a while and kept trying to push downhills while taking quick small steps up hill. The pain in my hip kept growing but the running felt glorious so I couldn't help myself.
Falling Back
Somewhere around mile 10 my hip was really starting to hurt and tighten up. I also felt the lump on the bottom of my right foot come back. We hit the gravel up hill at Carmel Ridge Road and I think Alex and Jim both passed me around this time. There were a few others from the earlier pack that passed me and I tried to stay close despite the pain.
I kept everyone in reasonable distance through the next patch of trail. I was a little discouraged because I had been making great time up to this point and I sort of knew mentally that I was probably about to let my performance goals go. By the time we hit the gravel again at Lost Branch Road I let everyone go a little further ahead and my hip and foot got worse. The gravel really hurt the lump on my right foot so I tried to run in the grass on the side of the road.
As we crossed over SR 45 I totally lost sight of Jim and Alex. I hit the long gravel stretch climbing up "Indian Hill", the biggest hill of the race and definitely difficult to run by any standard. I saw Alex far up ahead power hiking up the very top of the hill. He looked back and gave a wave, I gave him two thumbs up back which I think I meant to indicate "good work / go fast / I will survive back here". There was a long string of suffering runners making their way up at this time. I was in pain and hiked all of it, and got passed by a few more runners along the way.
At the top, my hip was hurting with both a deep pain and a greater tightness. I leaned on a tree and tried to stretch out my hip but I'm not sure it helped any. I forced myself into a short stride but fast cadence run on what seemed like a lot more gravel road then I remembered. I got back onto trail and suffered through more slow running, slow climbs, and walking till the Plum Road aid station at 15.9 miles.
Vitamin I (15.9 Miles)
It was at this point I started to think logically and remember the obvious. I was hell bent on finishing, and obviously still had my lingering injuries I thought would be gone to contend with. If I was going to run through injury either way, I might as well enjoy it and be able to run a little faster. I had Ibuprofen with me so I took two, had a caffeinated GU and some Gatorade.
After twenty to thirty minutes of running I started to feel much better. The pain in my hip subsided, and I could no longer feel the bottom of my foot. I regretted not just popping the Ibuprofens at mile seven or eight. I started running faster, and over the following miles of enjoyable trail caught most of the runners I had let pass me up Indian Hill.
By the time I got to Prang Pond at 18.5 miles I was especially upbeat because I had run this piece of the trail many times and knew I could make up some time. I kept striding out on the downhills and tried not to worry about the wet feet and blistering I had from several stream crossings that could not be jumped.
Sick (22 Miles)
At around mile 22 I slowed back down a bit and started to feel extremely hot and a little dizzy. I took off my arm warmers and walked a little. I started to feel like I was going to throw up and my airways were full of dryer and more difficult to clear mucus. I had been making such good progress again so I was very disappointed to be slowing down but I felt extremely dehydrated. This was the downside of relying only on aid stations for hydration.
Yellowwood Lake (23 Miles)
At this point I found another aid station and finally could hydrate. I stopped, had five cups of Gatorade and some snacks and walked for about 50 meters. I knew I was close to the finish so I started running again. The trail around the lake was not terribly difficult but pretty technical with lots of zig zagging turns, roots, rocks, and muddy stream crossings.
I was only motivated to finish and knew I had spent way too much time recovering from problems to perform very well overall. I started looking at my watch and around 24.5 miles figured out that I might be very close to going over 4 hours if I didn't pick it up. I pushed hard and passed a few more runners, and came out on the gravel road with a mile left.
Finish
I ran the gravel road a little faster, and saw a familiar cyclist riding around the course up ahead. My friend Ryan rode down to me with a little under a mile left. Ryan knows me well and kept harassing me to run hard which was helpful. I reached the last gravel climb and switched to a hike to hopefully have a little left for a final surge the last half mile downhill.
I ran the last half mile much faster and kept at least a sub seven minute pace till the finish in the camp ground. There were plenty of people cheering and I was happy to see I had made it in just under 4 hours at 3:59:40.
3:59:40 / 48th of 700 Overall / 4th of 49 Age Group
I was happy to at least be able to run most of this race despite setbacks, and in near perfect weather conditions. The winner Peter Hogg ended up with course record of 2:58:00 and my friend Alex ran a great race coming in at 3:38:00 and 20th overall.
With 3500 feet of climbing and some tricky trails Tecumseh is a reasonably challenging course. On the other hand, there are plenty of fast miles and wide open fire trails that can be used to shave off plenty of time. I definitely will sign up for this race again next year, as I would like to be able to really race this course and see what I could do healthy and with better motivation. It also really is a beautiful course and there are so many local runners out there which makes it all the more enjoyable.
I also think it's safe to say two weeks off did not eliminate my nagging injuries, so I may not be running again until January. I'm glad this race is over.
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