Here is an article I wrote that appeared in the Second Wind Running Club newsletter about the Pere Marquette Endurance Trail Run near Grafton, Illinois, on December 11, 2010. One of the pleasures of running is The Road Trip. In this case, the road led to Pere Marquette State Park, near Grafton where a hilly trail race with crazy weather potential would take place. It could have been rain, sleet, snow, ice, mud, muck, or some combination. Race instructions read thusly: “We accept no Wimps or Whiners. Harsh penalties exist for anyone caught looking Wimpish or acting Whiner-like.”
Sometimes the road trip participants are a result of the domino effect. Someone gets the bright idea to do the race, talks someone else into it, and the armtwisting goes down the line, with the added pressure of entering before the race fills up. That’s what happened in the case of the Pere Marquette Endurance Trail Run, a 7.5-miler touted by its organizers as the Midwest’s “most grueling race.” Hard to say if that’s truly the case, but on December 11, 2010, it had to be the muddiest.
Seven Second Wind road trippers did the club proud, most notably Ellen Ehrhart, who won her age group (1:19:34). Chris Byron, Tony Suttle, Lindsay Spangler, Bill and Becky Dey, and I all ran well and vowed to return next year. This year’s race filled up in a record 10 hours and 21 minutes. “Pere Marquette is a really fun event, and I’d recommend it without reservation,” said Tony. “If you decide to run it, don’t hesitate to enter or you’ll be sitting on the sidelines.”
Lindsay almost didn’t make it into the race. By the time she signed up, it was full. Getting on the waiting list paid off. “I got into the race, so I exceeded my expectations,” she said. “I love mud, and it was a great road trip with the Buffalo.”
Pere Marquette is Illinois’s largest state park. It lies in an historic area along the Illinois River, close to its confluence with the Mississippi, and boasts scenic vistas of the two rivers amidst pretty woodlands, rock outcroppings and limestone bluffs. The course is a short line before becoming a loop, so that the first mile and a half is run both at the beginning and end of the race.
“Becky and I had run this race in 1998 and 1999,” said Bill. “In 2000 I started running ultras and had less time for shorter races. When Ellen and Don (Frichtl) told me about running the race last year, I recalled how challenging and fun it was. Both times I had run the course, it was either dry or frozen. The amount of mud this year was a big surprise and added additional levels of fun.”Ellen ran it for the first time last year. “It was very cold,” she recalled. “The ground was frozen, which actually made the course fairly fast. With the mud this year, most times were slower as people lost time from sliding side-to-side and even backwards in some areas.” Her time was about seven minutes slower this year than last. Indeed, in the race’s 22 years, the 506 runners who finished posted the slowest average ever (1:40:54).
Race day began with packet pickup in the park’s lodge—a massive, historic, log-festooned structure built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. A live bluegrass band added to the festive pre-race atmosphere. According to Ellen, the race is one of the best organized—from registration, training runs (she and Chris did one), and waitlist transfers, to results, awards, and post-race refreshments. The variety of cookies was staggering.
The trail starts innocently enough for the first mile before climbing. The hills could be steep and painfully long. Ellen pointed out, however, that the hills were never steep in the way that it hurts your knees to run downhill because you are trying to brace continuously to keep yourself from falling forward. “Both Clinton and Forest Glen have a few short but steep downhills that make it a little difficult to run,” she said, “and McNaughton also has some short steep ones that are murder on your knees in muddy conditions. The downhills at Pere Marquette are quite runnable in comparison.”
The course oozed with ankle-deep, Illinois River gumbo mud. Mercifully, there were enough flat sections and some gravel and leaves to provide some mud relief and to help you feel that you were really running rather than clomping, slogging, or zombie-walking. Plunging headlong downhill in the mud with full commitment separated seasoned trail runners from everyone else. “I like mud!” said Bill. “The combination of mud and steep ascents and descents made for tons of fun.”
Eyes keenly focused on the next footfall to minimize the extent of the inevitable slo-mo mud slide. Being socked in by the weather meant that any vistas would have gone unviewed anyway. The fine-textured soil made the mud very slippery, and the rainfall the night before as well as the drizzle throughout the day kept it that way. Temperatures in the mid-30s were comfortable. Some wore shorts, some didn’t. It would have been a great opportunity to film a Tide commercial. Held only a day later, it would have been a great opportunity to film a horror movie as temperatures plummeted into single digits, with blizzard conditions a little further north.
Thanks to a wave start, in which runners were dispatched in groups every 30 seconds, there was usually plenty of room for the arm-flailing necessary to maintain one’s balance. “The seeded/staggered start is fairly unique for trail runs,” Bill stated. “It did help to somewhat minimize congestion on the trail.” The wave start was one of Ellen’s favorite things, too. “It was hard to see the other runners from my wave take off running up the first hill,” she said, “but I decided before the race to keep my breathing in check and power walk. It paid off for me because I caught some of the people in my wave within the first mile, some in the third mile, and even a couple in the sixth mile. Of course, I was passed by many who started in later waves, including Byroni, but I felt like I ran my own race and enjoyed every step.”
Whoa-inducing skids were the order of the day. “A highlight this year,” said Ellen, “was the group of hecklers at the very top of the first hill where the mud was the worst with slippery clay. This part of the course is also the last downhill so the hecklers were there to encourage the runners to ‘go for it’ as they slid down this hill. I didn’t fall, but I think those who did received some extra hearty cheers.” (Yes, Virginia, there is online video, here and here.)“All the additional running really helped,” Tony said, referring to the increased mileage and hill work he’d been putting in since retiring last summer. “Who would have thought that running more would make you a better runner? I usually set the bar pretty low on expectations, but I have to say, this time they were not only met but exceeded.”
A brutal flight of stone stairs,the kind you’d expect in Dracula’s castle, cruelly awaited at mile 6. If you didn’t have enough energy in reserve, it was here that you withered. The trail later descended into a gnarly slot between two boulders, which made their first appearance on the way up at around mile 1. After that, it was smooth sailing to the finish line. “My time wasn’t very good, but I placed fifth in my age group,” said Lindsay, “and I was able to make good progress considering I was in the last wave, and the course was pretty eaten up by the time I started. I also didn’t fall, which was a huge accomplishment.”
Among the mud-caked finishers, no wimpish or whiner-like behavior was to be seen. There was a little fishpond near the finish in which runners could wallow and rinse off before heading up to the post-race party inside the lodge. Speaking of parties, registration for next year’s race starts at midnight September 1. Let’s have a sign-up party that night!
Note: The Pere Marquette Trail Run is an extremely popular race. Registration, capped at 650, filled in less than a day this year. You are encouraged to mark your calendar for September 1, 2011 (date that registration will open and close), and sign up to see what all the excitement is about. If you have run the race in the past, you will be put in a wave based on your last finish time. If you have not run the race, it is based on your 10k time, or best estimate. Also, if you sign up and your plans change you can transfer your bib number to someone on the waiting list. Therefore, you don’t lose your entry fee if your plans change before the cut-off day for transfers, and you may also help out a fellow runner. For additional info, visit www.teamgodzilla.org.
Photos:
Bill Dey, right, approaching the notch. Photo by Kate Geisen.
Becky Dey, photo by Lori Vohsen
Mud schmud. Age-group champ Ellen Ehrhart with Chris
Byron. Photo by Lindsay Spangler
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