URINEO 50

The URINEO (Ultra Runners In NorthEast Ohio) 50 was yesterday in Mill Creek Park over near Youngstown, OH. It is pronounced yer-een-o, but you can rest assured that we all make countless references to the word urine in the title when referring to and running this event. Anyone can come out and run the course which is an 8.33 mile loop through the park, consisting of mostly trail and a few short sections of pavement to connect the sides of the park. It is a very challenging course, even in good weather, and yesterday was NOT good weather.

I had run in the park once before, doing about 12 miles with Brian, and I don't think I gave the trails there due when considering how hard yesterday might be. There is a section of trails in there called the "Monkey Trail" which go up and down the steep hillsides and slow you down to a crawl going up or down.

Although Slim Jim, Gombu, and Mike Dobies started out at 5 am and got a loop in before the rest of us arrived, we all started at 7 am. Gombu was the starter and got us going even a few minutes early by my watch. The format is that you run the same loop each time, but in opposite directions. So when you come in off of loop 1, you turn around and head back out the way you just came from. The pack all started off together, which I thought was a good thing, because I wasn't totally certain of the trail, even though I ran there once before a few months back.

In the starting pack there was Josh D, Gombu, Moose (Joe N.), Frank Dwyer, Kimba, Rita Barnes, Dan Fox, Pebble, Jeff Musick and myself. I may have missed some if I forgot, or didn't know them. My pledge was to run with Kimba all day because she didn't want to run the last loop alone in the dark near Youngstown. That suits me just fine. Who could argue the chance to spend 12 hours in the presence of the Trail Goddess? After around a mile or two we were doing our thing and some of the rest of the pack was pulling away from us and I made some kind of comment about watching them to make sure we didn't get lost, when Kimba says "I know the way Mike, I have run out here lots of times before." DUH! I forgot that Kim has run this event before as well as the YUT-C 50k which is on the same course mostly. So it is back to the familiar routine where Kim knows where we are going and I just follow along. She is my compass on the trail.

We came upon a sight on the trail I don't think I have ever seen before. A sapcicle. Hanging out from a tree root was this icicle shaped formation of frozen sap. The first person to correctly identify the point on the loop where the below picture was taken gets 4 points.

Sapcicle

The trails were mostly clear at the start of the day and though leaf covered we found our way. The ground underneath could be slippery as it was still a little wet, but not too bad. I was keeping track of my urinations and Kim's falls during the day. During the first three loops Kim fell twice. I peed 7 times. I carried one water bottle during the day. During the first loop I only drank half of it, so I thought it was going to be plenty. During the second loop I left with only the half remaining in the bottle and went through it pretty quickly, running the last few miles of loop 2 with no water. Loops 3 and 4 I left with full bottles and drank the entire bottle before the loops ended. We ended up running only 4 loops for 33.33 miles, as did most folks out there. The only ones I know of who ran 50 are Slim Jim and Dave Peterman, although there may be others that I don't know of yet.

The blue finger

Sometime during the first loop I noticed a solitary blue glove lying on the ground. I left it alone and when I came back around on loop 2, someone had moved it to the other side of the trail, but still on the ground. I decided to stick it on a branch so it would be at eye level and someone might see it. As we ran away, Kim commented that she would have thought I would put in "finger" mode, and since it was stiff and frozen, and I can't disappoint the Goddess, I ran back and complied. I warned most of the runners we saw over the next loop to watch for the "blue finger." Most people just laughed and said OK, not knowing what the heck I was talking about.

The Love Log

On the Monkey Trails section of the park (don't look for it on a map, it is named by the NEO runners and not the parks) there is an obstacle aptly named the "Love Log." I really love the imagination of these runners. The name comes from the fact that this log (fallen tree) is so large that in order to pass it you more or less have to make love to it in the process. Above is Kim in carnal connection with said log.

Another fine quality of the NEO trail group is the turkey calls and of course my "Whoo-de-whoos." This course takes you up and down each side of a lake and connecting river, so from time to time, if you were paying attention, you could see the runners on the other side. If you weren't paying attention, they probably were and from out of nowhere you would hear the turkey call of "Bok-Bok-Bok!" or if it was me you might hear "Whoo-do-whoo!" It was kind of fun to share these moments across the water with the other runners.

The scenery today was just great. Every so often you would see something new. For me, I finally started looking around the park and seeing some of it's beauty. The first few times you run a trail you are so focused on where you are going that you don't see all that is there.

Mushroom Party

Icicle hanging off a clump of grass (Kim thought it looked like a "twig and berries.")

When we finished loop 3 and came into the cars there was still no snow in the air. Kim intended on going home and beating the weather. I was encouraging her to just do 5 loops around the Lily pond (400m each) and get a marathon distance in - shoot I was thinking that I would prefer to do that myself, but I was stubborn and wanted another ultra finish. Gombu was pushing her to do more, whatever it was, because she got into the Massanutten 100 race which is a killer race, and he wants to see her succeed. In the end, over the delicious hot soup that Gombu made us, Kim buckled to our peer pressure and agreed to do another entire loop with me for a 50k + finish of 33.33 miles. The soup was very hot, but before we could finish our cup, there were snowflakes descending into our cups to cool them.

As we started out on loop 4, the Lily pond, which had a thin coat of ice on it, was already white from the snowfall. One mile into loop 4, the entire world was white and the placid silence of winter weather had fallen onto Mill Creek Park. The snow would continue unabated for most of the loop and turn the scenery more and more magical. In the direction we were going on this loop, the Monkey Trails were on the far end of the loop, so we knew they were going to be treacherous by the time we arrived.

The Mill of Mill Creek Park.

Me close to the Mill

There is somewhat of a tradition at the URINEO 50 to write one's name in the snow, and this is something that I didn't think I would get to do until the snow started in earnest. I saved up ink and when I found a good clear sheet of snowpaper, I commenced writing. I was pretty sure I didn't have enough ink for Michael, so I stuck with Mike.

I would ask for the comments of any handwriting experts, but this wasn't exactly written by "hand."

As we got onto the eastern side of trails, about halfway through our loop 4, we ran into Dave Peterman (Faceplant by nickname) as he was midway through his 5th loop, he is a fast runner. He had run with Kim and I through about a mile or two of our loop 1 as he arrived just a little late to the start and caught up to us a few miles in. Since we were going in opposite directions we got to use his footprints in the snow for a mile or so to identify the trail. After that they were snowed over. On the last snowy loop, Kimba went down an addition 5 times for a total of 7 on the day!

Kimba and Faceplant

The Goddess makes an Angel.

Me in the homestretch, about one half mile from being done.

Done and deliriously happy, does it show?

Next year, if I plan on running the 5o miles, I think I will do the 5 am start regardless of the weather forecast, so I can finish at a decent hour.

We knew that Josh and Opod were running together for some of loop 4 and the last time we saw them they said they were going to run 4 loops or 5 loops total but didn't want to run in the dark AND the snow. When Kim and I finally came into the parking lot after 10 hours and 32 minutes on our feet, Josh and Opod were already waiting in the car all warmed up. We all said our quick goodbyes and set out to challenge the last trail; the snowy, icy road driving home.

Last trivia question of today's blog; ZZ top was on the trails today, and I got a shot. Did anyone see it? Identify the location of ZZ top for 9 points.

Lastly, on the topic of a double ultra marathon weekend; I elected to stay home with the family today because I have to go to work flying Monday and won't be home until Christmas Eve. I need to spend more time with them (for me, not for them, no one was complaining...) The good news is that the slow pace of yesterday left me with very little soreness even though I covered 33+ miles and was on my feet for 10.5 hours. If I had chosen to tag along with Josh down to Columbus and run the 50k, I am sure I would be fine, so although I am not getting the extra training and time on my feet, I know I could do it, and that is enough for now. I look forward to Josh's reports of the URINEO run and the Festivus 50k that he is running as I type this.