09 September 2014

Lapham Peak Trail Marathon Report

Lapham Peak is awesome.  The "Black Loop" is a beast.  I had a great morning down there again and look forward to returning next year...although during the 4th loop on Saturday, while playing mind games with myself, I decided that if I broke 3:30 on the day, I wouldn't come back.

I finished in 3:31.  The 4th loop was a beast, and I ended up running 57:13 on that one.  Grrr..

My earlier splits were:

51:34 -- with the tower involved, too!
50:15 -- 2nd fastest on Strava!  Had I known I was soooo close to breaking 50, I would have pushed!
52:31

Here's the Strava data.

It was great to see nikki there and chat with her for a while. A perfect way to start the day was to have her walk up after happening to park directly behind me!  What are the chances?

As for the race, it went better than I expected.  As the marathoners assembled at the start line, I was the only person actually *AT* the line.  All others were a couple feet back.  Not sure why that is, but it simply meant that when the horn sounded, I was leading.  I opened up on the relatively flat first mile with a 7:07.  I ran more of the first hill than I ever have before.  It gave me pause for a bit, but I just went with it.

I think about how I used to dread some of those hills at Lapham.  Then, I ran the 50k at Devil's Lake and the 50k at Marquette, and Lapham seemed a bit more tame to me this year.  It's amazing how I used to think of some of the hills in the Northern Kettles as really big...it's all relative, I guess!

By the time I went up the tower and came back down, my lead was about 3 minutes.  I then switched to how I was going to get under my goal of 3:35 and played math games in my head.  I felt pretty solid the entire day, with the exception of the 2nd half of the last loop (duh), when my energy was starting to leave me a bit.

Speaking of which, I've figured out the nutrition pretty well for a marathon/50k.  But does this transfer to a 50 miler?  I guess I'll find out in about a month!

Not much of a report to this one, but I guess I'm already looking forward to this week's run, and then getting my head wrapped around Glacial...I will hopefully add to the report with more time, but in the meantime, I gotta rest, recover, and then race some more!


4 Days until North Face
33 Days until Glacial Trail 50

1 Sep - 7 Sep
52 miles
4,849 feet


The only picture from the day...my mom struggled trying to work my iPhone :)





4 comments:

nikki said...

awesome! short and sweet. next year i think i'm going to try a few training runs of 4 loops to see how it feels before i would EVER commit to the marathon there! is it weird that i'm proud of your accomplishment?! you did such a great job and i'm sorry i wasn't at the finish to cheer you in! love lapham!

nwgdc said...

nikki, YOU did great as well. It's definitely one of my favorite loops, and I plan on returning next year for another go at it. Maybe under 3:30 this time.

What's next for you?

nikki said...

aw thanks! three cheers for lapham! ;)

i think under 3:30 is totally doable if the weather cooperates. it's funny how much that effects the run.

i'm running north face but only the 5K and then am free up until lakefront which terrifies me.

Matthew Patten said...

Love the Black Loop. Last time I was there, ran it with Brother Grub, Anegla, and Brad. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard.

You continue to represent on the Marathon - 50k distance. Very nice.

Maybe we can race each other in wheel chairs in the retirement home in 40 years. You're going down!