Winona Trail Run - RunUltra Marathon

FIRST 10 MILES - Felt good from the get-go and, of course, started out too fast. Walked up hills and ran down. Wore my 2 bottle fuel belt with water and drank at every mile. Aid stations at 3.4 and 6.8 miles and downed a gel at each. Split time 1:35:53

Got a couple fig newtons at my drop bag, refilled my water bottles and felt like I had at least another lap to go.

SECOND 10 MILES - A steady rain started about 10 minutes into this loop. It was nice as a cool down. All was fine running until between mile 4-5 when I started feeling some real pain in my right knee on the downhills. Had to start walking them. Pain continued to get worse and I was kicking myself for not bringing Advil with me. By mile 17 I knew I had to slow it down and I knew I was NOT going to quit at 20 miles. I'd gotten over half way and bygolly, I was going to finish 30 miles. Anticipated feeling better with advil in me. Kept hydrating at each mile marker. Had potatoes and trail mix at the AS and gel in between. No GI issues, even with 4 gels in me and that was a first. Split 1:55:27

Took 2 advil, put some biofreeze on knees, put on the knee strap, ate some oranges slices I'd brought, grabbed a couple more fig newtons, refilled water and hit the port-a-johns. Probably spend at least 10 minutes altogether not moving forward. This is reflected in my 3rd split.

THIRD 10 MILES - The rain continued steadily the rest of the run. The advil didn't take long to kick in so I knew I could do it. I actually ran more on this loop than the second, although downhills were painful. Another runner passed me about halfway in and he did a straddle run on the downhills so I tried it and the pain was not as intense. Had a bit of time where I was feeling low on energy so took in gel more frequently and spent a little more time at the AS - a couple more potatoes and trail mix. Wanted coke- caffeine, but it had been finished off in lap 2 so picked out the M&Ms in the trail mix and downed a chocolate gel (my first). It was tasty and I finished feeling strong, amazed I didn't have any GI issues this whole day. Split 2:09:52

Take advil with me. I would've enjoyed lap two more. I pounded my knee too much on lap 1 on the downhills so I should've eased back a bit.

Stretched and talked to a few folks who were hanging around for the 50 milers. Drank chocolate milk, ate pretzels. They called my name as my AG winner. I changed in my car then waited about 30 minutes before my friend, Karen, finished her 4th lap. She was in line for a second place overall female win so after I hugged her, I drove home, got a shower, took my son to a friends house and drove back to the race site to see Karen finish her first 50 miler. All in all, a very fine day.


Right knee pain. Otherwise, this is the first endurance event that I got the nutrition and hydration down well and that's been my problem at previous events, so I was super happy to do that right.


Planet Adventure put on a good race. Well organized and well-stocked stations. They played good, upbeat music, announced your name and split as you came through each loop and had immediate results posted on 4 TV screens on the side of their trailer.