Tecumseh Trail Marathon

I'm not a trail marathoner & I do this because it's a local run...this year I got caught up in trying to push the first half...BIG MISTAKE...cramps at 10 and no will to go on. It was quite cool but as I said I was pushing & some gu and coke and Aleve given to us at the registration tent got me through & I believe as good of a finish as I could have imagine with a surprise in store at 25. GREAT FUN AND A WONDERFUL FEELING OF ACCOMPLISHMENT...this one is tough for a road guy.

I have had my eye on this race for some 10 years now and finally this year I was able to participate. Right up front, with a proclaimed 3,500-foot gain in elevation and a 7.5 hour time limit, it is (or can be) intimidating. And of course no one wants to travel several hundred miles to participate and then get a DNF. And this marathon is well off the beaten path. They used to run this race in December, and sometimes with snow on the ground. But now in late October, this year I took the challenge. About half way between Bloomington and the quaint little town Nashville is a road that meanders up into the forest and runs alongside a lake/reservoir. That was where you have to get to. It is the staging area for check-in, the finish-line, and where you catch a bus to the start-line. The bus-ride seemed excessively long, but it was probably because the roads took a roundabout way of reaching the starting-line area. Once there, we were allowed to stay on the bus until near the starting time. By 10 minutes before the start time, runners were gathering behind the start-line and drop bags with warm-up clothes were being tossed into the back of a pickup truck there for that purpose. The race was a few minutes late in starting for some reason. And it was cold. Forecast high for the day was about 45 degrees, and it must have been 10 degrees colder as we started. I still saw several runners in only a tank-top and running shorts. I don't know how they stayed warm. I was more substantially dressed and I was shivering. So we were off and running. The first three miles or so were on a gravel road. It was that gravel that is 1 to 2 inches and with sharp corners on it. It was not pleasant running on it, but it was short lived. This was not the crushed gravel that typically makes an excellent running surface. Then we entered the trail. And for most of the way, we were on trails - single or two-track. Occasionally there were more defined and refined roads that we were on for brief distances, either paved, blacktop, or gravel. But we always went back to the trails. And from looking at published data for this course, I anticipated aggressive hills. They were not that steep; and I have done marathons where they had ropes so the runners could get up the hills. Still, there were significant hills and you spent a lot of time going up-slope. Some guys on the bus who were repeat runners of this marathon said that the course flattened out after mile post 18. I did not see it that way. We still had a lot of up-slope conditions after that. In fact, at MP 19.5 there was a hydration station, and there was still lots of uphill even after that. That water station was a guy and a gal, in the middle of the woods, with a table, and all the refreshments. I don't know how they got the stuff out there, but there they were serving us! True servants to the runners! This trail from start to finish was marked with pink flags or pink nylon tape, to keep us on course. So the course was extremely well marked. And there were volunteers present everywhere we came out of the woods on to the road, and they all did a great job. The only place where it was lacking was after we had a stretch on the road, turned on to a side road, crossed a railroad track, turned another corner and crossed a partially submerged bridge. Right then, I could see nothing pink, wondering if I had missed a turn. But around one more corner, and we were back on the trail again. This course did not have mile-markers; some of them don't. And the volunteers generally did not know the mileage of the course where they were stationed. It would have been easy to have mile-markers, since the whole course had to be flagged. Even if they just did every 3 or every 5 miles. It gives mental peace of mind to know where I am on the course - especially when there it a time limit, and when it is a course more difficult than typical. Hopefully the race organization will make some positive changes in this area for next year. Around mile post 20 there was an aid station, and after that we came near the shore of a lake (probably Yellowwood Lake) and we followed the shore of the lake for a few miles. And it was not a straight shot. Everywhere the lake had fingers that reached back into the woods, the trail meandered to get around the water. Eventually we came to another hydration station then had to pass across the end of the dam. The spill-way was dry, but the drainage channel still had standing water in it - maybe a foot deep and 10 feet wide. We were compelled to get wet feet at that point - with still a couple of miles to go. We pretty much stayed in the woods until the end, but from a boat launch area we followed that access road out to a main road (probably Yellowwood Lake Road) and after crossing the road, we were in the woods again paralleling the road, but meandering along the trail until close to the end. We emerged from the woods for the last time, joined Yellowwood Lake Road for a brief span to get us back to the campground area. We made a big loop around the campground area, then down the stretch to the finish line. Waiting there for us was hot soup, mini-sub sandwiches, chips, cookies, and things to drink. And someone had a fire going in one of the fire pits. It felt so good. This one was tough, challenging, and worthwhile.

Great course, not as hilly as I expected. Not a crisis, but 2 of the first 3 aid stations only had water. I was not that far back, so was a bit surprised.