race report

High Cliff Ultra 50k

Saturday, August 7, 2021

Sherwood, WI

Despite High Cliff State Park being a 15-minute drive from where I’m living, I had yet to run High Cliff 50 or 25k. It typically falls on the same weekend as Wedel Farm 50. Being my first ultra, Wedel Farm has a special place in my heart, and because of the location, it’s also a good excuse to get back home to visit my family. So, the second weekend in August usually has me running in Argyle, WI. However, for reasons I don’t know, Wedel Farm 50 wasn’t held this year.

I waffled back and forth about whether I should sign up for the race given the gap in my schedule. Work gets busy during the summer, so I have less time to train. And summer is full of opportunities for other events, so I also like having the flexibility to enjoy other activities. But I had been fully recovered from Kettle Moraine in June and needed to start getting ready for Mines of Spain in October.

Ultimately, I decided that I couldn’t pass up the event. I’ve run a NuRunCo race before and enjoyed the experience and people. I have come to enjoy large races, but smaller races like those NuRunCO puts on are where I feel most at home. There’s something about the atmosphere and intimacy of smaller races that keeps me coming back. Couple that with the proximity, the great price point, and the fact that I knew quite a few other local runners who had signed up, and I knew I had to run it. So, I signed up last minute, despite not putting together a great training buildup.

I decided to treat this race more like a training run and was going to test a few new ideas out. If you’ve read any of my race reports before, you know that nutrition issues plague me. There seems to be something I just can’t get right. So, in an experiment, I had decided to run the race with only a handheld water bottle. I was planning to fuel primarily with Tailwind, the electrolyte drink provided by the race. I was going to eliminate most if not all food. My thought process was simple. I know I can get through a race like this on all liquid fuel. If I ran the race and had no stomach issues, I would know that I just ate too many solid foods for my body to process while running. I would revise my nutrition plan for races moving forward and incorporate more liquid calories. This is what I was hoping to determine from this experiment.

 About the course

The course is contained entirely within High Cliff State Park. High Cliff State Park is located roughly 15 miles southeast of Appleton and sits on the north shore of Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin’s largest lake. Glacial activity formed the Niagara Escarpment which is on display in the park in the form of a large bluff that overlooks the lake. The park is also home to several Native American effigy mounds. The course is composed of a loop that utilizes various trail systems throughout the park. The vast majority of the trails are dirt or grass with short sections of pavement at linkups, road crossings, and such.

The loop begins in the main parking area of the park at the top of the bluff. The loop then proceeds to go up and down the bluff three times in the first five miles while runners navigate technical, rocky singletrack. Nearly all of the loops 1,000 ft. of elevation comes in the first five miles. After mile five the loop opens up to a more rolling terrain through the forest before runners hit a prairie section. Like I say in the Kettle Report, prairie sections have the potential to be brutal with direct sun exposure and extra humidity from the plants. Luckily on this day, the weather was relatively mild. The prairie section leads into another rolling, forested section before coming back to the start/finish. The 25k runs one loop while the 50k runs the loop twice.

The Race 

After a quick pre-race speech, we were off. I had glanced at the course map prior to the start of the race and knew that I the first few miles would be the slowest. I kept this in mind as I watched others head out much more quickly than I would have advised. It’s hard for me to sit back and just let others pass, but I knew saving myself was the right move. So, as I usually do, I found myself settled somewhere near the end of the front pack.

I navigated the early elevation closing gaps on those in front of me. I’m not the best climber when it comes to running, but I have learned to manage effort well. I know when to run up a hill, and when hiking up will get me to the top just as fast with much less energy usage.

Somewhere around mile 5, I had closed the gap on a runner named Ben. We got to chatting, and I learned that Ben was a marathon runner. Despite racing on the road, he liked training on the trails. He attempted to find a trail marathon, but since there are not many in the area, he settled on a 50k thinking the extra 4.8 miles would be attainable. Thus, he was running his first ultra. We settled in at a comfortable pace and ran together swapping stories and getting to know each other a bit.

At mile 7 we rolled into the first aid station. I don’t like to waste time not moving during a race, so I like to try and make quick stops at aid stations. I refilled my handheld with Tailwind and took off. Ben was still at the aid station when I left, but he would catch back up within a mile. We continued through the remainder of the first loop in much this fashion, running together with only short separations at aid stations.

We reached the halfway point and began our second loop. I was feeling pretty good and estimated myself to be trading 4th place back and forth with Ben. The day was beginning to unfold as I was hoping it would. The first leg of loop 2 was looking to be uneventful which, for me, is always welcome. I had put a little bit of space between Ben and me, and the hardest portion of the course was now behind me. Prospects of a strong race were in sight. Then the age-old adage of ultra-running showed its ugly head. It’s not if something goes wrong, but when.

As I came into mile 20, I was beginning to have stomach issues, the issues that have troubled me in all but one or two races. With my modified approach to nutrition this time around, I thought I would be in the clear. I had eaten 1/4th of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a single pickle spear. Surely this was not enough to upset my stomach. But nonetheless, here I was. Nausea was getting at me, so I began a run/walk approach and let Ben pull ahead of me. This is the last time I would see him before I crossed the finish line. I struggled through the next few miles growing increasingly nauseous. At mile 24 I started getting the spits. I knew I was going to throw up; the only question at this point is when it would happen.

By mile 25 I was miserable, so I took stock of my handheld. I had roughly 16 oz. of Tailwind, and the next aid station was coming up shortly. Knowing that I had my bases covered, I made the decision to pull the trigger and throw up on my own terms. I found a clear spot and walked off to the side of the trail sticking my finger down my throat. Thankfully nobody else was around to see because I began violently heaving and lost everything that I had consumed so far that morning.

A word of caution here. This is not a decision to be made lightly. When you throw up during a race like this, you lose all your water, calories, and electrolytes. If you don’t have a good plan of attack for what you need to do after this, I highly advise not purposely throwing up. This can lead to dangerous situations, especially if you don’t have supplies on hand and are far from an aid station. I only did this because I had a store of electrolytes on hand and knew that I would be coming up on an aid station soon. This wasn’t a rash decision.

After I threw up, I felt great and began running again. I quickly took in the remainder of my electrolytes to replenish as quickly as I could and made easy work of the next mile. Over the next leg of the course, that great feeling began to wear off slightly as my body depleted what little reserves I now had, but I was rolling into the next aid station with confidence. I also got an extra little boost as I saw my girlfriend standing there chatting with some of the volunteers. We had a quick chat while I refilled my handheld and I left out with confidence that I would have a strong finish.

I got roughly a mile out of the aid station before I started to fade again. This was disheartening. I had less than 3 miles left, and it appeared as if I was going to be walking them. However, this is also the point where I believe I figured out what has plagued my nutrition from day one. Having had no food to react badly to, save a couple of small items, the only common denominator left in all my races was the liquid calories. In ultras, it is common to have calorie-packed electrolyte drinks widely available at the aid stations. These tend to be the only electrolyte drinks on hand. The calories in these drinks come primarily from large amounts of sugar. Under the extreme physical pressures of an ultramarathon, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Sugar gives calories, restores muscle glycogen, is easy for the body to process, and functions as an electrolyte.

But I realized during this race, that the stomach issues I had been having felt very much like the gut rot I gotten on occasion from drinking a few too many sugary drinks with no food in my stomach. I thought back to long training runs where I had used other electrolyte drinks with much less sugar. I never seemed to have issues there, just in races. I just don’t think my body reacts well to that much sugar, especially when I’m downing it for hours on end. Although it’s going to be a large logistical nightmare, I made the decision that from that point forward I would be forced to bring my own electrolytes or at the very least cut what was available with water.

I thought all this through as I walked the next two miles. I was passed by two more runners who I tried to tag along with and steal some energy from. But it was futile. I continued my walk to the finish in a daze. I was fine, but I was allowing myself to daydream to escape the struggle at the moment. I was brought quickly back to reality when I started getting the spits again. I was at mile 32. The finish line was less than a quarter-mile ahead. But this time, I was not getting the choice to puke, it was coming up and fast. I jumped off to the side of the trail again with just a second to spare before I was throwing up again. After a minute to recoup, I was feeling great again and had just enough to run out the last portion before crossing the finish line.

In all, this was far from my best showing. I finished nearly an hour behind what I think I was capable of. But learning rarely comes without a few obstacles. And if I truly did find the root of the nausea issues that have been appearing at nearly all of my races, I’ll take that as a win.

Shoes: Saucony – Mad River TR

Gear: Saucony - shorts, Injinji - socks

Wearables: Garmin - Forerunner 945, Oura Ring

Nutrition: ATH - supplements

Recovery: ATH - Post, Nuun Hydration - Recover