A LooOOoong Walk in The Woods

Here's something silly: the Sawtooth 100 which takes place on the Superior Trail in Northern Minnesota along the range that overlooks the Great Lake Superior. The trail itself is reportedly rugged, rocky and very hilly with some of the most beautiful scenery in the Midwest. With no ambitions to "race" the event, BD will take his time and document his efforts on video (battery power permitting).

As for participating in a 100 mile "foot race" there are always lots of questions. Here are quick answers to the most common questions.

• Yes, this is 100 miles straight through and in this case may take about 25 hours or so.
• Yes, we eat. There are aid stations roughly every 10 miles which are usually stocked with peanut butter sandwiches, potatos, potato chips, pretzels, m&ms, soup, water, ibuprophen, sports drink and coffee to name a few items.
• No, typcially runners do not sleep, but rather trudge along though the night.
• No. Despite the "trail run" description, participants do not run the whole way. Walking is very much part of the strategy even for the winners. The fastest person may finish in 17 hours or so. The cut-off time is 36 hours.
• Runners descretely go to the bathroom in the woods, we try not to litter, and are instructed to clean up after ourselfs. Most of us do.
• The hardest part? Keep on keepin' on. Most participants at this distance will tell you they have moments of suffering pain, illness and mental exhaution. Many flirt at the fragile edges of coherence and lucidity. Working through all of this; fighting through all of this... that's the hard part.

So, in the Race Director's latest up-date (Sat. August 19), he informs us that a crucial bridge (mile 62 or so) will be out of service. This means a river crossing which most (if not all) of us will do during the night of Sept. 8, or early morning September 9. In additoin to the race director's report, the materials tell of a cadre of hazards runners may experience to include: dangerously steep cliffs; dangerous gorges with sharp drop-offs; very rocky trails going up and down; the dreaded water crossings; coyotes; wolf; moose; and bear. Yes bear.

Here are Buzz Daddy's bear strategies.

1. Make sure the flash is working on the camera… if anything else… we’ll both be blinded for a split second.
2. Playing dead strategy might not be too difficult to do at 3:00 a.m after 70 miles or so.
3. The topography of the course means that a down hill stretch is never very far away... although running down hill sounds painful (see #5) but I suppose if a bear is chasing you...
4. At some point in the race a cured eau d’ stink may be enough to scare away man or beast
5. If worse comes to worse just lather on the lard and let the Smokey have his way. At that point it might be less painful than trying to finish.

More news as the "race" approaches, or the event has past.