A Wife's View of the Kettle Moraine 100

I asked Kristy to give her take on the Kettle Moraine 100. She brought a book to read while I was out having fun and never cracked it once. I think she probably has more stories than I do. Here is what she had to say:


What I learned during the Kettle Morraine 100

· I Love Wisconsin – Hills, trees, and multiple “Cheese” signs

· It ‘s a great help to drive to the aid stations the day before the race to get acclimated to the driving route between aid stations

· Sprinting off the starting line isn’t needed at the beginning of an ultra

· Aid station workers are wonderful. I saw more than a few runners brought back to life after sitting on a chair in front of a propane heater with warm chicken noodle soup in hand

· Green olives must be good for refueling during an ultra

· Four people I spoke with had run either the half or full marathon during the Fargo Marathon in May 2010. All had really nice things to say about their experience.

· The usual token person, upon hearing that we were from Fargo, mentioned the movie, “Fargo”.

· A bull frog croak sounds like a cow mooing

· A person can see the look of pride when speaking with a crew member of another runner as well as see their genuine concern for yours

· Seven inches of rain in six hours is a crazy amount of rain and a real challenge for trail running.

· Some phrases that runners do not respond to “Daddy, did you fall down?” and “ Oh, you’re dirty” and “Quit walking like Grandpa!”

· Paper bags and rain don’t mix. Crew transporting gear to aid stations in paper bags didn’t have much of a bag left by the time the rain stopped

· The cardinal is a beautifully big, bright red bird

· Tarps are a good spot for runners’ drop bags. Not so much when it rains, as the tarps make a wonderful spot for a pool

· There can be much communicated in exchanged looks between everyone at an aid station while standing in beating rain and hearing that first crack of thunder

· A person can only handle eating so many granola bars in one day

· Good breath-holding skills are put to the test in a vault toilet

· You can plan to do a lot of reading during a 28 hour period and not open the book once

· Sometimes a hot cup of coffee tastes like it came right from heaven

· Spotting your runner coming from a distance toward the aid station is a good feeling

· If they aren’t limping, it’s even better

· Hearing “I think it’s gonna snap” is never good

· Things that aren’t what they might seem at first impression:
Spectator opening up a completely closed-up vehicle, talking to something that’s been locked inside the HOT vehicle and sharing a piece of banana with it. She was feeding a parrot!

Hearing these stern words from a man behind you “Sit, Lisa!” He was talking to his black lab

· A small town pizzeria can make a late night pizza in 15 minutes. Delivery person can have girlfriend ride with. Must be able to maneuver a quick U turn ending up parked in front of the shop. A slight curb hop is okay.

· You can work up a “sympathy” blister in shoes that you’ve worn a gazillion times before

· A small nap does wonders for a person – spectator and runner alike.

· Some runners can flop face down at an aid station and be sleeping in a matter of seconds

· You can never bring along too many clothes. I even used the rain coat, rain pants, umbrella, winter hat and gloves.

· The town of Fort Atkinson, WI exudes Packer pride with their hunter green garbage cans sporting “taxicab” yellow covers

· New Pretzel M&Ms are really good and only 150 calories per bag

· Too much ice in the cool- off bandana can cause loss of sensation in your runner’s neck area

· The Wisconsin Dells isn’t the same without our kids

· Somewhere you can buy a HUGE plastic bag of Famous Amos cookies . One aid station had three of them!

· “Morraines” are an accumulation of stones, boulders or other debris carried and deposited by a glacier

· The race directors put on a wonderful event at the Kettle Morraine 100 and make each participant feel important. One of the race directors even remembered Rick’s name from a prior race that he had done in Madison.

· Most normal folk chuckle when they talk about this event ‘s 38 mile night “FUN Run”. I think the word FUN mentioned along with ‘38 miles’ and ‘night’ is hard for most of us to comprehend as being in the category of fun.

· Watching Rick cross the 100 mile finish and be presented with his 100 mile finishers kettle was wonderful I would do it all again tomorrow!