The Tahqua Trail Run was a race I had had my eye on for a number of years. For most of those years it was just a 25k run. I had already done a couple of Great lakes into events in the upper peninsula of Michigan and each of them was a very fine race and will run. The course for the Tahqua certainly looked interesting covering a number of beautiful miles in the North country trail. The holdup for me was the fact that it was only a 25k and it was usually at a very busy time of year in early August for me. Nothing against a 25k but it was a long distance to travel just for a shorter race like that. I needed a good excuse to fit it into the family summer schedule. 
This year that excuse worked out perfectly. I was looking for a good race to run with my son Seth and we were hoping to do another Marathon type distance event. I happen to notice that this year they are adding the 50K distance. The timing also worked perfectly with our summer travels and it all lined up for us to attend. It also worked perfectly into my training build for my first 100K attempt on September 11th down at Pinckney in the lower peninsula. This race would be just over 4 weeks out and good timing. So we were all ready to go and hoping for a good summer of training to be ready for it.
Table of Contents
RACE RECAP
Seth and I planned to run the whole race together and that is exactly what we did. It was good for him to be able to go with me for the experience. Eventually his day will be here, sooner than later, that he could easily do this faster than I. For today, we planned to do everything we could to keep the first half of the race fairly easy and then just see how the second half goes. With minimal fanfare they got us started at their starting corral behind the bathroom house near the Upper Falls. It sent us through some trees and then around the water retention pond and on to some double track that eventually spit us out onto the asphalt paths by the Upper Falls. From there we were essentially following the river trail all the way to the Lower Falls. We got bunched in with 10 other people or so and this worked well. It was nice to pace off of others and we were comfortable with how well they were moving. The terrain with the ups and downs and all the roots and the frequent little boardwalks kept things fairly slow. The vegetation was very tight in on us at moments on the river as well. We were probably only doing 12 minute miles, a bit slower than we had expected, but it was necessitated.
As we neared the Lower Falls it became evident that our group had likely missed a turn. There was a hard left just before the river trail gets to the bridge over to the island. That hard left must have been a detour trail to keep the course off the boardwalk. We eventually found ourselves at the bridge and some in our group got confused again because there were no flags. We think one or two might have looked for flags over the bridge. When we got to the Ppper Falls viewing area, where we had come with the family the other day, we knew exactly where to go because we had seen the flags in the trees. At the time, that day prior, the flags didn't make much sense because we thought the course was on the boardwalk but that's not what they were showing. But we at least knew how to get back on the course and follow it. Honestly, based on the map I had thought the course was on that boardwalk section all long. None of the trail maps showed the trail section the course diverted to. On our return at the end of the race we did use that alternate section and it was a faint trail. A difficult one to with some steep ups and downs. We reckoned the DNR probably asked the race to stay off the boardwalks.
When we finally got back on the course we followed the forest loop which went an extra mile before coming out to the aid station at the Lower Falls again. In here I got talking to another ultra runner who followed a lot of the same stuff in the sport as I did. He even mentioned he had Mike McKnight as his coach and how he had just DNF-ed at Tahoe Rim Trail 100 a few weeks back.
Dad was there at the Hemlock/Lower Falls aid station to say hi to us briefly. We gathered our drink refills and food and made our way out pretty quick. That Hemlock aid station was originally supposed to be on that forest loop by the campground. At some point, probably close to the race, they moved it to its new location in the Lower Falls complex. It meant a 6 mile stretch at the start to the aid, but the location made a lot of sense. It also meant it was a shorter two and a half miles to the next aid station at Farkas. While that section was short it had some punchy hills especially the climb up out of the campground and another hilltop we had to hit in the middle of the section. 
After Farkas the next section to Timber Lost was perhaps our favorite section. It had a lengthy stretch in the middle where the trail was relatively flat and running through ferns with good sight lines through the trees. We began to really make some nice time through here and were enjoying it. The section from Timber Lost to the turnaround at South River had some modest ups and downs and it felt like the lengthiest of the sections other than along the river trail. I knew we were getting close to the turnaround area when we began to hit some marshy areas including a bridge over a section of water. There was then a quarter mile on sort of an old abandoned road that spit us out onto the active River Road where we ran for a half mile to the turnaround. There were a couple volunteers at the turnaround as well as a few pit toilets and a table with water and electrolyte drink. Someone had told us before the race that the aid stations were actually fairly inaccessible on roads that were pretty bad. I believe that to be the case for Farkas and Timber Lost. What we saw at the River Road though looked like a pretty good road that would be much more accessible for most vehicles. When we got to the turnaround we figured out we were likely in 9th or 10th place. We had been moving pretty well and were pretty happy with progress. We were still doing well when we returned to Timber Lost but signs were starting to show of the trouble that we would have the rest of the way. Seth was getting increasing pain in his hips which we think was the hip flexors, possibly more. When we made it to Farkas on the return we were starting to bring in more walk intervals to try to ease things up. We had hoped the section returning to the Lower Falls would feel short but we brought more walking in and we began to get comfortable with the fact that time was no longer a concern.
After Farkas the next section to Timber Lost was perhaps our favorite section. It had a lengthy stretch in the middle where the trail was relatively flat and running through ferns with good sight lines through the trees. We began to really make some nice time through here and were enjoying it. The section from Timber Lost to the turnaround at South River had some modest ups and downs and it felt like the lengthiest of the sections other than along the river trail. I knew we were getting close to the turnaround area when we began to hit some marshy areas including a bridge over a section of water. There was then a quarter mile on sort of an old abandoned road that spit us out onto the active River Road where we ran for a half mile to the turnaround. There were a couple volunteers at the turnaround as well as a few pit toilets and a table with water and electrolyte drink. Someone had told us before the race that the aid stations were actually fairly inaccessible on roads that were pretty bad. I believe that to be the case for Farkas and Timber Lost. What we saw at the River Road though looked like a pretty good road that would be much more accessible for most vehicles. When we got to the turnaround we figured out we were likely in 9th or 10th place. We had been moving pretty well and were pretty happy with progress. We were still doing well when we returned to Timber Lost but signs were starting to show of the trouble that we would have the rest of the way. Seth was getting increasing pain in his hips which we think was the hip flexors, possibly more. When we made it to Farkas on the return we were starting to bring in more walk intervals to try to ease things up. We had hoped the section returning to the Lower Falls would feel short but we brought more walking in and we began to get comfortable with the fact that time was no longer a concern.
On the plus side the weather had held up pretty well for us today. The sun only poked out for a few moments and so that wasn't cooking us. The temp only rose a few degrees the whole way which also helped. The challenge was it was humid from the start and that caused us to work harder from the get go.
Much to our delight the whole family was there at the Lower Falls to say hi to us at the aid station. That's always a wonderful treat to get to see everybody and have some supporters. As we neared that spot Seth had at least once mentioned the possibility that he might just need to stop at the aid station. To his credit though, when we got to aid he immediately went to the station to get drink and look as if he was ready to continue. I was talking to the others and he was all business ready to go. So that was great.
The whole of the river trail though was an extreme struggle for him though. The pain was quite evident and it really put me into a challenging spot too. It's no fun to run with your own son when he's hurting so much. You just want to make it all better. He made every effort to keep grunting it out. He even took the lead in our tandem for a while and I went with it so he could set the pace. He would try to run for 2 or 3 minutes and then he would be hunched over in such pain. With about three and a half miles to go I finally said enough; we weren't doing any more running. We began to find a pace that we could handle to walk the rest of it out. It definitely took some time and when you're doing a death march like that it feels like a lot of time. But it had to be done.
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| This is our "before" pic |
We were surprised that only two people caught us in this section. It felt good when we finally popped out onto the asphalt of the Upper Falls. We still walked through that whole section. We didn't run again until we got to the retention pond area with about two tenths of a mile to go and we made a nice little trot into the finish chute. It was great to have the family there waiting for us again and greet us at the finish line with a nice blanket ready for us to sit on.
In hindsight, we think much of Seth's pain would be chalked up to deficiences in training. Some of it stemmed from him not being able to run almost at all the 2 weeks prior to the race because he had a flare up of patellar tendinitis. We were more worried about that causing him troubles. Thankfully it didn't bother him at all for the race. Its also like with this being his first long trail race with hills, and first 50K, that his body, especially in the joints and ligaments, just wasn't ready for it. We think more hill/treadmill work and perhaps strength training might be helpful for a next time. Also more time just running on trails with hills to get the body seasoned for it would have helped.
1:16:22 start to Hemlock 1 (mi 6.2) 3:53 at aid (bathroom) 27:56 Hemlock 1 to Farkas 1 (mi 8.65) 1:06 at Farkas 38:41 Farkas 1 to Timber Lost 1 (mi 12.28) 1:10 at Timber Lost 35:36 Timber Lost 1 to Turnaround (mi 15.47) 36:33 Turnaround to Timber Lost 2 (mi 18.64) 0:44 at Timber Lost 43:16 Timber Lost 2 to Farkas 2 (mi 22.28) 1:30 at Farkas 34:55 Farkas 2 to Hemlock 2 (mi 24.86) 1:47 at Hemlock 1:50:23 Hemlock 2 to Finish (mi 31.16)
RECOVERY
I felt pretty good at the end of the race. Certainly not spent, no immediate soreness or problems. I would say I was similar to the ending of the West Line Winder in 2025, The next day (Sunday) I had some light soreness (DOMS) in the quads. More than I expected but not as bad as I've had it other times. It was not as bad as after Marquette Marathon in 2025. I took this as a good time to take a few days off. In 2025 I began running too soon after Marquette and exacerbated the quad soreness. I did not want to do that this time around. I ended up just needing three days this time and started with a treadmill hills workout on the 4th (Wednesday) to get back into it. By Saturday (7-days post-race) I was running a 10-mile workout and feeling pretty good though the underlying metrics suggested some deep-seated fatigue still present. Now its on to my 100K debut in a month.
The plan going in to this race was to go for an energy gel between each aid station and empty a 500mL soft flask. We would also go for any extra foods we could get at the aid stations. I didn't go deep into the math for this one but the hope was to be 50-70 carbs/hour. I wouldn't be surprised if we came in slightly low though.
The surprise on this race (mostly my own fault) was the aid stations did not have gels. I never saw them listed on the aid station food list so I don't fault the race at all. It mentioned "Gnarly electrolytes and carbohydrates". I knew that GLE events had Gnarly drink and I had a silly assumption this might also mean gels. Though in hindsight I'm pretty sure Gnarly doesn't make gels. So my fault.
I happened to start the race with 4 gels in pocket. I ate one on the first 6 mile stretch on the river trail and then discovered at the Hemlock Aid no gels. So I there made the decision to grab fruit snacks and watermelon at aid in place of gels. I had also been planning to alternate drinks between Gnarly and water but decided to do Gnarly electrolyte drink the whole way if I could stomach it. Thankfully their drink was a lemon-lime flavor that I could tolerate so I went with it. At one of their past races an aid had a raspberry flavor and it was nasty.
As a whole I think this all worked and it was helped by not going 100% max effort the whole way so the need was not as high as it could have been.
WEATHER / COURSE CONDITIONS In the 10 days leading up to the race we watched the weather forecast closely. We were daily praying it wouldn't be a humid scorcher of a day. Even some rain would have been preferred over that. Ultimately we got a pretty decent forecast. The overnight low was 64 which was not as low as we would have like. But the high temp for the race was only going to hit 70, that was pretty manageable.
The morning was fairly muggy but it stayed mostly cloudy and we never really got hurt by the sun. We began sweating fairly quickly in the race so that got us keeping our hydration gonig strong. But it never felt hot so we made out well. No rain either, things stayed fairly dry. The course as a whole was dry with a few small manageable sections of mud along the river trail.
GEAR / OTHER NOTES
GARMIN FENIX 7
I loaded the course into the watch which we used a few times to see distances to aid stations and also to see if we were on course. In the early half of the race I was checking heart rate hoping to keep things in a good place.
GEAR
I used my Ultimate Direction Ultra Vest 5.0 today. I had debated going to only a hand-held as the aid stations were fairly close together but ultimately opted for the vest. I carried two soft flasks but only used one. I also carried a collapsible cup which I used once or twice for a swig of coca-cola at aid stations. I carried 4 Gu energy gels my shorts pockets.
CLOTHING
- I wore my Altra Lone Peak 8 trail runners the whole way today. I love the big toe box and the toes felt really good in the shoes today.
- I wore my usual short-sleeve Salomon run shirt and a pair of Northyard shorts with the zipper pockets. I thought about wearing my white spot hat but did not ultimately need it.
This race could officially be described as a training race for me on my build-up to my first 100K race in September. It was also a fun one to be doing it with my son Seth for his first ultra and 50K. My training has been building since February and I have had the best 6 months of training and running in many many years. Seemingly injury free and constant improvements. I think my endurance is as good as ever and so I'm very happy with where things are at and excited about potential. That potential wasn't fully put to the test today but then that wasn't the point today either.
Some of the training highlights and successes have included several weeks of 60 miles and several with 50. So the volume on the build-up has been really good and consistent. I've also found good results in doing a large number of doubles in my training. I will do 3-4 mile morning runs on the treadmill with hills. I will then double back in the afternoon for another 4-6 miles. This, both the doubles and the hills, seems to be really helping with endurance while also keeping the wear and tear down.
Total Miles: 31.16 miles
Total Elevation Gain: 2,908 ft.
Total Calories Burned: 3,880 cals
Total Time: 6:53:55
RACE DAY SPLITS
1:16:22 start to Hemlock 1 (mi 6.2) 3:53 at aid (bathroom) 27:56 Hemlock 1 to Farkas 1 (mi 8.65) 1:06 at Farkas 38:41 Farkas 1 to Timber Lost 1 (mi 12.28) 1:10 at Timber Lost 35:36 Timber Lost 1 to Turnaround (mi 15.47) 36:33 Turnaround to Timber Lost 2 (mi 18.64) 0:44 at Timber Lost 43:16 Timber Lost 2 to Farkas 2 (mi 22.28) 1:30 at Farkas 34:55 Farkas 2 to Hemlock 2 (mi 24.86) 1:47 at Hemlock 1:50:23 Hemlock 2 to Finish (mi 31.16)
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