No crew. No pacers. No drop bags. No problem. Except wait. That’s not right. Lots of problems. All the problems.
I knew taking on a hundred miler just after Vol State was going to be a challenge. I figured it would be a physical challenge, that my body would be so run down my legs would give out 10 miles in. Though the reality was that it was much more of a mental challenge with a little bit of physical troubles thrown in. I had 8 days of recovery between my finish at Vol State and the start of Badger.
First of all – the Badger 100 is part of the Ten Junk Miles’ Badger Trail Races. It includes a 100 miler, 100k, 50 miler, 50k, marathon, and half-marathon on a very nice rail trail. It was my very first 50-miler back in 2019 and I did the 100-miler in 2021 with my husband. Each year the race has been different because of various circumstances.
Year 1: Normal
Year 2: Virtual due to Covid
Year 3: Tunnel detour (the amazing tunnel on the trail had to close due to structural issues, so there is a hilly road section to go around it)
Year 4: Bizarro Badger
Bizarro Badger was due to a lot of things, but mainly because of the giant road detour that had to happen because 3 weeks prior to the race a truck messed up a bridge on the trail. This necessary detour was painful. Super hilly. As Badger in its normal state is flat, fast, and nice, the long detour of awfulness was in stark contrast to the rest of the trail. As it was unavoidable, no blame rests on the RD Scotty Kummer, but it was a bummer that the bridge couldn’t be repaired in time. I joked that due to the issues on the trail and the speed in which the state is fixing them, next year would be the “Oops! All Detours!” edition. As important as the trail is to the local economy and community, I’m surprised it isn’t better funded by the state. Please Wisconsin, love your trail as much as we do. Except you need to show your love with money.
I signed up for Badger before I even put in for LAVS. It is not just a race, but a homecoming and reunion with my TJM family. It started as a race that my favorite podcast was putting on, but it has become so much more with all of the amazing friends I have made in the community. Since I did it last year, I was eligible for the second year concho (a concho is a circular decoration that can go on a belt, which is an amazing thing and encourages people to come back). Also, this year would have a larger belt buckle for anyone who completes the race in over 30 hours; unlike other races, this one celebrates the back of the pack and those who need more time to complete it.
Pre-Race
I rolled into town around 10:30am and knew that since I was there early enough, I would be able to help with setup. I got to the race’s storage unit in New Glaurus where General Kylia (Scott’s wife) was expertly directing her troop of volunteers to get all of the supplies sorted for the aid stations. We moved coolers, food, supplies, etc from the entrance of the unit into orderly rows and then when the trailer arrived, loaded them into that so they could be dropped at the station.
After everything had been loaded into the trailers, I went along to the tunnel detour aid station to unload the supplies and set up the tent. It took a bit of figuring out, but we eventually got it. Holly snapped a picture of me with the tent as future reference of how it needed to look, lol.
Since we were done with all of the setup things we could do for the day, Holly and I headed over to New Glaurus Brewing since every time I had come to the area, it had been closed. Before we knew it, it was time to get our stuff together and head to packet pickup.
Packet pickup is a really special thing for this race. It takes place outside at Dot’s Tavern and serves as a social gathering to talk with friends old and new. The swag, which I did not get a photo of myself so I have stolen the photo from the TJM Racing page, was excellent as always. I love the hat! After I spent way too long there, I headed to the store for dinner, breakfast, and post-race foods.
I got to bed much later than I really should have. Added to this, I was tired from the previous night’s sleep (I went to bed at 10pm and had to wake up at 2am to get to the airport for my flight), so in the days before the race, I managed to only get about 9 hours of sleep. Whoopsie. As I set everything out, I realized I made a major mistake in packing. The first is that I brought my headlamp, but forgot the battery pack for it. The second was that I forgot my sparkle skirt. How was I going to race if I didn’t have some sparkle going on?? I posted my stupidity to TJM slack and within 30 seconds Josh H. came into the room with his headlamp (I was crashing on the sofa bed of an Airbnb that he, Meg C., and Ben had reserved).
Note: This race report is going to be a little more all over the place because I had serious mush brain for soooo many miles. Things may be out of order or stories are dropped into random places. It is not intentional, but that’s how my memory is currently working.
Aid Stations (this year according to my watch, not regular course mileage):
- Orangeville: start | mile 74
- Town Center Road: mile 7 | mile 68 | mile 80 (water only)
- Monroe: mile 11 | mile 64 | mile 84
- Gutzmer Rd: mile 19 | mile 55 | mile 93
- Hollywood: mile 23 | mile 51 | mile 97
- Tunnel: mile 29 | mile 45 | mile 103
- Belleville: mile 33 | mile 41 | finish at 106 miles
- Dot’s: mile 37
Race Morning to Mile 20
The Badger has an interesting course, it starts in Orangeville, IL, goes to Basco, WI, back to Orangeville, and then finishes in Belleville, WI. So out, back, and out again (but you don’t go as far as Basco, which is 4.2 miles up the trail from Belleville). Since you are starting 30+ miles away from where you finish, those who don’t have a crew or a ride leave their cars at Belleville and ride busses to the start. It immediately made me think of Vol State, and this wouldn’t be the last time there would be similarities between the two races.
Following the pre-race briefing, Jenna N. came over and said, “I saw your post on slack and I had this at home if you want to wear it,” as she showed me a purple sparkle skirt! SHE GAVE ME HER SPARKLE SKIRT! I am 99% sure I teared up. There really is no better community than the TJM nation with their kindness and generosity.
The race started and we went trotting off on the trail. I planned to run the first twenty miles to bank some time for the naps I knew I would need later. In those first twenty miles I got to run with and have great conversations with several people including: Toots, Finny, Jens, Jada, Sherri, Penny, Lisa, and others. Once I hit 20 miles, I began walking and my feet were MAD. They felt exactly as sore as they had at Vol State (which was really freaking bad). Fortunately, the pain went away or my body tuned out the pain after about 2 hours and they never felt that bad again for the rest of the race.
Before I get into the suffering and whining, I need to emphasize - I LOVE this race. I love the Badger State Trail. I love the community. And the aid stations? You won't find any better aid stations anywhere else on the planet. I have, and will continue to, encourage everyone I know to do this race.
Mile 20 to Mile 40
Once I started walking I did the worst thing any ultrarunner can do: trail math. I wasn’t even a quarter of the way done and I was already worrying whether it would be possible to finish. You’d think I would start running to mitigate those worries, but I tried and gave up within 30 seconds of a run interval. I just didn’t have it in me mentally to push. It was especially annoying during the 5 miles of heavy mosquitoes after the Gutzmer aid station. I had never been swarmed like that before and running to escape it probably would have helped.
When I came into Belleville at mile 31, I saw Trena and asked her if I was crazy thinking I could finish at the pace I was going. As always, she was the voice of reason and calmed my worries and I continued on to Dot’s. The biggest issue with my ultra math was that I was thinking in LAVS terms. I had mentally divided the race into three 12-hour segments and it seemed impossible to do 32 miles per segment as I had not been doing that at LAVS. Of course, my brain refused to take into account the other elements of LAVS that makes the miles take longer: the extreme heat, necessary store stops, sleeping because you can’t just burn the bridges in the middle of a long event, etc etc.
In 2021, I had run The Last Dot Standing 48hr race in which you run from Belleville Community Park to Dot’s Tavern and back. The race has a last man standing event, two 24hr races, and a 48hr race. Over the 48hrs I ran back and forth on those same 4.2 miles for a 100 mile buckle. Getting back onto that section was strolling down memory lane in the biggest way. I saw the cat farm where we counted how many cats were out at any given time, the section where Tiff and I yelled, “FUCK YOU WIND!” and threw up a middle fingers to the sky, the tree where Holly had thrown her ham sandwich at and it stayed nestled in the branches for the entirety of the event, the stretch where Tiff and I sang along to several songs including the Boogie Woogie Woo by ICP in the dead of night, and so many more.
When I got to the aid station at Dot’s, I knew I needed to sit down and stuff my face as much as possible. So far in the race I had been eating plenty, but finding that I was always hungry and on the edge of bonking. I figured it was depletion left over from Vol State even though my crazy appetite afterwards had subsided earlier in the week. At mile 10 I was already sick of eating, but I knew I had to do it and shoved anything that looked remotely okay into my face. I ate two whole packs of nutty bars and some chips, then shoved a granola bar and some candy into my pocket for the road. The need for insane amounts of food and staying hungry lasted for the whole race no matter how many calories I took in. I went out with Toots, Finny, and Jens and saw familiar faces on the way back: Oak, Tursi, Lesa, Eric H., and others.
Getting back into Belleville again, I had even more food and Scotty walked up to ask me and another runner if we had any trouble following the signs on the trail. No, not at all. It was marked just fine. A few minutes down the road I realized that meant that someone had gone off course; he had asked me the same exact question at Sugar Badger in 2021 after someone took off the wrong way despite the presence of signs and markings.
TMI moment - The race’s electrolytes are various flavors of UCAN Hydrate. Rather than bringing my own electrolytes for my front bottle, I used it even though I’m not a huge fan. This is the only thing I can think of that caused the bloating issue that I had. My stomach felt rock hard (not in a cool athletic way) and every few miles I felt a sudden urge to poo. I would take a side trail, be ready to go, and instead let out a giant toot. Luckily on the second day the aid stations had Gatorade instead and I had no stomach issues after making the switch.
Mile 40 to Mile 60
While all of the aid stations are great, Hollywood is the crème de la crème. Holly is a national treasure and knows how to run a super kickass aid station. Anytime there are struggles, the thought is – just make it to Hollywood. It is uplifting, exciting, has amazing food, and so many great friends volunteer there. From Belleville there is a 4ish mile stretch, the tunnel detour aid station run by Nora B., and then another 5-6ish stretch until Hollywood. So anytime I’m struggling, the thought is always, “Just get to Hollywood” because I know that’ll restore my spirits.
Rolling into Hollywood at mile 51 I was feeling bad. I resolved I would put my feet up and let myself rest for a bit. Cobby brought me some tots and a pizza roll to nibble on while I rested and various friends checked in on me to tell me I was a rockstar. I replied that I did not feel like a rockstar. I was seriously contemplating a DNF. While I felt like shit and couldn’t eat enough, I was struggling mentally more than anything. Doing the math is bad. Thinking about how long you’ll be out there is bad. But I was in Hollywood, and there was no way I would drop there. I got myself together and started the trek to Gutzmer.
When I arrived in Gutzmer it was dark. I flashed back to last year when Tom and I ran the race, it was late afternoon and still hot enough that the aid station was serving pink lemonade flavored shaved ice. I would continue to compare last year to this year and feel disappointed with myself that I was reaching aid stations much, much later than before. Which is ridiculous because I'd already planned to take as much time as needed and my aim was to get the over 30hr buckle.
I discovered at LAVS that as soon as full dark came on, I got a huge case of the sleepies. I had decided that rather than try to push through them, I would get the rest I needed and then continue. Matt M., who was part of the World’s Longest Turkey Trot with the previous year, came over to check on me as I settled onto a beautiful piece of cardboard to rest. I took my shoes off, plugged my phone into my battery pack, changed into my long sleeve, and tried to rest. At some point Oak and the gang passed through and snapped this photo.
I heard someone else come through and get offered a burger. Burger?! I perked up and asked for a burger, too. It was amazing and greasy and lovely. I continued to try to nap, and eventually Matt came over to kick me out of the aid station. I asked for and received another burger. I had reached a decision that I was going to DNF the race, but I was told that Gutzmer was no drop (I saw someone else drop there, but I wasn’t going to argue) so I had to either continue on to Monroe (and face the horrible detour) or return back to Hollywood. I knew dropping at Hollywood would be a no go, so I mustered the will to get up and continue on to Monroe so I could drop. It was mainly because I did not know the aid station works there, so I would feel less guilty ending my race there.
Mile 60 to Mile 74
I texted my husband to tell him I was going to DNF. He texted back that I needed to keep going. Get some caffeine, get some food, stay moving, and keep fucking going. I knew to never quit when I was having a low point, which I was, so I did keep moving even through the bullshit detour, which I realized reminded me of Vol State especially when I was warned about a dog that was trying to attack people. I flipped my mood around to positive and then started feeling really happy about quitting. I would get some sleep, be able to see my friends finish throughout the day, and hey, maybe I would have time to take a trip to my favorite coffee roaster (Berres Brothers) that I’ve been wanting to visit.
I was 100% at peace with my decision. As such, I wanted to let my friends know before word traveled through the grapevine that I had DNF’d, so I posted to TJM slack that I was ending my race in a couple miles once I got to the Monroe aid station. Little did I know that Tursi, Oak, Finny, Toots, Jens, and some others were there. Tursi had read my post and told Oak, who then spoke to one of the aid station workers that if a woman named Shae tried to DNF, she was to wake him up because he was going to talk me out of it.
I rolled up to the back of the aid station and took my pack off. Said hey to the group there and like a Kelpie emerging from silvery water sprung Oak from an emergency blanket cocoon, “NO! GIVE ME TEN MILES” It did not occur to me until this very moment that we were at a race by a podcast called Ten Junk Miles, so that is pretty amusing. I said no and that I was at total peace with my decision, but that I would wait a little while before I spoke to the AS workers about it.
While Oak patched up Toots’ feet he handed me the DDB egg. A little backstory on the egg – at the 2021 Badger Suzanne, aka Duck Duck Boobs, was working at the Dot’s aid station. Each time a runner came through she would hand them a plastic egg that had a hand-written note inside and gave us the instructions that when the race got hard, we should open them. I can’t remember if I opened mine during the race or after, but I framed my DDB note in my office and treasure it. Oak saved his though. He said he would only open the note when he really needed it. He has it in his pack for every race no matter what, because who knows when he’ll need it.
He handed it to me and told me to read it, but not let him know what it said. After reading the note, I burst out crying, knowing that I HAD to continue and I couldn’t let my race end. I think I even exclaimed, “Goddamn it, Suzanne!” Since I was going to keep going, I knew I had to get some caffeine in me. Luckily the aid station had coffee and I had purchased a hot chocolate packet for just this reason – nothing better than a late-night/early morning aid station mocha.
During the journey to Orangeville, we encountered several of our friends – Jada and Sherri with Chris pacing them, Oscar (who looked like a dog from far away because he was wearing a waist light and it was the way the brain could make sense of it, so I was laughing my butt off), Steph, Trena and Penny, and some others. One guy (Greg?) had a very pronounced lean and said he was going to sleep on the trail, but we were getting close to the Town Center Rd unmanned water station, so when we got there we helped lay out a tarp and gave him a trash bag for a blanket.
The distance between Town Center Rd and Orangeville is apparently only 4 miles, but I think there was some type of trickster god manipulating time and mileage, because it seemed to take forever to get there. Oak was excited because he had some funky flavored chips in his drop bag to share with Kat and we were both excited to see Kat, Azam, and Angela. Once you get to Orangeville, you are seriously counting down and each time you see something, it is the last time you’ll see it during the race. No ifs, ands, or buts – if you can make it to Orangeville, you had better turn your ass around and get to the finish.
Mile 74 to Mile 106/Finish
I noticed a mile (or 8 miles or 20 miles or whatever the trickster god decided) from the aid station that I had a blister under the tape on the ball of my foot underneath the big toe. I’d never had one in that exact spot, but I knew it needed to be fixed ASAP or I would be in big trouble. I headed over to a picnic table that had all sorts of good footcare supplies and started examining the blister. It was barely forming, so not giving much to pop, but I kept up with my safety pin until I decided to bug Oak. He stabbed it a few times and then applied a massive amount of pressure to fully get all of the liquid out. It was super painful, but I was glad for it because I would not have been able to cause that much pain to myself to fix the problem.
While there, either Kat or Angela, I can’t remember who, handed me a plastic gingham tablecloth to keep warm. It was cold out (for me, others would say 60℉ is nice, but no). When we left I took the “blanket” with me. At this point we were officially going to be riding the race cut offs and getting to aid stations that were on the verge of closing. I’d never been in this situation before, so it was kind of daunting to know we still had so many hours to go and there was a possibility we could get pulled from the course if we didn’t keep up a good pace.
As we went through these miles, we attempted to pick up other runners so we had someone else to talk to and could help motivate someone by having others with them, but we weren’t successful for any appreciable amount of time due to pace differences. I barely remember the Monroe aid station except for Oak’s friend Mary kicking us out since we were lingering for no reason. The lingering was likely due to not wanting to do the damned detour again. It was the last time through though and I vow I will never be on those roads ever again in my life. Fuck those roads.
Getting off the detour was a much needed mental boost. All we needed to do was get to Gutzmer, then get to Hollywood and we had it in the bag. The distance between Gutz and Monroe is long; right around 8 miles and it seemed to never end. I swore that the Potawatomi group decided to move their aid station further away just to spite us. I kept looking for the bright blue of the portapotty and finally it was in sight as I saw a 50-mile runner go into it. When we arrived Rachel, who was doing the 50k, was there so we chatted for a bit before she went off. It was then that we discovered that Hollywood was about 4 miles from Gutz, not 6 like we thought! This news instantly cheered us up as we were definitely going to beat the cut offs.
A short time later Oak and I left the aid station and were Hollywood bound! It wasn’t long before the energy of Gutzmer Rd wore off and I was struck with the mid-afternoon sleepies. I was attempting to do that thing where you keep walking and close your eyes in hopes that you’ll be able to sleep and keep moving at the same time. It never works out. I looked back and Oak looked to be in a similar situation, so I suggested a 10-minute trail nap. He agreed and we each selected a nice section of grass to sleep on. I elected for the side of the trail and he ended up in the middle of the trail. I took off my shoes, threw my bandana over my face and almost instantly passed out. We woke up 10 minutes later to Oak’s alarm, feeling refreshed. Later we would find out that a couple runners went right past us and we had no idea.
Again, we set out down the trail and after a few miles Hollywood was in our sight and we both got emotional. It was really Hollywood, we were really doing this thing. We were so, so close. We got all the hugs in Hollywood. This was the aid station to treasure and stay at for a bit. Eat some food, share some stories, hang out with everyone. Rachel had been at the aid station for a while, too and we were glad she had waited for us. After 30 minutes we got back on the trail to make our final push to the finish.
Having Rachel with us was amazing. She told us stories of her adventure running that day and what happened the previous day while she was volunteering at Hollywood. We were hiking at a good pace and I know we all felt completely invigorated by each other’s company. Before we knew it, we were approaching the last aid station before the finish. I had some food things while Rachel and Oak talked to Nora Bird, who ran that A/S.
After leaving and starting the final segment to the end, I really started to struggle. I felt like my feet didn’t want to move, I needed to sit down and just chill, I was starving. Still feeling like crap and simultaneously wanting to finish the race with Oak and Rachel, but also hoping they would leave me to sit down and be miserable for a while. I didn’t let myself do that and kept moving forward. As we neared the finish Oak kept talking about how all of our friends would be there waiting for us. I had doubts because it was so late in the race and I imagine all of them had left to their hotels to sleep. Maybe one or two of them would have stayed behind?
Oh, how wrong I was. We got into Belleville Community Park and the people at the finish line cheered. Everyone was there. I let Rachel go ahead to get her finish first and Oak let me go ahead. We weren’t quite DFL, but we were close.
After crossing the finish line and being greeted with a great big hug from Holly, I burst into tears. The next several minutes was hug-a-palooza as all of our friends rushed the finish line to hug. SO MANY HUGS. I could not believe I had done this crazy thing. I finished Vol State and with an eight-day recovery period, turned around and completed another 100-mile event. It would not have been possible without the support of my TJM family and all of the amazing volunteers at the race. I am so, so lucky to know all of these amazing people.
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