Glenn Richardson (MM14162, DA3076, HF16007) – Badger 100 is primarily on the Badger State Trail (rail trail) in Wisconsin but crosses into Illinois for a few miles. A few detours due to trail issues gave the course most of its elevation and without the detours it is flat and completely runnable.
The swag is awesome and plentiful. 100 milers get a belt at packet pickup but have to earn the buckle. We also got a drawstring bag, reversible bucket hat, t-shirt, socks, buff and a patch!
We camped at the race HQ in Belleville, WI and I took a 40 minute shuttle ride to the start in Orangeville, IL. We went north for about 35 miles and turned around at Dots Tavern to head south back to the start and then head back north for 30 miles to race HQ and the finish line.
Storms Friday night kept me from getting much sleep and I got up just after 2am to since I had to catch the shuttle to the start so I did not start feeling well rested. Tried to nap on the shuttle but it didn’t help much.
Cool temps to start but high humidity. I ran into Tony Nguyen at the start and I hadn’t seen him since Tunnel Hill a few years ago. Nice surprise!
I knew it was going to warm up so I started slow and just focused on running smart and taking care of myself. Pleasantly surprised to run into Abbi as I was heading north. We had not planned on her pacing me so I was stoked to see her.
She ran with me for a while and was with me for one of the toughest stretches of trail that was exposed during the heat of the day. I picked up my light around the 50 mile point and was feeling good. I was hoping to make up some time when the sun went down but the lack of sleep caught up with me and I got really sleepy tired.
I was struggling to keep my eyes open and travel in a straight line so I decided to power nap when I hit the turn around at mile 70. I laid down on a picnic table bench and had an awesome volunteer agree to not let me stay down longer than 15 minutes. The nap helped wake me up a bit so I ate some food and headed back north for the final stretch.
I quickly faded and started to get sleepy again with about 8 miles to the next aid station. I knew I would feel better when the sun came up so just kept moving through the darkness.
The sun was starting to come up as I arrived at the aid station and they hooked me up with some awesome food and cold coffee. I perked up a bit and picked up pace for a few miles while enjoying the cool morning temps and the sun coming up. I was pleasantly surprised to see Abbi coming at me once again.
At first, I thought my eyes were tricking me because there were many runners that started their races Sunday morning and were coming at me so I had been seeing people I thought were her but we hadn’t planned on her pacing me so I had to keep telling myself that can’t be her. As I got closer, I realized she really had come back out to pace me to the finish. So awesome!
We chatted for a bit as we moved along and as I was approaching the finish I decided to slow it down to finish just over 30 hours to get the bigger, better ‘over 30 hours’ buckle.
I ended up making it back to the finish area with some time to spare so decided to chill on some swings for a bit that were just a 100 yards or so from the finish line. We cheered on other runners as they went by and eventually made my way to the finish to be the first to get the ‘over 30 hours’ buckle with an official finish time of 30:00:49. Overall, great time and well organized event. Flat and fast course with well stocked aid stations.
Photo and Post Credit Glenn Richardson