Ultramarathon Daily News, Thurs. July 28

Today’s news is brought to you from Duluth Minnesota! My name is Kurt Drengler and I am taking this opportunity as a guest host of URP to give ya’ll a glimpse of the incredible trail running that we have here in the upper Midwest!

First off – a shameless plug for our playground up here… The Superior Hiking Trail follows the ridgeline above Lake Superior for 300 miles along it’s north shore. 300 miles of almost pure wilderness single track. You’ve seen it in Trail Runner Magazine. Come check it out!

A lot of you are familiar with what is probably the hottest run out there – the Badwater 135… Here’s one on the other end of that extreme. The Arrowhead 135 is run (or biked or skied) the last weekend of January through Northern Minnesota and can see temperatures of -40. This year’s balmy temperatures in the 20s saw 28 finishers with a winning time of 37 hours. Registration opens in October. Here’s a documentary on the race.

Minnesota Voyageur 50 Mile runs for it’s 34th year this weekend.  An entertaining yet revealing account of the race here.

Okay – one more plug for Lake Superior (think of it as a northern Tahoe – but less crowded).. The Coastal Trail in Lake Superior Provincial Park (Canadian side…) is a 40 mile trail that is a suggested week long backpacking trip. These guys, of course, wanted to do it faster.

Dan LaPlante was one of a few lucky Minnesotans to get into Western States this year (he’s the one that proposed to his girlfriend at the finish line). Here’s his race report.

My wife’s grandmother turned 106 yesterday. I’ve never thought to ask her if she wanted to go for a run… Maybe I should!

Kanawha Trace 50K in Ona, West Virginia this weekend!

Having a hard time figuring out your nutritional needs before, during, and after runs? How about you just don’t eat!

Speaking of the Olympics, this one’s got an unfortunate typo.

Looks like Richard has made it into Oregon and has gone up and down Mt. Hood. Anyone know where the RASH project is at?

Over the last couple years – I’ve developed this weird clicking sound in my ankles whenever I go up stairs or run up a hill. After a lot of web research – I self-diagnosed it (I’m not even close to a doctor) as peroneal subluxation. I saw a orthopedic specialist who said it wasn’t and that I was fine. Anybody else develop stuff like this that freaks you out and makes you think your running days are coming to an end?

Lastly – I often ponder the simplicity of our sport and how low of an environmental impact it makes (you only need a pair of shoes, right?). Then I consider flying to destination races, crew cars driving through the night, and that gets me thinking… what can we do to minimize our impact?

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