2026 Fall Superior 100 Mile (Finish)

Date: Friday-Saturday, September 11th-12th 2026, 8:00am start Friday, 10:00pm cut-off Saturday

Distance: 101 miles

Weather: (pre-race): I've been tracking the weather for a few days and on Monday prior to the race, Friday is looking iffy! Race start in the low 60's, highs in the mid 70's, likely rain after sunset throughout Friday night. Saturday looks a bit cooler, but highs still in the mid 60's. Looks as if it's going to be a good 15-20 degrees warmer throughout than last year! Good thing I've trained all summer in intense heat and humidity, but I'm not happy about this. I packed a cooler with ice sponges for use at Silver and Beaver Bay. Nothing I can do about Tettegouche and by the time I get to CR6, it should be better. UPDATE: It's now Wednesday and I'm tracking the potential of not just rain, but now also thunderstorms for most of Friday evening and into early Saturday morning (particularly between 7pm and midnight which would affect Tette, CR6 and Finland). In addition, the highs on Friday look to be mid to upper 70's which is NOT GOOD.

(post-race): Weather started out in the low 60's on Friday. A couple of hours in, thunder started and a quick rainstorm came through. Didn't last long, but long enough to cover the ground making every rock and every root even slippier. Then, of course, came the humidity. None of this was bothering me, though. I trained for it all!

Runners: Rolf and Reid are running this year, too. 

Stats: Registered 100M: 302, Male: 229 (76%), Female: 73 (24%) - 17 of which are in my age group of 50-59, States: 30, Countries: 3, Minnesota Cities: 91, Youngest: 19, Oldest: 72, Average Age: 45, Zero finishes or first attempt: 150 (50%), Previous finishers 152 (50%), One to four finishes: 115, Five or more finishes: 37

Oberg after crewing
for Rolf and Alex.

Crew: Mom, Dad, Alex, Marcus, Jonah, Griffin, Finnley and Juniper are all coming to crew and/or pace. Originally we thought Jax would be coming this year, too, but he ended up staying home with Kylah. 

What I'm wearing: UD hydration pack, Under Armour strappy tank, Free People Carpe Diem shorts,  Goldy long-sleeve (or lightweight Smartwool) packed in my bag, Dirty Girlz gaiters, Darn Tough socks, Altra Lone Peak's, iPhone (only being used for podcasts/music and I'll have it on airplane mode so I don't plan on it needing to be charged), AeroClip headphones, RSR buff, Superior or RSR hat. With the warming temps this week, I bought a 3L water reservoir. I had a different one, but it was too stiff and tall to fit in my pack so I bought one that is wider, more flexible and lighter that seems as if it'll work. I'm not adjusting my Skratch, but I think I'll need the extra water on Friday during the day. The plan is to swap the 3L for my 2L at CR6 (likely in a thunderstorm).

What's in the wagon:  My main teal Patagonia bag full of extra clothes, shoes and outerwear, first aid box, extra food and nutrition, cooler with ice water and sponges, etc.

Nutrition: (pre-race): I'm not bringing nearly as much food this year as last year as I found I wasn't super hungry or able to chew most foods later on in the race. I really gravitated towards soft foods and liquids. I will again be using Skratch throughout the entire race - I've figured out a way to have it available at every aid station by bringing collapsible bottles filled with concentrated Skratch to the non-crew aids. I also discovered they have a caffeine version that adds 80mg of caffeine to my pack - I'll be starting this at CR6 and will use it for the remainder of the race. All in all, it'll add up to 7,280 calories which is really all I'll need in addition to a few snacks here and there. 

I'll be bringing the usual snacks that I train with all year - muir gu's, waffles, gummies, potato chips, peanut m&m's and some recent discoveries - puff bars and smash bites. For the remainder of my calories I'll be relying on a grilled cheese sandwich early on, applesauce and smoothie pouches (easy to get down quickly), naked smoothie drinks, bolthouse mocha protein drinks (planning these at CR6, Cramer and Oberg) and Stok lightly sweetened cold brew coffee. Last year, I tried to eat some hot food at CR6 while I was changing (I'd made creamy chicken and wild rice soup), but it was too hard to chew and eat quickly. Mom had suggested thin mashed potatoes and gravy so she's going to make this. I'm also going to make some plain chicken broth - on its own, chicken broth doesn't have much in the way of calories, though, so I decided to make it "creamy" with my method of adding cashew cream which is basically a cup of cashews pureed with a cup of broth and mixed back into the soup (adds 758 calories). 

UPDATE: On Wednesday, I made my soup and Skratch. For the soup, I just boiled 2 qts of water and added 3T of bouillon. I also pureed a cup of raw cashews with some of the broth and mixed it all together. At first, the cashews left a bit of a sediment so I blended it a second time and then filtered it through a sieve into the thermos. It tastes great! For the Skratch, I made individual ones for the first few aid stations. For the caffeinated stuff, I put it all in a pot and added a gallon of water. It didn't dissolve as well as I liked so I heated it up on the stove slightly and that worked great. Put it in the orange cooler and filled it with about 18L of water. 

(post-race:) I never really got to test anything out, including my caffeinated Skratch. However, I might half the caffeine in the future, just in case it makes me pee too much! Made chicken soup for the family after we got home with my broth, too, so it didn't go to waste (I think it would have tasted amazing in the middle of the cold wet night). Alex and Rolf, on the other hand, really took to the Skratch. I made Alex start with it at Cramer and by Sugarloaf, both he and Rolf wanted refills! After we got home, I froze what remained in gallon jugs and large ice cubes for future use (the stuff is pricey, haha).

Training and Preparation: I've pretty much already gone over this in my earlier post. I didn't follow my "what I'd do next time" from last year's race so I'll just leave that at that - yes, I know I need to cross train more, strength train more and do more hillwork! I also really, really want to make the effort to get to the SHT to do my 30+20 b2b if there's a next time (silver bay to finland = 26m, hotel overnight and then crosby to cramer = 15m or crosby to temperance = 22m). My biggest concern is water, but maybe Marcus can leave water jugs at the parking lots? He can bike the gitchi gami while I'm on the trail. We can pick up the empty jugs on our return trip home?   

Race Week Preparation: I've run very little this week. A 4-mile run on Monday, followed by a 2-mile walk on Wednesday. Of course, I'm feeling pain everywhere. On my left side, I've had an ache on the left side of my foot, a pain in the center of my butt and an ache in my left pelvis (which doesn't feel like it did when I had a pelvic stress fracture and it's something I've noticed for awhile, so I'm trying to ignore it). On my right, I've struggled with my right knee on stairs (but not on the trail). Last year, the inner side of my right knee gave me problems for the last third of the race, but I was able to push through and took some meds. Hoping that's all I'll need this year, too! Doing a lot of resting and a lot of stretching. Trying to stay active, but not get hurt. 

Marcus and I chilled most of Thursday. I was trying to ignore my aches (the one in the middle of my butt is better), but now I have what feels like a "bruise" on my left hip. This only started a couple of days ago and I tried to roll it out with the foam roller, but I think that only made it worse. Since I wasn't running much, I really didn't know what this was. As I told Rolf at packet pickup, it was either nothing or it would be something. Famous last words.

We left for the airbnb around 2pm and stopped at packet pick-up this year to get my bib (and have my photo taken, which I was completely unprepared for). The airbnb was right across from Bluefin and was easy to get to. I immediately heated up my mac & cheese as it was already past 6pm. We had Big Brother to watch while having dinner. I really hoped I'd sleep this year! I had Marcus sleep in a different room and the bed wasn't too bad, but I could not fall asleep for anything. I know I slept once for a short time because I had a dream, but for the most part I just laid there until it was time to get up at 5:30. I had my coffee, got dressed and we left around 6:30.

Race Start: I remembered thinking while sitting in my sled before the start of the Croix Ultra earlier this year that a year goes by really, really fast and the same was true for this year's race. Hard to believe a year had gone by and I was at Gooseberry again! I felt good. I felt strong. I was actually feeling quite confident, albeit a bit wary of the overnight storms. I really thought I'd nail this again. Kylah said I got lucky last year - I wanted to prove her wrong. 

Gooseberry to Split Rock (Miles 0 to 8.5 - 8.5m): Leaving Gooseberry is fairly uneventful. Not much elevation and mostly grassy snowmobile trails (although they're tricky as there are a lot of rocks and roots poking out of the grass that can be hidden). This year I started with my poles and was grateful to have them. I knew this section would go by fairly smoothly. Most of the aches I had over the last week weren't causing me problems, but I was starting to feel whatever was going on with this most recent ache in my hip and I was trying really hard to ignore it. 

About an hour in.

Split Rock to Beaver Bay (Miles 8.5 to 18.8 - 10.3m):

Drinking Coke at the
Beaver Bay aid station.

 I made it into the first aid station at 9:57 which was a few minutes ahead of schedule. I was stoked! I didn't stop for much at the first aid station. I had them refill my water, but I hadn't drank too much so I didn't add a bottle of my Skratch concentrate. This section is long and has a lot of elevation - both ups and downs. My hip was really starting to hurt now. It just felt like a big bruise. I was able to run, but never without pain. I was able to hike up and down, but also only with pain. I made a plan to get to Beaver Bay, take some pain meds and continue on. About halfway through this section I started to hear thunder. I'd been tracking the weather very carefully over the past week and the rain wasn't supposed to start until evening, so what the heck? Sure enough, it decided to rain for awhile. Not a ton, but enough to cover all of the rocks and roots and make everything really slippery. At one point, I had a group of runners behind me and I was tired of letting people pass so I took a decline on some slippery rocks much too fast and tumbled down, crashing my right calf into a rock. I sat for a second while the runners offered to help, but I just let them pass. I had a huge lump on my calf, but weirdly it didn't hurt (but my hip was still killing me). 

Beaver Bay to Silver Bay (Miles 18.8 to 23 - 4.2m): When I got to Beaver Bay (only a few minutes off schedule which is crazy considering how much pain I was in), I was pretty emotional and Marcus could tell (I didn't even take the time to mention the awesome shirt, although I did notice it immediately). I asked Marcus for Advil and Coke while Alex refilled my water. I quickly told everyone what was going on, but I left quickly and really hoped the Advil would kick in and take this pain away. 

This is a short section and it should have only taken me an hour and a half to complete. At 2:43, ironically at the exact time I expected to be at the next aid station, I called Marcus. The Advil hadn't helped at all and I knew I couldn't continue to Tettegouche. I hoped I was more than halfway to the aid station and there was a point where I wondered if it would be quicker to turn around and go back to Beaver Bay. I talked everything through with Marcus. At this point, I couldn't run at all and I could barely haul myself up the hills. My poles were doing most of the work as my left leg was almost useless. We determined I was more than halfway and should have less than a mile or so to go. More than 40 minutes later, after having been passed by at least a dozen runners, I finally made it to Silver Bay. Alex had his chair ready for me. At rest, I wasn't in any pain at all. My hip only hurt when I lifted it towards my chest. It felt like the minor bruising I'd been feeling for a few days was now just a massive bruise all over my hip. I couldn't believe when I looked that there was nothing visible. Was I imagining all of this? I had no swelling and all I could think is that it was a stress fracture and I knew I didn't want to make it worse so I knew I had to stop. We told the aid people I was going to DNF and I sat waiting for Marcus to get the car. 

Love the Team Tanya shirts!

DNF at Silver Bay

Post Race: We all went back to the airbnb to decompress and eat. I changed while Mom heated up food for Dad and Marcus. I had my Chipotle from the previous day that I heated up and had that along with a much needed glass of wine. It was starting to thunder along with plenty of lightning and rain. Alex was toying with the idea of surprising Rolf and going back out to pace him overnight, but the weather was looking rough! Ultimately, he decided to sleep and meet him at Cramer on Saturday morning. 

In the morning, we all went to drop Alex off at Cramer. Rolf seemed quite happy to have the company as the night had been very, very tough. He said it stormed at least 8 different times. Marcus and I crewed for the two of them for the rest of the day. Mom and Dad came down from the cabin to join us at Sawbill and Oberg but headed back to the cabin before the finish. Marcus and I waited at the finish for the two of them and they got in sometime after 8pm. We left Rolf with his wife and Reid while we headed back to the cabin where we had one pizza left to make for Alex. Thankfully, I remembered I had my mac & cheese, too! 

Alex and I at the finish.

Recovery: The bruise that I thought I was feeling turned into an actual bruise sometime on Saturday or Sunday. I had two distinct bruises on my left hip. After Marcus and I did some research, I'm pretty sure I have a hip flexor strain (possibly level 2 since I have visible bruising). It's basically a result of overuse and is triggered by elevation (go figure). I knew my hips and glutes are two of the weakest parts of my body and I again regretted not doing any strength training. I immediately reached out to Reid on Monday to talk with him about his last year of training (he was shooting for a sub-30 race and ended up finishing just minutes after 28 hours!). He gave me a couple of resources and I followed up that same day. The main regret I've had for the past two years, with regards to my training, is needing to do strengthening. But I've had no idea where to start and the internet is so overwhelming so I just didn't follow up. Again, I figured I finished the race the first time so whatever I did worked, right? Well, I guess not. I went to Discover Strength for a 30 minute session earlier this week and will be going there weekly as working with a personal trainer 1 on 1 is exactly what I need. I need to be told what to do and how to do it. I want efficiency and don't want to mess around with machines and weights and, most importantly, I don't want to get hurt. Discover Strength has quite a few trainers and encourage rotating through them and I was able to meet with Owen who has worked with both Reid and Kelly for awhile - it was nice to not have to explain the whole 100 of it all and he knew exactly what exercises I needed to do to start this new journey. 

In addition, I met with a running coach (Michael Borst from Climb Above Coaching). I'm still undecided if I'll hire him - if I do, it would mostly be to get his advice on strengthening activities I can add to my personal training and do at home. 

Notes for Next Time: I waited a week to write up my post-race notes as I've had a lot of emotions this week and a lot of thoughts. I was shocked at how emotional I was on Saturday and Sunday. It just kept coming in waves and I realized I was grieving not being able to finish the race and having to DNF so early on for a reason I didn't completely understand. In the past week I've given this a lot of thought and the fact that I was so emotional really shows me that this is something I want. And I don't mean just finishing the race (although that's a serious plus), but mostly the lifestyle it's brought me. I actually really enjoy running and achieving weekly goals. This is such a hard race that it really forces me to work every day towards getting to the starting line, especially getting there uninjured. I can't easily just take a week or two off. Whether or not I'm able to finish the race really needs to be second to the ultimate goal of the journey I took getting there. 

I absolutely will be signing up for this race again in January. Whether or not I get in, we'll have to wait and see. Fingers crossed as I really don't want to wait two years for a re-do! I'm going to be stronger than ever next time.

I'll be back.