He Almost Didn't Go. He's Glad He Did.

How this was made: Gemini interviewed me, then Claude wrote this piece in the style of a newspaper article. The quoted passages come from my recorded responses and preserve my meaning and intent. For readability, quotes were lightly edited filler words, repeated fragments, and verbal stumbles (for example: “uh,” false starts, and duplicate words) without changing substance.

I’m experimenting with this format to get ideas out of my drafts folder and into the world. The voice in the quotes is real; the voice around them isn’t trying to be.

Matt wasn’t planning on running the Crater Trail Run 50K.

A week before the race, he hadn’t given it serious thought. Then a friend from Hopkins Run Club planted a seed. Matt figured he needed a long run that weekend anyway. He sent a text asking if there was still room at the VRBO. There was.

Sometimes that’s all it takes.

What followed was 50 kilometers of singletrack through the bluffs outside Decorah, Iowa — two loops, oppressive humidity, slipping insoles, slick muddy descents, and a finish that left him feeling something he hadn’t quite expected.

Grateful.

Two Loops of Fun

The Crater Trail Run’s double-loop format gave him a chance to better understand the course.

The first 25K felt like disconnected fragments — trail sections that didn’t quite add up to anything coherent. That was fine. Matt was taking notes.

“On the second loop, I was really able to piece together some of the different things that seemed very separated or disconnected on the first loop,” he said. “I could really see how the course came together — and where I had been previously.”

He’d used the first loop to learn the course. The second loop was for running it.

He also appreciated quarter-kilometer markers that tracked cumulative loop progress. He turned it into arithmetic. Multiply by two for percentage complete. Add fifty on the second loop. “Kind of fun,” he said. Trail runners find ways to keep their brains occupied.

The terrain wasn’t Superior rugged. But he found what he was looking for. Rocky sections he chose to run rather than walk. Muddy descents that humbled him. “Other people were going faster than me on the downhills,” he admitted. “But I really made up for it in my strength in being able to hike as well as run the hills.”

That’s the Superior 100 in a sentence, really.

Embracing the Problem

His insoles started slipping mid-race. Humidity, heat, wet conditions — threatening blisters on the ball of his foot, miles still to go.

He could have fixated on it. Instead, he managed it and kept moving. That was the plan all along.

“I wanted to go with a single pair of shoes and force myself to practice some of the problem-solving if things came up,” he said. “So in that way, it kind of worked out.”

No aid station magic. No crew handing him a fresh pair. Just a guy on a trail, solving a problem. That’s the whole game at a hundred miles.

The Helpful Race Director

At bib pickup the day before, a kind man stopped to ask if Matt had any questions. He did — directions to the start line. The man gave thorough, careful answers.

Matt didn’t find out until later it was the race director.

“He didn’t feel like it was below him to talk with an individual runner about directions to the race,” Matt said. “I love when RD’s can take time to offer personal help during a stressful couple of days.”

The Crater Trail Run has donated over $150,000 to Decorah-area schools since its founding. The kind team running the show isn’t exactly a surprise when you know that detail.

The Part That Surprised Him Most

Matt has done most of his races alone or with family — the only one up at 4 a.m., the only one quietly gearing up in the dark.

This time, six other runners were doing the same thing.

Pre-race dinner. Early alarms. Carpooling to the start. Running the opening miles alongside a friend before being waved ahead. Waiting at the finish line. Post-race burgers and beer flights at Toppling Goliath Brewery. Porch conversation in the humid afternoon shade.

“It was a great experience having some other folks who I knew — and others who were part of the community that I didn’t know as well but had an opportunity to get to know,” he said.

He recovered overnight like he hadn’t run just 31 miles and 4,800+ feet of vert.

“I’m feeling good about where my fitness is at,” he said. “I felt very confident out on the trail. There’s a lot in being prepared for it. But overall, I think I’m in a good place.”

He almost didn’t go to Decorah.

He’s glad he did.