Book Across the Bay

The annual trip to Ashland for the Book Across the Bay is one of the most fun races we do.  The race occurs on the frozen water between Ashland and Bayfield in Wisconsin.  Participants can snowshoe or ski and the race distance is 10K.  However, the most unique aspect of this event is that it begins just as the sun is setting.  Therefore the race is run almost entirely in darkness.  It is dark other than the luminaries made of ice that line the entire length of the run.  It finishes in Bayfield for a massive party under a large tent filled with hundreds of participants who warm up to chili and hot chocolate while they listen to great music and catch up with family and friends.  This is the seventh time I have participated in the event.  My wife and I made the trip up to be part of the event.  This year was one of the coldest times I have participated in the event.  Temperatures hovered around the zero mark, but being on the open ice like this race is, the wind can certainly be a factor.  I finished the event in 55:45, which was good for seventh overall out of 748 snowshoers.  The most important factor was finishing the event with no frostbite.

 



IRIS Thanksgiving Day 5K

The Thanksgiving ISIS 5K Turkey Trot in Faribault, Minnesota was the 5th annual event.  There was a 5K and a 10K event held.  The 5K event attracted 582 people.  I participated in the event with my wife and daughter.  Several other of my wife's family members also showed up for the event, including three of Angela's cousins and one of her Aunts.  The event was cold, as always, but allowed for more justification in an extra helping of Thanksgiving supper (as if I really needed justification to eat another helping).  I took off at the gun giving chase to a couple of guys who were matching each other stride for stride and would eventually finish first and second in under 18 minutes.  I crossed the finish line in 20:26, which was good for 5th place out of 582 runners in the 5K.  My wife ran with my daughter for as long as Kaia could run, which was probably about a mile, and then walked the rest of the way, taking a shortcut to get Kaia to the finish line.  In total they probably still went about 2 1/2 miles of running and walking which isn't bad for a 3 1/2 year old in a snowsuit.  This was the 8th year my wife and I have both participated in the event, without missing a year.  It has become a family tradition in the fullest sense.

 

Chequamegon Fat Tire Race

 It had been years since I have been able to do the Chequamegon 40 mountain bike race.  That time I had a rental bike due to some problems with my current bike, so I made a bike work even though it was not my own.  I didn't have a time that I was extremely proud of considering what I was going for that year.  I thought this would be a pretty good year for me considering I had ridden more bike this year than I had the last couple of years.  This year a bunch of us bike riders from the Herd of Turtles biking group decided to wear our Herd of Turtles jersey to the race.  We had a picture of a group of us before the race.  The first picture shown here shows Matt Steele, Josh Moe, Karl Schwartz, Brian Hellman, and myself.  This picture was taken of us at the dead last position of the race shortly before the race started.
A group of riders had made a decision on a plan which I questioned.  A group of friends that I bike with suggested starting at the very last place in the race and gradually making our way forward.  The reasoning was that we would pass hundreds of people in the first few miles of highway riding.  In theory this makes sense, and I didn't have a preferred start, but I couldn't quite justify starting at the very end of the race and having to make my way in front of that many people.  I had to jump ahead on the corral a little to get a better position.  A few friends who had a better corral positioning mentioned they were going to purposely not go into their corrals and wait at the end, but in the end these friends also did not do this and went into their preferred start gates which I would have done too.

Kelly Randolph, a photographer who has taken many pictures of Chequamegon races in the past, took this picture of me during the opening minutes of the race just after leaving the highway and entering the trails.  I couldn't believe how many bike riders had 29 inch wheels.  There were a hole lot fewer riders on 29 inch wheels the first time I did this race compared to this year's race.
I was quite a ways behind a few of my friends who were in the corral ahead of me.  All of these friends are pretty competitive when it comes to this race, even if they try telling me that they are going to be more relaxed during this race.  I was hundreds of places behind them, if not a thousand or so riders behind them in the starting gate, but I thought that this was a situation in which I just had to go out and ride my own race.  I passed hundreds of people in the opening minutes.  Sixteen miles into the race, I passed my first friend, Greg Crites.  I was surprised as Greg usually is pretty dominant on the bike and he has done so much mountain biking this year.  In any case, I carried on and at mile eighteen, passed another friend Ron Kay.  Matt Nelson, who also is ultra competitive at this event, was the next rider I passed shortly before mile 20.  I couldn't believe I had made that amount of time up on these bicycling friends who usually are all super competitive with each other.  This gave me tremendous confidence in going forward and probably helped me push even harder to try to gain a gap on these riders.  Finally, shortly before the Fire Tower hill, Dave Putnam caught up to me.  I rode with him for a few miles and he was pushing a high pace, so I stayed with him as much as I could.  Not being familiar with the course, I approached Fire Tower hill and didn't know that it was coming so I didn't get my bike into the appropriate gearing so my bike came to a stop as I couldn't down shift in time to allow for the ascent of Fire Tower hill.  This steep hill was also then one that is hard to restart on so I walked up a good portion of the four sections of the hill, and in doing so Matt Nelson caught back up to me.  I was just bike lengths behind him at the top of the Fire Tower climb and so I started pushing the pace and gradually catching back up to Matt.  I started taking chances.  I had been great about taking my time on moving around the water puddles that are present throughout the course.  I was edging closer to Matt and decided to go pretty quick through the edge of a water puddle and entered the side of a puddle, but instead of having secure ground, I hit entirely soft mud and was thrown into the woods.  I didn't get hurt, and it was likely the most awesome biking fall I had ever had.  It would have been interesting to have had a video of the wipeout.  I was thrown into the woods away from my bike.  Because I was fine, I jumped back on the bike and tried pushing the pace again.  That's when I identified a problem.  Whenever I tried going up a climb or accelerating, my chain would drop off the chain ring.  The only way to correct this was to dismount from the bike and manually move the chain back onto the ring.  I had to do this many times the last 10 miles of the race and gradually gave up many of the hundreds of places I had gained on the day.  I had to walk up several hills due to my chain dropping.  Matt Nelson got away.  Greg Crites passed me with about 6 miles to go.  Ron Kay passed me again as I was walking up the last hill again due to a dropped chain just a few tenths of a mile from the end.  Well, I ended up giving up major places due to whatever the issue was and had to settle for another subpar finish when I thought I would do much better. 
I settled for a final time of 2:52:38.5, which was good for 706th place out of 1942 riders.  Fortunately, I bettered my previous time from 2007 by 14 seconds.  I should have been much faster than that, but did meet my goal to finish faster than in 2007.  The post race was fun and always a great time to be around friends following the event.  On the plus side, I got dirtier on this race than most other races I have been a part of.  I considered myself dirtier after this race than when I did the Spooner Mud Run this year.

Brill Harvest Fest 5 mile

 Once again the Brill Harvet Fest came about.  This year was one to provide some interesting changes to the day.  Due to some logistical concerns, they were unable to have enough volunteers to be able to help out with the race.  As a result, the directors felt that making the race a noncompetitive fun run was the thing to do.  It wasn't my idea of the ideal situation, as the race has already varied between noncompetitive and competitive over the last few years.  The concern is that if the race continues to vary between competitive and noncompetitive, the numbers have the potential to suffer.  This year, the race organizers decided to do away with the Wisconsin State Nordic Walking Championships.  I am not sure why this has happened since this event has been one of the pinnacle events of the Brill Harvest Fest.  I even participated and won the event one year.  Although I am not traditionally big on noncompetitive fun runs, I was asked to be a pace runner for the event.  I was asked to lead a group of people going 7 minutes/mile (or was it 7 miles/minute. . .there was room for confusion.).  In any case, I decided to show up and give my wife an opportunity to go to a meeting she needed to go to, and then take a much needed nap.  I decided to bring Kaia to the event.  I wanted to push her in the stroller though I was asked to be the pacer.  I didn't think that a pacer was really a necessity for a run of this caliber.  Usually pacers are something that race organizers will bring to the sport when the field of runners is large.  Well, this wasn't the type of race that needed a pacer.  One of my wife's previous coworkers, Karen Heram, showed up to take some pictures.  I didn't watch the watch too closely.  I just decided that with little effort I was able to set a pretty good pace. . .one that led the field.  The only time I gave up the lead position was when I noticed my shoe was untied and stopped to tie it.  Otherwise, Kaia and I led the race out for the 5 miles of trail running (also different than the 5K and 10K runs that are typically held on this trail).  Five miles is such a random distance that I hope the 5K and 10K distances will be in the plan for next year.  I treated my job as a pacer seriously and decided that I needed to lead a few runners to the finish and ran with two other guys who wished I would run pushing the baby stroller more often.  In the end, Kaia finished first in the event.  She was a stroller length ahead of myself and the other two guys.  The other two guys and myself crossed the finish line tape together hand-in-hand.  It would have made for a wonderful picture, but for the first time in as long as I can remember, there was no one taking pictures at the finish, so you will have to simply believe me on this one.  One of the guys told me we ran a 7:53 min/mile pace.  So, for the five mile run, we must have been about 34:25.  Not a blazing fast run, but one that was indeed fun because many fun things were discussed along the course of the five miles between myself and the other two guys (both of which hope that I show up pushing the stroller again next year since they say it levels the playing field).  The pictures below are from Karen Harem (who I wish would have been at the finish line for a wonderful picture opportunity).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Weyerhaeuser Booster Days 5K

I was urged on by the race director to come out and check out this race.  It was the first time I had been personally invited to do a race by a race director when I had not actually done the race in the past.  I had to really brag about this to my wife.  I usually joke about how some races I have done in the past will send out announcements for the current year's race, but send this out to participants from previous years.  They probably just assume that if someone has done a race in the past, perhaps they would want to consider doing it again.  That makes sense.  However, I have never done this particular race before so I have no history in this race.  Well, I was free and decided to check it out.  The best part of the event was it had a kid's race and the temperatures actually dropped today for the first time in about a week and a half, making race conditions slightly better than they would have been in previous days.  Kaia usually is game for doing a kid's race.  Today's event was a 1/2 mile out-and-back course.

She loves to do the races with me.  Usually she holds my hand the whole way.  However, today she stopped during the race to try to pick up a large rock that was on the road.  Unfortunately for her, it was stuck in a tar repair snake patching up the road and she eventually realized it wasn't coming out.  She got her medal and was all smiles.

The adult race was the most successful race the event has had in it's 3 year history.  They had previously had about 50-60 runners as the most ever for this event, but today I heard they had about 110.



I am still trying to figure out what the advantage to leaning so far forward at the beginning of a race.  I am not sure if it really helps you go faster.  I certainly don't run the whole race bent over like I am at the start of a race.

I stayed with a young high school cross country runner for the first half of the race and we ran neck-and-neck until the turn around mark at the half way point.  Then, I maintained my pace and he fell of the back.  I went on to win the race in a time of 19:30, with this young runner finishing second in 20:11.

Going up to collect my first place medal, I was all smiles.

Kaia, of course, wanted to check out my medal as it was different than hers.  She was getting ready to hug me, too.

I love going to races with my favorite racing buddy.  Kaia and my wife, Angela, are my greatest fans.

Mission for Mercy 5K

The oral surgery group that our office refers most patients to had a run/walk with proceeds designed to help provide funds to help individuals needing access to dental care in this state.  The Mission for Mercy is designed to help individuals with a variety of dental related treatments.  All work is done by volunteers and money raised from this activity and other fundraisers helps provide money to help this cause.  It was a great function as I was able to involve most of my staff in this activity.  A couple of my coworkers had never been part of a run/walk event before.  Pictured below from left to right are Eryn, my hygienist, Dawn, my patient care coordinator, Sharon, my assistant, Missy, my other patient care coordinator, Sarah, my other assistant, and myself.  We're all sporting our new Arrowhead Family Dental water bottles which conveniently match the shirts for the event.  

I posed with several staff members by the lake during the walk.  It was a pleasure to be able to participate in an event like this with so many of my coworkers and I walked the event with my staff.  I had a lot of fun.  Eryn took fourth place overall and was the first female in the run.  Congratulations to her for putting Rice Lake on the map and representing our office well.

Boyceville Cucumber Run 5K

Last year I brought home the pickle trophy at the Cucumber Fest run.  This year I had some supporters to come and cheer me on.  There was no kids' race today for Kaia to participate in.

Kaia found her special Spongebob blanket to sit on.

And they're off!

I am seen here rounding one of the final corners of the race.

I quickly approach the finish line.

After the race, I took my daughter out to cheer on the other runners.  We saw a police car, and the policeman told Kaia she could look inside if she wanted to.

Kaia, book in hand, walks with me to go to the refreshment table.

There were all sorts of refreshments.  Bagels, bananas, oranges, water, and of course, pickles.

The refreshment people had all sorts of supplies sitting out in the coolers.  Yet another race where the knives used to cut the fruit up are left out in the open.  I never can quite understand why so many races do this.  It's pretty dangerous in my opinion.

I finished the 5K course in 19:11, which was 5th place out of 42 runners.  No pickle trophy was earned today, but I decided instead to treat myself to a nice postrace pickle.