2008 Duluth Turkey Trot

There is nothing better than running a 5K race right before you get a chance to eat a Thanksgiving meal. It is somewhat of a tradition that Thanksgiving and a run should be tied together. It snowed heavy an hour before the race so the roads are covered in very slippery snow. Each step I could feel myself slipping and did not have a lot of power to accumulate a lot of speed. This was a great race, however. There were 909 runners, which was a great turnout. I finished the race in 19:36.3, which was good enough for 21st place overall, but 10th in my age group. Had conditions had been better I was hoping for a faster time, but that is winter weather in Minnesota. My wife and brother-in-law did the 2 mile walk and won the costume contest for the best costumes following the race.

Living History Farms Race

This was one of the running highlights of my career. The Living History Farms Race is a 7 mile race which is one of the more "Extreme" types of cross country runs out there. There are a total of 8 creek crossings, and the website promotes the fact that you will get cold and you will get wet. It was a huge race, with 6,938 finishers. I finished 236th out of 3,698 males and 240th overall. My time was 49:55, so I just edged the 50 minute mark. My brother and my wife did this race with me. We had a blast. It snowed during the race, so we were definitely cold after the race. There was plenty of wonderful food. The age group winners in the race earn food awards like whole frozen turkeys and other food like that. My brother and I started at the front, so we found that this was as a good strategy. Starting too far back makes it difficult as you have to wait more at the creek crossings because everyone gets bunched up and everyone slows down at the creeks. Temperatures that day were in the low 20's with light wind and it was cloudy.