My whole goal this year was to improve on last year's performance. Last year I actually had to walk at one point in the run. My biggest thing last year is I think I talked myself into taking it easy. Not this year. I broke out to a comfortable pace and then just plugged away the miles. This 10K run is up a mountain and back on the Sugarbrush trail. It was a competitive field. Many fast runners from the Duluth area attended the race. Duluthian Greg Hexum was back from a back injury and easily took first in the race for the ninth year in a row. I talked with him for a while after the race and he had hurt himself snowshoeing earlier in the year. It is good to see him back. I kept my pace as fast as I could and passed the 5K marker at 25:06. Then it was running over boards and mudpiles as I tackled the downhill section. The last 5K I did in 19:06, for a total time of 44:11.5, which is almost 2 minutes faster than last year. As a result of the more competitive field, my better time did not improve my overall standings this year as I finished 18th overall (13th last year) and was 9th in my age group (6th last year). I keep thinking it will be easier when I get older, but the same runners will age the same as I do. Angela cut tons of time of her 1:03:57.7 time (1:40 last year. . .nice job, Angela). She finished 124th overall and was 13th in her age group. 244 people participated in the 10K event. Afterwards, Angela and I went back up to the muddy sections of the trail for some additional mud running (well, at least I went in the mud again). Both Angela and I edged out a couple runners right before the finish. You can see how muddy we got in the picture where I am cleaning myself off with the firehose after the race.
The third annual CaRunBi triathlon was quite an event. It was a fun race although I was expecting a bigger turnout than what we had received. Supposedly there were three flat tires during the race. One guy yelled at me to let some volunteers know he needed a pump because he had dropped his pump near some railroad tracks. I would have kept the pump with me until I was done before trying to drop some weight. They warned everyone about not crossing the railroad tracks too fast, but some people apparently raised a big stink about this to the race directors. It was a great race as always. I finished in 1:06:39, which was 4 seconds slower than last year (still pretty consistent if you ask me). I was the second paddler back after the paddling portion and the second biker back after the biking portion. I finished first overall (third straight year) in the solo division and second overall if you include the teams. The team with Paul Hetke ("Paul's Angels") beat me. He's such a fast guy. My wife also participated and finished first overall out of the females. Congrats to Angela. It sounds like they may change the route a bit next year. Afterwards, my wife and I had a nice brunch with Sharon and Gary Mikolon and Steve Schultz. I tried some wonderful banana pecan pancakes. I would have posted a picture had I had my camera with me. They were that good!
