New Richmond Decide Commit Succeed 5K

No pictures are available to prove my craziness, but the shorts were donned for one last winter race at the Decide Commit Succeed 5K race series. My wife told me someone she knows said to her one time that for as much education as I have had I should know more about dressing more warmly during the winter. My comment in return is that with as much heat as you generate in running, a little 20 or 30 degree cold doesn't even come close to chilling me off when I run. Granted I wouldn't run a marathon dressed like that if that was the temperature throughout the race, but it certainly is acceptable for a 5K. I even know a few friends that wear shorts while they snowshoe in subzero weather (probably just to show off how tought they are). At least I am not that crazy as I have only wore shorts into December, but not January or February, yet. I wore the Santa outfit I have worn so many times before for one last race of the year to bring my yearly total to 20 races, tying my all time high for a year. This was a low key course which was pretty loosely organized. My understanding of the event was they are trying to keep members of the New Richmond Area Centre (that's how they spell it) motivated. There are no prizes and they don't list any times. It is for your own benefit. They say the course changes from month to month. It was a relatively flat course other than a hill after the first half mile and since it was an out and back course, there was a hill a half mile from the end as well. I finished 2nd in a time of 19:37. I think there might have been about 19 or 20 runners. Angela would be proud in that I wasn't a race groupee after the race. From the time I got to the race, registered, ran the race, ate the post race food, and pulled out of the parking lot to leave for home, I was there less than an hour. I don't know if I have ever been in and out of a race that fast before.

2010 Gobble Gallop 5K

Thanksgiving Day races are the best runs of the year. It certainly helps to justify eating a bunch if you can say that you already ran a race the morning of Thanksgiving. This year marked the fifth year in a row that my wife and I have done this event. Traditions are great. Conditions were not. Much of the middle of the course was very slushy. Running on the bricks of downtown with all the slush and ice made for very slippery conditions. I saw one runner fall down at the halfway mark. The conditions were fair for the beginning and end of the race, but tricky for running otherwise. It was not my fastest 5K of the year, as I clocked in at 19:37, which was 36th out of 878 runners. This was pretty comparable to my time and finish from two years ago which was the last time that I ran this race. My wife and brother-in law also ran the race together, but decided not to wear costumes this year.

Halloween Hustle 5K

This was my first crack at a race following the cross country season. I was pumped. I planned the outfit well as it was super easy to run in. Everyone knows that I am the type of guy who will run in shorts in the middle of winter, so I dressed up like an old lady. To all other real grandmas out there, eat your heart out. I was pretty cute. The race was won overall by local Duluthian Eric Hartmark. He ran a speedy 16:27, but one of the race directors said that his time was really slow and that he was having an off day. I would hate to see what a great day was like. I did get the pleasure of keeping up with him for the first half mile before he pulled away into the distance. I finished in 18:54, which was not too bad for getting back into running. I was 6th overall out of 138 runners. I was a little disappointed I didn't win one of the prizes in the costume contest. The costume contest was won by a guy who wore a pair of underwear and a cape and was called "Captain Underpants." Sounds like an idea he thought of an hour before the race, but congrats to him. Angela also ran the race as well as shown in the picture. She hates dogs ("hate" is not a strong enough word for how much she dislikes dogs), but yet her mom had this costume sitting around and somehow Angela didn't hesitate to wear it during the race. At least she was warm during the run. She finished in 31:04.

Woolly Mammoth Run

I was super pumped for today's race as one of the kids that I coached during the previous year of cross country who had made it to the Wisconsin State High School Cross Country tournament showed up. He was signed up for the 10K race and I was hoping he was going to do really well. As a cross country coach, you love to see your kids do well while you are coaching them, but you also love to see kids develop a love for the sport that stays with them and encourages them to pursue running later in life as well. This kid that I coached had not run a lot over the summer and he told me he had only run about three times over the summer. He led until about the 8K mark as he told me, finishing second overall. I think with some training he would have dominated the race as this runner was one of the top runners in the State during his senior year. I finished the 5K as the first place runner in a not-so-stellar time of 19:39. This race is a well-run race which tends to not attract too large of a crowd. It is mostly composed of local runners, but it would be great to see it expand to bring in runners from further away. I am on the committee for helping to promote this race. It continues to bring in more runners year after year which is definitely a great thing.

Boyceville "OK" Cucumber 10K

This year my goal was to stick to the path and not lose track of the sign markers. Not wanting to repeat what happened last year, I made sure to check out the route very well. One of these days there needs to be some competition brought for the 10K, as it is won on a yearly basis by the same guy for something like 10 years. On a funny basis, some guy in his forties or fifties ran and won the 1 mile race and stood on the podium with a couple of kids under 10 (who finished 2nd and 3rd). It would have been a funny picture. I am sure the picture of that would have some label underneath it such as "easy as taking candy from a baby" in reference to the forty/fifty year olds accomplishment, but congrats to him anyway. I ran the 5K race with a good early pace, but at the halfway point it was by no means a record-setting pace. I actually was on pace for a time about 19 minutes at the halfway point, but I think the push for the finish kept we working as I finished 2nd overall in a time of 18:53. The winning time was 10 seconds faster than my time. One of these days I will find a way to get a hold of one of those famous cucumber trophies. It would be a great thing for my collection.

Cumberland Shooting Stars 5K

Last year I didn't look closely enough at the newspaper listing the Shooting Stars 5K. I drove out to Cumberland only to find that the race was the next weekend. What a let down. This year I made sure to watch the date closely. It was fun to hear the race director describe the course. He mentioned it was a fairly flat course through the whole length of the course. It was anything but that. A huge hill that continued on for about the first 1/2 mile, then a steep downhill, and a real grinder at the end when you are ready to be done. It was a fun course. I finished in 19:09, with the male winner being a friend of mine, in 19:03. The female winner finished in 18:54 (I hear she is on a full-ride scholarship to the University of Washington for their cross country team). The post race festivities included a fun pancake breakfast. Pictures were taken by Katie Wilder from Katie Wilder Photography.

Complete results are found at
http://www.raceberryjam.com/indexrr.html

Eau Claire WORS Firecracker race

This was a great weekend of fun. Many of the guys I ride bike with camped out the night before the race. We were able to watch a movie on an outdoor big screen TV about Lance Armstrong winning the "Race Across the Sky." The next day started with a nice 10K trail run which coursed through the woods following much of the same course that the "Rumble in the Jungle" snowshoe race followed during the winter months. It was a beautiful course, but it was certainly tough. I finished third overall with a time of 52:53.5 and was able to earn a nice medal. The mountain biking race was a different story. My goal in this race was just to finish. In the mountain bike race, I finished 186th out of 192 riders. During the ride I came around a bend too quickly and crashed into a tree with my front tire (I was fine, but my bike wasn't). After the crash, I later realized that my rim had bent. Every revolution of the tire made a rubbing sound, causing a loss of speed and motivation. The tire rubbed against the front fork. My buddies thought that you could just true the rim to fix it, but there was no truing this rim. It was scrap metal. I finished with a time of 1:37:15.6 for the 15 mile course. This day made me realize that I am better off focusing on wide open bike races like the Fat Tire Race. I am much more comfortable on the wide open trails than narrow, technical routes.

Turtle Lake Turtle Trot

It has been a few years since I have tackled the Turtle Trot race. I had the pleasure of running with Andrew Rohlman, who won the cross country sectional that the Rice Lake High School cross country team ran in Amery last year. I ran with Andrew for the first mile or so. He ended up winning the race, but not by much. He said he is running in college, but he kept it close with the second place runner. I finished fourth, with a time of 39:46, just 3 seconds from the time of the third place runner. I didn't know the end of the course well enough to know when the finish would be so I struggled to pass the guy who finished just ahead of me. I guess I should have drove the course to check it out. Quite a few people from our local running community participated, including Danette Hellman, Nicole Finsted, Dave Gerber, Ted Romportl, and Brian Arnold. This course is a relatively flat course which is run through the countryside south of Turtle Lake. I enjoy this race since I am a Lion Club member in Rice Lake, and this race is put on by the Lions Club of Turtle Lake.

Fishy Four

Traditions. . . I will probably always give out joke gifts to my family members at Christmas. I will always give respect to the wonderful Minnesota Twins. I will continue to celebrate the 4th of July and Thanksgiving with running races as there is no better way to celebrate the holidays than with an intense workout followed by fireworks or intense eating. This year was no different. We gave up the wonderful Tofte Trek which is still perhaps my favorite all time race for the fantastic Fishy Four. I have only done this one time before. This year, my biking buddies decided to make it interesting. You had to predict your time at the first mile. I got a little greedy. I thought I could run a 5:46, but settled for a 5:55. I didn't win the bet. . .I think the pool was up to $8. I did achieve a 24:41 for an average pace of 6:10/mile. I was happy with this since it was an improvement over my previous time in the run. Wouldn't you know it, I was 11th overall out of 506 runners, but finished 3rd in my age group, so no medal today. I was probably the highest overall age group finisher to not take home any hardware since the overall winner does not usually win an age group award, but instead takes an overall award. Well, I was very satisfied with the run and enjoyed seeing many good friends during the run and afterwards during the postrace ceremonies.

RCU Charity Classic

My wife and I like the RCU Charity Classic for several reasons. They offer many different race options (10K and 2 mile) for adults and they are held at different times. The benefit of this is that each of us can do a race and be able to cheer for the other person. Most races do the events at separate times, but the RCU Charity Classic has grown so big that it would be almost impossible to hold both main events together. In addition, there are a couple of kids races, which makes it nice that attending this event can truly be a family affair. I did the 10K race at the start of the morning and clipped along to a good pace of 39:49, which was good for 17th place overall out of 382. My age division was stacked with several fast runners, and I finished 6th in my age group out of 50 other runners. I was happy in that my 10K time continues to lessen as the summer is going on. My wife ran the 2 mile and finished in 19:20. She was 7th out of 33 runners in her age group. I placed a race bib on Kaia and we walked the course (her first official race). We finished in 39:36. She actually finished a few feet ahead since she was in the stroller, sleeping the whole way.

Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon

Grandma's marathon weekend is one of the best weekends in the summer. My wife was still recovering from giving birth to our beautiful daughter, Kaia. Angela kept her promise to her brother, Matt, that she would run the 5K race with him. This was Matt's first ever running race and the William A. Irvin 5K was the perfect place to do it. Matt is getting pretty excited about running, as he even has his own pair of running sunglasses. Well, I am proud of Matt to give this a try. Angela and Matt ran the race together during the 5K race, which was held the night before the half marathon. I did the half marathon the next day and loved it. I purchased a pair of green running shorts the night before the race at the runner's expo, and my family was glad I did. It made it so easy to spot me. They commented over and over how easy it was to see me from a distance. Angela finished in 40:23.5. Matt finished in 40:24.6. Way to go, Angela. Leave your brother out there hanging at the end and sprint for the finish. I thought they were going to finish together, but I guess there must have been some family pride at stake. My times were 1:28:35 (chip time) and 1:28:43 (gun time). I was about 15 seconds slower than last year, but not too bad considering my training has been down. I was 169 out of 5852 runners in the half marathon. My time at 6.9 miles was 44:59 and my time at 11.9 miles was 1:20:10. My 10K time was 40:24, which was faster than my 10K time from just a few days previous on the Tuscobia trail.

Rice Lake Aquafest 10K

This was a fantastic night. The Aquafest 10K is always one of the best runs of the year. It is held on the beautifully maintained Ice Age Trail and this year a little rain was part of the equation. It rained hard during the race. At times, the rain was 2-3 inches deep in spots. One friend of mine (Mark Bittner) slipped on the dip and got a bit muddy. I guess he was just going all out. The race was dominated by several younger college-age runners. I came in with a time of 41:14, good for fifth overall and first in my age group. The winning time was 39:35, which was won by a young runner from Shell Lake, Wisconsin. It was a great run as it was basically a reunion of many people I know from biking and running events in the area. In the picture above, are Brian Arnold and Danette Hellman up front, with the second row containing (left to right) Gary Crisler, Rob White, Jonathon Delf, Josh Moe, Ron Kay, Mark Bittner, and Dave Gerber.

Spring Fever 2 mile

I viewed today's race as my last race before our baby was born. More than likely I would not have any more races after today as a childless husband. Nevertheless, I kept my phone on me and checked often to make sure Angela was doing fine. As was my usual race distance of choice the last 2 years previous, I did the 2 mile race. I cooked through the first mile in 5:35, but slowed quite a bit to finish at 11:58 today which was good for 5th place (1st in my age group). The winner of the race set a new record with a time of 9:49. That's lower than 5 minutes per mile. The pictures taken were by a member from the Indian Head Track club. In the picture from the start of the race, I am the guy in the far right of the picture. In the second picture, I am the guy in the distance wearing the red shirt running on the trail behind the guy with the gray shirt).

National Snowshoe Race Team Relay

The final day of the United National Snowshoe Championship consisted of a team relay. With distances not exactly known, the event was held on some of the same trails as the day before. A team of mostly Wisconsinites was formed to comprise the group "Wisconsin Tornado." This name was chosen in honor of a great snowshoer at the event. Ryan Kann led the group off. Ryan Kann edged just ahead of his dad, John Kann, after the first leg. We were sitting 5th place out of 19 teams overall after the first leg of the 4-person relay. Minnesotan Kris Miller ran the second leg after an impressive 6th place finish in the Senior Women's National race yesterday, just missing a position on the U.S. Snowshoe team. Kristi Speer ran the third leg and I followed with the last leg. Gaining an opportunity to redo a miniaturized version of suicide hill from the day before, I was happy to finish and bring conclusion to the weekend of racing. After much confusion on the results due to problems in determining which teams belonged in which divisions, we were on the podium to collect medals for our third place finish. Then we had to get off the podium as they were taken away from us due to the error. Then the announcer realized he was right in the first place so we got back up on the podium to collect our medals once again. Our finishing time was 38:20.07, which doesn't really mean too much since we didn't know an accurate distance, but we were 9th overall out of 19 teams, and 3rd out of 12 in our division. Pictures were submitted by Ryan Kann.

United States National Snowshoe Race - Senior Men's 10K

The highlight of the snowshoeing season brought us to the mountains around Syracuse, NY. Going out with 10 people from Wisconsin and some friends from Minnesota, as we drove up and saw a hill that led up to a chalet, I made a joke to others saying that that huge hill was the last stretch up to the finish. I figured I would fool everyone and just kid around. As we arrive at the race site, we found out that the hill actually was the finishing stretch to the finish line and was appropriately named "Suicide Hill." I guess the joke was on me. Starting the race, the pace was faster than any other snowshoe race I had done before. I actually found that snow was flying so fast and people were jockeying for position elbowing each other so much that it was tough to stay on your feet the first minute of the race. I took the opening stretch faster than I should have and very quickly brought myself into the red zone. I think I got caught up in much of the racing excitement. I spent the next few kilometers recovering and getting back into the groove of the race. Perhaps a slow and easy start would have been better, but a lack of experience with a national snowshoe race made for a surprise as to what the start would be like. The course was also extremely difficult. In the midwest, we have such little snow that what snow we do have has been thoroughly packed down very well before a race. Trails are usually very flat (or with minor hills) and trails are usually fairly wide open with little technical difficulty. This course started out with the first couple of kilometers with a gradual uphill. The snow conditions were sugary, making for very difficult footing. Heavier racers had a definite disadvantage as a result. I sunk in 6-8 inches in many spots along the course which sucks the energy right out of you. In addition, the singletrack was not quite wide enough for a wide-stanced runner like myself. I found that some spots were so narrow (barely over 14-16" wide) that I had trouble maintaining footing and actually fell in a few spots. I am used to wide open trails. I also also was not used to the hills. Holy cow were the hills huge. I had not seen hills like these in my life. I can verify, however, that it was a course definitely worthy of being the site to host a nationals race. My finishing time of 1:02.58.87 was good for 49th out of 133. I was hoping to finish in the top half, not knowing what to expect. I think it sets a good standard for next year. Another friend of mine from Rice Lake, John Kann, finished in 1:03.44.36. This year's Championship race was the first time this Chrono Timing has been used to track a snowshoe race on the globe. Ken Auyer of Auyer Race Timing stated that this timing system had already been used on a small race known as "The New York Marathon." Race results are posted virtually as soon as the last racer crosses the finish line. This race goes down as one of the top 3 hardest races I have done. Next year Nationals will be in the midwest. It's very likely they will be in Wisconsin or Minnesota so it will be nice to be close to home. Pictures were taken by Ryan Kann.

Stomp the Swamp 12K snowshoe race

This year's race brought an interesting mix of competitors. Snowshoeing is so much fun. What I love about the races is you see the same group of people over and over again. Friendships develop as you see the same people over and over again. I am thankful that my John Kann introduced me to this wonderful sport several years ago. It was a perfect day and the pictures were courtesy of my wife. She only got pictures of the start because she was inside when I finished as she said "I thought it would have taken you longer." I guess that's a good problem to have. . .finishing earlier than expected. This year I finished the course in 56:42 for second overall out of 16 racers. This was considerably faster than the previous year. I was almost five minutes faster by accounts of time although the race director said it may have been a couple hundred meters short. The lead runner finished under 50 minutes. I'd never heard of the guy before or seen him anywhere prior. I did the 12K race. Many people chose the 6K event. Many people probably were trying to relax and save their energy for the United States National Snowshoe Competition which was the next week in Syracuse, New York. Many people from this race were headed there. Jay Punke does the race up well. The soup is excellent, the brownies are to die for, and every race should finish with Leine's 1888 Bock as the post race drink.

Book Across the Bay

My favorite snowshoe race of the year by far, I had looked forward to the Book Across the Bay race all year. The prerace festivities included the usual. We stayed at a cabin with some friends, at some wonderful food both at the Delta Diner and cooked by some friends. I had my picture taken with the elevation profile for the course and I took a picture of my wife wearing a Book Across the Bay hat that I thought was cute. Since Angela was pregnant, she couldn't race this year, but I convinced her to do some tubing instead for a few times down the hill. She really enjoyed that. The race itself was awesome. A fast pace was set by eventual winner Greg Hexum. I matched his pace for the first couple of minutes, but knew that I could never hold his pace off. I was fifth overall with a time of 50:41 (The picture shows an unadjusted time of 1:00:41, which is ten minutes high since the snowshoers started 10 minutes after the skiers. It is corrected in the final results, but was not for this race sign, but the picture was still cool.). A friend of mine snapped a quick picture of me right before the race began and I love the cool colors in the picture. Postrace was followed by some great food and my wife losing her cell phone so we battled traffic to go back to where she had lost her cell phone. We missed the fireworks, but I heard they were good. We'll look forward to seeing them next time.

Badger State Games

I equated this set of races to the Olympics of Wisconsin winter racing. John Kann and I travelled to Wausau to participate in the Badger State Games. I had never participated in this race before, so it was a new experience. I was able to try multiple events. The first was the mile race (which actually was 1.2 miles according to the race director, Jay Punke). The first race was about 1/2 on open ski trails and 1/2 on singletrack through the woods. Starting out it was a fast start and I took off pushing the pace followed closely by Kris Borchardt whom I had met just prior to the race. I led up until about 200 meters before the end. With Kris right behind me heading through the final stretch of woods, I misread the trail and took 2 steps to the left in the wrong direction. . .enough for Kris to pass me and gain the advantage. He crossed in 6:46.7 and I crossed in 6:47.4. In all actuality the race was a dead stop at the finish and there was not 0.7 seconds between us. The 0.7 seconds is due to the fact the timing was manually done and the person pushing the buttons didn't have reaction time to press the buttons on the timer fast enough. Kris led by the length of a glove at the finish, so I settled for the Silver medal in the 1.2 mile race. In the 10K (which was too close afterwards, I found myself unable to hold the early pace due to pushing the limits of my running in the final stretch from the race just minutes before. I settled for a bronze medal with a third place finish, at 57:36.5. I was 4:03.9 behind the lead runner, but could not push the pace. My stomach was completely upset from the first race so I settled for a constant pace which would not upset it and could proceed no faster than what I was going. It was interesting that my pace/mile was under a 6 minute pace per mile for the first race going all out, but I struggled to maintain about an average pace of 9.3 minute/mile for the 10K which was a drastic difference. It would have been better to run the 10K first in my opinion while I still had energy to give.