Timm's Hill Trudge

This was a new race for me. I hadn't attended the Timm's Hill Trudge in the last couple of years, but have always heard quite a bit of fun stuff about the race. The race organizers did not disappoint. Timm's Hill Trudge is not a very accurate way of describing the race. The "hill" is actually the highest point in Wisconsin at 1,952 feet and the "trudge" is not the approach I used for the race. It was a fast paced run through the snow for 7 miles of beautiful wooded country. At about four or five miles into the race, you arrive at Timm's Hill and my only reaction to seeing this was "you've got to be kidding me. I was in for a long steep climb. By the time I arrived at the hill, I had settled into fourth place and I looked up to see the racers in second and third walking up the hill. When a hill is so steep that it brings good runners to a crawl, you know it is a tough race. The last 2 miles had snow that was powdery and sugary, reminding me of New York last year. The deep snow sucked the energy right out of you. . .well that and trying to dodge all the walkers still finishing up the three mile run. The nice part of the race is you finish on the lake and run through a corridor of snowshoes. I finished fourth overall (third in my age group) with a time of 1:03:58.0 and was a little over 4 minutes back of the winner. The post race meal was great. I helped myself to a couple of bowls of chili. There were also breadsticks, brownies, and other goodies.