Woolly Mammoth Classic

This was the 10th annual Woolly Mammoth event. This year, the organizers decided to mix up the event a little. They no longer held the competitive 5K and 10K runs, which were the main attractions of the event. Instead, the focus was on trying to build up the Nordic Walking event. Being a fan of the Woolly Mammoth event in the past, I wanted to be involved in some way, but I had never done any Nordic walking. I told my wife several weeks before that I was thinking of doing the walk and she thought that I was crazy. She didn't know how I would be interested in doing a walk when I have always did the running event (I should clarify that the organizers did hold a noncompetitive 5K which runners could sign up for and they did not charge for entry, but the number of competitors was rather small). The day before and the morning of I was on YouTube trying to watch videos of Nordic walking to learn about the event, but there is no substitute for practice. I showed up at the start line of the race and looked around and thought "this is it!" I was one of two male Nordic walkers and there were three female walkers. This was by far the smallest race I had ever been in. The other male in the race was named Jeff Koppa of Aniwa, Wisconsin. He had won the race last year and taken second the year before by mere seconds. He also had taken second at the National Nordic Walking Championship race in Oregon (there were about 20 or so people willing to walk 26.2 miles). Jeff had some great experience and as I approached the line one of the females told me that "Jeff is going to whoop your butt!" I guess he must have a following, but I didn't know what to expect. I had only practiced for a few minutes prior to the event. My advantage was that I had a much larger stride than Jeff. Looking at the pictures from the event, the action doesn't unfold in a walking race the same way as it does in a running race. Things in general happen much more slowly. I watched my sole competition closely. I figured I would try to keep pace with Jeff closely to see what his technique was. I figured I would try to learn from one of the best and then try to see how I could hold up. I waited until about two kilometers in and then figured I had seen enough to try going off on my own. I threw in a surge in an attempt try shaking things up and Jeff matched my increase in pace. I waited another couple of minutes and tried again but Jeff matched my attack. By this time we had reached the turn around point and my watch was at 17:30. I was happy because I was still with Jeff which meant I was staying competitive with him. I figured that if my attempts at attacks were unsuccessful so far, I would have to work hard to get him early. I continued throwing attack after attack at Jeff and could not shake this guy. The problem was that every time an attack as thrown, the average pace after the attack was also elevated. It became frustrating and apparent that Jeff didn't want to give up this race. It was like watching Lance Armstrong in the mountain stages of the Tour de France. Everyone else would throw attack after attack at him but he would hang on and match their efforts. I continued throwing attacks more and more regularly trying to shake him with no luck. Finally, at about 0.7 km from the finish, I threw in a surge which Jeff couldn't match. However, the problem was now I had to keep this elevated pace up as if I tired Jeff would be able to pass me for the victory. I knew he wouldn't be far behind. My focus remained on maintaining composure and my newly learned technique while not giving Jeff the chance to catch up. This surge must have come after Jeff had been weakened as I built a gap on Jeff which held up. I was able to cross the line in 32:41 versus Jeff's 33:51. I threw the hammer down in the surge and got a huge gap on Jeff. Afterward, I talked with Jeff and he told me knew he wouldn't catch me after the final surge so he let off his pace and just figured he would be more relaxed on his final few minutes in. So I brought home the trophy for first place in the state of Wisconsin. My wife and her mother were home when I got back and I am not sure if they were impressed by my victory or not. I think my wife was thinking something to the effect of "all right, you placed first out of two people in a walking contest. Real impressive Jon." I am not sure her real thoughts on this race, but I told her that the race organizers wanted to send me to Oregon to the National race in Oregon in a few weeks. It is a common joke among us that any race that sends us a race reminder in the mail is interpretted in my mind as a recruiting attempt. I will tell my wife that a race that sends out race information to us is working to recruit us, so I always talk this up saying "look Angela, they are trying to recruit me for the race." Here again she probably agrees to comfort me and not offend me. Oh well. I'll take advantage of this boost of confidence.