Ladysmith Women With Courage Mardis Gras 10K

I travelled to Ladysmith for the second annual Ladysmith Women With Courage Mardis Gras 10K. Organizers say it has grown tremendously since last year. I couldn't find the race starting location at first and showed up with 15 minutes to go before the race. It must have been more successful than they thought since they ran out of T shirts. There was a 10K and a 5K option, but like a good friend of mine says when their are two race distance options, "I wanted to get my money's worth," so I decided to do the longer distance. It was an out-and-back course. The race followed the outskirts of Ladysmith and ended up going out to the country and following a railroad track for about half the distance. By the 5K turn-around I had a nice distance lead over the next closest competitor and held it to the finish. My time was better than other 10Ks this year. I took first overall with a time of 39:51.37. I told my wife I always love races where you follow a biker who shows the route for the lead runner and when you finish you are still the first runner behind the biker. The newspaper photo was from the July 24, 2008 issue of Ladysmith News and was taken by John Terrill.

Blue Hills Festival 5K Run/Walk

I participated in the Blue Hills Festival Run/Walk this morning. There was a kids 1/2 mile run and an adult 5K. It was a simple course. . .primarily a loop course which travelled past Bruce landmarks such as the high school, a local cemetery, and both a start and finish in the high school football stadium. Also a late start compared to most races, 10 am. I almost thought of heading to Turtle Lake for the 8 am start of the Turtle Trot (10K and 2 mile) and then traveling to Bruce to do this race. I held the lead for the first lap of the football stadium, but was quickly overtaken by two younger cross country racers. The winner of the race (Stan) is from Weyerhauser and runs for his college cross country team in Eau Claire. The winning time was 17:30. The second place runner was 17:39. I posted my second best 5K time ever, at 18:59. I was second in my age group (19-35). A nice run sponsored by several local organizations/businesses. The Blue Hills Lions Club was the primary sponsor. The accompanying newspaper photo was in the July 17, 2008, edition of the Ladysmith News by an unknown photographer.

Tofte Trek

Undoubtedly the best race I have ever done. I looked forward to this race for a couple of months. We planned a camping trip to coincide with this race. The Tofte Trek is a 10K race which has been going for almost 30 years (this was the 29th annual event). Runners start in a parking lot, but quickly enter an uphill climb for almost the entire first half of the race. It is a grind. The uphill wasn't so muddy, but after the midpoint of the race everything changes. Terrain changed most significantly. Runners cross long spans of bridges formed by placed 2 x 8's down to span wetter and more hilly areas. Then, these bridges stop and runners start running through the mud puddles. The water/mud was so deep in many locations you step in mud so thick it almost pulls your shoes off. Less than a mile from the end, there is a huge mud puddle over 50 feet long. I could have tried to run around it, but I chose to run through it. Water was about a foot deep. Water sprayed up my legs and I was so dirty. I loved it. I would have looked worse had I not run through the water sprinkler before the finish. I finished 13th, just 3 seconds behind someone who I traded the lead with several times throughout the race. He was a little stronger than I at the end. Angela had a blast doing this event as well. This was definitely a great all-around race. Complete results are found at http://www.toftetrek.com/

RCU Charity Classic

My wife and I traveled out to Eau Claire for the RCU Charity Classic. Angela brought her friend Leiah Bowen from work. We came down for the 10K race. All three of us raced the 10K, with Angela and Leiah running together and finishing in 1:03:51.3 (they finished together in 265 and 266th place) out of 371 runners. Congrats to Leiah, as this was her first race. She was nervous leading up to it, but did wonderful and they both had a great time. I also did the 10K and finished in 40:55.2 (28th overall and 3rd in my age group for a 6:36 min/mile). I then got crazy and signed up for the 2 mile immediately after and finished in 12:20.4 (6:10 min/mile which was 19th overall out of 251 runners and 2nd in my age group). Let me tell you, the lunch at Manny's (a mexican restaurant) was well deserved. Check out the yellow and white runner's number badge on my shorts in the shot of me crossing the finish. That is cool since I was one of the select few to compete in both races. Two mile results are posted at http://www.rcu.org/news_and_education/charity_classic/2008_2mile_overall.pdf 10K results are posted at http://www.rcu.org/news_and_education/charity_classic/2008_10K_overall.pdf

Aquafest 10K. 6/10/08

The annual Aquafest 10K race came down to a matter of feet for me. Although it was not as fast a race for me compared to the previous years, I came within 1 second of third place in this race. I finished in 40:59 which was good enough for 4th place and first in my age group. I closed off a lot of the gap on the runner who finished 3rd place as I ran the remaining mile or so, but was not able to make up enough of the time. The photo was in the Rice Lake Chronotype newspaper and was taken by Dave Greschner.

Panther Pant 5K

The Panther Pant occured at the Cathedral School in Superior, Wisconsin. It was a 5K race. I took off fast at the beginning and tried to stay with the lead guy. One of the guys who finished just ahead of me at the end of the race yelled out to his teammate who actually won the race a quote which I love. He was trying to pump up his fellow teammate and he yelled out "Mike, don't worry about that guy. You've got him. He's nothing." What great sportsmanship. Well, Mike did win the race and my early start to the race spelled a slow finish for me and I ended up finishing 6th overall. My time was 19:36. Perhaps if I would have slowed the pace initially, the overall time would have been better, as I was over a minute slower than the Osceola Healthy Heart 5K I did in April.

Kishwaukee Sunrise Rotary 8K

When your wife is a bridesmaid in a wedding and you have nothing else to do with your time while you wait for her, what is the next best thing to do? Run a race of course. I have not run an 8K competitively before, although I did run one for fun with my brother Dan last year. Boy, this is a tough distance. Not quite a 10K but more distance than a 5K. It takes some getting used to. I had a blast and finished 6th overall out of 87 runners with a time of 32:20. I was second in my age group. . .7 seconds behind the guy who placed first in my age group. Certainly I could have pushed more, but boy was it a windy day during the race. Also, two athletes who had tried out for the Olympics showed up for this small-town race in rural Illinois. They dominated the field.