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.

Rumble in the Jungle

This was destined to be an exciting race. For me, it was a national qualifying race. I entered the race feeling well-rested and ready for a challenge. This course brings all of that. Last year it was a 5 mile race. This year it was converted to a 10K race, which included adding a whole new route of singletrack to go with the route from last year's race. The race started off quickly and proved to be anyone's game for the first 3 miles as it was neck and neck (and neck) between Kelly Mortenson (a member of the Atlas Snowshoe team), Ed Whetham, and myself. Finally, on a straightaway, they edged me out. I finished fourth overall out of 62 in a time of 51:28. This course, being a tougher and longer race than Perkinstown, should have taken me more time than the race two weeks prior, but I finished quicker and had good competition throughout the race. Best of all, I qualified for the United States National Snowshoe Competition in Syracuse, New York. My wife and Mike O'Brien Photo supplied some awesome race pictures of the event. Fellow snowshoers John Kann and Brian Arnold also participated in the event and did well in the race with Brian participating in only his second race.

Perkinstown Snowshoe Race

This was my first race on the "Blue Bus." A group of 9 of us travelled to Perkinstown, Wisconsin for the annual snowshoe race. It was a beautiful day for the drive. I hadn't been on a school bus for a couple of years. This bus was converted to be able to fit a number of racers in for a comfortable ride. It provided a warm changing area, a place to stand indoors, and a place to store a lot of gear. It was a fun time. Prior to starting the race, I felt like my legs were full of lead. I didn't have a lot of get up and go today. Last year's second place finisher, John Brylski was there. His son, Ken, came this year and took off like a jack rabbit from the start. I kept pace with Ken and Ken eventually fell back into the group. A beautiful picture was snapped on the first hill by Image by Faud, a photographer out of Depere, Wisconsin. I couldn't pass up buying a great picture like that. What beautiful timing. After leading the first mile, I was caught by John Brylski and Mike Quednow. Brylski passed me and I let someone else do the pacing for a while. Later in the singletrack, I stepped arond Brylski and got around him followed closely by Quednow. I kept the lead until 3 miles, when Quednow then gained an advantage over me. I let my guard down and gave up too big a lead over the next mile. In the final 2.2 miles I was not able to close the gap enough due to the weaving in and out of all the 3 mile snowshoe racers which made it difficult to run smoothly and in a straight line. Quednow won by 34.7 seconds. My time of 53:46.3 was faster than last year's time, but not good enough for the win this year. The highlight of the day had to be the 3-legged snowshoe race. Someone had constructed a set of snowshoes which would allow for two people to snowshoe together much like a 3-legged running race was done. My partner was Mark Bittner. A great competitor, Mark and I were expected to go far in the 16 team, single elimination competition. At stake was a 12 pack of Schlitz beer (so maybe there wasn't a lot of emphasis to work hard after all. . .now if it was Leine's that might be another story). In any case, after I did a few pushups prior to the race, one individual put $20 down on us to go all the way. Mark and I had a bye in our first round, as the racers who were supposed to race against us had either left, didn't hear the announcement for the race, or were in the beer tent. In any case, an easy victory. Our next opponents were a couple of women who did not look coordinated at all. We should have taken this competition easily as well, but Mark and I could not coordinate our leg speed. Our goal was if we stayed upright, we knew we had an excellent chance to win. Mark tripped not once, but twice (he says to this day that I tripped him. . .I don't think so, Mark). In any case, that sunk our chances and we lost that round. We still finished the race and walked to the finish line, defeated in our attempt to earn the covetted Schlitz beer. Fellow snowshoes Shannon Gindt and Brian Arnold made it to the semifinals with several rounds of flawless snowshoeing. They got knocked out in the second to last round by the team that eventually won it all. It was fun to try the ride on the bus and I am sure there will be more excursions in the future for the bus.

Jingle Bell Run 5K

The Jingle Bell Run is a relaxed event which could be done as an individual or a team. Teams could register to collect money for the Arthritis Foundation of Wisconsin. I attended this event with Danette Hellmann as the leader of our team. Mark Bittner, Tom Wardon, Jim Babbitt, Shannon Gindt, and Barb Babbitt. The Santa shorts outfit made one last showing this year, as it was the last race of the year for me. The post race meal was awesome. There were cookies , great bread, and some great chili (which was perfect after a cold run). Personally, I took third in the race in an unofficial time of 19:12 (no time person was recording time). This was good for third in the race. It was a challenging course since it was all run on a snowpacked route following the river near the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire campus. The snow contributed to slight loss of traction, but was still a great time. The out and back course led to lots of high fives to encourage fellow teammates on the return route. The only thing that was interesting is that they encourage you (and there is a lot of pressure to do this) to wear 2 little bells somewhere on your body so that you make jingle bell sounds when you run. I wore mine on my feet, which takes away the surprise attack that you like to have during a race. By wearing the bells on my feet, you could hear every footstep I took very easily and know without looking bakc if I was gaining on you. But, everyone who wore the bells had the same situation. I missed out on the opportunity to ride in the famous "Blue Bus," which most of my teammates rode down in. I had to finish Christmas shopping, so I had to wait until another time for that.

Thermal 3

The Santa suit made another appearance at the Thermal 3 race in Chippewa Falls. It was a chilly morning, but perfect for a pair of shorts for a run. The race involved the Thermal 3 (3 mile) and a Frigid 8 (8 mile) race. Both start at the same time and location. The 8 mile winner held his crown for the 6th straight year. In the 3 mile race, the field was tight for about 2 1/2 miles. From the gun I dictated the pace of the race and again loved the encouragement of fellow runners cheering for Santa. I earned several high-fives from runners, since this was an out-and-back course and I was able to see all the other runners when I turned to run back. I finished the race in 18:11, so not quite on par with the previous weeks race, but given the conditions (the roads were coated with snow), I was certainly happy. The outfit attracts the attention of numerous fans, and I had to pose with some Santa admirers for a few pictures prior to the start of the race.