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.