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.

Stomp the Swamp

My wife and daughter came down to see if I could "Stomp the Swamp" during this beautiful winter day. I love this course as there are some rolling hills through mostly single-track type of terrain. The race was dominated by a local runner Mark Beversdorf, who was so far ahead of everyone else that no one came anywhere close to him. I feel like the second half of the double-loop course went much better for me. I finished in 1:06:26 for a fourth place finish overall. I am not sure of how many competitors did the 12K race. As usually is found, the post race meal with Greek "Wedding Soup," Leine's 1888 Bock, Brownies, and other goodies proved to be more than filling. Race director Jay Punke puts out one of the best post-race food spreads I have seen for a race (especially a winter race). Following the race, my daughter helps me celebrate finishing second in my age group.

Book Across the Bay

Angela and I had a fun weekend with some friends of ours. We decided to celebrate our love for snowshoeing by walking the beautiful course together with our friends and taking in all the sights, sounds, and smells of the event. This is a great race, as the elevation profile is completely flat, other than a little pile of snow in the middle of the course. A truck fell partially into the ice in a weak spot during the set up for the course and made for some interesting pictures. My favorite was the one of the guy hitting the ice with the pick to see how strong the ice is. I wasn't prepared with any cold-weather diving gear to jump in and save the guy if he fell in like the truck. Although I missed the challenge of this race, I loved the opportunity to walk the course with my wife and participate in an event together with no stress at all to our day. It made for a wonderful weekend. My wife and I finished the race in 1:53:41.6 and enjoyed being in the middle of the pack

Boulder Lake 8K Snowshoe Stomp

John Kann and I travelled to Duluth to attempt to qualify for the United States National Snowshoe Championships. On a frigid cold day that saw race temperatures at the start below zero, it was a day that proved nothing but chilly. However, racers turned out in large numbers to attempt to qualify the the championships to be held in Cable, Wisconsin, in mid March. The course was sugary in nature, making it difficult to achieve fast times. It was a slow race by standards of some snowshoe races that I have been to. The deep snow just seemed to sap the energy right out of you. This course had the option of either a 4K or an 8K loop. Competition was stacked for the 8K qualifying race, with many well known racers from the Duluth and Twin Cities area. In a race that was only my third time on snowshoes this winter, I held on for 18th place overall out of 44 racers with a time of 52:56. It was a little bit of a wakeup call for my training, because I didn't know when I left if I had qualified or not. I had to wait until full results were published on the internet before I found out that I had qualified and would be heading to Lakewoods Resort for the National Championships.

New Richmond Decide Commit Succeed 5K

No pictures are available to prove my craziness, but the shorts were donned for one last winter race at the Decide Commit Succeed 5K race series. My wife told me someone she knows said to her one time that for as much education as I have had I should know more about dressing more warmly during the winter. My comment in return is that with as much heat as you generate in running, a little 20 or 30 degree cold doesn't even come close to chilling me off when I run. Granted I wouldn't run a marathon dressed like that if that was the temperature throughout the race, but it certainly is acceptable for a 5K. I even know a few friends that wear shorts while they snowshoe in subzero weather (probably just to show off how tought they are). At least I am not that crazy as I have only wore shorts into December, but not January or February, yet. I wore the Santa outfit I have worn so many times before for one last race of the year to bring my yearly total to 20 races, tying my all time high for a year. This was a low key course which was pretty loosely organized. My understanding of the event was they are trying to keep members of the New Richmond Area Centre (that's how they spell it) motivated. There are no prizes and they don't list any times. It is for your own benefit. They say the course changes from month to month. It was a relatively flat course other than a hill after the first half mile and since it was an out and back course, there was a hill a half mile from the end as well. I finished 2nd in a time of 19:37. I think there might have been about 19 or 20 runners. Angela would be proud in that I wasn't a race groupee after the race. From the time I got to the race, registered, ran the race, ate the post race food, and pulled out of the parking lot to leave for home, I was there less than an hour. I don't know if I have ever been in and out of a race that fast before.

2010 Gobble Gallop 5K

Thanksgiving Day races are the best runs of the year. It certainly helps to justify eating a bunch if you can say that you already ran a race the morning of Thanksgiving. This year marked the fifth year in a row that my wife and I have done this event. Traditions are great. Conditions were not. Much of the middle of the course was very slushy. Running on the bricks of downtown with all the slush and ice made for very slippery conditions. I saw one runner fall down at the halfway mark. The conditions were fair for the beginning and end of the race, but tricky for running otherwise. It was not my fastest 5K of the year, as I clocked in at 19:37, which was 36th out of 878 runners. This was pretty comparable to my time and finish from two years ago which was the last time that I ran this race. My wife and brother-in law also ran the race together, but decided not to wear costumes this year.

Halloween Hustle 5K

This was my first crack at a race following the cross country season. I was pumped. I planned the outfit well as it was super easy to run in. Everyone knows that I am the type of guy who will run in shorts in the middle of winter, so I dressed up like an old lady. To all other real grandmas out there, eat your heart out. I was pretty cute. The race was won overall by local Duluthian Eric Hartmark. He ran a speedy 16:27, but one of the race directors said that his time was really slow and that he was having an off day. I would hate to see what a great day was like. I did get the pleasure of keeping up with him for the first half mile before he pulled away into the distance. I finished in 18:54, which was not too bad for getting back into running. I was 6th overall out of 138 runners. I was a little disappointed I didn't win one of the prizes in the costume contest. The costume contest was won by a guy who wore a pair of underwear and a cape and was called "Captain Underpants." Sounds like an idea he thought of an hour before the race, but congrats to him. Angela also ran the race as well as shown in the picture. She hates dogs ("hate" is not a strong enough word for how much she dislikes dogs), but yet her mom had this costume sitting around and somehow Angela didn't hesitate to wear it during the race. At least she was warm during the run. She finished in 31:04.