Hailey's Comet Run

This was the first year of the Haley's Comet Run. The course offered a 5K and 10K course. Special thanks to Dave Gerber for announcing that I was the carrot for everyone to chase before the start of the race. Way to put the pressure on me, Dave. In any case, my wife and I both decided to run this race. It was a blistering hot day. During the course of the race the temperatures soared into the 80's. The rest of the day got even warmer than that. A good friend of mine, Brian Arnold, ran with me for much of the race. He and I pushed each other during the race. We traded stride for stride and matched each other's pace for the first two and a half miles. I thank Brian for helping me achieve my second fastest 5K ever in 18:19. Brian came in shortly after in 18:45. Brian later told me that it was his fastest 5K ever. Way to PR, Brian. Since this was an out and back course, I saw my wife as I had looped back on the return route and she asked me how much Brian had beat me by. Brian, even my own wife thought you were going to beat me. I must have looked tired when she saw me. Thanks also for the confidence, Angela. Brian, thanks for pushing the pace on this brutally hot morning. I went on to finish first out of 201 runners. My wife and her friend Stephanie finished in 28:41. Not bad for someone pushing a stroller. My daughter enjoyed the day. We hope that she will be able to run this race some day in the future. With the family friendly atmosphere that this race held, there is something for all ages. Oh, and the medals are simply awesome. Dave Gerber says they were homemade by one of his relatives. When Kaia starts running, I hope that this race will be a fun thing for her. She is the best running stroller companion. She just loves going for rides in the stroller. Thanks to Brett Moravitz for providing a family picture of us following the race.

Baldwin/Woodville Uff Da Run

Fatherhood makes you reconsider your plans sometimes. The Uff Da Run has consistently made our spring list of races. This race is one of the most fun we do since it is an early season race and is put on by a snowmobile trail organization. I think the interest in this race goes back to the fact that the first time we ran this race my wife hadn't trained much for a running race and placed in her age group (and as a result got to have her picture taken by the Uff Da princess for the post race celebrations) whereas I had been training seriously for my first marathon and finished the half marathon with a time that was pretty good overall but not good enough to place in my age group. For the first time ever, I switched to the 5K instead of the half marathon. Because of this, I had to trade race bib numbers. When I signed up to do the Uff Da half marathon I was given the race bib number "10." It was one of the lowest numbers I have had on a race bib ever. Unfortunately, I cannot say that most small town running races give out bib numbers like they do in professional bike racing or for the elite runners in marathons. I exchanged my "10" for a "370." To avoid having to have my wife and daughter have to wait the time necessary for the finish of the half marathon and results, the 5K seemed like a better choice. Angela ran with Kaia in the running stroller and I finished in time to grab a few pictures of her. My time of 19:56 was a slower time than I was hoping for. I tried to keep pace with the winner, but couldn't overtake him in the final minutes of the race. Not much was left in the tank on this day. I was 15 seconds off the winner and finished 2nd overall out of 193. I was a little disappointed that they no longer allow the age group winners the opportunity to have their pictures taken with the Uff Da parade royalty as in years' past. This was perhaps the most exciting part of the race in past years. I don't know why they used to photograph top age group finishers with the town royalty, but that was something that looks like is no longer an honor or a high finish in the Uff Da run. Angela finished in 32:11 and was 87th overall. Not bad for pushing a stroller. Kaia sure enjoyed the race as well, but her favorite part was probably the post race bananas and other snacks.

Powersox United States Nationals Relay Races

The relay races were held on the second day of the United States National Snowshoe Races in Cable, Wisconsin. I teamed up with the Kann Clan, which consisted of my friend John and his two sons Brent and Jared (who tried snowshoe running for the first time that day). I tried to keep the pace strong early, and held second place throug the first couple of pictures which y wife was able to take for the first kilometer or so. Around the point of the big hill I gave up second place, but kept pushing the competitors. Our overall time was 51:54, which was 5th overall in the male open division. We almost could have participated in the family division. I am tall enough where I could have passed for one of the Kann family members. We posed for a picture following the event with Brent Kann, John Kann, Jared Kann, and myself representing the team (from left to right). On our way back to the hotel room following the event, I found a squirrel that must have froze over the night. It was solid as a rock and I found it along the road. This shows that we snowshoers must be crazy to be out there in the cold that was bad enough to freeze the squirrel into a popsicle. This is about as crazy as the photos get on this website.

Powersox United States Snowshoe Nationals

My family and I travelled to Cable, Wisconsin, for what would probably be the closest Nationals Snowshoe Race I will ever participate in. Less than a 90 minute drive brought me to the beautiful Lakewoods Resort for a wonderful weekend of snowshoe racing. As always, the race brings the best of the best to one location. Being that I was involved with helping to design the race course, I was sure to put in plenty of hills into the mix. To be honest, knowing that this would be a race that would be dominated by some of the country's top snowshoers, I felt that they should at least be challenged to the fullest extent and let them remember that Wisconsin actually does have plenty of hills. We may not have all of the elevation changes of the mountains, but the hills would provide plenty of challenge. I started off more conservatively this year. I didn't want to duplicate the feeling of going into oxygen debt and redlining within minutes of the start like I did at Nationals last year. My strategy was just to pick a few snowshoers and try hang with them. I also made a concerted effort to have a better second half. The race went through a checkpoint about halfway through. I passed four snowshoers in the final half of the race. Only five snowshoers made a bigger jump ahead of the competition over that same section of the race. My final time was 53:46, which was good enough for 9th in my age group and 49th overall (exactly the same place as last year). My time was significantly better this year, but my overall placing was exactly the same. I was proud to see that I knew some of the top racers personally. I have raced against the top snowshoer from the male race, Eric Hartmark. I also went to college with and attended the same church as the winner from the female race, Brandy Erholtz. My wife, daughter, and parents were able to attend to see the race. As a race director I received several complements about the 3-4 inches of snow we received the night before and during the event, as we had been having some warmer weather the week prior. Following my race, I got to watch my wife do the citizen's 5K race. She had a blast and ran for only the second time this winter. As you can see from the picture of her, she was all smiles. This tends to be the case when she snowshoes. She takes a pretty relaxed look at snowshoeing. My parents and daughter joined in watching the festivities as shown above. Some pictures were taken from local newspaper reporter from the Rice Lake Chronotype, Dave Greschner. Another friend, Adam Speer, took a few pictures for me to post as well.

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