Bruce Blue Hills Fest 5K

A patient of mine keeps suggesting that I come back to run the Bruce Blue Hills Fest 5K, as I hadn't run this event for quite some time.  It is a great race.  There is a nice kids' race done prior to the adult 5K race.  The kids' race was a half mile.  My favorite little competitor was all set to do the event.  Kaia needed a few extra hugs before the start of the race.  Dad was pretty excited to see someone riding a fat tire winter bike to the event (seen leaning against the side of the building in the background).

Kaia is again the youngest person by far to enter the event.  When the gun went off to start, everyone else started running and Kaia just stood still.

With daddy's help, she soon got going.

The race was a half mile and took us around a track and through a field.

All participants received a ribbon.  Kaia had a great time running the race with daddy and posing for a picture for one of the local newspapers.

Then it was daddy's turn.  The beginning of the race started the same as the kids' race.  There was a loop around the track before heading out into the field.  Then the route headed out into the town of Bruce for the remainder of the route.

There were many door prizes given out at the end of the race.  Almost every competitor won a door prize.  Dad won a potted plant, which was the last door prize left on the table.  Kaia loved daddy's prize.

Another picture was taken for the local newspaper.  I finished the 5K course in 19:15, which was good enough for second place overall.  The winner trucked in in 19:01.  Kaia posed again with me for the final awards picture.

RCU Charity Classic

I have entered the realm of competitive stroller racing.  I decided at the last minute to push Kaia in the stroller during the 10K event.  Kaia had a blast during the run.  She always does.  What better way to enjoy the race than to be bundled up in a blanket and watching the scenery pass by.  

 

We took first in the stroller division, just ahead of someone from Brookfield, Wisconsin, who really was pushing the pace in the last mile to try to beat me, but in the end I was the one who had the extra kick to accelerate to the finish.  I finished in 44:51, to finish 46th out of 441 and 15th out of 48 in my age group. 

Kaia was all smiles after the event, and so was I.

She's cute in the running stroller, and also cute posing after the race in my Boston Marathon running hat.

 Immediately after running the 10K, I ran a two mile race by myself.  I finished in 12:50, to finish 25th out of 419 and was 7th out of 24 in my age group. 

My favorite race of the day was the half mile race with my daughter.  She technically should have done the quarter mile race according to her age group, but I bumped her up to the half mile distance (you are welcome, Kaia).  She continues to amaze me in that she ran the entire distance without stopping once and did the half mile event in 8:12.  I guess I shouldn't have let her line up in the front of the race, because she got pushed over in the opening seconds and this led to her hurting her knees.  Crying as we started the race, she was passed by everyone but would not run to mom.  Instead, he held my hand and kept running after the kids who pushed her down.  She didn't catch them, but she caught a piece of my heart that day watching her determination to do this for herself.  I am so proud of my daughter and the work she does to participate in races and not give up.  We're in training because she will be eligible to run cross country in another nine years or so if she wants.  Dad just loves that she loves to run.  I'll keep encouraging her as long as I am able.

I'll always be by her side whether running a race or doing anything else in life.





Grinder's Biathlon

Grinders Bike Shop decided to hold a triathlon during Aquafest this year.  It was scheduled to include about 2.7 miles of canoe/kayaking and 1.7 miles of running.  It was a fun idea.  Unfortunately, it rained most of the morning hours until about 2 pm that day.  I am sure this rain scared off the hoards of people who would have thought to do this race.  I am not sure what the actual number of people who did this race was, but I could count them on two hands.  I think there were nine or ten people.  The river was pretty shallow, although in reality it was higher than usual for this time of year due to the rain.  I can't say there was much on the river for obstacles, but there were some logs here and there that caused some small rapids.  It was a horn start and everyone left from the area near the dam in Rice Lake at Holsum Riverside Park.  Participants then kayaked south until exit point.  I cleared the kayak portion first.

A buddy of mine, Brian Arnold, also participated in the race and left the water in second position.

A run followed the kayak portion that took participants up the Cedar Side Trail to the finish line behind the college.  A photographer snagged this picture that makes it look like I am about ready to fall over with exhaustion.  I really was doing fine.

A few moments of chaos ensued while they scrambled to figure out awards.  They had to sift through the times of the competitors.  Participants didn't know what to do.  I liked the white umbrella, showing that these race photographers weren't shorting participants from getting that ideal race picture.

Very cool awards were given.  The top three people were given certificates for merchandise and repair services in the shop.  I can always use that.  Lucky #7 finished in about 34 minutes today.  I must have been quick because the race organizer told me he finished just the canoe/kayak portion the day before in the same amount of time.  Grinders did a nice job organizing the event and hopefully it will continue to grow in future years.  I was first out of all the participants today.  Usually, my dad jokes that if I tell him I placed high in a race he says something like "were there only three people who showed up."  Well, today there weren't many more than that, but my dad will be able to laugh at his own joke after this race.

Haley's Comet Run

The third edition of the Haley's Comet Run was one quite different than last year.  My usual running buddy (my wife) had a meeting to help organize a Library event during Aquafest, so she was unable to see this event.  Being in her second trimester of pregnancy also wouldn't have helped.  I was left on my own for this.  Kaia participated in the kid's race and I must tell you that Kaia can hold her own at 3 years of age.  I don't know what possesses this girl to do what she does, but she ran the entire mile (that's right, the kid's race was a mile) without stopping.  You can see from the photo she had all sorts of energy and was even distracted by the crowd cheering her on.  What a cutie.  What an athlete.

 

Kaia's race went well, but dad found his time to be slipping over the last few times of doing this event.  I settled for a fourth place overall (out of 285) with a time of 19:40, four seconds away from third which was held by the race organizer's son, Cal Gerber.  Cal did a great job on the race.  The winning time was 17:57, so the all-time course record time continues to drop.  I would love to run a 17:57.  Perhaps some day I will be at that point.  I was lucky that we had some friends at the event to watch my daughter while I ran the race.  That way, my daughter could cheer me on at the finish.  I always love that.  A friend Christy Moravitz caught some nice pictures during the event which she allowed me to use.

 

American Cancer Society Lace up for Life

Instead of doing the Uff Da Run which I wanted to do and was something I had already signed up for, I decided to do a local race in Faribault, Minnesota since I wouldn't have to drive for more than three hours.  We were in Faribault for a wedding this weekend and I didn't want to spend all the time driving when I could be spending time with family.  I had a five minute or so drive compared to the longer drive I would have had if I had drove to the Uff Da Run.  I don't know how many people did the race.  No statistics were reported on this event.  I was second out of the big group.  My time was 19:45.  I saw one of my wife's cousins, Jason (see bib #222 below), as I was getting ready.  He came over and said "hi" and we exchanged "good luck" wishes.  It was fun to see some family out of the course in a number of spots.  I didn't get any pictures of myself running the race, but had a lot of fun and saved myself several hours of driving. 

 

Fat Bike Birkie

The first year of the Fat Bike Birkie race was met with mixed emotions from the skiing crowd.  So many skiers were worried that there may be damage caused to the trails and therefore were worried about having fat bike riders going on the Birkie.  Organizers would soon find that there was nothing to be worried about as the trail held up beautifully.  The conditions were perfect.  In fact, there was some snow that fell the night before.  I went up and stayed with a group of bike riders, staying with a friend of ours who had a cabin within miles of the start of the ride.  The field limit was left to be 300 riders, but will certainly be increased in future years.  The use of fat bikes has exploded over the last few years amongst people anxious to ride bikes during the winter season.  Kelly Randolph is a photographer living in Drummond, Wisconsin, and took some photos he allowed me to use to report on this event.

 

I am the biker in the yellow jersey in the background on the left side (immediately behind the biker in the foreground who also has a yellow jersey).  I finished the race in 2:47:01.  I was 108th out of 155 for the 46 K race.  I can see this event becoming a major event in the future and look forward to seeing what happens with registration.  I agree with several other bikers who feel the race does not appear to have drastically impact the conditions of the Birkie trail, but this will have to be evaluated by experts of the trail to see what type of impact was noticed.

Lake Wissota Loppet

This was a last minute race I decided to enlist in.  Angela and Kaia were out of town for the weekend and that left me with the chance to catch up on work at home.  Well, a snowshoe race sounded like work to me.  Granted, it was fun, but I didn't just go out there to show up.  I had hoped to go out and have a great race.

I saw something in this race that I had never seen before in any race.  After reaching the halfway point, the race turns around and heads back to the start.  The return route is different than the first half, so the route isn't really an out-and-back course.  It was held on a lake, so therefore was entirely flat.  It was even more flat than the 2013 Book Across the Bay which had a small pressure ridge causing a slight variation in elevation this year.  Anyway, I was about a minute behind the lead two snowshoers when I saw them round the halfway point and the first snowshoer stopped and took a water from the water station and walk while he drank it.  Then, the second place guy who was probably about ten seconds behind did the same thing.  I have never seen the leaders of a race stop and walk while drinking water from a water stop.  I have seen people take water from water stops and drink it, but if you are leading the race or closely competed for second, it just seems like on a 10K race that competitors would not stop to drink.  Maybe I am being overly critical here, but I felt for a while I might have a chance to catch up if they walked long enough.  Unfortunately, they began running again.  There was a pretty cool bridge that we ran by and also under. 

 

I finished the race with my fastest snowshoe 10 K time ever.  My time was 46:57, which was good enough for third place out of twenty snowshoers (most people do the skiing event as the snowshoeing event hasn't built to the popularity level of skiing).  Below is some of the left over gear after the race.  Either some trusting people or many people forgot their stuff.  I must give credit to the race organizers that the post race soup and bread were great.  Temperatures were not bad either.  It was nice to be able to hold a snowshoe event in early March and not have it be cancelled due to lack of snow.  If anything, it looks like we might hold onto our snow for a while this year.  Special thanks go to the event hosters for the Lake Wissota Loppet for taking many pictures and providing these to me to report on this event.