Over the past 200 posts I've really focused on Mountain Biking with every now and then a blurb on Cross Country Skiing, Snowshoeing, Illegal Snowbiking, and yes even running. As I mentioned before, with the way things are going with spending time with the family, moving to a new home with 17+ acres to maintain and a house that needs some TLC along with following my passion for coaching for the Tomahawk Cross Country and Long Distance Track programs, i've had to make the best of my time available to excel at one sport. With that being said I took on the journey of running endless miles to try and pick up some speed and I couldn't be happier with how my season went and it all came to a great end this weekend....I think....First of all, I love the fact that the folks at Minocqua Winter Park opted for a later start time, but as in the last couple of races I was still the first person to show up to preview the course and pick up my bib number. I ran the first mile, stretched, walked the second mile and finished it up with a faster jog to the finish line.
Secondly, this place is a killer course and I will definitely be back as I couldn't believe the hills, I knew early on with the fact that on top of the hill I would be greeted by a path to a cell/radio tower coincidently enough called "Vo2 Max Hill" which was fun to walk and curious to see how the racers would handle it.
To continue on with the story, it was cold, but I remembered that I had some embrocation (Brian Matter's Full Heat from Joshua Tree) left over from skiing this past winter and decided to give that a try and run in a tank and running shorts lol! Not too many were brave enough otherwise. We lined up with everybody shivering ready to let out onto the course. I got off pretty well no issues ran with the Rhinelander Cross kid for about the first 800m. I told myself to stick to my pace and think about the 1.5 mile mark where it starts to go up in a hurry and would cross mile 1 at 6:08 pretty slow going, I thought I would start to pick it up after that and start attacking the hills which I didn't seem to have the pop I needed to gain the time I needed back on the two leaders, but they were still in site. Once the endless hills finally ended at the 2 mile I began to start opening up the stride and with about a half mile left on the flattest section of the course I began to kick, but just didn't have enough course to catch the 2nd runner finishing 3rd overall and first in my age group. My time wasn't pretty, but I gotta tell ya that the course was slightly longer than a 5K and wow did I mention the climbing???? 19:14. There are still a couple of events left this year before winter closes it's fists on Wisconsin, not sure what if anything will come up, but that will depend if I get out on a run on a regular schedule.
Till then have fun keep the rubber on the ground whether you roll it or lace em up!
