Pictures

Here are a few pictures taken By Scott (the gator driver )

Pictures

I along with a lot of you am anxiously awaiting the pictures taken by the photographer at the race. According to Dan Lovik she is going through the pictures and fixing up a few things. As soon as their available we will put them on the website.
I ran the 10 mile course on Saturday, actually I walked a great deal because I wasn't used to the heat. Every week there is something different to see new flowers blooming etc... It's a good thing we had the race a week prior there were a few spots that the trail water issues. At the 1 1/2 mile mark the reservoir had crept up over the trail, at the 8 1/2 mile mark springs had opened up and water was running down the trail and the second bridge was under 3 inches of water. It might have been fun running the race in those conditions though.
On Sunday I went fishing at Chester Woods and the Blue Gills and Bass were cooperative. The lake was filled with fisherman, kayakers and paddle boats . Everybody was having a great time. There is an Eagles nest on the back end of the lake and its really fun to observe the momma watching over the babies.

Age group winners

Here are our age group winners
10 mile race
19 and under males - none entered
19 and under female- Laura Jacobson 1:25:56 new record
20-29 male Peter Maves 1:07:29 new record
20-29 female Racheal Pederson 1:18:30
30-39 male Patrick Steward 1:06:59
30-39 female Laura Lenz 1:26:22
40-49 male Jim Hannon 1:04:27 new record
40-49 female Deb Humphry 1:22:17 new record
50-59 male KC Reed 1:29:36
50-59 female Lin Gentling 1:33:55
60-69 male Kenn Pulchalski 1:45:33
60-69 female none entered
70 and older male Justin Murray 2:21:43

5k Race

19 and under male Kevin Dammen 18:37
19 and under female Rachel Schmitz 27:22 new record
20-29 male Paul Callahan 20:04 new record
20-29 female Lily Tamire 23:06 new record
30-39 male Mitch Baures 22:25
30-39 female Therese Schmucher 23:10 new record
40-49 male Aurther Clark 23:23
40-49 female Anne Schmitz 27:23 new record
50-59 male Todd Wade 31:41
50-59 female Chris O'Brian 39:23 new record

New course records

Despite the weather some very nice times were recorded at the race. Kirk Walztoni (36) of Eagan is the new record holder with a blazing fast time of 1:03:46. That is a pace of 6:23 per mile over a tough course. Jim Hannon took second with a time of 1:04:27. Jim was our winner last year and that time was1:05:23. Patrick Steward came back and was third in 1:06:59 also improving his time from last year by over 1 1/2 minutes.
For the women course records were also set. Cynthia Blenderman (26) of Rochester is the new record holder with a time of 1:17:38 Last years winning time was 1:22:28 turned in by Britt Erickson of Rochester. Not far behind Cynthia was Rachel Pederson in 1:18:30, followed closely by Cailie Fura, 1:19:37 and Tasha Pike in 1:21:51. There was actually five girls that beat last years winning time, way to go !
In the 5k records were also set. The Dammen brothers absolutely smashed last years course record. Kyle was the winner in 18:35. Thats a pace of 5:59 per mile on a course thats still pretty tough to run that fast. Last years winner was Logan Clark in 21:29. Following Kyle closely was brother Kevin in 18:37. I think Austins Cross Country program will be in pretty good shape with the Dammen twins. In third was Paul Callahan of Kasson 20:04, followed by Charlie Burnham, Rochester, 20:36 ,13 year old Henry Hartzler of Byron 21:00 and 14 year old Mickel Frisch of Dover 21:12. Thats six people faster than the course record including a 13 and 14 year old, way to go guys!
The winner for the gals was Lily Tamire in 23:06 Second was Therese Shumaker 23:10 Third was Nicole Weisenback 26:25
I'll get to the age groups later

Sleep at last

After the race I think I was finally able to get a decent nights sleep, without waking up in the middle of the night thinking of more things that needed to be done before the race started.
Well, considering what we had to deal with as far as weather, everything turned out just fine. We had a drenching rain about 1 1/2 hours into the run, so a fair amount of people got soaked. But after talking to people later, it seemed a lot of runners enjoyed the rain.
Even with less than perfect weather we had a nice increase in numbers over last year and most of the overall and age group records were shattered. I'll give more details about the winners tomorrow. We had some problems at the finish line recording numbers properly, I'm sure the rain didn't help.
My thanks go out to fellow bloggers Kel ,Wayne, Bryan and Renee. Renee and Wayne have some nice pictures on their bolgs.
I will be posting a bunch of pictures from our race photographer as soon as I get them.

One more day !

We started marking the course yesterday, and it looks fantastic. We quite about 10:00 I grabbed a couple hours sleep and I am going to head out this morning to get some more work done . It looks like tomorrow is going to be storm free in the morning although hot and windy.

Two days to go

Well my head is in full blown spin dry mode now. If you say something to me and I just stare off into space, thats known as race director syndrom. We'll try to start marking the trail tonight, it should be a piece of cake. The forecast is only severe storms today followed by strong winds tomorrow. Saturday sounds like it should be good, I've looked at links to several weather websites and it looks like sunny and hot, hot, hot, with, of course a chance of storms later in the day.

If its as hot as it sounds like its going to be you might want to cool your feet at the Chester Woods beach. Its located near the registration area.

Pickle Power

Dan Lovik (volunteer coordinator) and I decided to add something new to our post race treats, big ole dill pickles. I found out a long time ago that after a long run, when you've sweated out copious amounts of salt, your body craves salt. So what better than a nice cool pickle. They really are good. you'll find them right across the bridge, with bottles of water and gatorade, after you cross the finish line.

I feel like I'm on a merry-go-round spinning faster and faster as race day nears. I'm furiously making notes trying to make sure I've got all my T's dotted and all my I's crossed :-) or something like that. Thats OK I like to work under pressure, it makes the time go by faster

Weather Report

So far the weather is looking good for saturday, sunny and upper seventies. Friday might be interesting though it might be a little stormy setting up the course. Just like last year.

On-line registration ends tomorrow. but you can still mail in or register the day of the race.

Chester Woods in HD !

I ran most of the 10 mile course Saturday morning and it was fantastic. The woods were very fresh from the rains the previous day. Because the area is very sandy, there are very few muddy spots, so my feet stayed dry until the later miles when I had to run through some longer grass. With the morning sunlight streaming through the forest canopy it would spotlight different sections of the woods. It was very surreal. The air was cool and fresh, spiced with the sweet smells of honeysuckle.

Six days to go until the race and everything seems to be falling into place. The forecast is for upper seventies and partly cloudy, perfect.

Active Rewards and Snickers will be shipping out a bunch of Snickers Marathon bars for the race, its one of my favorite energy bars.