Rock Hill NMTC Race

This Sunday I ran in the Rock Hill NMTC race, the 6th race in the NMTC fall series and the 5th that I have run. The NMTC races have all been a blast, and have proven to be great opportunities for me to run speedworkouts with some of awesome the members of local trail running community!

The start of the race. I'm at the front in blue.

We were once again the benefactors of perfect weather, with temps in the mid 50's, a light breeze, and only a few clouds. It had rained earlier in the day, so some of the leaves and wooden bridges were wet, but nothing was too soaked or slipery. The race was at Bagley Nature Center, a great little trail system that is right on the UMD campus and near the CSS campus as wll. The trails are fairly wide and soft, and run through some nice oak and maple forest. They also have some challenging hills, but are still very runnable. I like to do some of my speed workouts here from time to time.

Half way through the first lap, Paul Craig and still running together

The race again started with a small chase pack forming behind Eric Atkinson (who for a little trivia is one of my former high school cross country and track teammates). I was running in the chase group with 3 other guys including Craig Hertz, who has recently joined me in the very addictive niche of ultra running, and my occasional training partner Paul Kimpling. We stuck together through the first of the two laps and then Paul surged ahead of Craig and me. Half way into the second lap I moved ahead of Craig and then caught Paul part way up the largest hill on the course, known as Rock Hill, which is where the race gets it's name. Although my hill strength helped me reel Paul back in, his turn over and shorter distance speed helped him gap me again on the 400m downhill finish. Eric won the race, followed by Paul in second, me in third, and Craig fourth.

Rounding the corner with 50m to the finish

Paul, Craig, and I have been finishing close together in the NMTC races so far, and it has been a lot of fun to have some shorter distance speed sessions with these guys in my fall training. This coming week I have a few mid distance run in the 2:00 hour range, one shorter speed workout, and then on the Saturday the Wild Duluth 100k. Good luck to all of the other runners who will be racing in the Wild Duluth Half Marathon, 50k, and 100k. I'm looking forward to seeing you all out on the trails,and remember...keep exploring the limits!