Spirit Mountain NMTC Race

Last Wednesday night I joined many other trail runners from the area at the "Rolling Stone" Spirit Mountain MTC race. The race is the 4th stop in the NMTC (Northern Minnesota Track Club) fall trail series. The name "Rolling Stone" is very approperaite, as the course starts at the top of Spirit Mouintain and runs down the trail to near the Lake Superior Zoo and Kingsburry Creek, before connecting with the Superior Hiking Trail and zig-zaging back up the mountain. The race was about 6.5K, half climbing and half descent.

It was a lot of fun to let go on the long steep down hill, and a nice challenge to climb back up. Luckly for me, climbing and legth strength is a strong point for me, so I finished in third place. Eric Atkinson and Craig Hertz were again first and second. Paul Kimpling, who is the past few NMTC fall series races has been third, got lost for a part of the race so he finished a bit farther back. I'm sure he will be charging hard this coming Wednesday!

Closing in on the finish line at the Rolling Stone NMTC race

I'm looking forward to the next NMTC fall series race this evening at Snowflake Nordic Center. The turn out for this year's series has been great, so I hope to see a lot of you there again. If you have not yet raced in any of the races, it is not to late to join in the fun!

Have a great week of training, and I hope to see you out on the trails. Keep exploring the limits!