Snowflake Nordic NMTC Series Race

Cool temps and great fall colors were the perfect recipe for last night's Snowflake Nordic race, the 5th in the NMTC fall race series. The 7.2k course was made up of 2 loops of the nordic trails near the Duluth Hermantown border. Snowflake is a ski, snowshoe, and biathlon center but also hosts other events through out the year including trail running races and cyclocross events.

At the 6:00 PM race start

The race was the last of the fall series to be at 6 PM on Wednesday. From here on out, the decreasing dayight means that the races will be at 2 PM on Sunday afternoons. Today's race started with Eric Atkinson surging to the lead, which he would hold for the entire race. Just behind I ran in the small chase pack. We ran together until the begining of the second lap when I opened a gap and moved into second place.

Just off the starting line, a runner's dog decided to join the lead pack

The chase pack, with me in the lead, late on the first lap

I carried and expanded my gap on the chase pack during the second lap and finish in second place. Heart rate average for the race was 175 beats per minute, which is right where I wanted it be in my anerobic threshold zone. It was a good run for me, and a great way to do a speed workout. Thanks to Austin Jarrow's for putting on the NMTC fall race series and to Eve Stein - a resident silent sports photographer - for taking the photos in this blog entry.

The next NMTC fall race series stop will be on this Sunday at 2 PM at Bagley Nature Center on the campus of UMD. I hope to see you all there. In the mean time, keep exploring the limits!

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!