2010 Races

The 2010 race season was a big success for me. I continued with great coaching from Jason Kask, with Superior Performance. He had me come into the season with a great base in May, and kept up my mileage while adding in more ANT (anaerobic-threshold) work in June and July. Come September I started to back off, and have a great peak for my September and October.

I started the season with the Ice Age Trail 50K in May. It was a great race, and I pulled off the win, which was great too! I raced in my new Mizuno Ascends, which worked great on the hilly "kettles" of the course.


In June I traveled out to South Dakota to race at the Deadwood Trail Marathon, which was also the RRCA South Dakota trail marathon championships. After leading for the first half of the race I was passed and gaped by about 5 minutes. I managed to close the gap with a mile to go, and the race came down to a great 200 meter sprint! I came in a close second against great competition, and was really pleased with how I raced, and the strength I showed in the second half.

I September I raced in northern Minnesota at the Superior Trail 50 Miler, on of the most challenging 50 milers in the midwest. The race travels along the Superior Hiking Trail from Finland, MN to Lusten, MN. After sleeping in my tent with Meg and Sundari (our dog) at the starting line I woke up at 5 AM to rain and fog. The rain would be the theme of race making the challenging course even more taxing. I ran neck and neck with another runner until the last aid station with 5 miles to go, where I pulled away and cruised in for the win and new course record in 9:09:18!

My final race of the 2011 season was the Glacial Trail 50K in southern Wisconsin. The race travels along the Glacier Trail near Greenbush, WI. The race day turned out to be unusually hot, and was a big factor in the race. I again showed strong half racing, closing the gap the first place runner had on me and coming in a close second place. Meg had a great race here too, coming in first by almost 8 minutes, and beating several former winners.

I had a bit of unfinished business at this race from last year. In 2009, I was leading with 4 miles to go, when I got lost for almost 40 minutes. I ended up finish in 9th place, but I learned the importance of knowing the race course and watching for trail markers - especially in ultras!

Race winner, and second place at the Glacial Trail 50K


My 2010 season ended with several great races, a course record, and lots of know knowledge about race nutrition, training, and race planning. I'm really looking forward to racing in 2011! Stay tuned for my 2011 racing schedule, and more on our evolving low-impact living.

What Happened To 2010?!

2010 was jam packed for Meg and me. We adopted a Scandinavian Hound in July named Sundari (it means beautiful in Nepali). She is such a sweet, mellow dog. She loves to run with us, but is just as willing to veg. out after a workout.



2010 also saw us take a big plunge of a different sort...into home ownership. We bought a house here in Duluth just a 5 minute run from the Superior Hiking Trail, and some of the best single track running and biking trails around. We love our house! It has solar water heating, and passive solar heat right now. We are also looking into other impact-reducing systems like water capture and solar power. This spring we are looking forward to building big raised garden beds in the back yard!
We started a new hobby in 2010 related to our gardening and experiment in low-impact living. We became bee keepers! Bee keeping is a great way to increase your garden yield, "grow" your own honey, and help out the environment. Wild bees are not doing very well right now, so they could use our help. I will have another post about our bees, garden, and low impact living later.

What's new with Chris?

Over the past year, a lot has happened with me. In addition to graduating from the College of St. Scholastica with a degree in International Studies and Political Science I also got married to my wonderful fiance Meg (Pierce) Rubesch, started a new job in promotions and public education at a member-owned food co-op in Duluth Minnesota, and had a sucessful first season transition to ultra marathons.

Our Wedding

My first ultra season included a 4th place at the Trail Mix 50k in the Twin cities, a 4th place at the Voyagure 50 Miler, and a 3:38 PR at the Glacier Trail 50K as well. Although I had a slight knee injury during the middle of the 2009 racing season, I was able to come back for a great last race at the Glacier Trail 50K.

Racing to a 4th place at the Trail Mix 50K

As 2010 began I continued my work with the Superior Performance Elite team and my coach Jason Kask. I also added sponsorships from Honey Stinger and Rudy Project to my sponsorship from Mizuno. I did two snowshoe races early this year. I raced at the Midwest Snowshoe Championships where I placed 4th overall and 1st in my age group in the half marathon. I also raced in the Book Across the Bay where I finished 3rd overall.

My training volume right is cycling between 16 to 20 hours, and will continue to climb from there as the season progresses. I am also including a fair amount of threshold and strength work in my training to prepair all my systems.

Next up is the Ice Age Trail 50K in southern Wisconsin. Meg and I are both racing and hoping to be right in leaders mix.