Trail Mix

So my trail mix team, Nordic Ninjas, is going for win #6 this year, a pretty decent streak by any standard.  We have had a couple team members change over the years, but have stuck pretty consistently to U of M skiers.  This year changed that a bit when Dave decided he did not have a good enough feel of his racing/health condition to enter a team event.  So we went through a series of other skiers to find someone to fill his shoes.  Brian Gregg or Evan Pengelley were the top two choices on my list.  Both of them were on the team at one point, but Brian ended up with other commitments, and Evan just closed on a house, so we ended up with Sven, someone from Gear West who works with Matt.
Preparing for this race seemed a lot like getting ready for a ski race.  I waxed the night before (summer wax on Jeff's skis) got up, put on my ski gear (also good for cold weather running), strapped on the skis and warmed up a bit (with 3 inches of new snow in my yard it was too good of an opportunity to pass up).  Then I got in the car and drove to the race.
The cold wet weather must have scared some people off, because the field was probably only 75% of it's normal size.  Things started looking up right from the line.  It is always a good sign when nobody is anxious to start right on the line, nobody out to win the race before it starts.  Matt and I set the pace right from the start, and when I finally looked back after a mile or so there was nobody with us.  I held on to Matt until somewhere between mile 3 and 4 then cut back just a hair to a more comfortable rhythm.  I was still able to see Matt on the long climb at the back loop, and picked up the pace a bit to make sure nobody was closing the gap down behind me.  Matt won, I was second, about 45 seconds behind him, and Travis was about 4 min behind us.  Sven was an additional 8 minutes back however, so things were looking a bit dicey.  Results came out and we had the second fastest time, but it was behind a Co-ed team, so we still won the Men's division.  In fact, we beat the next mens team by 13min.  A pretty sketchy win if you ask me, but I'll take it.
That night was my friend Kim's birthday, so we went to Annie's malt shop and out to a bar for a bit.  I got to ride in Rob's fast new Cadillac then it was home to sleep a bit before racing again the next morning.

Sunday morning was the maple syrup run at the Riverbend Nature Center in Faribault.  I was lured down there by the chance to win maple syrup, and the pancake breakfast after the race.  I took the lead right off the line and put a fast gap on everyone else.  I ran 17:50, not a great time, but I still won by 1:30 over the next finisher, so I'm pretty happy with that.