Lets Finish This

The time off running along with my consistent and enjoyable legs at Ragnar put me in much better spirits heading into the Trail Loppet, the final leg of the Hoigaards challenge.  I had a horrible set of intervals the Tuesday before the race (6:40 mile repeats which I felt sluggish for and no energy in the legs with 4 days until a big race, yuck) but didn't let that worry me too much.  I had some great intervals before Battle Creek after all and raced like crap.  I went to play some Frisbee the day before the race and tried my best to take it pretty easy, which is hard when playing Frisbee.  My black Frisbee of several years also developed a crack, which was sad, especially considering it was the only Frisbee we had to play with.  Also, the wall of talkers, a ski team ultimate Frisbee fixture from my early days on the team, was back in full force.  After Frisbee it was off to Annie's malt shop for some "carbo" loading.  I'm pretty sure a bacon cheeseburger and peanut butter cup malt with bananas is about the best possible pre race food, right?  Then it was off to drop Jeff and head to Elena's to sleep.  The next morning Jeff met Annie, Elena and I and we biked to the race start, a good 10 mile warm up before the race.  The legs still felt a bit sluggish on the warm up but not tired at all.
As I was going to check in Micheal Moulsoff stopped me to let me know that Matt Liebsch was not racing, so I was the favorite going into the race.  I knew Erik Solberg was there though, and after the beat down I was served at Battle Creek I was not giving myself great odds on winning.  My track record of winning close races hasn't been great in the last year.  It was a good boost to get a vote of confidence however, and got me in the right frame of mind to go after it.  I knew even with Matt out Evan Pengelly was a tough runner and probably a shoe in for the Hoigaards challenge win with a six minute lead on me going into this event.
At the race start Jeff took off fast so he could say he had his moment of glory leading the race.  Things at the front were pretty chatty for the first quarter mile as things sorted out.  Julien Sein created a small gap almost immediately, and I was content to let him get a bit of a gap, assuming someone would do the work to pull him back, and after a fast start led to a bad end a couple weeks ago I wasn't going to go too fast too early.  It soon became apparent however that nobody was in a hurry to go after him, so I ended up at the front of a trio of runners, with Erik and Eugene right off my shoulders.  Eugene took the lead for a bit, and I decided I would rather be in front, with the unpredictability of the trail I could get the best line of sight and the best speed control being in front.  I worked the flats hard and held steady on the climbs so the guys following me didn't get much rest.  I kept counting the gap up to the leader as about 10-15 seconds and at about mile 6 I finally decided I should go after him while there was still time, and maybe we could work together to make an escape from the two guys following me.  I pushed hard on a flat paved stretch of bike trail along Hwy 55, and it took me about a mile and a half to finally reel him in.  By then Eugene had lost contact, and Erik was a little ways back as well, so I pushed on by, hoping to leave them all chasing together.  After how long it took to reel in Julien I thought a good gap might just carry me through.  That didn't prove to be the case however.  Erik ran with Julien for a bit, but then I could see him bridging the gap up to me, and he caught me a bit before the big climb behind the Par 3 at mile 9.  We ran the next couple miles together, with me usually leading, but not making much of a gap.  Then at around mile 11 we hit some windy single track, and I amped up the pace a couple times and finally got a bit of a gap to put Erik out of sight for a bit.  This late in a race having a visual on someone can be a great motivator, and seeing someone get away and out of sight can make it hard to keep up the tempo.  Being in front and out of sight I was running scared.  I didn't want to turn around for fear of seeing Erik effortlessly shadowing me, but by the time I hit the last big climb I was close to shot.  I kind of walk/ran up it and took a glance at the top and didn't see Erik behind me.  I knew from there in as long as I kept the pace high I would get away, and I did pretty safely.  I came across the line about 30 seconds or so ahead of Erik, making this our 3rd or 4th Trail loppetHoigaards challenge outright.  The prize is a weeks trip to the Bearskin lodge up on the Gunflint trail, and I'm really excited to get up there this winter and get some skiing in.  Not sure when I'll be able to make the trip with some new process equipment due to come in about then at work, but I'll figure something out.
Then it was a nice easy ride back to Elena's, with a stop at the Birchwood Cafe for lunch on the way.  Over the course of the weekend there were a couple reminders of a happy evening from last fall that were pleasant to remember now that they are far enough away to have perspective, at least some perspective I guess. 
The next day I decided to skip the Jesse James day run, which I could have won, but probably wouldn't have enjoyed.  Instead I ate Indian Tacos and got beat by my brother at Frisbee golf and Jeff at Mario party in one of the biggest comeback games I have ever seen.  With 5 turns left I had 12 stars and was dominating, by the end I was down to 5 and Jeff had 7.  That is the crazieness that is Koopa's Tycoon Town.
Well with this long post done I am wrapping up the running race season.  There is still a chance I might give the big woods run a try, but if I do it will be a game day call.  On tap for this weekend is Urban Warfare Eastern Front, then after that the gravel season arrives.  Looking forward to some good bike rides, and plenty of rollerskiing now that fall is creeping in and snow doesn't feel so far away.  Jim has been stopping over to rollerski a few times now, and Nate Porath just started a facebook group for Northfield skiiers, so hopefully that gets some training partners together as well.