A new season for Bemidji

Once in a while I get a rare weekend with no races or other athletic type distractions and get to go do more normal people kind of stuff. The weekend of November 7th may not exactly fit into that category, but it was at least something different. Since I'm quite delayed in my blogging but still want to get some of these fun events cataloged for future amusement and for my few readers I'll try my best to put dates on what is going on.

So anyway, Eva happened to have a free weekend with no school, on call, or clerk duty responsibilities so we decided to head North to Bemidji for some camping and to watch A Prairie Home Companion. I had heard snippets of the show from time to time in the past, but when Nate and I started carpooling up to Sunday rollerskis it would always be on the radio on our way home, so I've kind of taken a liking to the show. Plus Garrison Keillor is retiring at the end of the year, so it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

This is Eva, for anyone who reads this and hasn't met her

The original plan was to head up to Bemidji Saturday for the show then camp and hang out Sunday before making the trek back down to the cities. I found out a few days before however that our last set of rollerski time trials would be on Sunday the 8th, and I wanted to be able to participate, so instead we headed up Friday, camped Friday night, and explored Bemidji on Saturday before going to the show and driving back Saturday night.

I have skied at Bemidji state park, and know there is camping there, but I had never been to nearby Itasca state park, which is the headwaters of the Mighty Mississippi river. When I floated the idea by Eva she seemed pretty pumped about it. Her Grandma had fun stories about crossing the Mississippi river up at the headwaters, and it is only a short detour from a long trip.

The weather was pretty spectacular, kind of like the weather we are having now in December, but even warmer! Neither of us has cold weather sleeping bags, but we made do quite nicely by bringing a down comforter to toss over our sleeping bags. One of the nice things about car camping I guess; heavy, bulky comfort items are no problem.

It was pretty late by the time we made the drive up and set up camp, so we pretty much went right to sleep. The next morning we were off on a quest to find the headwaters. There is a pretty cool placard carved into a tree trunk, some rocks marking the edge of the lake, and a small log bridge crossing the river.

One of the smaller bridges crossing the Mighty Mississip

We headed in to Bemidji for lunch at the Keg n' Cork and took a bit of time to go pay Paul and Babe a visit. I make a couple trips to Bemidji every year, for the Chippewa Triathlon in the summer and the Minnesota Finlandia ski race in February, so it was fun to see Bemidji in the fall.

Paul Bunyan and Babe

We picked up a couple snacks at the co-op in town and got snazzied up for the show. A Prairie Home Companion is even better live than on the radio. I had never been to a radio show live before and it was quite engaging. Before the show started Garrison wandered around the auditorium singing the national anthem, some patriotic songs, and various hymns. It was fun to see how few people play so many different characters on the show. I think my favorite part was seeing the musical guests. The music itself would not have been especially interesting to me if I were hearing it on the radio, but seeing the obvious skill of the musicians live gave me a much greater appreciation for it.

The next morning I headed to Afton for time trials and additional skiing. Nate managed to hold me off in both the classic and skate time trials, so I was a bit disappointed in myself there. My times were pretty close to where they were last fall however, so hopefully that bodes well for the ski season ahead, since I had a pretty good season last year.

Chicago Style

Jeff reminded me that I have to put up a Chicago post. Since it has been over a month since that trip it is probably past time to get that done. After finishing the Birkie marathon I was ready to take a break from racing, but there were still all kinds of exciting races going on, and I couldn't just sit back and watch.

So instead I donned my cow suit, hopped on a bike, and pedaled around to dance, yell, and ring cowbells at the passing racers. The first event was the Twin Cities Marathon. My friends Erik and Elspeth were running, as well as many others I knew including Claire, Beth Anne, Jake, and Kesha. So Nate, Eva, Jeff, Greta, and I all formed a bike posse to ride around and cheer. Our friends Dave and Emily found us along the way and joined in too. Elspeth had a great race and crushed her PR. Beth Anne got her Boston Qualifier, and Claire finished her first marathon in great form.

This served as a great warmup for the following weekend, when Nate, Nichole, and I made the trek down to Chicago to cheer for Jeff in the Chicago Marathon. I got in a nice run the day before the race, doing some exploring up and down the lakefront before heading to the expo.

 I ran through a cross country race that was going on in a park along the lake. It was fun to think back (way back) to my cross country days and where running has taken me to since then.

I met Jeff and the Poraths at the expo and we had fun wandering around and looking at all the running related paraphernalia on offer. Here are a few pictures I took.

After the Expo we headed back to the hotel then wandered out to find some food. We didn't wander too far, because we wanted to keep Jeff's legs as fresh as possible for the race the next day.

 Race morning weather was great. A bit windy perhaps, but that's kind of a thing in Chicago I hear. Jeff got off to a solid start and was looking relaxed cruising through the first few miles.

Things didn't remain so rosy however. He started to have some stomach issues and wasn't taking on fuel, which started to cause it's own issues later in the race. It ended up to be a pretty rough day for him, but he gutted out a 2:47 anyway, a perfectly decent performance. Here's a picture of him in a good pack around the halfway mark.

And off by himself a couple miles later.

Nate, Nichole, and I had a blast cycling around in our cow costumes and cheering. This is my 3rd time going down to Chicago to ride around and cheer for marathon runners, and every time the racer I've gone to watch has had a rough day. Maybe I'm just bad luck. I've had a blast every time though, it's a lot of fun to get to bike around on urban roads when there is little to no traffic because the race shuts down so many roads.

Jeff's back on the training bandwagon already with his sights set on Grandma's marathon next summer. We will have a good crew up there with Jeff, Marco, and myself all aiming to go under that 2:40 barrier and my sister hoping to bring her PR down quite a bit too. Grandma's is a great marathon, and this is their 40th year, so it should be a great party up there come June.

On the Defensive

Last weekend I headed North for a variety of fun events. The first stop was at my parents house for supper and a short birthday celebration. I swapped cars with my mom and continued North toward the Porath's cabin. There was a detour along the way that added some extra time, since I didn't have a phone to tell me a good way to circumnavigate the detour I decided to wing it and after a couple wrong turns and some fun gravel road adventuring got back on course and made it to the cabin before it got too late. Rob, Nate, and Nichole where there when I arrived, and Nate's parents arrived soon after. They also brought birthday cake for me, so we celebrated and headed off to bed.

The next morning I was up bright and early to go defend my first ever marathon win, the Birkie trail marathon. Rob was running the 100k, so he was already racing by the time I woke up. It was a perfect day for running, cool and clear, and the Birkie trail was gorgeous as always. I knew there would be a couple of speedy fellows there, so I mentally prepared myself to go out in control.

Start of the race - Photo: Birkie.com

Of course when the gun went off that didn't exactly happen. There is a lot of climbing in the first few miles of the course, and while I did mostly keep things in control I still pushed harder than I probably should have. There was a young guy who got away almost right from the get go, and I settled in behind a bearded fellow completely decked out in Scott racing apparel. The 3 of us quickly distanced the rest of the field, so the podium seemed pretty much locked up by a mile or so into the race.

I lost sight of the leader pretty quickly, but kept the Scott runner in sight for quite a long time. We hit the first section of single track and it felt great to just let the trail dictate the pace and flow through the fun switchbacks. Back on the Birkie trail I caught the Scott runner at the OO turnaround, but he slowly opened up a gap on me again during the long push North on the classic trail. At mile 16 he had about 20 seconds on me, at mile 18 it was about 40 seconds, and I didn't see him again until the finish after that.

Once he was out of sight I tried to push myself just in case someone was coming up behind me, but I could tell that I was struggling. It was close enough to the end of the race though that I was willing to be in pain for a while.

Nate found me about 1/2 mile or so from the finish and cheered me in. He said he though I was in second, but I figured he missed the kid in the lead because he was quite far ahead of the other two of us.

I sprinted past a couple of kids running the 5k to finish strong. The Scott guy looked like he had been done for a while, and about a minute after I finished the kid who had been in first came in. He took a wrong turn and added almost 3 extra miles.

Finishing! - Photo: Birkie.com

I had found out just before the race that there was going to be prize money this year, so I got my first ever paycheck from running; $250, not too bad for a race that I got to run for free. I got to stand on a pretty sweet looking podium, and then I had to fill out tax forms. While they were processing the forms I was chatting with the winner. Apparently he is from Germany and just ran the Run Rabbit Run 100 miler the weekend before. He took 5th there despite getting quite lost. I could still feel my 50 miler from 2 weekends ago, so to double back from a 100 miler and take on the Birkie trail was impressive.

The Podium - Photo: Birkie.com

While we were waiting I also heard that runner #10 (Rob!) was in the lead and due to be at the Boedecker road aid station soon. Nate, Nichole, and I booked it out there to see if we could catch him. We were there well ahead of him and had some time to chat with the aid station workers and the 2 girls who were there crewing for their boyfriends.

Rob came through cool as a cucumber, although I could tell the miles were starting to get to his legs a bit. That is to be expected 40 miles into a race though I'm sure. He moved through in good time and didn't have any nagging issues. The second place runner was arriving just as Rob was leaving, but he took a good 10 minutes or more of chair time before walking out of the aid station, so I figured he wouldn't catch back up to Rob any time soon. That did prove to be the case, Rob won the race, his first race win, by over an hour, and was the only runner to finish in the daylight!

After that I headed back to my parents for the next event. My friend Adam is getting married next month, so we held his bachelors party out in the woods behind my parents. We headed into town to go mini golfing first. Cary and I had a good duel for a while before I finally got the edge in my group. I tried some pretty risky shots, and a few of them even paid off. I got a bit sloppy in the last few holes, but by that point my lead was insurmountable. Then we grilled some food and got the bonfire going. Rob stopped by to spend the night as well. We turned in a little after 1:00 AM. Most other folks were up until the fire died down a little after 3. I woke up early to check on breakfast and see Rob on his way. I had briefly considered going rollerskiing, but had more fun hanging out and watching some blurry eyed boys wolf down egg bake.

Sunday afternoon I headed to the cities to hang out with Eva. We got a little frisbee playing in and went out to watch the super blood moon eclipse. It was a really amazing event. We headed out to the ag fields at the U of M, the place with about the least amount of light pollution that we could walk to. It was a perfect evening for laying out and gazing upon the heavens.

October promises to be a busy month, but I have no more races on the schedule as of now. Next weekend is Twin Cities Marathon, a chance to dust off the cow suit and get a practice ride in before heading down to Chicago the weekend after.