And the winner is.......

This weekend is a big weekend for me. First off it is Western Sates 100 mile lottery weekend. I will know this Saturday afternoon if I am a big winner or not. I figure either way it will be a great year or running in 2011 for me. Like I have said before with next year being my 1st year as a masters runner (40+) I am looking to put a little more into it. It will all start with a solid winter of running. Got to get in the miles, miles and more miles with a little bit of speed and hill training mixed in. Speaking of speed WS100 champ Geoff Roes has a pretty good blog up now with his take speed training.

The other big thing going on this weekend in regards to trail running in my world is the big North Face 50 mile championship being run out in the San Fransisco area this Saturday. As a big fan of the sport seeing a race stacked with such a deep field makes me super excited! Who ever wins the $10,000 first place check will have to work for it that is for sure. Here is my picks for the top spots.

Mens: Top 5 just not sure on order (I think there are like 8 guys who could win)
Uli Steidl, Geoff Roes, Chris Lundstrom(MN), Erik Skaggs, Dave Mackey. My heart pulls for Chris or "Lundo" as we call him since he is my good friend. If you see the names Dakota Jones or Thomas Lorblanchet do not be shocked as well. I know it has been rainy as of late but I would not be shocked to see the course record still fall.

Womens: Top 5 (like the mens race lots of top people but I will try to pick here)
1. Kami Semick
2. Devon Crosby-Helms
3. Ellie Greenwood
4. Krissy Moehl
5. Katie Koski (MN runner)

Also a big good luck to all the TC Running trail crew running in this race besides Lundo. Run great !!!

Turkey and Trail Running

Morning on the MN river bottoms

Well happy post Thanksgiving week to you all. I hope everyone out there had a great turkey day. I for one ate more than my fair share that is for sure. The problem has been that for some reason we got stuck with tons of dessert's at the house. I mean 3 pies, 1 plate with 12 huge brownies, and 1 big box filled with cookies. On that note I better start running a whole lot more.....

Speaking of running I had a great weekend of running with all my favorite people. I kicked it all off with a super Thanksgiving morning run with my wife. We have been trying to find ways to get out more together and this was great. Even though we did not get out to trails we ran a great parkway loop together from home. Always great to kick off the holiday with the wife!! that lead into a great Friday run from the store with Adam. How luck to work for such a good guy and friend.

After that end of the week I could not wait for the weekend. Saturday brought us the Pederson Benefit run out at Afton State Park. What a day for running great trails with just enough snow to make the trails feel a little different then a great pot luck lunch with so many fun people from the MN trail running community. Everybody out for a great cause of helping out the Pederson's after there house was flooded down in Zumbro this fall. Sonya, Paul and I got in a very solid 19+ miles. I was super excited with how good I felt.

Sunday was just the perfect ending to a great week. A 7 mile trail run with Paul and Sunshine down on the great MN river bottoms trail. Even though both Paul and I where a bit tired after the big day before, running with Sunshine will always pick you up. I can't begin to think of how many miles I have run with that dog. What a great running partner. Hell my first run ever with her was up and over Hope's Pass in Leadville,CO way back in 2005 I think? I should have know after that kind of first run it was the first of many.

Sunshine and me

After this last weekend I came away knowing what I always new all along. I am blessed with great family, friends and to live in such a special place. I give thanks every week for what I have.

Beer Relay's 2010

For the 6th year now I have hosted the beer relays. This event was thought of many years ago on a run with my buddy Nick; it just took a few years till I finally put one on. The reason for the two person relay was to add a fun team aspect to the event that was different than the normal beer mile. So how it works is simple. Runner #1 drinks a can of beer then runs a 400 and tags to runner #2 and they do the same. You repeat this 4 times till each team has a total of 8 beers and run two miles total. As you can guess your stomach takes a beating as that is allot of fluid of any type in that period of time.

This year we had a great turn out with 6 teams and many people along to take it the events. We had great weather once more which was great given that all week it looked like we would have rain/snow. The competition was hot and people ran till they puked. Well in some case's yes till they puked. In the end it was a great night with friends. Thanks to all who came and we will see you next year!

Our 3rd place team Chris and Helen 13:46

Sonya and Dave 2nd place once more 13:09 (Sonya's 6th in a row)

The 2010 Champions Paul and Laura 13:03

6th place team of Maria and Doug 31:39

5th place team of Adam and Dylan 17:22

4th place team of Nick and I 15:33 (we have been a team 5 of the 6 years!)

Lastly a picture I love. My good running pal's Paul and Brian"the younger"

Kilian's Quest

As any follower of this blog would most likely know by now I am a pure running rube. I have always been that way with sports in general but with running it has been off the charts for the last 22+ years. To me in sport it is so cool to see people push themselves to higher and higher levels. With running it is also cool because you can do this all while seeing the country or for some the world.

Kilian Jornet and his running quests the last few years have been extra fun to watch as the good people at Salomon let the normal people like us see the action with there great video's. What I love about these video's is to me you can truly see how much joy Killian gets out of these adventures and how he loves meeting the different people around the world. These 3 video's are from his last adventure but if you go to the Salomon web page you can see them all!!! Check them out and see our wonderful world.