On Saturday, I put together our first annual Flying Monkey Prediction Race at Lester. Eight hearty runners came to partake in our 3.3 mile race along the bike trails, ski trails and snowmobile trails of Lester.
For the prediction race, I had everyone predict what they would run the 3.3 miles in, given a hard effort. The slowest prediction then got to start first, with the person with the next slowest prediction starting after and so on. Each person would start a given time after the first person left, based on their predicted time, meaning if the first person predicted 40 minutes and the second person predicted 38:40 then the second person had to wait 1:20 before they could start. If, say the fastest person predicted they'd run it in 27:30, then they'd have to wait 12:30 after the first person left before they could start. The first person to cross the finish line wins.
The theory with this is that a) everyone gets a legit chance to win the race and 2) everyone should finish relatively close together. It creates an interesting dynamic because you have the slower runners in the lead at the start, knowing there's people there chasing them down and the faster runners are in the back, trying to catch people.
I first took part in one of these events in Mason City, Ia with the legendary Curt Krieger and the McCurnins and I've been wanting to put one together up here for quite some time.
I'd say we had pretty good success with the event, mostly we all had a good time, the weather was perfect and most of us got a chance to stuff our faces at Billy's for breakfast afterwards.
On Sunday, I got together, again at Lester for a long run with Schuney, Hypo and Chris. We got nearly 12 miles of hilly trail running in. We climbed up Lester, hit some COGGS trails, some ski trails, some snowmobile trails. We cruised over to Amity and ran up to Hawk's Ridge, came back down the Amity trail, wandered up to Maxwell and came back down the Lester ski trails.
It was a great day of running, with warm temps, little wind and a perfect amount of fresh snow on the ground. I love running in weather like this and am thrilled to be able to put in some long miles on so many kinds of trails.
One of the great things about winter running is coming home and warming up with some good food and drink. I poured myself some nice hot chocolate and got to work on some fresh loaves of Swedish Rye Bread. Nothing like a warm, great smelling kitchen on a Sunday afternoon!
Locate. 8^)
Thanks for putting on the first Flying Monkey. I had a blast! And, the meat stick is half gone already :)
ReplyDeleteNew Year's Greetings Tony:
ReplyDeleteOK, you're using adjectives in front of my name that makes me feel old! No wait, I'm feeling old anyway.
Keep up the great work. I always enjoy reading your blog.
Curt