I am taking a few weekends clear of any long races to put in some training for the Birke.  Can’t wait, I hope there is snow out there in Wisconsin.

 This weekend I did the 5k Karen Sprague Memorial Aroostook Cup in Stockholm.  This is a cool event, not least because Karen Sprague’s husband’s brother  was my next door neighbor when I was growing up.   The Aroostook Cup is a series of races here in northern Maine.  My favorite part of the Aroostook Cup is the points list, each race awards 3 points to the winner, 2 points to the age group winners, and 1 point for participating.  This makes for some exciting racing action!  These events are well attended, sometimes 100+ people.  The Karen Sprague Memorial is perhaps my favorite in the series.  The best part of the race is that for ten bucks one gets to compete, a free t-shirt, a raffle with prizes that includes 2 $100 bills, and a pizza party (pizza and shrimp corn chowder) with live music after the event.  It has to be the best deal in endurance sport.  For winning I even got a new hat….

The finish line.  Just finishing was the women’s overall winner Sarah Dominick (#24).  The two to the left are Aroostook County’s diehard skiers Jeff Dubis (#45) and Karl Soderberg (#33).  These guys are warriors.

 Today was a duathlon race, here I am leading out the skate leg.  We have loads of snow here now.  Since I have been back from Canmore, it has been either cold and sunny or cold and blowing snow.  The conditions are perfect for training, both 10th Mountain Lodge and Nordic Heritage Center have perfect trails right now.

My front yard. 

Cheers!

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