This past weekend I went back to my home town of New Ulm, MN, to visit my parents and to go to the Bavarian Blast. The blast is a town festival that brings fest-goers from all over the US. They have bands from Germany and also from the US. There is fair-type food, alot of German foods, from brats, to sauerkraut, to spaetzle. And of course, my favorite place at any fest, the beer garden. :)

To start out my "festing", I ran the 10K on Saturday morning. There was a total 116 participants of the 10K and 2 mile. The run was a great one! We ran on the bike/walk/run trail that runs on the East side of town pretty much the entire length of town. The path is paved and very scenic.

I ran my best time yet for a 10K (this is my 3rd one). I ran it in 53:40, or an 8:38 mile pace. I felt good during the run and after. The complete race results are here.

I thought the race was well-run by Anytime Fitness in New Ulm. We received t-shirts and the bag of goodies included a ticket to Bavarian Blast (worth $8) which was awesome. I ran into two friends of mine from high school, Nicole and Stacy. It was great to catch up with them and run with them!

In the picture, I am the guy in white and sunglasses on the far right between the guy in blue and the guy in red.

Today I ran another race for charity. It was the Fools Five in Lewiston, Minnesota. Where is that? It is about 40 miles east of Rochester. It is an 8K (5 mile) race with a one mile race as well. This was their 30th anniversary! They raised over $120,000 dollars for cancer!

The race started at 1pm on a Sunday. The forecast was rain, but it stopped raining just before the race. We had a huge crew of friends from Hayfield and Rochester running in the race today. From Hayfield we had Jenny O'Connor, Trevor Anderson, Dave Jorstad, Karen Johnson, Tyler and Heather Mundy, and Sherry and Me. From Rochester we had Ryan Wiltgen (my team lead), his daughter Allysa, Hiromi Walleser, Brandon Bungum, and Lindy Christian. We also had some friends from Zumbrota run the race as well, Jeff Smith and Monica Nigon.

Sherry finished in 41:24! An amazing time! Trevor and I finished a little while later in 47:00. Trevor and Jenny and I ran the first half of the race together. Then Jenny told Trevor and I to get moving. And move we did. We did the second half of the race in 20 minutes! We were very tired, but proud at the end of the race. You can see all of the race times here.

We also were running in memory of Jane Nigon who was killed in a car accident in January of this year. Sherry, Brandon, Monica and I made t-shirts in honor of Jane. She is the one that got all of us running! The t-shirts said "This one's for YOU" on one, two said "Running with Angels" and Monica's said "Jogging with Mom".

I think we all asked Jane for a little bit of help during the race. I know she was looking down on us. We can't wait for the next race!

Well, we are at it again, running that is. We don't let snow and sleet and ice and cold weather get in the way of running outside in Minnesota during the winter months!

Two weeks ago, my wife Sherry and I ran the 5K and our friend Brandon ran the 10K in the Frozen Goose Run to kick off Rochester Winterfest! It was 24 degrees with light snow when the race started at 10 in the morning. Sherry and Brandon are much better and faster runners than me, but for the entire 5K, they both ran with me. Sherry and I finished in just under 29 minutes (not real great, but hey, I am running) and Brandon went on to run the 10K and finished 11th with a time of 51:22!

We had a great time! The best part of any race for me is the end, but really, it was fun.

After the race, we went to Brother's, a Bar and Grill here in Rochester, to have a few beers and unwind after the race with Brandon and our other friend Hiromi. Hiromi took the picture below of Sherry and me!

After the trip to Brother's, Sherry took me shopping because I didn't have any of the Under Armour stuff, and bought me some, and as skeptical as I was, it really does work. Our next run will the Fools Five on April 6th, in Lewiston, MN. I can't wait!