On Saturday August 11th I line up for the Marlette 10 mile trailrunning race.  It’d had a few months since I had lined up for a race but training recently has been going well and I had a quiet confidence going into it. As the the race started I got towards  the front on the flat dirt road before we started up the steep sandy climb before the Marlette decent.  On the climb I felt good and kept a solid pace.  At the top I reeled in the guy I would battle with for the remainder of the race. I was faster on the climbs, we were even on decents unless it was steep, then I had the advantage.

At half way we started up singletrack back towards Spooner.  In hindsight I should have tried to drop him there but instead followed closely.  On the decent back towards Spooner the grade wasn’t super steep until midway.  I was able to pass him and at some switchbacks I made a couple high speed sprints and got a solid gap that I was hoping to hold to the finish.   On the flat portion back to Spooner I got caught by him and eventually passed and ended up 7th overall.  I won the Masters (40-49) age group by about 9 minutes and I think a top 3 would have been realistic actually if I was a little faster on the flats which is something I’m working on.  It was definitely an energizing feeling standing on the podium for the Masters win.  I immediately decided I wanted to race again soon. Looks like the  September 9 Tahoe 25k will be my next race.  Working on the high end, staying healthy, and getting some runs at altitude is the order of the day to see if I can mix it up in the overall on that day. Lawrence Bugenig