|
|
With a history stretching back 35 years, the Fish Pic trail run and walk up on the beautiful Pincushion Trails has many family and friends’ stories. Every year we find a few new ones, and were reminded of many old ones.
When we sent out the race announcements, even the regrets we received were interesting. The Young family was the first to send theirs. CJ, who won the race in 2018 and 2019 while still in high school was in Vermont training with Team Birkie. Sister Lindsay who won 2019 at age 15 and had a number of top 3 finishes had a concert commitment. The Volz family who have a long history of distance running nationally, in Minnesota and at Pincushion were involved in a 7-Continent Marathon pursuit.
Plenty of reoccurring and new stories played out this year. Dave Duede of Eagan, who ran here in 2012, had an epic duel with 6-time winner Shane Steele of Grand Marais, separating from Shane in the last mile of the 5-mile run. Dave, who has a large resume as a Cross Country skier, credited his training for the Leadville 100-mile running race later this year for building up his distance strength. In Shane’s defense, his training was down significantly due to work commitments. Jeff Cottrell of Duluth was 3rd. Jeff coaches at St. Scholastica, and his dad Harry is one of top racers in Minnesota in my age group, to my dismay.
Proctor High School coach Lowell Harnell, who brings his team up here for the North Shore Challenge Cross County race later this month, brought a large contingent up from Proctor. That included his 15-year-old daughter Lizzy who has been to State in track and cross-country numerous times. She won comfortably over 40-49 age group star Gretchen Brugman. Close behind were recent CCHS graduates Malin Anderson and Louise Ramberg.
In the men’s race, sportswriter Louis St. George III of the Duluth News Tribune showed he could race as well at write, finishing 4th overall.
The 50-year-old group is full of stories. Lincoln Durey of Georgia, Fred Watson of California, John Martinsen of Thunder Bay and Rich Martin of Illinois always have a spirited battle, especially with the Dureys and Watsons having family cabins near each other up the Gunflint. As you can see below, Lincoln prevailed. I asked Fred why he and his daughter Anna, one of the top young runners were slower than normal. It turns out she is a student at the University of Chicago and is working at Voyageur Canoe Outfitters. Since she has been doing more paddling and less running, they decided to have a fun run. The selfie to the right documents their lack of race effort.
A final family story in the 5-mile run is Anne and Chris Hegg in the 70+ age group. Not only did they serve as race directors for the many-ith time, they both completed the race, proving you are ever too old.
Age Group winners in the run were:
In the competitive 5-mile race walk, Braidy Powers of Grand Marais out dueled Rolf Morck of Grand Marais 1:00:00.1 to 1:04:08. Braidy is an outstanding race walker, and always finishing in around an hour. If you think that is easy, give it a try! In the women’s competition Adriane Durey of GA and the Gunflint Trail, walked a solid 1:19:45.
The very hilly 3/4 kids’ mile race was won by Hannah Duede in 6:07. The top boys, Luke Dragswiek of GM 6:22 Chance Jacobson of Lutsen 6:24 and Landen Thompson of GM in 6:42 followed Hannah. Second and third for the girls were Selah Rupp of Carlton 7:35 and Gretta Duede 7:37. The family theme continues as Hanna and Gretta are Dave’s daughters.
Many generous donations by the merchants in Grand Marais help make this event a success and a major fund raiser for NSSRC trail maintenance and youth programs. Finally, thanks and recognition are due the 30 participants in the 3-mile non-competitive event walk and the 30 kids in the 8 and under fun run. All of them contribute to the success of the event and the fund-raising efforts.
Leave a Reply