This is a 10k race held in Tower MN on the 4th of July. This race is run on paved running/biking trails. The trail is part of the Mesabi Trail, which is over 100 miles of paved trails in Northern Minnesota. This was the 34th annual running of this race and my first time running it.

Being that this is a more local race there was no expo or swag to go along with the running. I would guess there was about 80 people running this race this year. I was able to sign up for this race the morning of with no hassle.

Race:
This race starts and ends right off of the main street of Tower. Once you start you are immediately surrounded by trees and forest on both sides of the trail. For me this was great. I love running in locations with natural life scenery, but I also like running on roads, so to have the paved trails made this perfect. The first 4.5 miles are on this paved trail. After that you have to run on one of the roads for about 0.5 miles before getting back on the trail to finish up the 10k distance. There is one large incline in elevation on the first half of this race, but there is an equally large decline on the second half of the race. There were two aid stations along the route, which felt like the right amount for this distance. My family cheered me on and I was able to stop and talk to them for a bit at mile 4.5 where I got a flower from my daughter that I carried with me to the finish. This small town feel was highlighted with this encounter with my family because in a larger race it would have been hard to find them and definitely not ideal to stop and talk to them.

Post-Race:
This race was not chip timed, but as soon as I crossed the finish line there was someone there to take my bib number. After waiting about 15 minutes post race I was able to see the leader board and found that I finished 14th male overall!! There was also water and watermelon available for the finishers. You could purchase a race shirt at the finish line if you wanted.

Final Thoughts:
Being from this Northern Minnesota area as a kid, it was great to get back up to this area and be able to get out and run a fun race on the 4th of July. I will for sure run this race again next year if I am in the area and will try to increase my position on that leaderboard!