As 2025 comes to an end, it’s left me with one final gift… sickness. We’ve been surrounded by it for weeks with various friends and family going under the weather, and it’s finally our turn. I’m grateful that I had already taken off most of the week from work, but I’m also peeved that I had already taken off most of the week from work and being sick is now interfering with me getting things done.

Either way, the days continue to move forward and it’s time for my (somewhat) annual wrap-up of what happened in 2025. As I talked about in my fitness post, this wasn’t a big year for me when it came to racing events. However, looking back through my photo album I came to realize how much I actually did do this year, and how full the year was.

Looking through all the photos from the year also gave me an idea, and this blog post is going to be more of a visual retrospective with lots of photos and captions vs. big blocks of text. Let’s dive in starting with…

January

After ringing in the new year we took in a Charlie Parr concert with Mike and Beth. This was the first time we had ever seen him live and it was an incredible show.

St Croix 40 Winter Ultra happened as usual, this time with 6-8” of snow falling during the event. It was pure carnage for the poor bikers and we had a lot of DNF’s.

Speaking of DNF’s I got sick right before my first Arrowhead 135 attempt and wasn’t able to start the race. It really sucked, but hopefully this year I’m getting the sickness out of my system early.

February

February started out with a bang… literally as our van hit a deer on the way up to a Valentine’s weekend get-away. We did manage to salvage the weekend though with two awesome snowshoe hikes on the north shore. However, in my haste to get back to getting things fixed…

I went and bought a new (used) Grand Caravan. I spent too much and didn’t really get a vehicle I wanted to keep driving. But it did get us back in action sooner.

March

March started with a visit from Lisa’s mom who can now stay with us in our new house.

And then we headed to Winona for the annual Trail Running Film Fest with Mike and Beth. It’s a tradition that we’ve been keeping going for a few years now and it’s a lot of fun seeing all our trail running friends in one place.

I also got a new running vest in March to replace my slowly breaking down Ultimate Direction one. I’ve told myself I need to write a review of this for the blog soon… maybe I’ll actually get to that someday.

April

Mike and I did our usual pre-race course hike at Zumbro to kick off April. I also did the finish line photos for the race this year, and I’m really happy with some of the results.

With some bike races on the horizon (Lisa’s first 100 miler as well) we needed some saddle time and so we headed to the Willard Munger trail for a 42 mile jaunt from Moose Lake to Mahtowa and back.

A couple weekends later it was time for the big tree felling. Two maple trees had been planted too close to the house by previous owners and had to go. The upside is a lot of firewood!

April also saw my boss’s retirement and the beginning of a lot of structure changes at work. Mostly good I think, but time will tell.

I also ended the month doing my usual photoshoot of the Elm Creek Backyard Ultra. Was a beautiful weekend for it this year.

May

The first bike race of the season kicked off at Granny’s Gravel Grinder. I did the 50 mile course and Lisa crushed her first 100 mile bike race. Once again another amazing weather day to be out on the bike.

We got our new garden boxes installed at the new house, and we were excitedly awaiting whatever harvest we could get.

First though we had to tackle Le Grand du Nord, a 55 mile bike event up near Grand Marais. One of the most stunning courses I’ve ridden and it inspired a bikepacking trip later in the year.

In order to get our paddling arms in shape we got some kayaks to practice with before heading up to the BWCA in June. It’s fun to have our own boats and not have to rely on rentals all the time.

Finally for May, my son and I went to a Breaking Benjamin concert. I’m glad I had earplugs as these old ears can’t take the volume at indoor rock concerts anymore.

June

Did both a Pride 5K with my sons and their friends, and did the French 5K in June.

Hit up a Twins game with my youngest son.

But the highlight of the month (and frankly the year) was our 4 day trip through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. This was our first time there and the four of us had an incredible time.

Finally, in some good natured fun, I convinced Mike and Beth to run my 20 mile peak week run at French Park, doing the 5K loop 6 times. They were good sports about it, plus the park is close to a donut shop.

July

July started off kind of rough with my camera getting waterlogged photographing the Afton Trail Race. It thankfully dried out after a couple of weeks, but I need to be more careful in the future.

We also had another visit from my wife’s mom over the holiday

Another fun trip was our bikepacking trip up to Grand Marais. We had an amazing time on the back roads, but unfortunately at the end the wildfire smoke rolled in and made the final day a bit unpleasant.

My son spearheaded some new light fixtures in our garage.

And we had a great time helping support the Fire Tower women’s training group up at St. Croix State Park (after volunteering at Voyageur the previous day)

August

August started out with some long driving miles to New Mexico for the Philmont Trail Marathon. Absolutely beautiful area, and the race was going fine for me until I sprained my ankle six miles from the end. That was a slow hobble to finish.

Our garden started to explode, especially with cucumbers

We got to see Indigo Girls and Melissa Ethridge at the State Fair with friends.

And we capped off the month with a nice long ride to breakfast in New Germany, and got to pet some farm kittens along the way.

September

Back up north for Fall Superior Trail Races to kick off September

And then another long driving trip to Boston for a work conference.

However, I got to combine it with a visit to my Philly friends. Though, it was a long trip and I was ready to be home at the end of it.

October

Fire Tower Trail Races went off again smoothly, despite hot conditions.

We volunteered at the Wild Duluth aid station with our oldest kid.

And then it was off for another long driving trip to Tennessee/Kentucky to pace and crew Mike at the No Business 100 miler.

November

We started November with a quick overnight to pick up a sauna tent from a vendor in Duluth.

We got surprised by some incredible Northern Lights around the time of another visit from the mother-in-law.

And we ended the month with getting rid of the old Grand Caravan and getting a Chrysler Pacifica that I like a lot better.

December

December brought some great snow which was such a relief as I continue to train for Arrowhead 135 at the end of January.

And I finally got to move into my new office at work after the building remodel had displaced us for over a year.

Wrap-up

Overall it was a full year, with lots of travel (15 different driving trips) and lots of amazing experiences. We got to have some game nights with friends, lots of dinners out, and I got some jam sessions in with Mike and Peter. And, so many other experiences that made the year memorable.

Oh… and I finally taught Lisa how to play cribbage!

2026 is upon us. I’ll keep trying to live my best life and try to take a few photos along the way… see you all next year!