Racing Season

I'm falling behind on the posting schedule, and haven't at all gotten around to putting pictures along with these posts, my bad I guess.  I intend for that to start happening at some point, but it turns out I'm not very good about taking pictures, so that will have to be something for me to work on.  Since the Bearskin post ski racing season has come and quite possibly gone.  I raced City of Lakes Loppet, Minnesota Finlandia, and the American Birkebeiner this year, and still have the option to do the Pepsi Challenge if I want a bit more racing action.
City of Lakes:  With the lack of snow this year this race became earned the nickname "City of Lakes Loopet" from my friend.  It was not ideal racing conditions, but the race directors made the right decisions to have the best race possible I think.  By the time the elite racers went off at 12:30 the course was either mashed potatoes or rough ice, and my choice of stiff skis may have been the wrong one for the day.  I got to wear a super awesome leaders bib, and definitely did not live up to the honor finishing 40th.  I skied most of the race with a couple one armed Russians, which was fun.  There was an IPC race at Wirth earlier in the week and the Russian team decided to stay and race the loppet that weekend.  It was great to ski with international athletes, and to see how fast they can go despite the disadvantage they are at.  I'm gonna have my work cut out for me to try for another Hoigaards challenge win if Matt or Brian decide to race, but it wouldn't be fun if it was easy.
Mora:  Was cancelled this year due to lack of snow on the course and lack of ice on knife lake.  I wasn't looking forward to that race much anyway.  The last time I was out of shape and tried to ski 45k on that lake was the worst race of my life.  Instead I got out and got a fun 75k gravel ride in with some Northfield folks.  I took a good spill into the ditch and bruised my hip pretty good, but it seemed fine to ride and run with, so I was  not worried about it for the Finlandia next weekend.
Finlandia:  With a tough city of lakes race under the belt and no skiing in the two weeks intervening I was very indecisive about what race I was going to sign up for.  Last year it looked like the long race (36k this year) would be my best chance of getting an ax, but my brother was signed up for that race, and I didn't want to take the chance of depriving him of an age group award.  Plus the pursuit race is just too much fun to pass up, and there were very few entrants, so I figured I had a shot in that race as well.  I didn't even glide wax my classic skis ahead of time, probably a mistake, but one that wouldn't matter in the end.  The Buessler family were wonderful hosts, cooking and providing us with nice beds to sleep on.  Race morning I was happy to see a bunch of familiar faces, Travis and Amy, Blake and Rachel, Allie, Devon, John Munger, Owen Baird and Phil Rogers, who beat me out for the ax last year.  Then I noticed Bjorn towing a couple pairs of skis and knew I was in trouble.  With him in the pursuit race my chances of a win were pretty negligible, but I figured my chances of a fast classic leg to ski my way to 2nd might be good.  Turns out that glide waxing helps skis go faster, and training helps a bunch too, neither of which I had going for me this race.  I was gapped by Bjorn and Phil in the classic leg and settled in with Travis who was skiing the classic race.  When I got to the exchange Phil was out of sight already.  I got on the skates and took off, and they were rockets!  It felt so good to go fast that I really cranked up the effort.  I caught Travis and Owen pretty quickly and sailed by.  Then after about 5k I started to see flashes of another skier ahead.  I kept the pedal down even though it was starting to hurt and had Phil solidly in my sights by 9k.  I pulled him in and put on a good surge to try to shake him, but after a couple hills he was still hanging on.  This is the point last year where I settled in and ended up losing the race, this year I was determined to leave nothing out there, so I kept pushing and eventually got a gap.  I ran scared from there all the way to the end.  Bjorn was long finished by the time I came across, but I added to my Bemidji woolen mills coat collection and felt a bit more confident going into the next weeks race.  Cary suffered through the long race in an admirable fashion.  Not bad considering he hadn't been on skis since November.  He did earn his age group award but didn't pick it up because we weren't sure what the age categories were.  Emily won the classic race, so we did have one ax come home in our car this year.  Sunday I went down to visit my friend Amy in Rochester and see her new baby girl Ruth.  She is a good sized kid with a full head of hair, but not in a too exciting phase of her life at the moment.
Birkebeiner:  Another week of no skiing got me ready to head up to Hayward where the trail reports sounded really good.  I actually tested skis for the first time, but am afraid I made the wrong decision.  I decided to go with my brother's new Atomic skis, which are a bit stiff for me and cut into the snow a bit on the flats.  They climbed quite well though and handled great on the descents too.  I got in a nice ski on some of the world cup trails Friday and felt much better than the year before when I was still sick.  This year I had a bit of a sore throat, but the lungs and head felt clear so I wasn't worried about it at all.  I picked up some HF Start green which did great during the race.  I stay in a cabin with the Johnson family and friends and it is always a fun time.  The race morning was a pleasant 10F and snow conditions looked quite good.  I started a few rows back, still uncertain about my fitness over this kind of a race.  The gun went off, the flags went up, and a skier a couple rows ahead of me went down.  I didn't have time to dodge, so he ended up on my skis and spun me around.  I got back underway quickly, but had to weave my way through a lot of skiers to get back to where I wanted to be.  I worked my way up steadily until about 8km, then the climbing really started to take it's toll and I knew I had to dial it back a touch or I would be in a bad way later in the race.  I traded leads with a couple other skiers and started to build up a pack.  We caught up to Evan Slocum and another skier soon after, and the group of 8 of us or so worked together for quite a while.  I tried to make a gap at the 22km hill since I was climbing well, but couldn't get away and they pulled me back in at about 25km.  Then I settled into the back of the pack to take a gel and recover a bit.  We went by the classic lead pack, with Murray Carter, a Finlandia regular, in first followed by Norwegian superstar Vegard Ulvang, and surprisingly Travis in 3rd!  He wondered as I went by what he was doing there, but looked in good form.  He blew up a few km later I guess but still ended up 19th.  My parents were volunteering at the Gravel Pit this year, so I looked for them as we went through, and saw my mom cheering, but she had no water for me so I skied on.  Caitlin Gregg and Holly Brooks caught us before the next station, so I tagged on with them and finally dropped most of the guys I was skiing with.  Then I tried to take a feed at Mosquito brook and lost contact, a terrible tactical move on my part.  They slowly extended the gap and I didn't pass anyone else until catching a few stragglers on the lake.  The lake really hurt, but I could see others were worse off than me, and I wanted to get done so I kept pushing.  Amy and Johanna were cheering on the street into town, it was a great boost to finish strong.  I ended up in 103, a few spots back from last year, but still good enough to maintain my elite wave for next year, when I might actually try to train again.  It was a great day for cheering, but by the time I was recovered enough to go back out most of the people I know had already come in (everyone is getting fast these days).  I did see Emily come in, and Rachel Elbing, who I saw at the expo Friday where she said she wasn't racing, guess someone changed her mind.  Tom Bisel also finished his first Birkie and he looked like he would be feeling the effort for a few days.  I just beat out Nate Porath to be the first Northfielder to finish.  There are so many people I know at the Birkie that I just love hanging out and seeing people from all over and talking about skiing and life in general.  Byron had a good race and missed the Elite wave by 10 min or so, Dave just beat out Allie in the classic race, Jeff held his wave 1 spot, and Cary tried to use someones number, but failed his bluff check at registration so he couldn't race.  That night I was pretty exhausted, but had bounced back pretty well by the next morning and was ready to do a bit more skiing before heading back home.
Another great Birkie, I can't wait for next year.  It is a bit sad that I am really now just catching Birkie fever and the season is over.  This is a good place to be getting ready for next year though, as opposed to last year when I was pretty much burned out on skiing and life by the time the season ended.  Now on to running season, canoe season, and all the fun that warm weather brings with it.  Just to kick off the end of ski season a big storm is currently dumping on Northfield as I write this.