Saturday was the grand finale of the nordic ski season, the American Birkebeiner. It is a 51k race in Northern Wisconsin that draws around 4000 of the best skiers from around the country, and often some top foreign skiers as well. I had a great race and it was very exciting, but Tuesday something even more exciting happened. The US women had an outstanding day at the World Championships in Sweden taking 2 of the 3 podium spots, the first world championships podiums ever for US women in distance events. What made it even more exciting is that both of them are Minnesotans, Jessie Diggins in 2nd is from Afton, we rollerski by her parents house every Sunday when we are out there. Caitlin Gregg lives in Minneapolis, her and her husband Brian race for LNR, and she has come to ski with Vakava and run with our TNC running crew in Northfield. Her and her husband both train incredibly hard and they are fun people and great assets to the Minneapolis community where they live. To see Caitlin make a world championships podium is absolutely incredible!
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| Jessie Diggins, Swede Charlotte Kalla, and Caitlin Gregg - 10k World Championships Podium |
For those skiers who aren't over in Sweden the Birkie is the event to be at. There was a strong international field at the race this year, with the top American skier coming in 5th. Brian Gregg was the second American finisher in 8th. One thing I enjoy about skiing is that I was in the same race lined up right behind these top athletes at the start, and while I was nowhere close to these guys at the finish I did have my best ever finish place wise, coming in 33rd. My previous best skate finish was 58th, so this was a big step up. The trip up to Hayward was pretty relaxed. Fastwax put up their wax recommendations on Tuesday, so I got my ski waxing done early and didn't have that stress to deal with. The recommendation was right on and my skis were just as fast as anyone else's in the group I was with, so thanks to Fastwax for the speedy skis.
One of my goals this year has been to get out faster so I don't have to fight my way through traffic early in the race. I have been marginally successful and it has helped a lot to spend some time with the lead pack in most races and just getting a feel for skiing near the front of the race. That didn't happen at all last weekend however, I took too long finding the new bag drop location and ended up in the back row. I kept my cool though and followed the Reich brothers as they weaved their way up through the crowd in the first couple km. I ran into Nate going onto the powerline and skied with hime for a bit before trying to surge ahead to the next pack as things were starting to spread out.
I tagged onto the back of that pack briefly before being shaken off the back. I skied several km with Josh Korn before leaving him and skiing alone most of the way to OO. I caught a struggling Zach Handler and he latched on just a little before a large pack of at least 10 skiers caught up to us. My legs were pretty fried at this point, so I tucked in. I tried to stay about 3-4 skiers back in the pack to keep an eye on the front while taking full effect of the draft. Zach recovered and did a lot of work at the front to keep the pace up. Even so our group size was holding pretty steady. Passing OO I saw Nate's cheering crew out in their cow suits and they gave me a good cheer as I went through.
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| Birkie Cheering Herd! |
My parents have volunteered at the Gravel Pit aid station the last several years, so it's always fun to look for them there. My dad couldn't make it this year because of his injury, but my mom still went up and I even got her to wear my cow suit. The suit was a huge hit and it made her really easy to pick out as I cruised through the aid station.
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| A couple of Awesome Volunteers! |
I started to feel pretty well recovered by about 37km, so I put in a surge and took a hard pull to try splitting up the group a bit. I gave up the lead just before the large climb at 42km, affectionately known as Bitch Hill. When I drifted to the back of the pack it was down to just 5 skiers. At this point all of us worked together to keep the pace high, stay away from any chasers, and start reeling in skiers ahead of us who were fading. I was getting pretty tired crossing lake Hayward just a couple km from the finish and I skied over the pole of the skier ahead of me. This brought him to a stop and I crashed into him and fell. I'm just glad I didn't take him down with me, but it meant I lost contact with the group I was in. I used the adrenaline shock of falling to quickly pull one of them back in, but the other 3 got away and while I was closing on them in the final meters I ran out of time.
One of the best parts of Birkie weekend is getting to hang out with all the other skiers who are in town for the race. I had a great evening catching up with skiing friends new and old. The next morning it looked nice and sunny when I woke up, and nobody else in the cabin was up yet, so I decided to head out for an easy ski. The trail was in rough shape after thousands of skiers had traversed it the day before, but the morning was gorgeous. Only when I got back to the cabin was I informed that it was -18F outside. It seemed a bit chilly, but nowhere near that cold since there was no wind. It was a great way to say goodbye to the Birkie trail and wrap up a fun weekend.
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| Morning after ice beard |
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