2010 City of Lakes Loppet Ski Race
This was my first ever ski race. 33K right in the city of Minneapolis. Since my ski buddy Noodle (aka Josh Choate) deserted me to spend almost 2 weeks in Mexico, I was flying solo.
Race started at 10:30, so up at the usual time, ate light breakfast and headed over to the parking area. Stood in line in the cold (~15 degrees) for about 30 minutes before I got on a school bus for the short trip over to the ski place. Ran into 2 good friends who have been helping me learn to ski, then hooked up with 2 others who were also skiing. We hung out in the lodge until a few minutes before the gun. My friends were in wave 1, 2, and 3. One other guy was in wave 6, and I was in the last wave, 7. The waves were 5 minutes apart, so 30 minutes more in the lodge before the 2 of us headed out. FORESHADOWING: the guy in wave 6 is a sub-12 IMer and Boston qualifier who summarily kicks my @#$ in every running race or triathlon.
Coaches told me to double pole as hard as I could from the gun in order to get away from the crowd and try to find some room to ski. I did it and got off with the first 7-10 guys and off we went. The course was in great shape. The first 10K or so was rolling with some tough hills. At about 5K I started picking off the slowest folks from wave 6. I was moving up pretty steadily and feeling pretty good. By the 2nd 5K I was probably half-way through the 6es and thinking maybe I was fitter than a lot of these folks. Kilometers 10-16ish was mostly easy with a few little hills. I was still moving up passing people at a pretty steady clip. Started to catch up to wave 5 folks too. At the half-way point, I was still feeling really good, but starting to tire on the big hills...no worries, though.
Kilometers 16-23ish were super hilly with really narrow track and steep ups and downs. It was here that I got stuck behind some really slow folks. The track was really narrow, so it was essentially just walking up the hills and then trying to sneak past folks at the top. Right at the top of one of the biggest hills, I surged forward to sneak by 2 guys I'd caught on the hill and accidentally stepped on the guy in front of me's pole...oops. He turns around to yell at me, and lo and behold it's my friend from wave 6. He looks at me and says, "McKinney, what are YOU doing here?". "Dude," I reply, "what are YOU doing here, you had a 5 minute head start and we're only half-way done!". He laughed and we skied together through the rest of the hilly part. I probably lost a good 10 minutes poking up the hills, but there was literally nothing you could do about it. Left my friend at the aid station at the end of the hilly section and didn't see him again until the finish.
The last 10K was mostly on the lakes, so dead flat. I was able to pass pretty much the rest of wave 5 and a few wave 4 folks too. Last 3K I tucked in behind a really tall guy who was blocking the wind on the lakes for me. He pulled me all the way up to 3 other guys from our wave who must have been out in front of us the entire race. I was still feeling a little pop in my legs, so with about 1K to go, I moved out of the draft and hit the gas. Bye, bye boys...see you at the finish. On the 4 block run-in I caught 1 other person from my wave, 1 from wave 6, and one from wave 2!
I was totally whooped at the end of the race, but it was super fun. Even though I passed people the entire race, I still ended up only 567th out of 917, so not exactly burning up the course. The good news is that if I do the race next year, I'll get to start in one of the earlier waves which should help a ton. Not sure how ski racing compares to the Sunday run, but I'm pretty sure it was a lot more fun!
Comments
Now I know someone in the Haus that I can ask to teach me to ski when I get my XC skis. Put it off one more year. Spent the money on IMWI, 70.3 Oschner, garmin, bike, powertap.........wow..don't even show this post to my hubby.....Hey...he got new Filson luggage...what more does the man want.
I do want to learn to XC ski. This would have been the PERFECT year. Maybe if my Rivendell sells soon.
Good for you!!!
So you have a skate ski coach?
That sounds like it was a blast! Passing people the whole way is impressive too! Makes me want to take up skiing.
Congratulations!
@ Kitima - I've got 2 close friends who are really good skiers...one of them used to coach at Carleton, the college I went to. They help with wax, strategy, technique, etc. They're both teachers, though, so our schedules don't really line up much for real coaching. Josh and I have been pretty much self coaching all year. The GREAT skier I know well is a guy on my block who has been one of the coaches for the US Biathlon team. He won the "street sprints" this weekend.
Seriously, yesterday was probably the first time in a while that I've done a competitive athletic event and felt frustrated because I couldn't go faster. I don't know what the rest of the endurance sports world does in the winter, but I'm thinking hours at FT on the bike and threshold running sets one up well for skiing. I'm already planning my trip to do the Norwegian Birkebeiner. It's the world's largest x-country ski race...54K, but classic, no skating. I was thinking it would be a good 50th birthday present (9 years to go), but after looking at how cheap it is to fly/stay in Norway in March, I'm thinking maybe 45th would be better. That gives me 4 seasons to learn how to ski classic style. Anyone want to go along? Looks like it's only ~$1500 to fly, hotel, and entry fee for the race. All aboard!!
Sounds really fun! I used to xc ski, but sold the skis years back. One of my gotta get back at it goals. I would like to learn to ski skate. One of these winters. The City of Lakes Loppet also puts on a trail half marathon; one word brutal! But a blast!!
nice work!!! great to read about it
so very cool, Bill!!! really enjoying your lead up to the Berkie!