While you guys were sweating in the pain cave, I did the Birkebeiner x-country ski marathon!
I haven't been very active on EN since about mid-January. The reason is that in January we finally got some great snow up here in Minnesota, so I was heads down on x-country skiing for about 8 weeks, culminating in my first Birkebeiner ski race. For those of you unfamiliar with the Birkie, it's the largest ski race in North America, and the marquis race is the 50K skate/freestyle race. I took up skiing about 4 years ago and have made it a replacement/add on for some of the OS work. After a couple of aborted attempts at this race, I finally made it to the start line this year.
One of the interesting things about ski races is that like many tri's, they go off in waves. The difference, though, is that unlike a road where it's relatively easy to pass people, in a ski race, the trail is often pretty narrow, so if you get behind someone going slower than you, you just have to wait. In a race as big as the Birkie this can be a real challenge. In addition, the track itself gets chewed up, so by the time the back wave people come through, the course itself is actually slower, too. So, since this was my first Birkie, and I didn't have a qualifying time, I got to start in the very last wave, the 9th.
A couple of my buddies went off in Wave 1, and I went down to the start to see them off. We had gotten a couple of inches of snow the night before, and it hadn't really set up too well, so the track was soft and projected to be slow. Since there was over an hour until my start, I wandered back to the lodge, ate some Gu, drank some water, and waited. About 30' before the start I headed out to the line. It was then that I realized I had somehow managed to grab 2 different poles! One was 165 cm and the other was 155...oopsy...to late to do anything, so off to the line I went. What a dipstick! 
I got in the front row and took off pretty fast, double poling for about 100 yards. The course is flat for about 1-2 K and then it takes a hard left and starts up a seemingly never ending series of hills that follows a powerline. Uphill for 100 yards or so, then a brief flat, then another 100 yards up. It was tough going, but I was steadily working my way through the wave 8 folks, skiing with some of the faster folks from my wave. The course is essentially uphill for the first 13.5K before you get a bit of a respite with a long, steady downhill. The only real highlight of this section was a really steep downhill with a sharp left about halfway down. This was one of a handful of tricky sections where snowmobilers would assemble to wait for crashed and then hold up numbers rating the quality of the spills. By the time we got there, the 7000 skiers (2 other races use much of the same course for the first half) in front of me had snowplowed the hill into a series of icy chutes with foot high piles of loose snow between them. Some of the more cautious folks were literally taking off their skis and walking down! I'm not the best downhiller, but damned if I was going to walk it. I picked the inside lane and went flying down the hill. I was coming up on a really tall guy looking kind of shaky and edging into my lane. I tried to hold my line, but the guy literally ran over the front of my skis (totally unintentional) and down I went. I rolled once and came to rest in the deep snow beside the course. The snowmobilers went wild! Not wanting to disappoint, I stood up, took a quick bow and headed on down. Nothing hurt but my pride
The middle section of the course 20K-40K was long and seemed to me to be steadily uphill. In reality it's a net downhill, but there are lots of intermittent climbs, so you never really got much rest. Check out the course profile if you want an idea of the hills. I was also working my way through wave 6 and 7 by now, and it was a fair amount of work to pass. I took Perform at every aid station and had 3-4 Gu's in my pocket. Every time I felt a little hungry I would take a Gu, which seemed to be working pretty well. I got a little weak a couple of times, but basically held up pretty well. About 35K my calf started to twinge a little bit and I got worried it would cramp. Around 40K my quad started to do the same thing, but neither ever actually cramped up.
The last 10K were definitely not that fun. It felt about like the last 5-6 miles of a marathon, when you want it to end, but you know you've still got a good long way to go. I was still passing people, though, so I kept pushing as best I could, mostly surrounded by wave 3-4 folks (you can tell because the first digit of your bib number is your wave). There are 2 really steep, pretty long hills (200-300 yards), and it took everything I had to make it up and over. Eventually you come out on the lake and it's a flat 3.5K run into town. The trip over the lake was relatively uneventful but for the wind blowing in our faces. About 500 yards from the finish you come up off the lake and onto main street in Hayward, WI. There are big crowds, lots of cowbells, and a great finish line announcer. As I took two big strides up the little hill off the lake, the cramps finally hit. Not the quads, not the calfs, not the lats or triceps, but the ADDUCTORS. Yep, both adductors completely seized. Now imagine yourself on a snowy street surrounded by now semi-drunk folks (they've been out there 4-5 hours by now) ringing cowbells, cheering you on, you've got skis and boots on, and you somehow need to stretch out your adductors so you can limp it across the line. I didn't know what to do either, so I squatted down, double poled a little and they eventually let loose. I went easy across the line and thankfully had a volunteer take off my skis and hand them to me.
Overall it was a really great experience. Very challenging course, great crowds, fun atmosphere, and lots of skiers. I finished in 3:56:40.3, good for 2051/3957, so basically right in the middle. Next year I should get to start in either wave 4 or 5, so that will help considerably, and hopefully let me move up into the top 3rd or so. I have to say, though, that these skiers are clearly the fittest of the fit, and like swimming, technique matters as much or more than fitness. Skiing is also much easier on the body than running...the day after the race I felt great. Legs were a little sore, but none of the, "oh @#$%, I can't walk down stairs" feeling I've had with marathons, so I think it's something I'll be able to do much longer in life. As a reference, there were 100 men in the 60-65 age group that came in ahead of me, and my 3:56 would not have gotten me on the podium for the 70-74 age group!
If anyone's ever up for a great off-season challenge, a ski race could be just the thing!
Comments
Bill,
Great to see that you got in some good skiing and made it to the start line. This year I would have had no OS pretty much if I took up skiing. Maybe some year as my wife has expressed an interest in cross country skiing.
So what kind of score did you get from the snowmobiler's?
It sounds like a great race and anytime you are moving for almost 4 hours is a tough workout. In my past life time when I had to do max VO2 test in the lab on a treadmill they always said skiers got the highest numbers so I'd believe they are very fit individuals
Gordon
You'd think with my biking history an lifelong love affair with DH skiing, I might take up XC. but it seems like too much work to me! And yes, you can do it forever. My Dad retired to the mtns of CO @ age 61, and skied from his front door seven months a year for the next twenty. When he died, he had more skinny skis than my wife and I have bikes.
When I first moved from California to Chicago many years ago I signed up, on a lark, for a Fall mountain bike race held on the Birkie course. I thought I would just pop over to Wisconsin after work on a Friday, somehow not realizing (pre Google Maps and still not familiar with Midwest) that it was a 400+ mile, 6 hour drive. Talk about a dipstick!
The next day during the race,, after another endless up/down and still only about halfway through the course, I thought to myself, this must be totally amazing for cross-country, and I've always wanted to do the Birkie ever since. It was beautiful country up there... The website for the Birkie makes it look like an amazing experience... I hope you keep reporting on your x-c progress and thanks for writing this up...Congrats on your race!!
Gordon - I did not notice the actual signs, but there were plenty of loud guffaws and several shouts of "Ten", so I can only assume it looked pretty good. I was thankful the skis stayed on!
Al - I've also read McKibben's book, and it was one of the things that got me to finally pick up the sport. I have two very close friends with 30+ Birkies between them, and they had been bugging me to take up skiing for years before I took the plunge. I only regret not doing it sooner as it's a great break from tri training, and it has fundamentally changed how I feel about winter. Now I look forward to it and don't complain when it drags on this year. With any luck, I'll get out tomorrow morning if we actually get a few inches of snow today.
All - thanks for the support. Always fun to share with folks in the Nation!