American Birkebeiner (2014)

What I Wore:

1 Medium weight wool hat

1 neck buff (pulled up over my nose when I wasn’t climbing)

1 pair of sunglasses

3 light-to-medium weight long-sleeve top layers

2 pairs of gloves (incl. glove liners)

1 pair windproof boxer briefs

2 pairs of bottoms

1 pair of wool socks

1 “strap-on” with water bottle and emergency food

1 GoPro

Executive Summary:

It was cold. It was slow. I barely survived.

Full Analysis:

This was year two for our Birkie crew (Charlie, Sam and John; and year one for Katie). We just have to string together a few more appearances until we have those elusive purple race bibs (20+ finishes). With all that experience under our belt, things ran much more smoothly in the run-up to the race.

A week before the race, I flew down to Key West to prep for the bitterly cold Wisconsin weather by lounging by the pool in 80 heat. It was a lovely week with Annie and the rest of the Helm family. I did a 10 mile run with Annie, but otherwise I was in full-on taper mode.

On Tuesday night, Charlie and the rest of the crew gathered in my basement to wax the skis for the upcoming conditions. We heard it was going to be cold, so they put on the coldest wax I have: purple. There were various brushing strategies employed. I asked for nylon, wax, bronze, horsehair. Charlie and Sam did wax, bronze, nylon, horsehair. None of us really have a clue what’s proper waxing procedure. We did observe that we went down hills faster than our competitors, although that could have been a product of our winter weight instead of the wax.

We decided to arrive in Minneapolis-St. Paul on Thursday night, to give ourselves a buffer in case of bad weather, and to allow ourselves a bit more time to relax in Hayward on Friday. The crew was kind enough to bring my skis from Boston, so I didn’t need to bring them to Key West and then to MSP. I’m not sure the Key West airport knows how to handle skis, anyway.

On Wednesday morning, I started freaking out about the snow storm about to hit the Midwest. Were our flights going to be cancelled?! Would we make the Birkie at all?! Would the grand total of 7 hours of training be for naught?! Soon my panic infected the rest of the group.

I watched my phone all day on Thursday, waiting for notice of a flight cancellation, but none came. I boarded my Key West to Miami flight, thinking that I would at least be able to get out of Miami early Friday morning if necessary. I arrived in Miami and my flight to MSP was delayed an hour. Not a good sign. I started tweeting with American Airlines, however, and they made me feel hopeful that I would get in that night. My flight did leave only an hour late and landed in MSP in the middle of a blizzard. Kudos to the airport crew there for keeping the planes flying.

I met up with the rest of our Birkie crew a bit before midnight and we retired to a hotel at the airport for some much needed rest. Charlie (henceforth Little Prince Haakon because of his penchant for issuing royal decrees) stated that no one was allowed to wake up before 8 AM.

We hit the road around 9 AM and were astounded by the amount of snow on the road. One entrance ramp to the interstate had not been plowed at all (after 15 inches of snow) so we were glad we were in a tank/Surburban. Sam did a good job driving us safely to Hayward and we did a good job telling him exactly which turns to make so he didn’t drive us to Duluth (like he tried to last year).

Upon arrival in Hayward, we went directly to bib pick up where we all looked over the gloves for sale with great interest. We discussed over and over what would be appropriate race wear. With temperatures around zero, we thought that being too cold would be miserable. On the other hand, if you were too warm and you started sweating and then cooled off, that would be even worse. Around and around we went.

We went to the Angler for an early dinner and had classic pre-race dinners such as: full pizzas and reubens. After a soak in the hot tub (with beer), we snuggled into our beds and dreamt of winning the Birkie.

Saturday morning, we woke at 5:30 to get the free breakfast at our hotel, the Flat Creek Inn. Then back to the room for race prep. We left the hotel at 6:40 and drove the “back way” up to the Telemark Lodge. We had purchased a parking pass that allowed us to sit in the warmth of our car, steps from the start line. Originally, I was skeptical of this purchase. I thought it elitist and thought we would miss some of the pre-race mingling that makes up the Birkie experience. That morning, however, with temperatures at 0 degrees Fahrenheit, the Telemark Lodge closed, and the heated tent collapsed because of snow load, I was glad to be sitting in our warm car. Plus, I’ve heard that the recent snow made the traffic for those using the buses even worse than usual. Many people were late for their start.

Geared up for the cold

After even further discussion about what to wear, we set off to the start line for our 9:10 start in Wave 5 (skate). John, Little Prince Haakon and I all started in the same wave. At 9:10, I shot from the starting gate and was the second skier from wave 5. I was comfortably V2ing behind the first skier and feeling pretty good. As I made the left to face the Powerline Hill, I was shocked to see it empty. Last year (wave 9), it was packed with people walking up the hill from all waves. This year, most of the skiers from wave 4 had made it up the hill by the time I got there, so I could go up it as fast as I wanted. This was not good. I wouldn’t say I sprinted up the hill, but I was working at a rate far above anything I could sustain for 50K.

I was passed by another skier from Wave 5 and then we started to really get into the Wave 4 skiers. I skipped the first aid station to pass more people, but on the ups and downs following the Powerline Hill, I was in the midst of a very clogged trail. I was frustrated by the pace and used far too much energy passing people and squeezing through tiny gaps. In retrospect, I should have just gone at the group pace and banked energy to turn up the speed in the second half of the race.

After about 10 K, I was focused on hitting the high (elevation-wise) point of the race. When I got there at 13K, it was not the picnic I anticipated. The new snow was much slower than I anticipated and I couldn’t get any good glide going. As a result, although I much prefer V2 and practiced it all winter, I was forced to V1 almost the entire race. (V1 is a slower and more energy-intensive skating style).

From 13K to 25K I was just cruising along, I didn’t feel particularly strong or particularly weak. I was still passing people and being passed by very few. I was skating with people from waves 2 and 3. But I noticed that I was now looking forward to the uphill sections of the course being clogged with other skiers. I didn’t have the energy to ski them properly anymore and was happy to get in the line of people duck-walking up the hills.

At about 30K, I started to feel really badly. I had bonked. I tried to drink more “energy” (HEED drink) and eat more Nilla Wafers, but nothing changed the fact that my ankles hurt, my legs felt heavy and my arms and back ached every time I poled. I started playing mind games with myself to count down the kilometers. I thought if I could get to 40K, I could easily finish. Each kilometer seemed more painful than the last. I was far, far away from thinking about my goal finishing time of 3:15 (Ha!). I just needed to make sure that I finished at all.

New snow is slow. Cold snow is slow. New, cold snow is very slow. At least I was in good company in my miserable slog to the finish. Everyone looked like they wanted to die. I kept thinking that if I simply stopped, I would freeze to death on the trail before anyone got to me. So that thought inspired me to keep moving towards the finishing line.

At 45K, I couldn’t believe how slowly I was skiing, but I was still in the top 10 of Wave 5 skiers, and I didn’t want to be caught by any more. I passed at least one person from waves 1 through 4, and was passed by at least one person from waves 6 through 9. So I saw it all!

With a bit over 2K to go, we hit Lake Hayward. And got hit with a strong headwind. I looked for someone to ski behind, but everyone was barely moving (I was skiing through the dregs of Waves 2 and 3). That 2K on the lake was probably the slowest I’ve skied since my first day on x-c skis at Weston Ski Track junior year of high school.

After that interminable lake, we got back on shore and made the turn onto Main Street in Hayward. I turned my GoPro back on to squeeze some more battery life out of it. Spurred on by the crowds lining the street and the sight of the finish line, I V2’ed up the street. After crossing the finish line, I grabbed a railing and bent over to catch my breath. I was shaking a bit and my skis flew out from under my feet and I was down on the ground. A volunteer was soon taking my skis off of my feet and asking me if I knew where I was. I was in Hayward! At last!

The calm before the (race) storm.

All the snow had collapsed the changing tents, so we had to make a too-long walk to the elementary school. By the time I got there, my fingers were bright red. Rewarming them was one of the more painful things I’ve experienced. I was almost crying.

After changing and getting a cup of soup (poured from a spackle bucket), I went to the Moccasin Bar for beer and to wait for the rest of the crew. It was packed to the gills (pun intended) in the bar. (The bar features countless taxidermied fish. Hayward, Wisconsin is, after all, the freshwater fishing capital of the world.) Katie and I enjoyed $7 pitchers of beer. Little Prince Haakon joined us, then John, then Sam. We toasted our survival of the toughest Birkie ever (seriously, as deemed by those in theknow), and limped home (after getting more beer and some McDonald’s, of course).

(Results here (Rob 1097, Little Prince Haakon 2149, JL 2326, Sam 3189) and there were hundreds, if not thousands of people who started and DNF; and Katie at 74th in the Prince Haakon Classic race)

(As further evidence for how slow this race was: Last year, with a broken ski, I finished in 4:10. That was good for 2412th place. This year, with a time only 6 minutes faster, I moved up 1300 places. A 4:10 time in 2014 would have been good for 1193rd place.)

We were truly exhausted by the race, so although we were planning to walk, Sam drove us back into town for dinner. The Angler wasn’t really serving food so we went to the Chinese restaurant in northern Wisconsin. After dinner, we went to the hot tub with beer, but we were all so tired we kind of just stared at each other in silence. We got in bed pretty early and I went to bed to the soothing voice of Bob Costas telling some dumb personal interest story about an Olympian I’d never heard of and would never hear of again.

Next year has got to be easier. So I guess I’ll win the race then. #Birkie2015