If the following reads like a tragic comedy, it is meant for validation. It seemed we had a prolonged November with a cold spell in January. Then March came and hasn’t left yet. But alas, my day lilies started sprouting before the Birkie!!!
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My backyard February 23, 2023
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And my backyard February 22, 2024. Looks just a little different compared to last year.
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| Oh wow, there's some day lilies popping up in that mess. |
Mora Vasaloppet 42 km Classic
My die-hard readers know Mora is my favorite owing to its flat double pole-able terrain. I focus my training on this race and think about it more than all the others. I’m not sure what happened this year at Mora but I can only assume that the snow farmers weren’t quite as diligent as those at Battle Creek and must’ve figured that some cold weather would eventually come. Because it has always come. But none of us can remember a winter this warm and even a race that has gone to such extremes as the Mora IceGrinder and Little Snow Gun That Could simply couldn’t compete with Mother Nature.
The writing was on the wall that Mora would be canceled based on the weather forecast and the trail condition reports. Erik and I were in Colorado and as we had planned to come back for Mora, instead we extended our trip by an extra day. We briefly had thoughts of driving to the Ski to the Sun race since my big hold-up for doing that American Ski Marathon Series race is missing Mora, but alas it was a 20 hour drive from Crested Butte and 24 hours back home and I later learned that even the Methow Valley has been snow deprived this winter and the Ski to the Sun race course was altered.
So I cut my losses and went back to skiing, rollerskiing, running, and strength training.
The World Cup
Last year the Minneapolis World Cup was announced for Finlandia weekend 2024. The Finlandia decided to keep their date (yes, I know, it did fall victim to this year’s snow drought) and even though it’s my “hometown” race (i.e. the place I went to high school), I wasn’t about to miss the World Cup coming to my other hometown (the one I’ve lived in most of my life). So last year as soon as the World Cup calendar was set, I went about planning my racing season. Sure, there was some turmoil and disbelief when I missed out on the first-round of World Cup tickets and realized perhaps I’m not as die-hard a skier as I thought (apparently neither is most of the Vakava team) but we got tickets the second round after some very nervous moments in October.
Knowing that I wouldn’t ski much World Cup weekend, I tried to train a bit more in the few days before. I can’t say I was entirely successful in this but since the Birkie Classic race had been shortened to 30 km, I figured I didn’t need much in terms of distance anyway. For our Vakava practice the Wednesday before the World Cup, I had a big set of classic intervals planned, but it started snowing and I was waxed with my kick wax of the year - START Purple Oslo - and it was trying to ice like crazy but I was so determined to make my skis work for me and finish that workout and I did although only by sliding my skis in the track on all the uphills.
Watching the World Cup races was electrifying and we definitely put on a good show. I suspect the World Cup will be back, maybe we’ll get to even host a few more races! One of my goals was to find somewhere on course where I could cheer for the athletes by name. This was insanely difficult because it was loud almost everywhere but for the 10 km skate race I finally found a spot at the bottom of the North Finger.
The Birkie Classic: I guess we got to ski “Mora” afterall
I had mixed thoughts about the Birkie decision for the Elite Classic race distance. Even though distance is my forte, I wasn’t too sad that it had been shortened to 30 km but this meant Erik, skiing from the Skate Elite Wave, would get up a ski marathon on me:) I felt more relieved that we didn’t have to do the Elevator Shaft and we would get a flatter course as such.
The split day format meant I got to don a cow suit and cheer for the Elite Skate race. There were lots of Vakava skiers on course and many others I knew and we had fun yelling at the skiers to “keep moo-ving along!” Vakava had a great day with the following results:
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Alex finished 59th.
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| Nate had a great race, finishing 52nd and leading the Vakava men. He also got to wear the purple bib for the first year! | |
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Erik getting cheered on by some cows.
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Laura and Claire crushing in the women's race. They went on to place 42nd and 36th, respectively.
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Mary Beth has the Birchleggings and won her age group.
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Sarah putting the hammer down, led the Vakava women with a 25th place finish in a stacked field.
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Coach Dave skiing with the masses Saturday afternoon out of Wave 70.
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Paul was 96th on the day and Derek 73rd!
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Andy finished 123rd, wearing a retro suit.
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Ben showing some good knee bend.
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Elena finished 48th.
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Sunday was the classic day. The trail was diverted around Mt. Bauer, a downhill that had caused a lot of falls the previous day due to an ice patch. I was glad that I didn’t have to climb it or go down it! Based on times over the past few days, I knew this course was going to be fast and at only 30 km would go out hot. So I did some running/jumping to warm-up but failed to realize how congested the narrower than usual start line would be and I ended up in the second to last row. At least I had some company with three of the four other Vakava guys. I knew the course suited me with lots of double poling and between already feeling strong and some boost from altitude training, I knew I could finish much better than my starting position.
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Despite starting near the back, Josh led the Vakava men finishing in 16th.
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If there’s anything I’ve learned from 20 years of citizen ski racing, it’s that the first half kilometer is probably the most important part of the race. This is where all the packs form and this largely determines finishing place. The exception to this is the normal Birkie Classic course which is long and with all the grinding uphills in the first half, I have to meter my effort. But not this year. I don’t have much of a sprint so I figured I could go as hard from the gun as I wanted and not blow up. And that’s what I did, making my way up through most of the women’s field over the first half kilometer.
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Brock moved up nicely through the pack, too, finishing 19th.
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After the climb to the Powerlines, which was much less steep than I remembered, we headed back by the start area on the classic trail and got some rest on some long fun downhills. Then we headed out towards the open golf course area. It was great hearing so many people cheering for me! I kept #630 in my sights for awhile but she pulled away as I passed one of the guys in that section. As we finished up the first lap, I packed up with numbers 601 and 603 (Zoe Reker). These were both low numbered bibs, meaning they had finished well last year, but this year’s race would take less than half the time and so I felt confident skiing up with them. There always seemed to be a couple guys hanging around our pack, too.
On this second lap the climb up to the Powerlines was a bit more of a grinder but still not bad as there were double pole sections between the climbs. At times this past year my classic climbing had felt invincible and that’s how I felt again. At least on these relatively short uphills. Then it was downhill and around the loop again. Us three women were packed up more on this lap and we got lots of “Go Ladies!” cheers. As we did our final climb to the Powerlines, there were a bunch of Elite guys in front of us but they all seemed to pull ahead of us. I was able to drop #601 who didn’t have kick wax on, but Zoe gapped me on the downhill.
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Skiing with one of the Elite Wave guys in the classic race.
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I kept pushing hard through the last lap, passed a couple Wave 1 guys, and then felt like I was slowed down a tad by an Elite Wave guy I was coming up on. I wanted to cross over to the inner track but he was there. I had been trying to make use of some good lane changes despite not being as proficient as those World Cup skiers although I’ve definitely practiced and have gotten better.
I thought Zoe was going to stay ahead of me but after going down a long hill out on the golf course, I came up on her after a big corner and skied with her for the climb up to the aid station. I passed her just before the climb. As I went into my herring bone run, I could tell the snow was getting churned up and some of the newer snow in the sun caused my skis to ice a tad (I had START Oslo Purple on again). I’d done that workout with icing skis before the World Cup and so it wasn’t too hard to slide my skis free at the top of the hill.
My sense without turning back to look was that I’d gapped Zoe a bit and so set my sights on another Elite Wave guy but my skis iced a tad again going up the hill by the new Trailhead and that guy pulled away. I enjoyed the next short rolling section heading back to the start/finish area. I was glad to see the last uphill was in the shade so I wouldn’t ice and I put in a good herring bone effort. After going through the tunnel and getting in the finish lane, I could hear someone coming up fast on me. I didn’t know who it was but tried to do a good sprint and barely edged out a 19 year old guy from the Elite Wave.
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Craig skiing in the classic race to 18th place.
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I ended up 10th woman and per result times, just hit the winning downslope of the curve, or what my high school cross-country running coach referred to as “Beating the Bulge.” The race definitely validated some crazy fitness I’d felt back in our rollerski 5 km time trials during the dryland season but also the course, which was rolling and fairly double pole-able is about the best course possible for me. I could’ve eeked out a couple more laps for a full marathon but my low back muscles were sore enough afterwards it’s good we got to stop. If I had it my way, this would be the new Birkie course. Instead I’ll keep skiing Mora.
The Great Bear Chase
I’m not sure how many years the Great Bear Chase has been canceled, but I’m guessing in math terms, it’s approaching zero. Even the Keweenaw Peninsula’s lake effect snow wasn’t spared from this extreme El Nino winter. I kept skiing anyway though, figuring that my ski season doesn’t usually end until the middle of March, I even did some rollersking. Instead of heading to Calumet, Erik and I did some canoeing on the Mississippi River, forever on our (perhaps just my) mission to paddle all of Minnesota’s designated water trails.
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| This was a sweet canoe loop that far exceeded my expectations and that
I’d highly recommend - perhaps on a warmer day as it was in the 30s when we were paddling. The Grey Cloud channel
was particularly unexpected. As we pulled the canoe out of the water
Erik commented, “The water is freezing on the canoe!” |
After all the training I’ve done this year, I would’ve preferred to do another ski race but that just wasn’t in the cards. There’s always next year:)- And we got out to Wirth on their last day grooming to get in some good elevation, skiing loops of the North Finger and La Squadra. I got 2,000 feet of elevation gain and loss in just under 24 km!
