First up, a brief recap of my Birkie
Conditions were icy and this meant fast. I skated the last speedy year in 2020 and this was my first time doing the classic at rocket speeds. I figured this would make the overall race easier, and it was, I just didn't get nearly as fatigued. It also meant less ideal training for the upcoming Ski North Ultra 100 km.
Kick waxing conditions were tricky and despite building a base of a mix of 1814, SWIX 45, and Oslo Purple and then adding Rex Gold klister on top, I essentially had no kick. Sure, I could shuffle a bit on gradual inclines, but you don't stay in Elite Wave by shuffling. And so I took to the herring-bone run which was difficult on the icy trail.
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| Elena skating to a good Birkie 2026 result. |
Things went OK until a bit after OO when for some reason, as I went to get back in the track after a herring-bone hill, my ski grabbed and I face planted. Now, this was the ONLY time in the entire race that my skis felt at all sticky so I can only assume I hit some gel packet or a weird piece of ice or something. Then a couple kilometers later I was herring-bone running up a short hill and I slid out and fell over. Chill out a bit, Elspeth. The trail was so icy I really had to dig in my edges to herring-bone and as a result I couldn't run very fast.
Despite being a classic specialist, I have lackluster striding technique and often my kick wax isn't very good. Usually I can still make my skis work but it was too icy to herring-bone run to match my aerobic capacity. I was feeling good and man-grunted every time I had to get out of the track to herring-bone run knowing I was loosing precious seconds that became minutes. In hindsight I should've double poled more but I was afraid it would get my arms too tired. Only after the last aid station did I really start double poling uphills. I must've double poled most of that hill after 77 because all of a sudden I was at the final steep pitch of the climb, which I herring-bone ran.
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| Josh had great kick for the 2026 Birkie! |
Overall a frustrating Birkie for me, my second worse place, and despite all my training, still 10 minutes off a phenomenal placement. Next year:)-
The Pepsi Challenge
After a weekend hiatus for the Birkie, the Tour de Finn returned to the Pepsi Challenge, specifically the 25 km skate race. It's a good thing I've been doing the Tour de Finn or perhaps I wouldn't have done any skate races this year. Pepsi was my third skate ski in as many weeks and as I went to do my warm-up, I could tell. My skis were squirrelly and seeing as a massive cold front had come in and temps hovered around zero, most of my goal was to stay warm rather than get the engine revving.
There was a big field (100 to be exact) and I lined up somewhere in the middle. Within 100 meters the course was down to two skiers wide and after half a kilometer, just one skier wide. I wasn't very aggressive at the start and found myself way back, so far back that I could move up by double poling. I was about to pass a couple skiers and get into great position by going wide as we entered the woods, but when I went to take a step, the snow underneath me gave way and I face planted.
I struggled to get up and thought surely everyone in the race had passed me by the time I righted myself. Now you've done it, Elspeth! I mean, by this time, I was behind the women in the tutus jamming out to their bluetooth speaker. I spent the next 3 kilometers of the Silver Trail gradually passing people, a couple times double poling uphill, to essentially get to a good place in the race. Largely this meant skiing by myself with a couple women to chase. At the first aid station, about 10 km in, I passed the two women, one of whom was Jenna.
Then we were out onto the Summit Trail, gradually making our way uphill. I tried to focus on keeping my weight under me as I did my V-2 pushes as I pursued the next skier, and the next skier. The next skier was a woman and as I caught up to her, she surged. I managed to stay not too far behind her for the next several kilometers as we climbed more and more, but once we started going downhill, she gapped me fast. I could also hear someone skiing behind me and wondered if it was Jenna.
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| Birchlegger Mary Beth had an awesome Birkie. I guess I still have 20 years to learn how to skate ski! |
My hands got cold as we descended for a couple kilometers before looping around on the Gold Trail by the summit. I knew it might be better tactics to let that skier behind me lead but mostly I just wanted my fingers warm and know that I'm not very good at following so I tried to just keep skiing hard. Except that I'm not very good at V-1ing up steep uphills and there were two times I simply herring-bone walked. My bad. If I'm going to be good at skate skiing, I need to practice:)
Then we flew downhill on the Gold Trail and with half a kilometer to go that skier passed me so fast I couldn't keep up. It was indeed Jenna. I finished 11/32 women but I got second in my 10-year age class so I got some socks.
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| Gabby cruising in this year's skate Birkie and rocking our new Vakava spandex. |
And in terms of the rest of Vakava.....well those pip-squeaks put the smack-down on us geezers with Josh 3rd and Ian 4th for the men with Gabby 1st and Laura 2nd. I mean, how are the senile Vakers supposed to top that? For the old codgers, Craig led the charge in 7th with Artie 17th and Erik 25th for the men and my abysmal 11th for the women. But the TCSC Icy Insurgents reign supreme with one weekend of Tour de Finn points on the line having creamed even the Vakava upstarts by 39 points at Pepsi to lead by 64.63 points heading into next weekends' double header (or rather, choose your own adventure) of the Ski North Ultra and the Great Bear Chase. Meanwhile us old farts seem rather solidified in 3rd place barring some geriatric catastrophe.
