Introducing Vakava Seniorit versus Juniorit and the Riverview Loppet (and Ski de She)

Two years ago, the year of the inaugural Tour de Finn, Vakava entered a team and we took second. Not winning, especially for the team sponsored by Finn Sisu, was a bit of a bruise to our ego. Hence, last year, we fielded two teams, Vakava Pink and Vakava Blue, with the Pink team stacked with those of us committed to the most Tour de Finn races. And it worked out, Pink won the Tour de Finn team competition handedly.  

The Vakava Racing Team 2025-2026

This year, in an attempt to encourage more racing and some friendly rivalry, Vakava has pitted our seniors (those age 40 and older) against our juniors. Not unlike many other local teams, we’re limited in how many teams we can enter because we only have enough women for two teams. Thus, many of our male skiers are not on either team.

And so this brings me to the Riverview Loppet on the Tour de Finn circuit. Erik and I were on a ski trip in Colorado the past two weekends (blogpost to be published some day) and so, after Skadi’s Chase was cancelled, this was our first Tour de Finn race. Two weekends previous the Seniors made us proud taking the victory over the juniors in the BCFK, but alas the juniors had their revenge at the 22 km Seeley Hills Classic where Gabby won the women's race while Josh took second and Leif third. In an advantage for our Seniorit Team, all the racing Juniorit women were doing the Ski de She, instead of the Riverview Loppet. 

Seeley Hill Classic 22 km age class podium with Leif (left) and Josh (middle).

Coach Dave was second in the 70+ age class in the 22 km classic but isn't on our Seniorit team.

It’s interesting how life moves in circles. Perhaps due to our current team camaraderie, or WhatsApp, or a combo of the two, the Vakava Racing team has gotten a bit tighter and everyone is game with carpooling and sharing lodging. Our teammate Ian found a group of us doing either the Riverview Loppet or Tour de She a VRBO north of Hayward. We got to carpool with Ian and fellow teammate McEwan to hear some new stories. After years of Erik and I driving and staying by ourselves, suddenly it feels a bit like we’re back in college!

I’ve raced the Riverview Loppet twice previously, both times when it was the weekend after the Birkie before Pepsi moved to that weekend. The first time was back in 2004 when I skated the long race (it was a bit shorter back then) and it was a warm slow ski day. The second time was 2007 or ‘08 when I raced the shorter classic distance, which per memory, was only 12 km. I’ve never skied the After Hours trails (where the Riverview Loppet takes place in Brule, Wisconsin) for training ever. Hence, all I could really remember about the course was that some of it was fairly flat but that there was one section of sketchy downhills.

As a classic specialist, the Riverview Loppet might be my only skate race of the season, but because the official Tour de Finn race was the skate, that’s the race I entered. There was a fairly icy base following a warmup earlier in the week but it began snowing the evening before the race and kept snowing right through the race. This made for some pretty conditions in the trees, but for a very soft base.

Likely because the Riverview Loppet was on the Tour de Finn series, there was a big crowd and the race organizers decided there should be two waves for the 28 km skate. Those 40 and older would start two minutes later. Except, in the last five minutes of the race I learned it was those 41 and older (I’m 40) and anyone who wanted to could actually start in the first wave if they felt fast. Hence, because of the confusion, I got a really really bad starting position at the absolute back.

Sometimes I wish people would self-seed a bit better. I spent the first couple kilometers trying to get around a few people. The track was only one skier wide to complicate matters. As my former Vakava teammate Ben, passed me though from the “old people’s wave” I double poled while he passed me and I realized the double poling was actually quite fast on the firmest part of the skate deck.

I’ll be frank here, the skating absolutely sucked. Conditions were slow and to boot, the course isn’t piston-bully groomed, and so as often happens, there’s a small firm strip in the middle of the skate deck, but if I pushed off just off that, my ski would sink down and squirrel to the side. I hoped the slow conditions would work to my advantage as more of an endurance specialist but as the race progressed, it became clear, I’m just not good at skate skiing under these conditions.

I double poled along the side as the pack of the old people caught me, teammate Mary Beth hanging on the back. She told me to jump on and I tried but we were going uphill and I couldn’t V-1 very efficiently and so they got away. Awhile later teammate Brock caught me. He’s a real double pole specialist. I moved to the side and started double poling with everything I had and instead of passing me, Brock just tucked in behind me. The tempo was really jacking up my heart rate and I didn’t think I could maintain the speed for the remainder of the race so I told him to pass me. I tried to ski behind him, he was mostly double poling, but I just wasn’t strong enough and so I was back skiing on my own, occasionally trying to enjoy the snow clinging to the trees, but mostly just trying not to trip myself up in the soft snow.

About 14 km into the race my teammate Leif in the classic race passed me. I tried to double pole behind him and was successful for awhile, including on this super sketchy snow plowed out downhill. Fortunately it was a relatively short downhill and I talked to myself enough that I stayed upright but not long after Leif got away from me, too. Those short stints of double poling with Brock and Leif were my favorite times on course.

The course was an 18 km loop followed by a 10 km loop (same trail, just cut off 8 km) on some fairly fun terrain - few sketchy hills but lots of turns and transitions to work. Under normal circumstances, this would likely be a very fun course but with so much fresh snow, I almost felt like I was stopping around corners, struggling to string together the transitions, and I love transitions. I just tried to keep the tempo high and keep forcing the pace even though there was rarely anyone ever in sight. 

Riverview Loppet course. The southwest part of the course was the extra 8 km we did the first lap.

 My time was just under 2 hours for a 28 km skate race. It definitely wasn’t my day but gave me more training time and made the drive more worth it. Afterwards there was one of those local lunches in the old town hall building that was retrofitted as a basketball court and the Lions club sang us their song. And almost everyone got an award.

For the Seniorits, Erik helped pull Mary Beth to the win from the old people’s wave. The timer seemed a bit shocked that someone 62 could beat out those twenty years her junior. Otherwise Craig had a strong showing for the Seniorit men, finishing 5th (I believe the official results are wrong since Craig started with the fast youngsters and hence never subtracted his 2 minute wave time), with Erik in 31st and Brock in 36th and for the Seniorit Women I finished 6th and Eva 11th to round out a full scoring Tour de Finn points team. For those whippersnappers, Ian led the chase with 18th place followed closely by McEwan in 19th. Leif Hanson won the 18 km classic race for which I believe he will get 20 Tour de Finn points for doing one of the offered races. Nate Porath for Vakava (at large) placed 13th in the 28 km skate while Zack Pannkuk won the 10 km skate by a large margin (should I tell him that’s called cherrypicking??? My editor let me keep this comment:)) 

Zach winning the 10 km skate.

And finally but not least, Ahvo Taipale (does he need an introduction?) won the 10 km classic at age 79, so don’t give up yet!

Moving on to the Tour de She, Gabby Vandredies placed 7th in the 30 km skate followed by Stephanie Lewis in 9th, and Laura Cattaneo in 18th. In the 20 km classic, Adrienne Keller finished 10th. 

Adrienne for the 40-49 age class win!

Stephanie (left) and Gabby (center) for the 20-29 age class at the 30 km Ski de She.

 

Stubborn and Stupid: Posterior tibial tendonitis

This post about posterior tibial tendonitis has been over five years in the making. Whenever the pain subsided for a couple months, I thought about publishing, but then the tendonitis would flare and I didn’t want to finish this until it was fully in the rearview mirror. Now I realize it may never be completely in the rearview mirror but seeing as I’ve had my longest duration without soreness and I haven’t posted since the spring, it’s time.

I believe the athletic activity that precipitated the posterior tibial tendonitis (that’s the tendon that goes down the inside of the lower leg and inserts on the navicular bone) started during COVID “lockdown” when we did a 22 mile road portage pulling our canoe between the Whiteface and Saint Louis Rivers in Minnesota. On that long portage the road was often off-camber and for some of it I was slightly twisted from pulling the canoe. And 22 miles is a long way to walk in a day!

Initially the pain was localized to the navicular bone. I thought perhaps it was some plantar fasciitis and while I decreased my running frequency and mileage, I kept running through the pain. Then I thought it might be a stress fracture, but alas, it would often get better with running after a mile or so which made a stress fracture less likely. Over the summer and fall I kept running, even though running clearly exacerbated the pain. By now I was thinking it was tendonitis. I got an xray that was normal and saw Podiatry who didn’t have much to offer other than orthotics.

Occasionally, for a week or two, my tendon stopped hurting or got much better. But soon I’d feel it “pop” when I took my first few steps in the morning. It didn’t pop out loud, but rather it felt like the tendon was rolling around in my ankle. This was a sign to me that it was starting to flare and I should back off.

In the fall of 2020, after doing a longer run than usual, the pain flared more acutely and I took two weeks off running. This helped some but the pain returned when I resumed running and I stubbornly kept going.

 

Running with Craig and Nate at this year's (2025) Vakava Fall Camp.

 
In the summer of 2021 I had a couple pain free months and thought maybe it was gone but then it came back. I still managed to run a half marathon, most of my runs having some degree of pain around the navicular, pain that sometimes even persisted when I walked. I kept this trend up, running despite the pain, until late 2022 when I did a couple longer runs including some L3 work (faster running always made it worse) and then the pain creeped up the inside of my leg, becoming suddenly sharp and essentially intolerable for running.

Finally, late 2022, 2.5 years after the pain first started, I knew I had to take a serious break. Not only did I stop running, but I also went down the stairs carefully to not strain the tendon and stopped all unnecessary walking because my lower leg hurt with every step I took.

Fortunately it was just about ski season, but even then, I was careful with my striding and herring-boning and did a couple weeks of just double poling. As the pain decreased, I slowly brought in walking down the stairs normally and then walking and striding.

Only when I walked around work and realized that I was mostly pain-free did it dawn on me how much I had lived with this pain and how incredibly stubborn and stupid I had been all those years. 

 

Running in Trier, France this October (2025). 

 In the Spring of 2023 after most of the pain resolved (I would still get some spikes depending on classic skiing, particularly herring-bone running), I started physical therapy. It was another couple months before I gradually eased into running but during that time I did some serious walking, usually for an hour at a time - substituting my usual running for walking. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, taking life at a slower pace, admiring blooming tulips and daffodils.

By the end of April, after 6 months away, I began running again: 3 x 2 minutes easy with one minute of walking in between and so on and so forth. Strictly every other day only per my physical therapist. I was up to 3 x 8 minutes when Erik and I did the Chippewa Triathlon as a relay with my brother. The Chippewa Triathlon is an approximately 14 mile canoe, 27 mile mountain bike, and 6 mile run. My bro is a relatively fast biker and so we put him on the bike while Erik and I canoed. There’s a bunch of portages, equaling about 1.5 miles, on the canoe leg and typically we try to run those so right there I knew I’d be stressing my tendon. Erik was going to do the run leg but he’d been dealing with some of his own injuries. My bro wasn’t really in running shape either and not as advantageous to do so after the bike. Eventually we settled on dividing the running leg into three gimpy runners with Erik, then me, and finally my bro each running about two miles.

The thing about that two miles of running was I knew it was going to be really fast, at least for me, and much faster than I’d run in a long time and fast running always tweaked the tendon. It was fast for me, averaging 8:14 pace on single track trails, some of which were very rooty and had some tripping hazards. That night my tendon sure was sore but I massaged it and the next day it felt a lot better. I took a day off from running then did 3 x 8 minutes again, followed by two days off, and then a single session of 24 minutes.

By July I was up to 33 minutes of running and added in my first intervals with 9 minutes total at L3; granted, not really a long enough time to make L3 count but the point was to gradually ease in my leg to faster running.

My physical therapist gave me strengthening and balance drills and I did these diligently at least three times per week and have kept doing them, albeit not always quite three days per week, but at least two unless on vacation. 

Finally running pain free, here in the vineyards of Alsace, October 2025.

 I was still really cautious in July of 2023 when Vakava teammate Ben hosted his annual Backyard Ultra. By now I’d done an hour run, covering 6 miles. I knew pushing the distance a lot was risky but still wanted to do something above what I’d been doing. I did a cautious three laps for 12 miles but only allowed myself to run for 2.5 miles of each lap and then did a fast walk for 1.5 miles of each 4 mile lap, arriving back to Ben’s house just in time to take a quick drink and head back out on course.

A week after Ben’s Backyard Ultra, I was finally able to resume my running to and from work routine. The shortest distance is 5 miles but I was able to run the long way home, totaling 7.25 miles. I continued running pain-free for the remainder of 2023, kept adding in speed, but my longest continuous run topped out at just 8.47 miles for the year.

Despite notching one of my lowest running volume years, I still felt my fitness was good. True, I was able to continue rollerskiing, including intervals, but the break from running left me at least as strong, if not stronger. It made me wonder if walking is better exercise than we might think. Perhaps it’s not as good as running, but it shouldn’t be underestimated.  

By 2024 my tendonitis was mostly feeling better. In the spring, coming off a very short ski season owing to the warm winter, I got right into running intervals. My fitness was very good having spent a couple weeks at altitude and my posterior tibial tendon was feeling great. My tibial tendonitis wasn’t bad enough to comment on in my training log, but there was some tenderness in my inside lower calf that responded well to a deep massage 1-2 times per week.

In July of 2024 Ben hosted his annual Backyard Ultra again. I was determined to go 20 miles. I was running up to 10 miles prior to this although granted, with a bit of tendon stiffness following the runs. To hopefully counteract my running, I heavily massaged the tendon the night before the event. The night after the event my tendon was definitely stiff but after I did another deep tendon massage, it felt fine the next morning and the following day I ran almost 6 miles without issue. I went a couple months without any morning tendon popping.

I thought maybe the tendonitis was behind me at this point and prepared to complete this post, but nope, the tendon started popping again in the morning. I backed off the running a bit for a couple weeks - nothing fast and nothing over 8 miles and when it didn’t get any worse I went back to intervals and runs up to 10 miles but with the uptick in tendon popping, I wasn’t sure the tendonitis was gone for good.

This April (2025), I had a mild flare. It was really frustrating to me as it was happening at less than 5 miles and I couldn't run more than 18 miles a week spread over three runs. I backed off the running, gave it a couple weeks, gradually increased the mileage again and things were OK.

Which brings me to now. My tendon is markedly better and I’ve been beating up my legs and especially lower leg muscles pretty hard, often running several days in a row as well as adding in bounding and my jumping/plyos stuff. Like often doing this 4 days in a row. Even doubling in the same day. Sometimes the next morning my tendon pops a few times inside my ankle and will feel stiff. I’ve felt some soreness on the inside of my lower calf and have thought about massaging it, but the soreness never lasts and I haven’t reverted to massaging it in months. The tendon popping keeps me from really pushing the mileage, especially too quickly. 

 

Running through Riquewihr, France this October.

  I would like to be able to run more than 10 miles in one bout in my future, and I’ve been thinking about a half marathon and actually doing an ultra-distance at Ben’s Backyard Ultra next year, but we’ll see if the tendon cooperates if I gradually ease up the mileage.

At this point, over five years into my journey with posterior tibial tendonitis I’ve come to realize it is unlikely an injury I will ever be able to put in the rearview mirror. Perhaps had I not been so stubborn and stupid when this first happened and had I took the proper rest initially it wouldn’t have become this chronic problem. I guess we live and learn and for a Type A Overachiever, it’s hard to learn this without doing some damage to my body.

Ski North Ultra

I was carpooling to the start of the Black River Trail Classic in 2023 when Allie Rykken first told me about a ski race she was working on organizing on the North Shore. She was working on making connections with the various groups who would need to be involved and there were a few other details to be worked out, such as connector trails that hadn't existed or been groomed for 30+ years, but she sounded pretty optimistic that she could make a go of it. Fast forward a year and the event was not only on the schedule, but was the final race of the Tour De Finn race series that I was planning to target for the season. I took only a few days to deliberate before signing up.

My strategy to train for ski season the past few years is to pile on as many summer and fall miles as possible and slowly bleed away that fitness throughout ski season, since coaching the high school ski team in Northfield takes up quite a lot of my training time and energy during the winter. I was worried this strategy might be inadequate to get me ready for a 100k race in March, so I didn't have any ambitions for the race beyond just finishing. I did the BCFK on classic skis in January and the Birkie Classic in February, so I at least got a couple of long classic efforts in before race day.

After a winter of great snow along the North Shore there was a meltdown in early March and conditions were looking iffy on parts of the race course, and there were a lot of unknowns about the event still with a week to go. The organizers recommended using B skis and did a great job of setting expectations for potential course conditions. I dropped off 2 pairs of skis for Finn Sisu to wax, but then later decided to wax and bring my good race skis as well. Eva and I stopped at the North Country Ski Trails near Silver Bay to ski Friday on our way up, and it was a great reminder of what single track classic skiing is like. The snow there was mostly good, soft but starting to refreeze and get fast. I've had very limited time on natural snow over the past 2 years, so it took a little bit to get used to the flow of the trail. After our ski we headed to bib pickup and then on to the Cascade Lodge where we were staying. Talking to people there who had previewed the race course they warned that it was very icy near the start/finish area.

Skiing the North Country Trails

When I got to the race start the next morning those reports were confirmed. Due to warm preceding week the snow was thin and very icy. I had on Rex N41 covered with Rode B17 for kick and it wasn't doing much in the start area, but my skis felt fast on the ice. There was a spot open on the start line so I took it, even though I didn't really want to be near the front with conditions being what they were. The temp at the start was a chilly 10°F, so I went with a thin base layer under my suit on top and bottom, and lobster mitts to keep my hands warm. The predicted high for the day was in the 30's, so I figured I could drop layers and switch to thinner gloves later in the day.

As the race started I tried to stay as relaxed as I could while also staying out of trouble. There were just over 70 starters, but the trail narrowed quickly and cornering took a lot of room due to the slippery conditions. As we started up the long connector climb to the Bally Creek trails I settled in to the back of a group around in about 10th place, and I was pretty nervous about how the return trip back down would be. It's about 10k of icy narrow trail with no classic tracks, so I was picturing a harrowing descent, and kind of wondering if the Bally Creek trails would be worth traversing these sketchy conditions for.

I started to feel better about things when we got up to the Bally Creek trails and in to some groomed classic tracks. I was with a really fun group including Adam Mahar, Thomas Kendrick, Tyler Gilbert, Louis Sirota, Zach Handler, and a couple others. It was fun to chat and click off a few easy km in a group. Then it started to snow. It was really gorgeous snowglobe style snow that made everything look really wonderful and wintery. The snow started to slow things down, and my skis seemed to be running slightly slower than the guys around me, so I dropped off the back of the pack a bit to keep my effort in check, and so I had a bit of space around me on downhills I still wasn't feeling 100% confident about.

There were a couple of short sections on this part of the trail where you turned off of the groomed trail and just bumped along through the woods on some really rough trails that seemed like they had been only skied in by the skiers ahead. That's where the arrow pointed though, so that's where we went. To me this section best captured the spirit of the event, a healthy mix of gorgeous trails, adventure, and just being out in woods. The snow continued to fall pretty steadily, and now others skis were slowing too, so I caught back in with the group ahead of me for the downhill back towards the start. 

I was efficient at the road crossing, pausing only to take off my skis and shove a cardamom roll in my mouth that I would slowly nibble on for the next down hill. An excellent aid station food, and a certain departure from normal ski race fare. The descent was no totally fine with the new snow reducing speed and adding a lot more control, so I took pretty much everything full speed except a couple of bumpy "mogul" sections. I pulled away from the group and before I knew it I was back to the state park trails and the skis off bridge crossing. The plan was for Eva to meet me there with skis and fuel, so I could just swap things around at a spot when I needed to take my skis of anyway. Since the next section was not very hilly and included some potentially rough state park trails I switched to some old skis with no kick wax and asked Eva to put some fresh kick wax on my other skis and give them back to me at 60k.

Almost 1/3 done, and everything was feeling pretty good. I saw Louis just up ahead so I ran up to catch him and we put our skis on and started out together. The new skis felt decently fast, so I took the lead as we weaved through the park. We hit one intersection with a bunch of arrows and I quickly decided we had to head right to find the connector across the valley before heading out towards the North Shore Mountains Trail. We kept climbing and climbing though, so I stopped at the next intersection that seemed to keep going up and to the North, which seemed wrong. Louis said he suspected we had made a wrong turn, and I agreed. We bombed back down the hill and out onto the two way section of trail. When we reached the 40k marker at 41.4k it gave us an idea of how much we had added on. We caught sight of a group ahead of us and caught and passed them. Then Louis pulled away from me as the terrain was going gradually uphill towards Caribou Road.

As I neared the road crossing I saw Karl Holub on his way back with nobody else in sight. I cheered him on and he called out that the turnaround was poorly marked as we crossed paths. I got to the road crossing a few minutes later, still not having seen any other skiers on their way back. I spotted Zach crossing the road as I was coming up to it. Based on this I assumed I needed to keep going. There were no blue arrows, only 2 red ones, one pointing forward on the trail and the other pointing back, and no volunteers at the road crossing. I ran across the road and up out of the ditch on the other side. My watch was telling me to turn around, and I quickly reached an intersection with no markings in any direction. At this point I went back down the hill ran into a few other skiers who were just arriving at the turnaround. We spent a couple of minutes deliberating if this was the turnaround point, and generally agreed that it was. Then out of nowhere Abe Peterson, who was not in the race, arrived and was able to look up the map on his phone. This confirmed we were supposed to turn around. Abe offered me a bratwurst, but I was feeling antsy, already having spent 7 minutes or so milling around deliberating the course, so I declined and headed back up the trail. 

I pushed the pace a bit on my way back since I felt like I had wasted quite a bit of time deliberating at the turnaround, and quickly put a bit of time into the group I had been with at the turnaround. When I got to the next aid station I mentioned that people had gone out past the turnaround. Eva met me there as well with a change of skis. She had added a layer of Rex 30G to the skis I started the race with so I switched back to those for the remainder of the day. Having kick again and being told I was in 2nd place motivated me to keep the pace up, and I felt like I was moving really well for the next 10k. When I got to the aid station around 60k though I was starting to get hungry. They had quesadillas there so I quickly scarfed one of those down along with a cookie and kept cruising. 

This aid station is right at the base of a climb that lasts over 10k and gains about 1000ft of elevation. It was getting quite hot by this point in the day and that combined with the sun and the effort of climbing really pushed my heart rate and internal temp up. I kept reminding myself that I still had 40k to go and that I needed to chill, but it felt like there was never a place to just relax without stopping. I did stop briefly once to take off my skis and scrape a bit of ice off the bottom. It was only a couple of small chunks, but I could feel them dragging and occasionally stopping my ski. I looked at my watch once when I thought I was getting close to the top, and it only said 64k. I had hoped to be close to 70k already, ugh! This 10k section took me an hour and it was by far the most difficult portion of the race. I started to get hungry again and took a gel, then shortly after ate a granola bar. I kept imagining that there was a group right behind catching up to me so I didn't let myself stop much, even though I justified that it would be totally fine if I dropped from 2nd down to 5th or 6th.

I made it to the aid station just past 70k without anyone going by me, and quickly grabbed some food and got back on my way. Dalton Struck passed me on the way back down the hill. It was pretty warm out by this point in the day, and my skis felt slow for much of the descent, with occasional icing in the kick zone. As I was descending I saw Louis and Brock at different points on their way up, so I knew their detour had cost them a lot of time. 

The descent was good recovery, and I finished the rest of my water, hoping there would be aid at the bottom. It turned out there was not, and race director Allie was at the intersection pointing me back up the hill, so I charged on into the climb feeling tired but ready to face it again. I quickly started to heat up on my way back up the hill towards 90k, and reminding myself of my theme for the day - address issues as they arise, don't just push through - I stopped and took off my race top and baselayer. The bibs were pretty substantial, so I figured that would be enough to keep me warm, and I still had my lobster gloves on from the morning, so my hands weren't in danger of getting cold. I shoved my removed layers down my race tights, the only convenient storage I had available, and almost immediately felt much cooler and at a better equilibrium for the climb. I started to get pretty thirsty and took my last gel liquidy gel just to get some liquid in my mouth, knowing I only had 45 min at most until the aid station.

The rest of the trek up to the aid station was pretty uneventful, and when I got to the aid station up at the Deeryard I was thrilled to see Eva there waiting for me. She dug my extra layers out of my tights and force fed me a granola bar while Kira Stolen filled my water bottle, then I was back out on the trail. Even though I was pretty tired I didn't want to linger at the aid station in case there were others close behind me. My skis felt a bit faster the second time down the long descent, the temps were starting to go down along with the sun and the snow was getting a bit icier. I don't remember much of the final descent except being really tired and excited to reach the finish. The last 1/2 km or so leaves the well groomed Norpine trails and heads back into the state park. There were some pretty significant bumps, and several signs warning skiers to go slow and even recommending taking off skis and walking. I kept my skis on and somehow stayed on my feet through this section, with a liberal amount of snowplowing, and made it across the finish line! There were volunteers there collecting bibs, but they seemed unsure about asking for mine back since I had no shirt on underneath it. Eva was waiting there to take my skis and give me a jacket though, so I quickly did the swap and we waited at the finish to see the top woman finish just a couple minutes behind me, then Tyler and Thomas shortly after that. My finish time was 8 hours and 18 minutes. I told Eva I thought I was in 3rd place, but she told me that some of the skiers who had taken a wrong turn did a modified course to get to their 100k and I was the 6th finisher.

A bumpy finish

We walked down to the post-race food building, all of us racers excited to share stories and compare notes about the course, navigation and getting lost, skis and snow conditions, and there was a lot of excitement about the day! There was also some debate about the results with people skiing different courses and how that should all be accounted for. The post race food was hot and good, and it was fun to hear everyone's hot takes about the race. I was pretty wiped out, so Eva and I headed back to the hotel so I could get in a nap.

I've been excited about this event since I heard of it, and the first edition definitely lived up to expectations! The chance to ski and race on so many new to me trails that really showcased North Shore skiing was amazing. I loved the mix of conditions from the rough trails hacked in to make the race course connect, the beautiful grooming on the Bally Creek and Norpine trails, the random bumpy paths through the woods, the road crossings and aid stations, and the rollercoaster of a finish made this event a great adventure, one of the most unique events I've done on skis.

The Birkie, Sleeping Giant Loppet, and Great Bear Chase

 First, the Birkie in bullet points:

• My goal was to start fast and double pole hard in all the double pole sections. This plan was quickly thwarted as we got a dusting of snow right before the start and everything felt super slow. This was perhaps compounded by my decision to use my almost 20 year old Fischer skis because (1) I thought they kicked better than my new ones and (2) I wasn't certain about the trail conditions.
• Wow, but do I ever have in internal regulator that keeps me at Level 3. It's like I just lock into a pace to take things conservative to High Point and this is no trouble at all.
• Definitely felt the best ever climbing up to High Point.
• Am I EVER going to learn how to stride? Back in December we did a video technique session and made the change that I shouldn't let my ski swing back so far. The result: lots of ski slapping. Back then I thought: I'll work on this rollerskiing. So I just spent my time on skis trying to not kick my skis back so far, get some glide, or else just run. So I ski slapped my way to Hayward.  
• Similarly, am I EVER going to get comfortable skiing downhills and around corners in the tracks? I should arguably practice more. I do practice some. There's some screamers after High Point and I usually get out of the tracks and ski over on the side where it's not tracked. This often is quite fast but this year with that dusting of snow it was pretty darn slow and I likely lost a couple places in this section.
• This was my last year to qualify for an Elite Wave colors bib. After next year I'll always be in purple (or black or whatever the 40 year will be:)
• One of my process goals was to feed better than I ever had before. I got something at all but two of the aid stations and three times I took both a gel and energy drink. I really liked this year's gel. It was so liquid and easy to get down.
• Sometime between Gravel Pit and Mosquito Brook I got tired. Molly passed me, I skied with her, passed her, then she pulled away a bit. But we were catching and passing a few women. Painfully slow. It's hard to describe my fatigue when I'm not in it but just about every muscle in my body is just done. When I passed Molly back up climbing out of Fish Hatchery I said "I'm so tired." But somehow, I think when I get so tired, and everyone is so tired, I can slog on better than the rest. At least I had the lake to look forward to. On that very last big uphill heading up from hwy 77 I just kept the pressure on since I'd just passed a couple women. But man, the classic Birkie is the hardest thing I do every year by a long shot.
• But then we got to the flats before the lake and the lake and I felt really good. I just locked into a steady double pole rhythm. The skaters were still slowly passing me but no one caught me in the classic and I think I reeled in just a tad the couple women in front of me. I felt so strong.
• I finished 18th on my 18th Birkie. Turned 40 two days before the race but won the 35-39 age class (and would have won the 40-44 as well) but that 45-49 age class is stacked! 
• A couple weeks later it finally dawned on me: if the Birkie is the hardest thing I do, maybe I should train more/harder! I haven't been doing the long rollerskis much the past couple years due to a combo of boredom and desire to do other things in my life. And as for this winter, well, likely had it been warmer and had there been more snow I would have done more skiing and less walking. But I don't know if it matters because somehow every year that classic Birkie gets me. 

Starting out in my 18th Birkie. Photo: Jackie Schneider

 

 Sleeping Giant Loppet

    The Sleeping Giant Loppet has been on our bucket list for as long as I can remember (or at least, since I learned about it probably at least two decades ago now). Erik and I have tossed around doing it multiple times but somehow the early morning start coupled with the time change has always made us think twice. But this year we finally committed.  

    And so on the last day of February we were driving north Thunder Bay bound. There was a big snowstorm moving into the area and at least for our driving, we were glad to only have wintry conditions the last hour. Bib pick up was at Kamview Nordic Centre. After grabbing our bibs, we did an easy hour ski on the trails. Or at least as easy as we could go considering they'd just gotten a foot of fresh snow. After the meltdown earlier in the week, we were lucky to have a fresh coat of white stuff. 

    Conditions were slow and our ski pushes churrned up the skate deck. But it was so great to be skiing new trails (for the first time all season) and be skiing in a winter wonderland. The trails were all a maze and we mostly stuck to the lighted loop which had been freshly groomed. 

    The next day was the Sleeping Giant Loppet. Due to the snowstorm, the race was postponed by an hour which meant we could have a leisurely morning before driving out to the park. We had the option of taking a shuttle bus from Thunder Bay but had ultimately decided to go with the freedom of driving ourselves. Temps were cold and it was a shocker to go from running in 50 degree temps four days earlier to zero degrees. But it was sunny and I wore the same clothes as Mora and I was never cold. 

My GPS of the Sleeping Giant Loppet course. It starts out with a clockwise loop around Lake Marie Louise and then does a counter-clockwise loop to the north before finishing along the east side of the lake.

    Even though I'm a classic specialist, I had decided to skate the Sleeping Giant. This was two-fold: I figured I ought to do some skate races and also two years ago my patella-femoral syndrome had really flared after the Birkie making classic skiing really painful. This didn't happen this year and so I was kinda bummed to not be classic skiing, especially with all the new snow. Erik, in contrast, was classic skiing. 

    When I went to line up there was a woman in the front row with a wind breaker tied around her waist next to Caitlin Gregg. There was a spot on the far left and I decided if the chick with her tied-on windbreaker was on the front row, I could be, too. The gun went off and conditions were super slow. The trail was initially mashed potatoes but fortunately this didn't last long (must've been where everyone was warming up). A bunch of women passed me as I settled into my rhythm, most of my skate pushes breaking away. The first four kilometers flew by but I spent most of the first 12 kilometers salty for not doing the classic race and debating whether it was worth it to cut corners or try to find some firmer snow where my skate pushes wouldn't break the snow. 

    After 12 kilometers the trail left the park road and we headed onto a hiking trail with more "flowing" terrain. This was winding with small uphills and downhills, a section where skating is often more fun. I'd been skiing by myself up to this point but now formed a pack with another woman and two guys. Our pack broke up at the aid station and crossing of the main park road. From here we had the biggest hill on course, both climbing and descending. There were some corners and I did a couple short snowplows. Then we headed back out on another road for awhile before another flowing section. I tried to take in a bit of scenery, especially as we crossed some low lands or passed by some creeks. 

    Near the end, the race comes back to the main park road, initially sharing a couple kilometers from near the beginning before heading back to the start/finish. I was getting done by the last five kilometers. I can't say I was anywhere near as fatigued as in the Birkie, I most certainly wasn't, but it wasn't a great skate day and by then it's hard not to want to just get to the finish. This certainly wasn't an A race for me and with the slow conditions it took me 3 hours and 9 minutes. 

Ski Vacation

    On Sunday we returned to Kamview. I was stoked to do so and we had our best ski conditions of the entire trip. I classic skied all the trails I hadn't done on Friday, including the Lookout Trail. We expected that trail to have some big downhills but even though there was some decent vertical, there were no sketchy hills. Most of the course was fairly flat and I decided I liked Kamview a lot. 

Almost all of the trails at Kamview in one shot.

 

    On Monday we drove out to Lappe. In previous years we'd tossed around the idea of doing 24 hours of Lappe, but this never came to fruition. Despite a somewhat confusing trail system, Lappe is intended to be skied as one of four loops: a 14 km expert loop, a 10 km advanced loop, a 5 km intermediate loop, and finally a 1.4 km easy loop. The day was going to get warm and it was already sunny by the time we got to the trail. We headed out on the expert loop which had some gigantic hills and one of the most banked corners I've ever seen. It was definitely expert and I'd say makes Michigan Tech pale in comparison. The snow started transforming before we'd completed the loop and Erik needed a break so I went out to do a very slow 10 km loop on the transformed snow. It had been my intention to follow this up with the 5 km loop and then finally the 1.4 km loop but since the 5 km is the second half of the 10 km loop, I thought better and gave up and just skied the 1.4 km with Erik. 

    That afternoon we found some good terrain to practice our mountaineering skills and use some new gear in anticipation of another attempt on Gannett later this year.

Erik looking out to the Sleeping Giant from a park in Thunder Bay

 

    On Tuesday we took a break from Nordic. I ran in town in the morning and then we went downhill skiing at Loch Lomond. There was some good vertical and the price was right even if the chairlifts were old. Erik was impressed that we could see Isle Royale from the summit. 

    On Wednesday, on our way out of Thunder Bay, we stopped for another classic ski at Kamview. It was snowing again and we slowly trudged along on what was becoming the theme of this trip: lots of new and/or transformed snow. It was snowing too heavy to have a view from the Lookout Trail. 

    We need to go back to Thunder Bay again. It's only a six hour drive and we only skied once at Lappe. Give it a few years, and I'd happily spend a few more days at Kamview. Heck, I even thought about trying to move to Thunder Bay. But the reality is, Kamview was only so good because it was novel, and then it would no longer be novel. I think we'll be back for the Sleeping Giant Loppet- but next time I'll classic ski:) 

    Then we drove back to Minnesota along the North Shore to make our way to the Great Bear Chase, spending the night in Superior where they'd just gotten an ice storm followed by some blowing and drifting snow.

    On Thursday we skied at Wolverine since they'd just gotten a lot of snow. Well, that and we'd brought the sled with and I knew about the old ski jump in-run and figured that would be a good place to go. So we had another slow ski between all the fresh stuff and some transforming snow. Then Erik went sledding while I tried to practice my self-arrest skills with the ice axe (it doesn't work so well in a foot plus of fresh powder).

Erik doing some extreme sledding at Wolverine.

    We spent that night in Houghton and on Friday Erik went downhill skiing at Mount Bohemia while I tried but was rather unsuccessful at finding a nearby walking adventure. Largely there was too much snow and despite all the gear we'd brought with us, we'd failed to bring the old school snowshoes. 

The hike views weren't all bad.

 

Found a waterfall!

    That night we returned to Houghton to join some other Vakava skiers who'd come for the Great Bear Chase.

The Great Bear Chase

    Last year I wanted to do the Great Bear Chase but mother nature had other plans and it was cancelled. We were able to roll over our entry to this year. I returned to classic skiing and so was Erik. After a number of races this season, I had the suspicion that Erik intended to ski behind me for a decent chunk of the race. I'd won the classic race in 2019 and 2020 and had no intention of getting any other place besides first. In warm-up my skis felt slow again which wasn't surprising given the start was around 10 degrees and they'd gotten a bunch of snow three days previous. 

Great Bear Chase course: 2 x 25 km laps

 

    As we stood on the start line the announcers asked us to be kind to the slower skiers we were passing. "You're here to have fun!" the announcer said to which I yelled: "No, we're here to chase the bear!!!" 

Dave in the skate marathon still chasing the bear. He got a grizzly award for being 75. Something we can all aspire to do.

    I started on the front row which wasn't hard to do because the start was super wide but I feel like it establishes the tone. I didn't notice any other women but I could tell I was near the front of the race, if not time-wise, at least place wise as we headed up the first hill. Erik slotted in behind me. We mostly skied outside the tracks which seemed faster and was firmer for the pole plants. The skiathlon started 5 minutes in front of us and we ticked off a number of skiers throughout the race. The lead skate pack, who started 5 minutes behind us, passed us in the snaking hills and the entire first lap felt congested. 

Erik and I skiing together.

    And hard. OK, not that hard. I'd once again settled into a nice rhythm but I wasn't striding much, instead running outside the tracks and my double pole felt slow and not at all strong. Erik got ahead of me in a flatter section towards the end of the first lap, just before we hit the north punchy hill section. But he was never really out of sight, I just couldn't catch him. 

Ben with game face on. He said he enjoyed the classic but not so much the skate.

    Then we were onto the second lap. The tracks felt faster but most of the pole plants punched through a bit. I gained on Erik in the south punchy hills but then he really pulled away from me in the gradual downhill to the low point of the course. Then it was the grinder gradual uphill. I could barely see Erik as I saw him pass #409. Then we were back to the punchy hills on the north side and there was Erik, #409 having left him in the dust. But he never tanked too hard and must've seen me behind him in his bright pink as he kept the pressure on.  I noticed that instead of trying to stride in the tracks, which just seems like so much work, we'd just get out of the tracks and run. And we herring-bone ran when it got too steep. I'd never skied an entire marathon so close to him. It was kinda weird.  

Ian doing the skiathlon.

    I never could catch Erik. I wondered if I would've pulled out another gear had he been a woman. In the end he beat me by 12 seconds. We were on course for 3 hours and 22 minutes, just 8 minutes less than the Birkie. I was happy to call it a season.

    "Did you have fun?" our teammate Adrienne asked Erik and I when she finished. We both were like "No, not really. Racing is hard." And this brief conversation, other than saying earlier that we were here to chase the bear, were my most fun parts of the race.

    I won again and had more competition than previous years with the top four women all Birkie Elite Wave qualifiers from this year. So I'll take that. 

    That night we were treated to some aurora borealis from the deck of the Vakava house.

I'd never seen the northern lights in this "ribbon" pattern before. It almost looked like fire smoke. Of course, it always looks way better in the photos. It looked white to the naked eye. Photo: Ben Mullin

    On Sunday morning, before driving home, we skated at Michigan Tech. This was only my second time skiing the trail system. We had about half an hour of perfect conditions before it started seriously transforming. But there was still some snow in the trees and it was pretty. We skied down to the low-point of the course on the Skidder trail which had some fun turns. When we'd skied here in 2021 we'd skied the Cemetery Loop on very icy conditions. I didn't really want to do that trail again but we did and there is one super steep hill out there that almost got me again. 

Ski at Michigan Tech

 

Finishing up our week of natural snow for the 2024-2025 season. Photo: Laura Cattaneo

     And just like that, my natural snow season is likely over, outside of the Birkie and a couple skis in Bemidji and the Twin Cities, barely a week after it begin.