Noquemanon 2026

 Time to pull some of my weight around the Vakava blog.  Elspeth has been holding down the fort almost solo for quite a while.  My last post was after my 10th Birkie back in 2023.  Yikes.

We will dive in for a classic Ben style race report.

Brief Update

So while we probably don't need to get into everything that has happened since the 2023 Birkie, a little context will help set the stage for the race report itself.

Training Update

My year has really been built around skiing.  Usually I have a rolling list of stupid events I sign up for that keep me training for something.  This past year, as I was thinking about possible summer or fall events nothing was really scratching any itch.  DaMN?  Nah.  Marji?  Nah.  Some running event?  Nah.

So instead I've had a fairly singular focus on the 2025/2026 ski season.  I signed up for some coaching above and beyond Vakava, and have been training long and hard all summer and fall.  In the ten months since April I have more hours than I have had for any 12 month April-Mar stretch in my training records.  More roller skiing, more strength, more long workouts, more intervals.  Pretty much just more.

So when I say I'm a bit nervous about the race season its because I have almost 500 hours invested in this season and I hope it pays off.

Season Plan

The other new thing for the year is a focus on classic skiing.  I spent a number of years of wanting to like classic skiing but always feeling like I kinda sucked.  I was always hunting for kick thinking it was just my technique.  It couldn't possibly be the skis right?  Well last year I finally sprung for some sweet new Atomic C9's from Finn Sisu.  Turns out I don't suck.  Well, it isn't just me anyhow.  Those new skis have given me a new love of classic skiing.

So this year for my 13th Birkie I'm jumping into the classic race!  In fact, I'm only doing a whopping 20km of skate racing all year and everything else is classic, culminating in the Ski North Ultra 100k.

Noque Specific Preamble

Did anyone notice it was cold recently?  I did the Noque in 2019 when it was also -15F at the start.  So I was fairly confident that they were going to hold the race even though the temps were pretty consistently looking frigid.  They cancelled the Junior and Adaptive races on Friday, and pushed the 50km start back an hour on Saturday, but otherwise it was all systems go.

But let me tell you, I was glad to be doing classic this time instead of skating.  Those skis in 2019 felt like they had kick so I might as well be able to use that.

Race Report

Alright, if I want to get this out we need to tighten this up a bit.  More bullet points, less rambling prose.

Pre-Start to Deer Lake

• Stayed in the elementary school until about 10 minutes to the start
• Dashed outside, chucked the bag in the truck, put the skis on the snow, went 100m up the trail, said "yup, got kick", rolled up to the start line
• Started about 3rd or 4th row
• Flailed like mad as folks swept past me on the first downhill
• Grunted up the first big climb with my hr well into L4
• Tried to tag onto the end of a group hoping things would settle down
• Lost contact and stepped out to let Laura go catch the group
• Left Al Quaal out into the wilderness quickly finding myself basically alone
• Desperately trying to bring my HR back into a zone I thought I could sustain for 3.5+ hours
• Take my first drink from my bottle that had near boiling water in it about 15 minutes before the start and almost burn my mouth
• Crossing Deer Lake I could still see people ahead so I wasn't COMPLETELY alone

Deer Lake to Dead River Basin

• That headwall off of Deer Lake 😲
• Finally feeling like I am settling into something and people might be coming back to me a little bit
• Catch up to Brock on a steep climb after some power lines.  He is doing some striding on his double pole skis with no kick wax... ouch
• Catch up to Mike and Ketzel
• Ketzel pulls three 40+ Vakava dudes for a couple of km
• Sun is shining and snow everywhere so it is beautiful
• Grooming suddenly changes and I'm no longer fighting for every cm of trail, skis actually seem fast relative to others now.  Dramatic and very noticeable change.
• Ketzel gives me a turn on the front and I feel good but notice I'm probably going harder than I should
• The thought of the climb off Dead River up to the high point and the massive implosion I had there the last time I raced is looming in my mind
• Aid station, supplement my bottle with a drink of something
• Lose Mike who forgot his bottle in the car in Marquette and he takes on more fuel
• Quickly find myself crossing Dead River and ready to hit the big climb

Dead River Basin to Forestville

• Tom Woody and Ketzel climb like goats and disappear up the hill
• Share the whole climb with Brock
• Absolutely loving the views.  Blue skies, DEEP snow next to the trail, nice grooming, beautiful trees...
• Think I'm almost to the top starting about half way up the climb
• Finally make the top, not feeeling completely blown, a little crampy twinge in a quad though
• Long glide down to 510, through the start of the 24km, and into the Mead Hills area
• Rip past Tom on that downhill, he wants to trade skis
• Tom passes me back on the climb up Mead Hills
• Rip past him again on the way down
• Catch back up to Ketzel
• Start passing some of the 24km skiers, passing is HARD, the tracks are faster than the skate deck
• Some 24km skier won't stop skiing on my tails
• About 15km to go Brock decided it was time to race and absolutely rockets off the front and disappears
• Ketzel climbs better than I do, but I can usually catch up on the downhills or flat sections
• Starting to get other cramp twinges.  First the right lat.  Then the left tricep.  Only one sharp twinge.
• Go through FV trailhead... only 9km to go... not dead yet... bottle is empty though and I definitely should have been taking some gels

Forestville to Marquette

• Definitely getting a little bonky, but in my haze don't do anything to fix it
• Mitchell from the 50k skate passes looking like a boss... only skater to pass me
• Ketzel breaks the elastic and slowly gets out of sight
• Just... need... to... make... it... to... Marquette
• Get through River Park
• Just the last 1-2km of flat straight run into the dome
• All alone so not much to keep the pace going
• Finish and go lay on the floor in the dome hoping I don't have full body cramps for someone to video and send to Artie

Strava Flyby comparison on my race with Ketzel

Conclusion

I'm mostly pleased with how things went.  Think I need to evaluate my ski selection/grind for COLD races.  I think I gave away both some time and energy in that first 45 minutes.  Definitely need to fuel more.  So that is actually a positive and negative.  Seems like all of my training has made me a little more durable for going HARD and fighting through the bonk, but definitely not happy with the execution as that is just a mental lapse.

In the end I walked away with a age group win and a solid marathon race under my belt.

Vakava overall had a solid day with a bunch of age group hardware and Laura was 3rd female.