Loppet 2018 Low Down

After racing 3 races at World Masters in 5 days, I didn’t want to do a long classic race at the loppet. Instead I decided to do the Ski-Orienteering Race. I’ve done this twice before and my last time didn’t go so well. I hoped for warm temps to make map reading and control punching easier.

Fortunately for me, it was relatively warm with temps in the low 30s. Similar to two years ago when I last did the ski-O, the race started on Bde Maka Ska (if this sounds mysterious, remember it is orienteering afterall). I suspected most of the controls would be on Lake of the Isles and so the morning of the event I studied the old map to “reorient” myself with the area.

This year's ski-O course in case you are interested

Usually in orienteering races, whether on foot or skis, I have significant difficulty locating the first control. I tucked the map down my spandex pants (see photo; others use a fancy map holder). My plan for the start was to get a good orientation on the map and really see where the first control was before taking off. At the start, I did just that and executed perfectly. I was in third place already by the first control and the fastest woman.

Erik demonstrates how to punch the control. But wait, you can't see him in his winter camouflage suit! He also has a fancy map holder if you look closely. Photo: MNOC

There isn’t a lot of “orienteering” to be done on a lake but the snow conditions did make for a bit of an adventure. It was in the upper 40s the day before causing significant snow melt, then froze overnight, causing lots of ice. As usual, I fretted about my wax selection prior to the race. I had decided to use my B skis in case we ended up a bit in the woods and had use Rex Pink- a medium fluoro designed for temps in the teens and twenties. With the sun shining bright, I was worried the snow would get slushy and my wax wouldn’t work; however, as we drove to the start, it got cloudy and during our warm up we discovered the snow was either ice or skied cold and powdery with glare ice under the bridges- and glare ice is pretty fast no matter the wax choice so I really didn’t need to fret about the wax.

So anyway, at each control (the places you need to orient to on your map and then punch to prove you were there) I looked at my map and located the next control. I made it to all the controls easily but did have some difficulty staying on my skis on the glare ice sections and when following choppy “skied-in” tracks.

Me at a control. Here you can see the map-tucked-down-my-pants holder. Photo: MNOC

No one passed me out on course and so I assumed I was still in third overall heading into the finish and first woman although orienteerers can make different route choices so it was always possible someone took a better route choice than me and passed me. Lucky for me this was not the case and I maintained my position and got some redemption over my last ski-O! Good thing, too, because my mom made me a bunch of earrings for Christmas and I was in need of a new earring holder.

Erik on top of the podium! Photo: MNOC

And me on top of the podium for a husband-wife sweep (and you thought only the Gregg's did that!) There was a 3rd place woman but she was doing the Ski-joring race so couldn't wait for awards. Photo: Erik

The next event for me was the Classic Sprint over the Birkie Bridge on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis! Erik and I are both significantly better at distance than sprinting and we weren’t sure about snow quality but we both agreed we didn’t want to miss this opportunity to race in downtown.

An uber artistic photo with me and the full IDS during warm-up taken by my bro, Reid, who came out to watch the spectacle!

Since I work downtown, I walked over to Nicollet Mall after work. Once I got to the Birkie Bridge, the stand-still crowds, spot lights, strobe lights, and music amped me up so much it reminded me of the time I downed 16 ounces of coffee back in undergrad (I don’t usually drink coffee). I was really nervous and as I watched the high schoolers race, they looked to be going so fast which made me even more nervous.

We were able to warm up on the course for 20 minutes. I was still so amped up as I tried to warm up and just tried to remain calm and do what I know how to do- ski. I worked on some starts and double poling hard and thought about some strategy for herring-boning up the steep side of the bridge. I also skied the 180 corner many times. This corner was incredibly tricky- the first part was easy but the second part was incredibly tight and icy- as it was actually even tighter than a 180 resembling a lollipop configuration. Even with almost no speed I was getting spit out to the very edge of the snow. I decided this was definitely a one skier at a time corner.

Really getting forward when practicing my starts in the warm-up. Photo: Galen Murray

I always want to do well in every event I enter. Meanwhile, Erik was really immersing himself in the experience. It was almost surprising how easy I could tune out the crazy lights, crowd, and hyped up atmosphere during the warm up; Erik just enjoyed standing on the bridge and taking it all in.

Fortunately by the end of the warm up I wasn’t feeling quite so hyped up anymore. I had to wait over half an hour for my first heat. There were four girls in my heat. My goal was to get to the bridge first but we all took off really fast and I trailed behind Nicole Harvey as we herring-bone ran up the steep side of the bridge. I walked up this hill or slowly ran up it in warm up and all I can say is it felt like I got up that hill so fast in the race!

Following Nicole Harvey on the steep side of the bridge. Photo: Bruce Adelsman

The top 2 women from each heat moved on to the A finals and the second two women to the B finals. Unfortunately for me, there was another fast girl who got over the hill and tucked into the lineup for the 180 corner just in front of me which put me in third. As we skied up the shallow side of the bridge, I chose the untracked lane. I rallied as fast as I could but one of the girls moved over into my lane and I got stuck behind her. This whole event was so incredibly fast in my few strides behind her I didn’t really even have time to think that I should move over. I eventually moved over at the top of the hill for the downhill. Coming into the finish I got in my own tracks and tried to get forward onto my toes to mount a sprint finish but I was just a bit behind and finished 3 of 4 in my semi-final.

Tucking into 3rd as we headed into the 180 corner. I love the Target store in the background. Photo: Galen Murray

Still in third heading out of the 180. Sorry for all the photos but the atmosphere reminded me of being in Venice- just too much to take in. Photo: Galen Murray

So close to top 2 in the semis! Photo: Galen Murray

This put me in the B final. After getting a bit cut-off in my semi, I vowed to win my B final. I was in the opposite far-side lane which meant I would have firmer snow for the steep herring-bone but then I had to cut across the course to get in line for the 180 corner. I double poled hard on the straightaway and made it to the hill first this time but my herring-bone run apparently isn’t up to par and I made it to the top of the bridge in second. We skied conservatively around the 180 and despite giving it my all running and then herring-bone running up the gradual side of the hill, I was still in second at the top. I moved into my own lane and was at the bottom of the hill when the girl in front of me crashed. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get around her but I made it around her to finish first in heat B. This all happened a couple hours after reading Jessie Diggins blog on Brave Enough and I can say that as I took off my skis and poles at the finish, I was thoroughly breathing hard despite the very short attempt which took just over a minute. It’s always good to work hard!

The top 3 women in the B final. That's me over on the left. Photo: Bruce Adelsman

Cresting the bridge for the last time in 2nd in the B final. Photo: Bruce Adelsman

Dodging the fall in the B final. Photo: Bruce Adelsman

One note on equipment- I wanted to use classic skis because I am not a strong double poler (most of the guys couldn’t even double pole up the steep side of the bridge) and I know I’m pretty decent at mounting a fast run on my classic skis so I went with classic skis and kick wax; however, I decided to use my skate boots to give myself some ankle support in the 180 corner and in general. I was very happy that I made this combo decision and felt very stable the entire night.


On Saturday it was time for what Erik calls “the most important Loppet event.” No, it’s not a race, and I’ve had many a conversations trying to convince people of this. I’m talking about the Luminary Loppet. This is admittedly only the second time I’ve done the Luminary Loppet. I often don’t like to do the Luminary Loppet the night before the Loppet Skate Race but when we initially signed up, it was supposed to be the week earlier. When they changed the date to the night before the skate race, we decided to do it anyway. I tried to relax and enjoy the event instead of worrying it was making me tired for the skate race. I had decided to walk so I could wear my warm mukluks and keep my feet warm but with the new snow skiing would definitely have been more energy efficient as my feet slid backward with every step. I did really like the light-up penguin family (note to my friend Caitlin: you need to upgrade your penguin costume:) and the best was the ice band- complete with a xylophone made entirely of ice!!!


Finally, it was time for the Skate Marathon- the loppet event I was really targeting. Last year this race went pretty well for me doing laps on the machine-made loop, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I like knowing the course and places to work it, especially the corners. This year we went full course and with the cold temps and new snow it was bound to be a slog fest and for me the longer and slower the better.

I again got to start in the Best of the Loppet wave. Since I’m about the slowest skier in this wave, I could stay warm inside and get in the back of the women’s field with less than 5 minutes to spare. Indeed, once we started I stayed at the very back and was the last person to head out onto the Twin Lakes Loop. For awhile it was looking like I might be the last finisher from the elite wave but one by one I definitively passed a few girls. There was one girl, #65, who I started right next to at the back of the wave who I ended up skiing with for most of the race.

Wave 1 skiers caught me before the first road crossing and kept passing me in abundance until the bog. It’s kind of degrading to just get passed and passed. According to wave placement, the top 17 women and 94 men from last year’s skate race (I was 12th) were placed in the elite wave (and my overall 142nd place from last year would have placed me in wave if I was a man). I’m sorry to all the men faster than me who had to pass me but if you’re upset, you need to encourage your partners, female friends, and every woman skier you know to start racing so I have more competition. This year there were 90 women compared to 402 men in the race. Talk about gender inequality!

I thought maybe I had dropped #65 in the bog but she caught on a very fast woman from wave 2 (only a couple men out of wave 2 passed me) and caught back up for me just in time for Cedar Lake. I was kinda glad she caught back up to me cause that meant I wouldn’t have to do the lakes alone. And finally, once we hit Lake of the Isles, we got to start passing back up some wave 1 men and no one else passed us. Most of these guys had pretty inefficient technique and one thing I’ve noticed is women skiing at the same pace as men tend to have much prettier technique. So #65 and I worked together to pass a group of guys. She led south along Calhoun and for most of the ways along the very cold and windy south side. Here one of the wave 1 guys jumped in the front with his atrocious technique. The paced slowed. When #65 pulled over I took the lead and never looked back. It might have been a bit dumb to lead here into the wind but I was still feeling good and so did everything I could to drop all the skiers behind me and I guess I dropped all but one guy and #65 (although some people told me I was leading quite the pack of guys for awhile) so it was successful. And it turns out #65 was in my age group!

My new friend, #65. Photo Bruce Adelsman

Overall I had good energy, especially on the uphills, but I had very little glide. I never got tired climbing the hills but struggled on the flats. But, I didn’t do any double poling on the lakes like I did 2 years ago. I saved the double poling for next week at Mora:) Over the past few years I’ve really become a classic specialist, mostly because I love double poling. In my ideal world I’d make a combined technique with double poling on the flats and skating on the uphills and then I’d be ready for world domination:) I’ve had better races and I’ve had worse races. It’s hard to figure out the pacing and there’s something about wearing a buff that seems to prevent me from being in full on attack mode. That and the high coefficient of friction!

Racing through the bog! Photo: Bruce Adelsman

A note on my clothing for the day: (keep in mind it was around 0 ℉ with a stiff wind from the north making for a windchill around -20 ℉) I wore 2 layers on each top and bottom under my racing spandex. This seemed to be just about perfect except for my flabs and face getting cold on the headwind sections. My hands also often get really cold the longer I ski when my handwear gets cold from sweat. Erik overheard some guy at World Masters talking about this problem and he wears rubber gloves to prevent this. I tried this last week on my 3 hour ski with an experiment using a rubber glove under my mittens on one hand. It was about 15 ℉ and I was wearing mittens and both of my hands stayed warm throughout but when I took off that rubber glove the sweat dripped out of it. Anyway, for the race I decided to use rubber gloves on both hands under my mittens. My hands mostly stayed warm after they initially warmed up and my mittens were almost completely dry at the end but obviously the rubber gloves were dripping wet.

City of Lakes Loppet Festival - Columbia Sportswear Skate Marathon a.k.a. the long skate race (A Bad, Good Race)

This was one of those races I wish I could rewind and get a do-over.  This was not my first time racing the long course, but it has been a few years since we had enough snow to do the entire course (less the Minikahda golf course section).  Because I live in Stillwater, I only ski the South portion of this trail during the City of Lakes whole course events.  I'm not the kind of person that pays much attention to the trail when I race and I'm not good at remembering courses.  With that said, before racing I did take a two minute look at the trail map and gathered a couple rules of thumb I could remember:  there are five feeds, three big lakes in the second half, and the half way mark is just past the third feed.  That was all I thought I needed to know.  Of course I didn't give myself enough time in the morning, and of course our shuttle bus from Mortenson had engine issues.  I arrived at the Wirth chalet and ran to the start to place my skis near the line.  I talked to Mike, a start official, and told him to remove my skis from the start area if I didn't return in time.  Then I ran to the big tent and got a bib, changed into my boots, and threw my bag into the truck.  I arrived at the start line with three minutes to go time.  Mike was impressed I made it back in time.

The race was going pretty well.  My technique was a bit jerky until I could get warmed up.  I (37)skied some of the North side of Wirth with my teammate Erik Pieh (18).

He was pulling away from me on the downhills and I didn't want to go hard enough to catch back up, so he slowly drifted away. Bye, bye Erik! I pretty much skied the rest of the race alone.  

Okay, so you are probably wondering why I would want a do-over on a sub zero degree marathon that I pretty much skied alone for the majority of the kilometers.  At approximately 20 1/2 kilometers I came to a split trail.  There may have been a trail marker, but if there was I didn't see it.  All the other intersections were well marked and gave me no trouble.  Anyhow, realizing I didn't know which way to go, I stopped and asked the official blue coated person standing near the junction, "what way do I go".  They replied, "what race are you doing? the 40km?"  I said yes, the 40km (I figured it was close enough to the shortened 42km race that was now 38kms).  They said, "go right". At lease that is what I thought I heard.  So, I turned around and headed down the other trail.  I was a bit concerned because the number of ski tracks were just about half of what I had been skiing on. I looked back and saw another skier not that far behind, and that reassured me. In addition, I thought if I were going the wrong way, the trail official would have yelled for me to go the other way.  At about 25kms my faster teammate, Craig Cardinal, passed me in a pack of other skiers.  Craig yelled, "you took a short cut".  That was when I realized what had happened.  According to the Loppet Foundation Blue Course Map, the short cut I took at 20.5kms cut off just over one kilometer.  The rest of the race I was so distracted, thinking, should I even finish, should I ski the 3 or so kilometers back to where the trail split, should I go fast or just ski to the finish, ...  I tried to gather myself together and pick up the pace.  When I reached the lake formerly known as Lake Calhoun my skis felt much faster.  I ended up passing two skiers that looked like dots in the distance on the lake before reaching the finish line.  Man was the wind off the lake strong!

Right away after finishing I told the race director what happened, that I had taken a short cut. I later found out quite a few skiers took this shortcut. Another teammate of mine said he, and the 15 or so skiers in his pack, all took the shortcut. 

According to mtec RESULTS, my per kilometer time was 3:10.  With skipping one+ kilometer of the race it should have been slightly higher than this.   I'm guessing my adjusted time should have been 3.5 to 4 minutes longer because the part that was skipped was said to have been hilly.  Adjusting my time would put my finish time at around 2:03:30.  Still safely in front of the second placed woman, but well back of my 22nd overall (men and women) position Loppet Results. I would have been around 33rd in the overall results.

I am so bummed about this because I was having a good race and now it’s not really like I won. I don’t know if there would have been any way to sort out who took the shortcut and who didn’t so they let the results go. I wish there was a way to sort it out and give us an official time penalty or make an announcement saying if you think you may have taken this short cut let us know and we’ll give you a free entrance into next years race. Both solutions sound good, but would not be very practical.  I would not have wanted to be a race director for this race.  They did the best they could with having to make a decision on the fly. I don’t think there was any good solution.

I'm trying to forget this one and looking forward to my next un-abbreviated race and being happy with my results.

Master's World Cup

Whoever says Winter is boring is obviously not a Nordic skier, and definitely not a mom of five Nordic racers!  This season has been a whirl wind for our family.  The last Midwest Junior National Qualifying race weekend was held in Cable, WI on January, 20-21.  We have a cabin in Cable and so we housed and/or fed a large portion of my son's Michigan Tech team, in addition to our own five racers.  I didn't have/couldn't find pictures for all of them.

On Saturday, after the classic race, I headed home to wax my skis for the Master's World Cup 15km Freestyle race to be held the next morning. I figured missing my kids' Freestyle race was better than missing their Classical race because kick waxing can sometimes be difficult and I wanted to help with that.

I decided to race on my new Salomon BLUE skate skis that I just had stone ground at FinnSisu.  Tom (FinnSisu stone grinding expert extraordinaire) did an amazing job on my skis.  In addition to the Fast Wax that was running amazingly fast Sunday morning, the stone grind, I believe, enhanced my ski's speed.  Going into a race it's hard to know how your skis speed compares to that of others; I must say, mine were running very good that day.

My time ended up being the fastest 15km time in the overall women's field by over a minute.  After the race I enjoyed lunch by myself at Wendy's.  I even had enough time to wax my skis for Monday's 7.5km classic race before the rest of my family returned home from Cable.

Monday's classic 7.5km race was a race against time to finish before the snow storm hit.  It was lightly snowing in the morning and accumulating just slightly in the tracks.  My kick wax selection wasn't the best, but at least it wasn't icing up.  I won my 04 age class (45-49 yrs) and was just behind Norway's Ragnhild Bolstad (age group 05, 50-54 years) for the overall.

I don't want to make excuses, but her skis did seem like they were kicking better than mine.  I talked to her after the race and she confirmed that she "had really good skis".

After a day off of racing, on Wednesday, I raced in the relay event. It's a 4x5km relay where the first two legs are Classic technique and the last two legs are Freestyle. I was really hoping they would pick me for a Freestyle leg because I didn't want to mess with kick wax again.  No, they picked me to lead out our relay in the Classic leg.

I started in the second row behind a less fast Italian skier.  They said we had to stay in our lane in the double pole zone.  By the time we passed the double pole zone and I could cut over I was way behind the leaders from the other age groups.  It took me almost the whole race to catch up and pass the other skiers.  I tagged my teammate, Kim Rudd, in first place, just a couple seconds ahead of the other teams.  Our USA relay team won our age group 03/04, and finished 2nd overall, .2 seconds behind USAs age group 05/06.  It was another fun day racing with good friends in my relay and against other relays with former USA and Olympic team members.

My last of three races at the Master's World Cup was on Thursday.  It was the 30km Classic event.  Like all the other mornings I started my day driving to Theodore Wirth park in the early morning; sipping on a cup of instant coffee and eating my bowl of cereal.  I eat in my car so save time on the long drive to Theodore Wirth from Stillwater.  My metabolism is really fast, so it really isn't too close to race time for me to eat.

With the new snow mixed in with artificial snow, I found kick waxing again to be challenging.  It seemed to be working for my test skis, but when I put the same formula on my race skis I didn't have enough kick.  I added more and that negatively affected my glide.  By this time I had too many layers of kick wax on my race skis and only 20 minutes until race start.  Time to call it good enough and run from the Wirth chalet parking lot to the race start about 1/4 mile away. God is so... good; even in the panic of the moment He gives me inner peace!  During the entire race I had a tune repeating in my head, "if I am for you, who can be against you".  Near the end of my first lap they re-directed the racers up the sledding hill.  Apparently a train was parked over the tracks on the other side of the road.  The race officials made a very fast decision to change the race course from a 2x15km race to a 3x10km, much hillier race.

I ended up winning my age group and having the second fastest 30km time in the overall women's field, behind Norway's Ragnhild Bolstad.

Because family and coaching commitments, I missed all of the awards ceremonies, except for Friday's closing ceremonies.  This set of races will go down in my record book for frequency of racing (4 races in 5 days), one huge snow storm, one train parked in the wrong place, one death of a racer on course, and many smiling skiers.  Congratulations to all of team Vakava!

World Masters 2018 Wrap Up

I was pretty stoked when Minneapolis won the bid for World Masters. This is because, although I acknowledge to being biased here, I think the Twin Cities has the best cross-country ski community in the country and this is the perfect event to showcase our Nordic enthusiasm. Our 15 kilometers of machine-made snow in the Twin Cities is unrivaled by any other ski town in the United States!

Racing on the "world stage" in the city where I was born, in a park I skied in as a kid, with the skyline on my bib and in the background! Photo: Galen Murray

Being in the women’s 30-34 year age group, I wasn’t expecting a large entry field. Indeed, there were just 8 of us with only 5 women in the 35-39 year age group. The largest women’s age group was 50-54 with 36 participants and the largest men’s age group was 60-64 with 99 guys. Overall there were 184 women registered compared to 533 men. I’ve previously written about these gender discrepancies.

Skiers could choose to do any of 3 races (and a 4th race if selected for the relay). There were six races to choose from: short, medium, and long distances in both classic and skate techniques. The actual distances were based on sex and age. For example, the medium race for the 30-59 men was 30 km but for women in that same age group only 15 km; however, both men and women in the 60-69 year age classes raced the same distance. Go figure!


My first race was the 15 kilometer classic. The machine-made loop at Wirth is pretty hilly and I knew going in that a hilly classic course is not my strong suit. Despite this I tried to have a positive attitude. It also helped that I had bomber kick in my last few workouts leading up to this race and well, this might be obvious to everyone but me, but having good kick makes skiing up hills easier! I also really struggle on that big climb up the old sledding hill by the old chalet and was glad we were doing 2 x 7.5 km loops as that meant only going up that hill twice!

Seeing as I started racing over two hours after the men, I had limited ability to test my kick wax. There was a small area to test kick and it was on hard icy man-made snow. Per Rex recommendations, I put on some Gold klister. The kicking was OK at 8 am but it was supposed to warm up 5 degrees and be partially sunny prior to my race so I decided to add on some Rex Brown. I really didn’t think icing would be a problem BUT as us skiers know, the Eskimos are spot-on with their 1,000 words for snow and even though we were skiing exclusively on man-made, there were glazed parts of the course and other places where the snow skied like it was cold and new.

The course was groomed really well and they even had those pine tree things where the tracks stopped and started and V-boards everywhere so it was like skiing at one of those fancy World Cup races!

Getting off to a good start in the 15 km classic. Photo: Bruce Adelsman

There weren’t many of us in our 30s and so they combined the 2 age groups which meant hugs all around from Josie:) There were 6 of us total, so obviously the start was not chaotic. I had a reasonable start and wasn’t trailing Kathleen by too much but Alex Jospe and Josie took out the pace quick! I was skiing with Margie and gaining on Kathleen when my skis iced up really bad on the sledding hill climb. I was pretty sure I needed to stop and scrape my skis so I did.

I didn’t know how I was going to scrape my skis but some guy with a foreign accent came up and showed me how to do it (at least better than the scrape with my pole method). Essentially you slide the edge of your other ski perpendicular down the kick zone of the ski you are de-icing. Then the guy said “stay in the tracks.”

I hadn’t quite noticed if the 4th place girl passed me while I stopped to scrape my skis. I kept going but somewhat enjoyed skiing by myself. An older age class of women started just before I was about to begin my second lap so had a bit of additional work to pass these women. I try not to “track” people unless really needed. It just doesn’t make sense when the stakes are so low and it is so easy for me to pass. One old guy “tracked” me on an uphill.

The second time up the sledding hill climb, despite staying in the tracks, I iced again. The tracks here were surprisingly not at all glazed, possibly because this area is always in the shade. I really didn’t want to stop a second time and so once the hill flattened out just gave a few extra kicks on the glazed tracks and the skis de-iced. This made me wonder if my skis would have de-iced on the previous lap without my needing to take them off; it’s incredibly hard to think clearly after climbing 3 big hills in a row and I guess on the plus side I did learn a new technique to de-ice my skis.

On the loop by the machine shed I noted that I was passing by Kathleen at about the same place I did the previous lap so likely we were skiing about the same pace but I lost about a minute de-icing my skis (although maybe I got a bit of breathing reprieve!)

After cheering for the men’s 30 K, when it seemed like forever between seeing the guys, all I can say is racing goes by so much faster! I was also breathing a lot harder than spectating and could feel it in my lungs for the rest of the day and coughed a lot.

I ended up 3 of 4 skiers in my age class so I got a bronze medal. We went to the award ceremony downtown and made it through no less than 24 national anthems! At least they were abbreviated and the medals were pretty sweet!

My 3rd place podium. That's teammate Kathleen in 2nd! Photo: Erik

I also made it in the FasterSkier Recap: http://fasterskier.com/fsarticle/masters-world-cup-day-1-2/


Rules, Schmules, We’re Fools!

As a first born Type A overachiever, I invented and enforced all kinds of rules throughout my childhood for myself, my parents, younger brothers, friends, and family to follow. This abruptly ended when my dad died when I was 22. Life is just too short to sweat the small stuff.

Now, some rules ultimately keep things fun but too many rules become onerous. The World Masters Association (WMA) really really really really really likes their rules. Throughout World Masters I broke quite a few rules and in general didn’t really follow what they wanted us to do (I hung out in the big tent rather than the USA tent, didn’t put my warm-ups in their designated place, etc). They imposed some harsh rules like a 60 second addition to your time for false starting:(-

Technically the race was supposed to start with a RED flag but apparently this could not be procured so all the races started with a WHITE flag. Apparently no one contested this within 30 minutes of the unofficial results being posted in writing through the National Team Director with 100 Swiss Francs so all races stood as official.

Note, when the guy helped me de-ice my skis, this probably counted as “3rd party waxing help” from the WMA rules that should have resulted in disqualification but given no one protested following the protest requirements above, my 3rd place stands.

I kinda forgot about the 83% classic pole height rule until the day before my first race. I thought about measuring my poles but Erik was like, “no, I’m sure they are way under,” so I didn’t bother even though I know my poles tend to be on the long side. Erik raced first and the pole measure device (kinda looked like a ladder they put over your head) wasn’t ready yet so his poles didn’t get measured. But it was ready by the time my race started and guess what, my poles were too long. I think I looked real sad because they said they’d let me through this time but I’d have to cut them down for subsequent races. And I happened to be racing the long classic race.

Now anyone reading this blog knows I’m a double poler and with a race like the Mora Vasaloppet coming up I’m not very excited to cut down my poles. Long poles might work to my detriment on a hilly course like Wirth or the Birkie but I’m also really used to my pole length and didn’t want to cut them down for ONE race. So I spent some time worrying and debating about this, losing some sleep, and ultimately an hour going through our entire pole collection, measuring, re-measuring and deciding what poles to cut down. I could think of a million things I’d rather be doing instead of fussing over this stupid rule in my opinion (I don’t think anyone knows the most ideal pole height for double poling and this is likely to be different on hills versus flats and I don’t know that it’s even been proven that double poling is faster on a hilly course anyway) and quite frankly cleaning the toilet would have been way less stressful and maybe would have gotten done:)

Let me just go on a bit more here- no one is winning any prize money at these races. This is supposed to be fun.

Personally, I like the casual races better- the ones where we decide on the start line how many laps to do or the self-seeded interval start races with a goal of a mass finish and a requirement to eat a donut at every lap. See, some rules are good, literally!

A young volunteer gets ready for the mandatory donut stop at the Black Lake Loppet. Photo: Dave Harrington

A racer at the mandatory donut stop wearing some retro spandex and and a great wig to boot! Photo: Dave Harrington

My brother was pretty stoked to win the traveling trophy at the Black Lake Loppet in 2012 for his lucky 13th place finish! There is a rule though that if you win you have to add something to the trophy! Photo: Dave Harrington

On Sunday it was time for the 15 km Skate race. After the previous day’s blunder with icing up, I was glad to be skating. I also like the Wirth course a lot for skating with big uphills and lots of transitions.

We had 3 age groups start together and still there were only 14 starters. I once again felt like I was on the World Cup as they had volunteers cleaning the snow out of my boots. This wasn’t really necessary since making the transition to the Prolinks. The start was crazy fast. By the end of the double pole zone I was at the back. The first stretch is slightly downhill and so instead of flailing around, I tried to just do some powerful free skating. As we started up the first uphill, I was able to pass a couple women by V-2ing. I got another woman on the new winding meadow section of the Twin Lakes Loop and then another woman caught an edge and fell down so I passed her, too. Heading off the Twin Lakes Loop onto the climbing portion of the course it looked like briefly I was gaining on Kathleen and another girl in my age class but these women quickly got away from me.

Getting off to a terrible start- you can see me waaaaay in the back! Photo: Bruce Adelsman

While the snow on Saturday mostly skied cold and dry, temps stayed above freezing overnight Saturday into Sunday and the snow was getting a bit slushy by my race despite overcast skies. I hadn’t thought about rilling based on Saturday’s conditions but Kathleen recommended it so I headed to the Finn Sisu tent prior to my start for a rilling and second layer of pure fluors (this time some liquid “Ruka” Rex). My skis were truly rocket ships and despite my poor technique on the flats I think I was mostly able to capitalize on this speed.

Capitalizing on my fast skis to V-2 farther up the Catwalk hill than those around me! Photo: Galen Murray

I did curb a bit of speed on a couple 180 corners, mostly by assuming a half tuck. Some people might not call this curbing speed but I do. I think I did throw in one tiny snowplow as well but to be fair there was a bit of traffic on my first big 180 corner.

Leading a "pack" of women from my wave. Photo: Galen Murray

The woman who fell was able to catch and pass me, but by the end of the first lap I caught a woman in the next age class. I skied with both of these women for about 3 km until one definitely passed me and I dropped the other one. I kept trying to ski fast and my skis were so fast it was all just a blur! I ended up 4 of 4 in my age class but skied 10 minutes faster than the previous day. I was really stoked about my time of 41:26 for a 15 km but according to my Garmin the course was a bit short at 13.2 km. (We’ll keep this our little secret and won’t tell the WMA organizers:)

Giving a few extra strokes to really send it on the new left-hander. Photo: Galen Murray

Erik gets really mad when I snowplow. This isn't me. Photo: Galen Murray

ERIK, NOTE, I'M NOT SNOWPLOWING HERE. I'm practicing the B-B-B-Aggressive low and forward pose! Photo: Galen Murray

My 15 km skate finish. Photo: Galen Murray

My last race of the week was the 30 km classic. Based on the start list and results from earlier in the week, I suspected a podium would be very likely and it looked like I would be well-matched with another woman to fight for first place. There were 3 age groups all starting together which meant starting with Josie and a fast woman from Sweden so I knew the start would be fast as always.

I had a pair of poles cut down to abide with the 83% rule although I talked to Craig who had raced 2 classic races since my poles were checked and he said they never checked his poles so I brought my usual poles to the start. They didn’t have the ladder pole device out so I decided to use my regular poles; however, before the early men’s races they did note that if there was any concern that pole height could me measured at the finish. Erik told me not to worry about that. Besides, I know the race secretary:)

Owing to the big snowstorm we got on Monday, the plan was for 2 x 15 km loops making using of natural snow! This included a road crossing and a bridge crossing and some flatter terrain compared to the machine-made snow.

There were 4 women in my age class at the start. Josie was the only one in the 35-39 age class, and there were 3 women in the 40-44 age class. A couple girls from Alaska in my age class were wearing some fun spandex bottoms they had bought at Mall of America! Josie said we were going to have the most fun of any of the waves out on the course.

The flag went down and we were off. I smiled to myself as Josie, then the fast Swedish chick, and then me were the first 3 as we were each the fastest in our age classes and even though we weren’t really racing each other for a podium spot we were still racing each other in terms of time. I was quickly dropped by Josie and the Swede before the first kilometer. This might be a surprising statement, but I really prefer to be out racing by myself. I’m so much more relaxed when I do this and this might be good because I often spend so much time racing by myself, but might also be bad because then I’m less motivated to ski with a pack which is going to pull me along faster than I go by myself.

Josie and the fast Swedish chick. Photo: Bruce Adelsman

Even though I skied by myself in terms of my wave, there were plenty of other racers and cheerers on course to keep me company. Also, here's some proof of my striding up the the sledding hill. Photo: Bruce Adelsman

I had been working on this blog post throughout the week and all I can say is what happened next provided me the absolute perfect ending to this blog. As I approached the big downhill where there was a left turn at the bottom before the road crossing, some guy in a “coach’s bib” I assumed to be J.D. Downing yelled at me, “go right, go right, course is changed.”

The volunteers were all yelling at me to go right at the bottom of the hill so I did. I wondered if they were going to shoot us over the bridge but the course seemed to be following the machine-made course so I just kept going. I wasn’t quite ready to go up the big sledding hill climb as I was hoping for some flats before this, but then again, I’m never ready to classic up that climb! As I kept going, I started wondering how many laps I was to do. This was supposed to be a 30 km race and if we only did 2 laps we would be considerably short, yet we were supposed to only do 2 laps.

As I skied through the stadium, I hoped someone would tell me how many laps I was supposed to do. I listened to the announcer in the stadium, he announced my name but didn’t say anything about my number of laps. I didn’t see any of the other girls in my age class near me and so I didn’t really care that much how many laps we were now going to do. Starting on my second lap it was a bit difficult to figure out the pacing since I didn’t know if this was 2 of 2 shortened loops or if we would now have to do 3. I thought about asking some of the volunteers I was passing but didn’t know if they would actually know. And I started wondering if no one ever told me if I should just finish at 2 laps??? I was certain of one thing- all rules were now out the window with an on course change and I knew no one would care about my pole length!

Finally, after skiing almost an entire lap, J.D yelled at me, “you are now in a 3 lap race.” OK, that meant 3 really really hilly loops and doing my favorite sledding hill 3 times! Now here I will be totally honest and say that I walked every herring-boning hill but told myself I needed to stride both sledding hills every time. A huge thanks to my teammate Xena, my friend Caitlin in a penguin costume, and Lynne Cecil for their cheering in this section! I managed to stay in the tracks all 3 trips up the sledding hill and was even able to get myself to do a fair bit of stride-gliding instead of just running. This might have been the 3 best times I’ve ever made it up that hill classic skiing. Don’t get me wrong- I still have plenty of room for improvement- but I’m getting better!

Anyway, I was glad once the 3 lap race was clarified. I kept trying to ski hard, cheer for those I was passing and those passing me, albeit everyone got more cheers by me on the “flatter” Twin Lakes part of the loop than in the hilly sections. The snow was definitely much slower than on Sunday. I tucked on the 180 downhills and was almost stopped after stepping through the new deep snow on the corners. I wanted to have a really strong finish and think I accomplished this.

I got my age class victory in my 3rd race of the week!

It was a good day for Vakava with Craig, Bonnie (not pictured), and I all winning our age classes. Erik was 3rd in his. Photo: Eva

So it turns out, a very short train happened to come by and park right where the race course was supposed to cross the tracks. This created quite a mayhem in a couple age categories where some skiers had already made it over the crossing and others had to turn around. You can read more about it here: http://fasterskier.com/fsarticle/masters-world-cup-day-5-train-roadblock/

Lots of awards were given out to these folks whose race got “derailed” by the train. All I can say is this really drives home the point that this is a RACE FOR FUN- there is no money at stake, no real metal medals, no Olympic spots up for grabs- this is a bunch of old people who are supposed to be having fun. And I thought it added some fun to this whole racing business. If only there had been a mandatory donut stop out on course…

This photo says it all. Maybe we'll see more bibs like this next year:) Photo: Dave Harrington

As racers we are defined by more than the results that are or aren’t on the results page. I’m slowly learning this and these World Masters races have brought me just a little closer to fully embracing this concept.