Ski Race 3:08:40 [4] 42.0 km (4:30 / km)
Orsa-Grönklitt Ski Marathon
This was obviously the sensible thing to do right after being sick all week. Alex will be proud of me.
Seriously, though, it was my last chance to do a seeding race for Vasaloppet. Every row that you are seeded up means 1200 more people you don't have to start behind in the massive crowd that apparently happens at the start of every Vasaloppet. I figured just finishing this race would move me up a few rows, saving at least 30 minutes of frustration during Vasaloppet.
Luckily, I woke up feeling good. Still stuffed up and coughing, but no headache or any signs of fever. Skied down to the start with Bara and Zuzana, and waxed according to instructions given by Martin and Radek, who actually knew what they were doing. About 900 people at the start in a wide field that quickly narrows down to 4 sets of tracks. I was stuck behind some people at the end of the field, but the wait was less than a minute before I could move again and double-pole like crazy along with the masses. I guess I got out to a decent start because once we hit the flat and downhill portions of the course, everyone was passing me. This is probably a combination of several factors: (1) my weak T.Rex arms, (2) being sick all week, (3) slow skis, and (4) poor double-pole technique. Some of these can be improved on before Vasaloppet, so that is promising. Anyway, the conditions were pretty slow, and I had to do a lot of double-pole kicking and even striding on the flats, which is not a good sign. The course consisted of two loops. The first 13km of each loop were basically flat, and the last 8km were pretty hilly, with two nice longish climbs that were definitely strideable. As soon as the hills began, I felt like a new man and started passing lots of the people (mostly old men) who had double-poled past me earlier. This gave me energy and willingness to fight, and I decided that I would do the whole race when I went through the stadium in about 90 minutes, just ahead of Bara. Keeping Bara behind me was a nice goal for the second lap, and so I set off after clumsily opening a gel with my teeth, eating some of it, and then clumsily closing it again. This time I was basically catching people the entire lap, though I passed one group on an uphill that then flew by me again on a downhill. The flats were a bit of a struggle again, but my glide seemed a bit better now, and I was just looking forward to the hills. This time the tracks were more chewed up, and a lot of people were just walking up the hills or even standing still. I started pushing really hard for the last 5-6km, and that mostly felt good. I did not feel like my muscles were dead by the end of the race, which is a nice bonus. Most of the second lap was spent in a back-and-forth battle with one guy who kept getting ahead of me on the flats and then getting passed by me on the hills. I finally got away from him towards the end and was pleased with myself until seeing in the results that the guy was the winner in the women's 45 class.
I ended up 116th out of the 170 or so M21's who started, over an hour back. Not very impressive, but I felt good and had fun, at least on the hilly parts, so that is encouraging. I also soundly defeated a competitor in the men's class in next month's Ski-WOC, so that is a bonus.