skate ski 2:16:28 [3] 29.47 km (4:38 / km) +583m 4:13 / km
shoes: 11 madshus curvy red
Oy. Great Ski Race. Forecast for last night was 24" of snow between 10pm and race start, and we got every bit of that and more. The 12k climb at the start was about 2" of powder at the beginning (because the groomer had just come back), to a solid 8" or so up on the pass. It was all kinds of slow and miserable. Also windy whiteouts, where you could sometimes see people in front of you, or sometimes see their drifted over tracks (in the 200m since they passed), but usually not both. The powder got even deeper on the downhill (over my boots), but everybody in front had double poled a track straight down the middle, so it was actually pretty fast. Passed lots of people who shuffled by my powder flailing on the climb up. Then 10k of flat double pole in the leader-set track, which I was rocking, then I passed the groomer coming backward at about 25k and could skate-ish the end. Until 28k, when I caught a tip and ripped my left ski off, via what used to be the weak sauce binding. Then I kick-skied the last 1.5k to the finish on one ski, and had a pretty fabulous one legged decent down the wicked steep finish hill. Finished 31st, even after burning 5 or 6 places on one ski at the end. Good times.
Then we drove home, and on an icy downhill in town came on two cars crashed in front of us, so Bill (driving) slid his truck ever so gracefully into the snowbank to stop. I got out to see if I could help dig out the crashed people, slipped on my ass and wrecked my tailbone, then stopped helping. We got chain towed back up the hill by a big front loader, drove home, then I slipped on my ass on our driveway and wrecked my tailbone and my arm. I was even joking that it was going to be safer to ski down the driveway, except that I only had one ski left. I shouldn't go outside. Good times.