<p>Korteloppet Classic 23K Cross-Country Ski Race</p>
<p>Saturday, February 26, 2011</p>
<p>Cable, WI</p>
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<p>Time: 1:52:51 (4:54 min/k)</p>
<p>211/1060 OA</p>
<p>152/565 Men</p>
<p>10/42 M40-44</p>
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<p>My triathlon coach is a huge x-country skiing fan and has been planting a bug in my ear for the last few years about the American Birkebeiner (aka the Birkie). About 15 years ago I had actually taken one day lessons in classic and skate skiing in Alaska, but it never clicked and I stuck to running. Tired of the same ole, same ole winter training, I decided last year to sign up for the 2011 race and to learn how to ski.</p>
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<p>Only one thing really stood in my way ... the lack of snow in Chicago this winter. Now I'm sure that my Chicago peeps are yelling right now that we've had a lot of snow in Chicago this year, which is true. Unfortunately this snow has fallen when I've either been at work in Alaska or cavorting in California and it has been mostly melted when I returned. So the only training I was able to get in preparation for this race was three different occasions when I was in Anchorage for training and meetings. I was able to rent skis from REI and head out for a couple of hours in some of the great x-country ski areas they have there. Recalling what I could from 15 years ago, I seemed to be doing okay on those training days. I had also planned on heading up to Wisconsin on some of my off-shift days, but somehow my intentions never morphed into action.</p>
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<p>I also purchased a new set of waxless classical skis, combi skate/classical boots and poles. The ski shop prepped them for me with an initial layer of baked-in wax (waxless skis don't use kick wax but do use glide wax). Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to try this equipment out prior to driving up to Wisconsin for the race. Oh yeah, what could possibly go wrong?</p>
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<p>I arrived on Friday in Hayward, checked in and picked up my bib, then went to down watch some of the festivities on main street. They had a skijoring race (which is skiers pulled by dogs) and race in which about 6 people were on one set of 10-foot long skis. They had a couple of guys skiing on wooden skis dressed in chain mail and Scandinavian battle helmets. RonBo would have fit right in!</p>
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<p>While wandering through the local sports equipment store, I bumped into my coach. She immediately started quizzing me about my race clothing and quickly recommended that I beef up to warmer gloves and pants. There went another $200 - why can't I find a sport that is cheap?</p>
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<p>I went out to a section of the trail near town with my coach and her husband (and Jamie, another first timer and client of my coach). They gave me a few pointers and I got to try my skis out before race day. At the end they declared I was going to do just fine based on the fact that I was confident on the downhills and had a good aerobic base.</p>
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<p>Later that day I checked into dorm housing at the local Intermediate School and picked out a nice place to sleep on the cafeteria floor. It seemed like a good idea to save some bucks at the time I made the reservation, but its really not optimal race preparation.</p>
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<p>Race Day</p>
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<p>Woke up about 4:45 am, got ready and caught the 6 am shuttle from Hayward to Telemark resort in Cable. Found a bench in the resort and hung out until about 8:30 am (shades of the Boston Marathon). Went to use the bathroom, the lines were longer than expected and I hightailed it out to the start. Dropped my bag, then headed to the start line to find out that my wave was already in the chute. I worked my way up to my wave with a whole 60 sec to spare. I was in about the 3rd row, with the wave stretched out about 200 feet across. They announced the start and raised the fence that was holding our wave in and we were off!</p>
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<p>You have the option to sign up for either the Birkie, which goes from Cable to Hayward, or the Korteloppet which branches off at about 11k and loops back to the Telemark resort at Cable. There is also the option of Classic (diagonal) or Skate skiing. I chose the Korteloppet Classic race figuring it would be a good way to get my feet wet. The full Birkie is either 50k for Skate Skiers or 54k for Classic skiers. They use common starting areas and common aid stations, but they segregate the classic and skate skiers onto separate trails for the first half of the race.</p>
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<p>About 100m after the starting line the course starts to narrow. You're required to double pole for the first 100m. Then about 20 sets of tracks narrow to about nine, then to three. The classic course separates from the skate course about 600m into the race. Since I was a first timer I was placed in wave 8 out of 9 for the Korte Classic. I put my aerobic engine to work, pumped my arms like crazy and managed to get to the back of the front of the pack in my wave before it narrowed to 3 tracks.</p>
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<p>For the next couple of kilos it was all about strategic passing. You had to watch to see which set of tracks was going fastest, look for an opening and step over. I did very well on the uphills where you employ an almost running technique and was able to pass many folks while they were v-climbing. You had to be careful on the downhills because it was easy to run up on someone's backside and I practiced removing one ski from the track and using it as a brake.</p>
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<p>After a few kilos the skate and classic courses merged again and things opened up while we went through a series of rolling hills. I found out that by stepping out of the tracks and skiing on the classic trails and making use of a lot of double poling I was able to keep up with the skate skiers and blow by folks diagonal striding. I also managed to successfully avoid numerous situations where folks wiped out on the downhills.</p>
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<p>I shortly noticed what appeared to be a convention that was spanning the entire width of the trail! Turned out it was the first aid station. I wasn't feeling like I needed anything I so worked through the crowd quickly and passed numerous folks that way. Shortly after the aid station the trails split again.</p>
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<p>I had begun to notice bibs from earlier waves very shortly after the start of the race. After the first aid station I did see a few bibs from guys from my wave or the one after, but they were few and far between. I started to get pretty good at skiing on the tracks, noticing I was coming up behind someone, stepping out and around them and then getting back into the tracks. It was much harder to maintain my lateral stability when I was outside the tracks on the skate portion of the trail but I did fine mostly double poling those sections.</p>
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<p>Probably about 8k into the race I had my only wipe out. I had just passed a woman and was accelerating downhill and around a corner. As I had just passed I was outside the tracks and during the turn my upper body leaned into the turn and my skis slid out from under me. I landed on my side with no real damage, but unfortunately the woman that I had passed caught the back of my skis and went down. On her face. She wasn't bleeding but she was in pain. I stayed with her for about 30 sec checking to make sure she was okay and she finally looked at me angrily and said 'Just go!'. So I went.</p>
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<p>After about 11k the Kortelopet trail split off and headed back to the lodge. At this point things really opened up. There were some long downhills and short, steep uphills and I stayed out of the tracks as it was a lot safer that way. I noticed the fast guys passing me from the later wave were all double poling most of the time, so I copied that and found out it was much faster as long as it wasn't anything more than a slight uphill. I had been given advice on double poling the day before so I knew to use my core muscles and not my arms. I flew through some of these sections and kept up pretty well with the Korte Skate skiers who were near me and mostly earlier waves.</p>
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<p>I came up on the final aid station and took some warm Heed. It looked like they had a grill going so I asked for a brat The volunteer laughed and said those would be available at the next aid station (the finish). I put it back in gear and headed for the finish line. The final section was mostly downhill with a slight rise and then about 100m to the line. I double poled up the rise, dug deep and pushed hard through the line.</p>
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<p>Post-race and thoughts</p>
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<p>The post race bag pickup was a bit of a rope push. It was probably worse for me since I finished much quicker than my starting wave would have predicted and the other bag lines did appear to be more organized, but it seemed that in my line they were simply picking up bags and yelling out numbers to see if there person had arrived. I had to go to the warming tent twice and it took about 45 min to get my bag. That was the only unpleasant part of the race. Shortly after that I was on the bus back to Hayward and enjoying Brats and Beer (New Glarius Spotted Cow and Fat Squirrel)!</p>
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<p>Overall the race went about as well as I could reasonably expect, which is what I expected. I'm pretty sure my technique wasn't all that great, but my aerobic engine made up for that. Looking at the skate skiers I've decided that looks like a lot more fun, so I think next year I'll learn to skate ski. And I'll be doing the full Birkie next year, so I can skip the bus ride from Cable to Hayward.</p>
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<p>I had a blast and I think this will serve as a nice way to change up my winter training. Now if I just can find some actual snow to train on next year.</p>
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A huge thank you to my Coach Chris and her husband Jeff for their help and for allowing me to hang with them for significant portions of the weekend. Much appreciated. Congrats to Jamie for her successful first Kortelopet race and I'll see you next year at the start! And thanks to you for reading this far.</p>
