Birkie 2013

I had not been on skis for two weeks when I was on the way to the Birkebeiner Ski race. I thought I might have lost that little bit of technique I have acquired the past three months.

Just two weeks before, I raced back-to-back the pre-Birkie on Saturday and the Mora Vasa Loppet on Sunday. The pre-Birkie was a blast. Great snow condition and awesome weather. 

The Mora Vasoloppet on the other hand would test my toughness. It was cold and really windy, 20 mph head wind at the start line. I had a 42km race ahead of me and no motivation.

People were hiding behind the porter potties to shield from the wind. It was freezing. My four layers including two winter jackets did not help. I knew I had to take at least one jacket off before the start to be able to move my arms. If someone had told me it would have been totally fine to get in a car instead to the start line, I would have set a new PR for the sprint to the warmth.

Despite my unwillingness to start the race, I managed to finish it. 

I was slow! 

When I finished, the awards ceremony had started already and I realized that I got a podium finish for my age group! When I walked to the podium still in my ski boots, I thought it was hilarious that I would get a medal for 220^th out of 227!

I hadn’t touched my skis since the Mora race when I was on the way to the Birkie. I still had that bad taste from the Mora race in my mouth and was not really excited to race. Would it be as cold and as windy as Mora again?

The day started early: 5:15am, driving to a parking lot and then taking the bus to the racers’ lodge. At 5:30am in the rural part of Wisconsin, there was quite some traffic on the road. I started to realize how big this race would be. I got excited. I would be racing with 8,000 other cross country ski racers – the biggest xc ski race in the US.

While we were waiting for the bus another racer complimented my skis which I replied with that I had been skiing for three months. His response was: “Quite ambitious to race the Birkie after such a short time on skis.” That made me think of what I would actually have ahead of me. 50km of rolling terrain. Yeah, I think he was right. It was pretty ambitious.

In the racers’ lodge, I was waiting for my wave start time. With so many racers, the race is divided into 9 or 10 waves. Previous finishing Birkie times determined which wave one is in. New racers automatically start in wave 9 and 10. I started from wave 9. All waves (but the elite wave) are 10 minutes apart from each other. Since I carpooled with a friend who was in wave 1, I had 2 hours to kill in the lodge with thousands other racers. It was like a zoo.

Finally, time to head to the start line. With two minutes to spare, I found myself in the last row of my wave. 

Hundreds of people ahead of me. Well, there was one advantage. No one could pass me. There was no one behind me.

The race started slow but as soon as the first hill came, it started to spread out. Still, it seemed forever to reach the first checkpoint at 13.5k. Also, every time I went through deeper snow, my right ski did not seem to recoil after the skate movement. (Later I learned the binding was broken so I raced 50km on a broken ski)

But the spectators and the participants kept me entertained. I passed a monkey and a banana on skis. Vikings played drums on top of one of the hills. Beer hand-outs on another hill. I felt like in a reverse carnival.

Every time I saw a crowd bunched up in the distance I knew I reached the next food station. Bananas, energy drinks, gels, cookies and more were provided. Spectators were cheering us on. Music was playing and the volunteers made a great effort to give you quickly whatever you wanted.

The hills were my absolute favorite part of the Birkie because it was not only physically challenging but it also had a strategic aspect to it. Cross country skiers go in lines up the hills. With the trails being very wide, multiple lines form up a hill. Every time I approached a hill, I had to choose which line to take so I quickly scanned bib numbers (=wave placement), technique and snow conditions before I made my decision. It was a fun task to approach a climb.

The kilometers went by, some slow, some fast. There were few racers I skied with for 10k and then one of us left the other one behind. I had my rhythm and stuck with it.

The last 10 km went by so quickly that I wished it would have taken longer. Once I got closer to the finish, more spectators were lined up along the trail making the race go by so fast. The finish line was in the center of the town, people cheering and congratulating on everyone's performance. 

I had a blast! What a great race to finish the cross country ski season!

Time to get ready for Trans Iowa end of April!

I won the Ski-O race! The What?

Because last week’s 25k ski race was not humbling enough, I decided to sign up for a ski orienteering race. It's an orienteering race with a map, just on skis.

And once again, I signed up for the longer version of 11 km. But when I woke up in the morning and checked the temperature which noodled around 5 degrees, it did not take a lot of convincing myself that the shorter 5k race would be just fine for me.

It was sunny but cold. By now, I've gotten the hang of how to dress for the Minnesotan winter - just put on every winter apparel you find in your closet! Since it had snowed the day before, everything was covered in white. A great day to spend outside!

Everyone registered and received a bib number and an electronic punching chip (to punch into the control points which are located on every check point as proof you were there).

Depending on the race promoter, there are multiple options to prove that you  have been to a check point. For our race, we used electronic punch chips which are worn around a finger. When you arrive at a check point, you stick the punch chip into a control point which records the time of your presence

All the participants, maybe 50 in total, got into a bus and we were driven to the start line. We started on a frozen lake. By now it had warmed up to a balmy 7 degrees. I decided that my warm up jacket would be my racing jacket as well. There was no way I would take any layer off.

"All the racers for the 5k short course to the line! Go!"

Well.... I was still fumbling with my map which was given to us a minute prior. Once I was able to attach the map with a safety pin to a band (not an easy task with two sets of gloves) so that I could wear the map around my neck, off I was.

Still working on the setup for my map while the competition is going for the first checkpoint

From my humbling orienteering experience in adventure racing, I had some sort of practice in reading maps.This is how the map looked like:

Map for the short course

Few checkpoints of the course

Here you can see few checkpoints (CPs).  Since there were so many landmarks, a compass was not needed for this race. 

The green lines are ski trails. The pink line is the shortest way from one check point to the next, yet that does not mean that it is the most preferable. 

For example, from CP 1-201 to 2-202 the pink line would leave over a bridge. Thus, for an orienteering race, you most likely race more than the given distance. 

The race went over a few lakes in downtown Minneapolis. It was a great venue.

Since the ski orienteering race was part of a Festival, all kinds of winter activities took place. I skied past an ice rink with speed skaters training, I went through an ice sculpture garden where artists shaped impressive statues out of snow, I passed some skijors warming up for their race, plus I got cheered on by the winter enthusiasts who were not deterred by the temperature.

Oh yeah....and me stumbling passed all of these events with a map around my neck looking lost.

Where am I?

The race finished in a shopping street in the middle of the city; a ski trail had been made specifically for this Festival. 

I followed along this ski trail and approached the finish line. I didn’t realize that I was the first finisher overall until the announcer at the finish line said:

“And this must be Ali, the world-ranked ski-orienteering athlete…wait, the bib number does not match. Who is this racer? Let’s find out!”

They asked me who I was and how I was able to beat Ali. While I clarified that I raced less than half the distance of Ali, she was approaching the finish line behind me. (Apparently, my cross-country ski technique must have improved so astronomically that I got confused with a world-class racer!)

Now looking back the race was so enjoyable that I wish I had done the 11k race. Ski orienteering is so much fun and there are not many (if none at all) ski orienteering races around. A lot of kudos to Peter W. and his team to put on such a unique race in Minneapolis!

Posing with Ali. The finish line is in the middle of a shopping street.

What it means to race xc ski without technique

WARNING: This post might contain sarcasm.

Yesterday, I raced my very first cross country ski race - the Spirit Mountain cross country ski race in Duluth, MN. 

With a solid foundation of about four weeks being on skis, I knew exactly what to look for when screening the flyer of the race description – what is the cut-off time?  Although I was assured multiple times that this would be no problem for me, I was not entirely sold on it. Cross country skiing is said to be all about technique and the only accomplishment in xc skiing so far for me is that I actually move forward.

I had the options between 11k or 25k skating. No question, I chose the longer one. If there had been an option for 60k, I probably would have signed up for that one…always having the speed of a cyclist in the back of my head. Well….I would learn very quickly that skiing is a little slower than cycling. Just a little. Maybe a little more. Maybe quite a lot more for a beginner.

At the start line, the announcer asked everyone to place themselves in the order one believes to finish in. Well, that was easy. Taking the gunner position of maybe 100 starters, I was ready for my first and longest distance of 25k.

The snow was new and soft and as I learned later, was slow. Well, that made two of us. 

Within a few minutes of the race, I did not have to worry about poles or skis everywhere. I had the entire length, width, breath and depth of the ski trail for myself. 

It all of a sudden became very quiet and peaceful gliding in the soft snow in the Northern Minnesotan forest, only the noise of a crooked skating technique and an occasional German swearword.

It was almost too peaceful. I zoned out.  The last few racers that must have gotten lost behind me now finally passed me. But now, I had the forest to myself again. For a long time. 

I could have skied forever, if my triceps, biceps, back, deltoid, and lats wouldnt have started telling me that I usually dont use them quite that extensively.

Another issue was food. 

It would have taken me a solid three minutes to stop safely without crashing, take off the poles, take off the first set of gloves, take off the second set off gloves, reach into my back pocket to get a gel, eat the gel, put on the first set of gloves, put on the second set of gloves, struggle to put the two sets of gloves through the small handles of the poles and then keep going.

I opted for being hungry.

Time went by and I slowly chewed up the kilometers. And eventually I crossed the finish line. I had a blast! 

With the upcoming Birkebeiner of 50k, this was for sure a good experience as to what can be expected in two weeks!

Courtesy of slushsucks