Skinnyski Race Team Weekend Recap
By Margaret Adelsman
February 5, 2003
The past weekend was another story of races that were and
races that were not. Fortunately, several of the Skinnyski.com
racers were able to compete in some great events, including
the Ely Wilderness Trek and the brand spankin' new City of
Lakes Loppet.
With Seeley Hills succumbing to a last-minute meltdown, Grant
Nelson and Brian May packed up their bags for Ely to race
in the 2-day event: 15k classic on Saturday and 15k freestyle
on Sunday. World Cup skier Jan Jacob Verdenius paced the field
both days, followed by Brian May and Grant Nelson in 2nd and
3rd places, respectively. The freestyle race found Grant nosing
out Mike Dietzman and Doug Olsen, just a few seconds back
in 4th and 5th place spots.
The City of Lakes Loppet debuted racing on a portion of the
famous Minneapolis Chain of Lakes. With the minimal snow coverage,
the original course scheduled to run from Theodore Wirth to
Lake Calhoun was altered to 3 loops of Lake Calhoun and a
portion of Lake of the Isles. Racers turned out for last-minute
entries by the hundreds, and helped to establish a really
fun as well as very competitive event. To kick off the festivities,
elite sprints were held on Lake Calhoun Friday evening. Per
Nelson and race director John Munger competed in the mens
event, with Per making it to the semi-finals and John taking
a fall in the quarter-finals. Sonja Bostrom and Margie Tilman
made a strong showing in the womens elite sprints, with Margie
finishing 4th and Sonja winning the womens overall sprint
title against a tough field.
Saturday's race covered about 25k under warm but slightly
windy conditions. Per Nelson cooked around the course, hanging
with a strong group of top-10 men to duke it out for an amazing
photo-finish with Fred Kueffer. Margie and Sonja also skied
3 strong laps, with Margie finishing as the 8th woman overall
and Sonja in 3rd place behind the amazing veterans Jan Guenther
and JoAnn Hanowski, after leading the women's field for the
first lap.
Per Nelson and Fred Kueffer doing
their best Olympic finish
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Race Team Results
February 1, 2003 Wilderness Trek
Brian May 2nd male 15K Classic
Grant Nelson 3rd male 15K Classic
February 2, 2003 Wilderness Trek
Brian May 2nd male 15K Freestyle
Grant Nelson 3rd male 15K Freestyle
January 31, 2003 City of Lakes Loppet Elite Sprints
Per Nelson Semifinals competitor
John Munger Quarterfinals competitor
Sonja Bostrom 1st female Sprint Finals
Margie Tilman 4th female Sprint Finals
February 1, 2003 City of Lakes Loppet
Per Nelson 10th male 25K Freestyle
Sonja Bostrom 3rd female 25K Freestyle
Margie Tilman 8th female 25K Freestyle
Team Member Race Reports
Race Report from Grant Nelson
We were all packed up and ready to hit the road for
Seeley, Wisconsin on Friday night when we got the call.
A lump came to my throat when we heard the rumor that my
favorite race, the Seeley Hills classic, was canceled.
After numerous phone calls we confirmed that the lack
of base on the Birkie trail and Friday’s warm temperatures
had turned the south slopes into brown grass. As I mentioned
in an earlier race summary, skiers have to be flexible.
Because I didn’t want to ski on a lake, I concluded
that the only options were the Wilderness Trek in Ely or
the Porcupine Mountains race.
The Porcupine Mountain race was my original backup to
Seeley Hills, but I quickly realized that it would be quite
difficult logistically. The race started at 9:00 AM ET which
was 8:00 AM our time. When I found out that the Wilderness
Trek started at 1:00 PM, it was an easy decision.
After a long, restful night's sleep I headed over to
the May’s at 9:00 AM and Brian, Abbi, Rachel and I
headed up to Ely. We headed north through a winter wonderland
of freshly falling snow and beautiful scenery (while Duluth
managed to receive a bit of freezing drizzle). Saturday
was a 15km classic race and Sunday was a 15km skate race.
Phil Rogers leading, Grant
behind, Brian next to him
(Photo: Abbi May)
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The classic race was fairly uneventful. Fresh snow and
30F made for difficult waxing conditions. My glide was good,
but my kick wasn’t quite as bombproof as I prefer.
Jan Jacob Verdenius took off at about 3km up a gradual single
track section. As I chased behind him for maybe a kilometer,
I realized I was not relaxed or skiing efficiently and was
basically flailing. As I let Jan Jacob go, Brian May quickly
caught me and dropped me after a feeble attempt on my part
to stay with him. I skied the rest of the race on my own
and actually relaxed and felt quite good at the end. I was
very happy with my third place performance.
Sunday morning was another gorgeous day in Ely. The
skate race was run backwards on the same course and started
at 11:00 AM. Jan Jacob and Brian May took off hard at the
beginning. Learning from my mistake in the classic race,
I relaxed early and was happy to ski in a pack with Mike
Dietzman and Doug Olson. The three of us had a blast skiing
together and pushing each other. Fortunately, I was in the
lead heading up the final couple hills toward the finish
line. I pushed all out and claimed third place by a mere
three seconds.
As is often the case, the best part of the Wilderness
Trek was the people. It's always great to talk to old ski
friends and meet new ski friends. We always love to relive
old races and typically talk about the point where we knew
we hit “the wall.” Before we left for Duluth from
that magical weekend, Rachel May wanted to go for, “one
more ski.” As Brian strapped her “high tech waxless”
skis to her boots, I noticed this crazy guy on skate skis
wearing Hawaiian shorts, a T-shirt and carrying a boom-box.
I had to see what was going on. Almost a hundred kids of
all shapes and sizes started to form a circle. Even though
Rachel was by far the smallest, she wanted to join the circle,
too. Being a kid at heart, I couldn’t resist, either.
For the next half hour, we informally joined the Ely youth
ski league which was a great conclusion to a fun weekend.
It’s neat to see such excitement and young energy in
the cross country skiing community.
Race Report from Sonja Bostrom
This weekend I participated in the first ever City
of Lakes Loppet! Unfortunately it had to be held on a lake;
nevertheless, way more people than were expected showed
up and had a really great time! The whole weekend kicked
off with events on Friday evening including a youth race,
elite sprints and skijoring demonstrations. I got the opportunity
to race in the sprints, which were a blast!
In the sprint, the women had two preliminary heats and
the men had four. I was pretty nervous for the prelims as
this was one of only a handful of sprints that I have ever
done, and I have never made it to the next round before.
The loop we were skiing was about 600m and looked like a
track covered in snow. My heat was going second so we got
to watch the first heat which contained Sara Russel, Margie
Tilman and Jan Guenther (finising in that order). Then my
heat toed the line. Since the course was so short and flat
I figured I would have to go all out from the get go and
just hold on! So that's pretty much what I did. I took the
lead right away and held onto it, but with Lynne Cecil-Johnson
nipping at my heals, especially at the end. Kim Rudd was
also in that heat and finished 3rd, close behind me and
Lynne.
After the prelims there was a little confusion as to
when our final was going to go, but since there were so
many more men racing, they decided to have the the mens
prelims and semi-finals first to give everyone as much rest
as possible. The men had some pretty exciting semi-finals
including one race that ended with Per Nelson and
Fred Kueffer lying on the ground after battling a toe to
toe finish. After the mens races Sara, Margie, Lynne and I
got on the line again. We all took off double poling as fast
as possible when
Guess who's buying dinner --
Sonja!
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the announcer yelled "GO!". We broke into a skate,
and around the first turn it was Sara, me, Lynne and Margie.
We sprinted down the back stretch, and I tried to keep my
turn-over high as went around the next corner in the same
order. Pulling out of the corner we had only the final stretch
in front of us. I pulled out from behind Sara and I could
hear Lynne right behind me looking for the same hole. We sprinted
for about 50m that way and then I actually began to catch
up and pull even with Sara! I didn't think I would be able
to do even that, but I then began to hope that I might have
enough time to pull ahead before the finish. I V2ed as quick
as I could and pulled ahead right at the last second! I was
really excited about doing so well and especially about getting
to stand on the top of the podium with a big check, neither
of which I have experienced before! My mom said it looked
like I won the Publishers Clearing House!
The mens final provided some pretty good entertainment
with Chad Giese pulling way ahead of the field in the beginning
and Owen Hanley finishing a close second. After the races
I wanted to stick around and watch the skijoring and other
festivities, but it was already 9pm and I had to go prepare
my skis and myself for the long event on Saturday.
I didn't get much sleep that night, but I showed up
at the race on Saturday ready to go. I did a warm-up and
cheered for Margie Tilman's brother Andrew (4th finisher)
skiing the shorter race earlier. I headed over to the start
and was suprised to see that many people had not only claimed
their starting spots but were standing in them 30min before
the race start! I then quickly claimed a spot with my skis
in the second row. When the race start was approaching Margie
and I ran over to the start line to put our skis on and
get ready. I could see many of the top women in the row
ahead of me, some in my row and some in the row behind me.
The race officials came over to talk to us and then we were
off! I wanted to make sure that I knew where all the women
were and that no one snuck off the front early in the race,
so I was looking and looking through the pack in front of
me for the women that were in first line. I finally realized
that somehow I had gotten in front of them without even
knowing it! I was thankful that I had gotten such a clean
start as I do not have an excess of poles at my disposal!
Sonja coming around on the
first lap
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I realized right away that it would not be easy to ski
this race alone. Some of the course was calm and fast but
then there was a tough wind on the other parts. Also, after
intuitively waiting for a downhill where I could "snot
rocket" I finally realized that there were no hills
to come and that in this race I would have to sacrifice
a poling motion in order to do that! The race organizers
also provided feed stations along the way with Enervit at
just the right temperature! Those were a life saver! I lead
the first lap, sticking with a group of speedy men, but
when I slowed down to take a feed on the second loop 3 women
caught me. The first two (Jan Guenther and JoAnn Hanowski)
got on a train pulling ahead while Lynne Cecil-Johnson and
I were on the back of the train that they were leaving.
I skied the rest of Calhoun with Lynne and then decided
to try to catch the pack on my own which I was never able
to do. After that I skied a ways on my own out in the open
which started to get difficult, but I was still feeling
pretty good. V2ing around and around is really relaxing
if not mesmerizing. When I starting to get a little bogged
down a speedy skier came up from behind and gave me a little
encouragement. I'm really bad at sticking onto people but
I decided that I had to try to try to stay with this guy
all the way in as it would be much harder to let him get
away and only a little harder staying behind him. I managed
to stick with him the rest of the way and we even caught
one more skier before the finish!
I am so used to the college race mentality that after
the race I gave my bib to my dad and told him to make sure
it got turned in, only for Margie to tell me at her house
later that "of course we got to keep them and they
will probably be a collector's item, being that it was the
inaugural event." Thankfully they didn't let my dad
turn in my bib, and I found it happily draped on a chair
when I got home! The awards were held later and the age
class prizes were beautiful hand made bells from Austria.
After many people had received their bells they were all
ringing them for the people who were still receiving them
which sounded really nice! All in all it was a very good
race for me along with a great event that I hope continues
far into the future. I would like to thank Mayor R.T. Rybak
for his support with this event and for his effort to make
Minneapolis the "urban active sports capital of America."
This event would not have been such a success without him
if it had even "been" at all. Also, thanks to
the race staff, volunteers, skinnnyski.com and Bruce Adelsman
as well as Tilmans, and my parents and Gaute.
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