Skinnyski Race Team Weekend Recap: Birkie Story

I began the trip to Birkie 2003 Friday afternoon by picking up the Ziegler brothers, Jesse and Chris after school. My oldest son Jake (9) joined us for the journey. I was right on time (being a half hour late). Leaving a cross country ski resort right before the weekend is a hard thing to do. But, I finally pulled out of the parking lot after grooming about 35km in the morning in the comfort of the heated cab in the PB, waxing some skis, stoking the sauna, and tying up some other loose ends. While grooming, I thought to myself what I would be putting my body through in 24 hours. Once on the road we locked in "The taste of Saigon" in our sights and made it there around 7:30. As we hit Proctor, a nice lake effect squall was hovering on top and snow was dumping big time. It definitely lifted our spirits.

After filling up on an assortment of MSG enhanced dishes, we checked in to the Super 8 in Superior. The receptionist asked: "First floor or second?" I didn't feel like dragging the luggage up the stairs so we opted for a lower level room. This hotel always seems pretty quiet so I didn't think it would be a big deal. Wrong. At 3am Saturday morning, I woke up to what sounded like a pair of elephants jumping up and down. The room above us either came home from a night at the Belgian club or whatever and decided it would be cool to jump off of the beds on to the floor. Geez. I finally called about 4am and it seemed to stop for about 15 minutes until cranking up again around 4:30 . The alarm was set for 4:45am so I didn't bother trying to fall back to sleep.

We woke up, had the toast with peanut butter, and a bowl of oatmeal after cooking it in the microwave and having it boil all over the place. On the road at 5:50, about 20 minutes late on time, we left Superior in another lake effect squall. This time it wasn't so uplifting as traffic was moving slow and visibility was nearly zero. We finally broke out of that mess and were able to get up to a comfortable cruising speed. As I turned north at Brule, I realized I was overdressed for the car and became a little sleepy. I missed the turn on to N after not recognizing where I was cruising along on 27. Fortunately, we only were put about 15 minutes off track.

We finally pulled into Cable and opted for the parking lot near the start. We jumped on the bus and headed for the start. I had asked Bruce Adelsman if Jake could tag along with him during the race. I told Jake he will see the race like no one else because Bruce covers a race like no one else. (I followed Bruce during the skate race during the MN State High School Meet and the way he sprinted around the course would scare the likes of Jan Jacob Verdinius!!) As we passed by Telemark lodge, I told Jesse "this is where you need to go after we get off the bus to meet Bruce". I turned back and Jesse was sleeping. Oh well, it didn't matter as the windows were all fogged up on the bus.

We had a couple of two way radios and had them on the same channel as Bruce's and Alex Gardner of Enervit. I gave a call to Bruce to let him know that Jesse and Jake were heading up the lodge. Bruce was calm and collected as usual and said what room to come to. I told Jake to give me a call when they connected. At 8 am I didn't hear from them and I was getting a little nervous because I was going to get ready to ditch my race bag. I had thoughts of "what if Jake misses Bruce and then I would have to run up to the lodge to help him and then I will miss my start." Finally at 8:05 am we made contact and Jake cracked the waves and said they were driving to the start. Whew!! Man was I freaking out. The race was over and I was ready to relax and go ski!!

Having not raced at all this year and feeling my training was lacking despite skiing almost every day since Thanksgiving, my race plan was to start out easy and get warmed up nicely, then try and ski with some groups and pick off skiers at the end. To me the start of the Birkie is 4 times easier then the start of Chequamegon. The Cheq seems to be redline all the time as the start is just madness after the 30mph rollout. The strategies and race tactics are somewhat similar since the racing involves large numbers of people. (Unless you are skiing in the FIS elite wave). So I enjoy the start of the Birkie as it seems you can "warm up" with the start.

I saw some fellow Skinnyski.com skiers at the start and thought I would be good to ski with the Nelson brothers but they landed on a good seed this year and I let both of them go away as they were skiing strong. Basically I skied with two different groups the whole race trying to stay in the middle of each group. I felt a little bonky at the 30km mark but shrugged that aside and hung on. Getting the Evervit feed at Double O was key, as it kicked in a short while later. With 10km to go my legs were feeling snappy so I decided to attack the hills and was able to pass about 18 people before hitting lake Hayward. I was afraid the last group behind me would form a train and come blasting by me, but I was able to open up a strong V2 alternate on the lake and hold them off.

I went through five gel packs during the race. My skis were great. I had Swix LF 7, HF 8, then Fast Wax Extreme, and Cera F 100 on top. My waxing techniques are influenced by my Dad who used to wax my skis for races when I was doing my first races around 10 or 11 years old. He would rub about six different types of kick on. It always seemed to work.

There were times during the race that were beautiful with snow was falling off the trees and the bright sunshine was glistening through the snow. I thought the course was in fine shape. Obviously there were the challenging snow conditions and crazy temps on Thursday. The new snow really helped out. I didn't see Eric Anderson (ABR) after the finish, like last year, so I didn't hear first hand the grooming procedure but I read they basically groomed from Friday afternoon until 3am Saturday morning. The groomers did everything they could to provide the best possible conditions given the hand they were dealt. The southern half was maybe a little bit icier then I expected.

After the race, I hooked up with Jake and Bruce and then Jake and I headed back to the start. Right away Jake wanted to come back next year. He thought it was cool to see the Italians and Norwegians.

Another fun year and look forward to the next one.