Another ski season winds down, and this year, many of the
skiers come together for one last race at the 24 Hours of
Lappe. For most of them, this was there second 24 race of
the season. Abbi May and Josie Nelson joined up with Sarah
Kueffer and Katherine Himes to form the top womens team, logging
400 kilometers! Brian May, Dave Nelson and Grant Nelson all
tried their hand at the Solo Freak division.
Grant shares his perspective as he was both skiing and acting
as support crew.
The 24 hour nordic ski event at Lappe Nordic in Thunder
Bay, Canada is starting to become a tradition for my friends
and I. This year I am writing this review from the unusual
perspective of doing part of the race, spectating and supporting
part, and sleeping part of the race. Despite not truly racing
in the event, I still had a blast. Let me back track to
a few days before the event.
My sister-in-law Josie and her friends had managed to
organize a strong women's team. However, I was lacking motivation
to form a team, especially because of the rain and warm
temperatures we were having. I was always planning on going,
I just didn't know what I was going to do. My usual teammates,
my brother Dave and friend Brian, were considering doing
the whole event solo. The only thing I was certain about,
was that I had absolutely no interest in doing that. I figured
there was a reason why its called the Solo Freak category.
Even though I still hadn't completely decided what I
was going to do, on Friday evening I found myself driving
up with Dave, Josie, Sarah, Katherine and myself to Grand
Marais to spend the night at a friend's cabin. The accommodations
were wonderful. I'm not quite sure what happened that night.(maybe
I was trying to get prepared for the shock value during
the night portion of the race) I remember waking up laying
on the floor, after falling out of the bed, and both my
hip and shoulder were really sore. They were "pre-existing"
conditions, but they really hadn't bothered me much until
Saturday morning. As I hobbled to the car, I knew that it
would be in my best interest to act more as a support team
rather than as a true racer.
The girls offered to include me on their team, but I
declined. I figured they'd come up with some team name like,
"Grant and the gals", or "Grant and the wonderwomen,"
and it didn't quite seem right, especially with a sore shoulder
and sore hip.
When we arrived at Lappe, we were soon greeted by the
kind owner of Lappe Nordic, Reijo. One of the best parts
of coming up to Lappe is meeting with all of the wonderful
people. They have a unique small town, club-type atmosphere
which isn't too common in the states. Because most of the
community is Finnish, half of the conversations I don't
even understand.
I decided to sign up for the 24 hour solo with Brian
and Dave with the intention of skiing as much as I felt
like.
We all started together at noon on Saturday and easily
meandered through the 4.3km trail. The trails at Lappe are
world class. The course has full lighting, which was great
during the night, and actually passes near the stadium three
times, which is great for spectating. It's always interesting
how perspectives change after you start getting tired. I
don't know how many times I heard racers talking about how,
"that uphill keeps getting steeper and steeper,"
or ,"those corners are getting sharper."
After about 3 or 4 hours I decided to transition to
full support mode. The conditions were really fast and Brian
figured a record was obtainable(~350km). At the pace he
was skiing, he'd be able to get the record by daybreak on
Sunday. Jussi Piirainen, a Canadian junior coach from Finland,
was actually skiing a little faster than Brian by the 6
hour mark. Again, it sure is interesting how perspectives
change after skiing a lot. I've seen a lot of people "hit
the wall" and have had a fair amount of first hand
experience on the subject. I figured Dave, Brian and Jussi
were all headed for a pretty hard hit. I should have been
doing a graph of split times because near midnight Dave
and Brian's times were sloping toward infinity. I new they
were "bonked" when they both skied up to me after
a lap. They staggered in, laughing and seemingly having
a jolly old time.
Any one in there right mind would have immediately assumed
that they were both intoxicated and "three sheets to
the wind." Dave was commenting on how much fun it was
to "drag his poles," while skiing. Even though
Brian seemed to be equally exhausted, he wanted to make
sure he skied until midnight, so we all skied another lap.
I was having a great time watching my friend and brother
struggle up each hill. I was also happy knowing that I was
going to get some sleep, because I was originally expecting
a long night of feeds.
The three of us got up around 6:00 AM and Dave and Brian
went out for some more punishment. Even though conditions
started out really fast, they were quickly deteriorating
from the warm temperatures and periodic rain showers. Rather
than skiing in the morning, I enjoyed a delicious breakfast
of bacon and eggs donated from Marostica motors. To my amazement,
Jussi, the guy I predicted to hit the wall hard was still
skiing and was already close to the record. The morning
flew by pretty fast. Dave and Brian were both feeling much
better and skied until the end. The women had a very strong
performance and all seemed to have a great time, especially
after it was done.
Next year, I'm definitely going to do a little more
planning and join a team again. However, I'm glad I didn't
race this year. I want to personally congratulate all the
skiers at Lappe especially Jussi who skied an amazing 387
km! I'd like to thank Reijo for great hospitality again.
I'd also encourage anyone who likes to ski and enjoys
good company that the 24 hours of Lappe is a great event,
just think twice before you go solo.
