Because I Can

"Because I Can" is what I wrote on the toe of my classic ski boots the other day. At ski races it is really easy to go home with the wrong boots since they all look alike. When I was writing my name on the boots I decided to write some words of encouragement. Those words came in handy at the City of Lakes Loppet this weekend which was a harder race than I had realized when I signed up.

I decided to sign up for the City of Lakes Loppet as I thought the idea of an urban ski race seemed pretty cool. The race finishes on the Mall in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis and along the way there from Wirth park you cross through some neighborhoods, over the interstate and across some lakes as you head to Uptown. For some reason I decided this would make a good first classic style race. I've been interested in doing a classic race but also reluctant as I am not a confident classic skier.

The other thing with classic events beyond just the need to be a good skier is that you need to be a good ski waxer. I've had plenty of experience waxing for good glide but waxing for good kick is a much trickier matter. At first it was seeming to be easy with predicted highs in the low 20s but, of course, that wasn't to be. The warmer it gets the trickier it is to kick wax. Once you get to the upper 20s and into the 30s there is a different kick wax for every one or two degrees.

Waxing in the hotel room

So on to the race . . . .

I was pretty nervous on race day and had this feeling that I was not yet ready to do a 25k classic event and I was very jealous of all the people milling around who were doing the 10k tour. The tour starts 5 minutes before the classic race and Dave and I got into the starting area with less than 5 minutes to our start. Dave got up into a good position but I lined up at the back.

Once the start was off it was a bit of pandemonium. Ski races frequently start on fairly level ground which allows everyone to double pole until everyone starts to spread out. This race started at the bottom of what appeared to be a tubing hill so there was very little double poling before everyone was going full on. In the back it was chaotic enough that there was no striding going on and we were all pretty much doing the herringbone in a chaotic packed group of flailing skiers. At the top there was instantly a bottleneck as we made our way into the first corner up and around the tow rope machine.

Then it was 8k of insanity. It was all up and down steep, twisting hills. At this point in the race Dave told me he was thinking about how unhappy I likely was at how difficult this race actually turned out to be. Luckily I was too busy trying not to die to have any thought in my head. Add to all this that my glide was really fast for the first part of the race and at every downhill I'm catching up to the people in front of me . . . but every downhill has people crashing that you have to slalom around. I was too busy trying not to crash myself to be unhappy.

Not that I didn't crash in this section. On one really fast downhill there was this crazed chain of events with people skiing off the trail on one side and one guy down in the middle. I come zooming down, stay on the trail, narrowly miss the guy who falls in front of me and then just as I'm starting up the next hill I get off balance in some uneven snow and down I go.

The other parts of this section were all evil hills that were not always conducive to striding. They were either too congested, too steep, too icy or had too deep of powdery snow. That means you have to break out the herringbone. This is bad for me as I tend to do very little practice of the herringbone as I don't classic ski a ton and when I do I gravitate towards trails with hills that aren't super steep.

This lack of practice was bad for me on a couple of levels. First, because it was hard for me on some of the tougher climbs to herringbone well. Second, because on two short occasions I broke into a bit of skating because under pressure my mind has trouble remembering how to herringbone. Yes, I'm just going to admit it now and risk disqualification. It was no secret because the second I broke into a skate a woman behind me screamed out "no skating". As if that wasn't bad enough as soon as she could catch up to me she skied up to me and started lecturing me.

I guess the urban race brings out more of the urban personality. I got her to apologize though. I gave her my sob story about this being my first classic race and how I'd never even classic skied 25k at one time before and how I barely know how to herringbone. Then she felt kinda bad and apologized and let me know she only yelled at me because someone skated the hills at the Mora last year and won her age group. To make her feel even worse I told her that I wasn't too worried about that and I only hoped I was good enough to finish the race. Then she felt so bad she told me I was a really good skier. (Her worries were somewhat justified I suppose as I ended up 4th in my age group and was highly relieved not to be 3rd after all that.). Since this drama went down at probably 4 or 5k into the race I was highly paranoid the rest of the race that I would once again be on auto pilot and do some skating at some point. I wasn't sure how far behind me she was but I felt like she was surely watching me. I probably brought some sort of dishonor on the Madnorskis since I was sporting the jersey.

So the first 8k of this race is crazy with ups and downs and turns and 180s and lots of people still together. You wind around the park like crazy and go by the start area a couple of times and use the tubing hill. Finally you head out onto the golf course. It's pretty crazy because you can see other parts of the trail and not being familiar with it you aren't always sure if the people you see are in front of you or behind you. This was another section where I had a spectacular wipe out. We crested up a hill and there was a long downhill. I thought of jumping in the tracks but for some reason I just started down the hill not in the tracks. Huge mistake as there were huge clumps of powdery snow and one took me down hard. Luckily there was no one around me at this point so I just popped back up and was going again in like 5 seconds.

After the golf course you go by the start area one more time and finally head out of the park and start making you way towards Uptown. I was hugely relieved as my memory from the map gave me hope that the worst was behind me.

Not that there are not hills as there are particularly in this area called Quaking Bogs. There was one particular hill that was deep with powdery snow that was a pain to herringbone. There were also some fun ones that were icy and annoying to not slip out on as your herringboned up. On the plus side though is that the later uphills and downhills are not as congested so seem a little less difficult or at least less stressful.

Here's the thing though. I was really worried about the striding part of the race going into it. I'm not great at striding and the weather/snow conditions made the choice of kick wax difficult. In the end though those things were not that important. The vast majority of the race was spent using the herringbone to get up hills because they were either steep, icy or had very deep powdery snow. The rest of the time you were double poling. I did actually stride some but not as much as I anticipated. My kick wax wasn't great but then I doubt anyone's was. I would say I had good kick in the middle of the race. My wax was a little too cold for the start but once that layer wore off I was good for awhile but then it got much warmer than I expected towards the end and I didn't have a bottom layer warm enough for the day.

It really didn't matter at the end of the race though. There are a bunch of really long flat sections mostly on lakes at the end. You just had to double pole all of it and once in a while you could throw in a kick double pole. Of course not everyone was doing that. Lots of people were trying to stride these sections and I was passing people like crazy. I kept having to jump out of the tracks so I could get by. I was really surprised by that but I guess all those Wednesday night double pole drills I've been doing really paid off. I would say that double poling was the one thing I did better than the other people around me. I was getting tired of double poling but I just kept focusing on good technique. Luckily I was passing people so it was easier to stay motivated as clearly it was the fastest technique.

It was great to reach Uptown and I felt better than expected. I also finished amidst crazy cheering and fanfare . . . I'd like to say it was for me but the winners of the 35k freestyle race finished just as I did.

At the finish

The rest of the weekend was pretty awesome as well. It was gourmet fun actually which is the beauty of the urban ski race. Saturday we hit Birchwood Cafe for lunch then French Meadow Cafe and Bakery for dinner. Post-race we walked the mile back and forth to Pizza Luce since I had to have some Baked Potato pizza post-race. We also got to do some other fun stuff like go to Gear West so I could buy a new ski bag. Hit the Lush store for wonderful smelling bath products and drool over expensive furniture at the Room and Board outlet (which was conveniently located just down the street from the race parking lot). I love Mora, MN and am looking forward to next weekend's race there but it won't have all those amenities.