NM06 Day 2 - 15k classic

Today, we woke up early and looked out the window to about 6 inches of fresh snow IN TOWN. What a suprise that was. I was envisioning much more snow (like maybe a foot?)and soft, but the early morning mountain report only reported a 'couple' inches of snow. I was feeling good this morning, ready to race, day 2 of the NM ski races. Today, a 15k Classic race was on the agenda, according to the car thermometer in the parking lot the temp was about 31 degrees, with snow falling, and the couple inches was pretty accurate, definatly more snow fell in town overnight.

The fresh new snow would make for some interesting wax preperations, one of the things that you gotta love about classical technique racing. I started out w/ some Rode tar ski wax. Yup, this stuff smells just like the pine-tar from the old days, that my parents had on ski adventures when I was a child. It apparently needs to be skied in before it really starts to work good, and on race day, sometimes it's hard to wait for the kick to 'kick in'. I skied a little while, and although my glide was pretty sweet, my kick wasn't enough for the big hills (and the last 4k of the course had some good uphills. I decided on some Rode fast red wax and it was pretty good today.

The start went off FAST (like all of the races will here, because of where the start/finish is positioned on the course - at a high point). The course headed down a hill called 'screamer' at Mt bachelor and we were definatly screaming in the first kilometer. The first 4k were probably the funnest part of the race, being mostly downhill, then the suffering would begin. I was skiing w/ a group of 3 other skiers and when we got some of the hills, I started to get dropped. After all of the double poling it was difficult for me to get my form for getting up the hills. My kick was solid, I just needed to mentally hold it together. At about the half way point, I had another mental breakdown. I got passed by Joe (from idahoe nordic, the rival in my age group, who I finished 2nd to in the skiathlon on thursday). I kept on his tails for about a kilometer, then he pulled away a bit. I knew, that if I could stay on his tail, I could have a chance to throw down and pass him on one of the final uphills. I just couldn't dig deep enough to hang on, and he maintained about a 20 second gap on me to the finish. Definatly something to shoot for tomorrow.

Overall I was satisfied with my race. 2 races down, 2 second place age group finishes. The big dog is yet to come, tomorrow, 30k skate. Tomorrow is a big day for alot of the masters out here. Should be fun. Thank for reading.