Ski Report: Birke 2006

This year, since I live 1700 miles away, I figured I'd come to the birkie early. It would be great! More days to soak in the energy, right? Well sort of. You can't really beat Birkie weekend at telemark lodge. People are bouncing off the walls with Birkie fever. I did get a healthy case of Birkie fever, Coming to the Birkie on the Thursday before the race you have to keep yourself busy as you can only think about the race so much. The friends that I traveled to the Birkie with are old timers. Of the three, two of them are in the Bircheleggings club (20+ Birkies) and two of them have won their age class in the freestyle race. They are serious about the Birkie. Talking wax, weather, food, clothing, breath right strips, bitch hill, and so on. I like ski racing and the birkie, but boy it was a little much.

We did get a really nice ski in on Thursday at the double o crossing. For those that havn't been there, this is the half way point of the birkie. I had forgotten just how wide and smooth the birkie trail was. I'm used to skiing on pretty darn nice trails at the nordic center at Mt. Bachelor, and these were right up there. The birkie trail is SWEET!

Race morning finally arrived, and it was about 9 degrees according to Bob's wireless thermometer, but reports from the start were that it was zero. Not used to skiing in below zero temps anymore, so I put on 2 layers of wind breifs. We also had gotten a few inches of very dry powder the day before, and it continued to snow during the night. This caused some worries, but the classic skiing was most likely going to be better because of it. I had planned my wax according to the recommendations for the classic race (my second classic birkie, 7th birkie overall). I had an ironed in layer of toko green base wax, and then a layer of Blue Extra, followed by 3 thin layers of toko carbon white. I put this wax on in the room at the lodge. Chip and Marty came by the room, and I jogged over to the start with Chip. I set out on the trail to test my wax, and let's just say my kick was pretty crappy, in fact, I had terrible kick. I put 2 additional layers of blue extra on my skis, and skied a little bit, and thought it would be good. I'd carry the wax with me in case I needed more. In hindsight, I wish I'd have left off the carbon white all together, I think it was a blue extra day.

I lined up next to 3 other classic skiers and then bang the gun went off. They lit off a bunch of fireworks for the start, I think they used to have a cannon or something, but the fireworks were good. The start went well, I actually took out the classic skiers in the lead, for the first half kilometer, then the group of three passed me, and I was able to hang on until we exited the power lines. If you've never been there, the 'power lines' section is this insanely wide ski trail that has HUGE power line towers going through it. After that point I was pretty much alone until the lead women came by, and then groups from wave 1 would slowly pass me. It was about 8k into the race where I took a drink of my water bottle that I mixed some heed, and red bull. It tasted so awesome. Little did I know that was the last time the bottle would be thawed until about 4pm that day!!! I was able to get other feeds from many of the people out on the course, so it wasn't a huge problem. But the red bull would have been helpful on the last 10k.

Small groups of skiers continued to pass me by, and each time, I could ski with them for a bit, especially on the uphills. I was skiing good flirting with catching the 3rd place elite wave classic skier (he was in sight). In an effort to be under 3 hours, I broke the race into 3 17 kilometer sections, where I would attempt to ski each in under one hour. I made it to 17k in about 59 minutes. We had gone over the hardest section of the course, passed the high point, so I was feeling pretty good about my race, but I didn't have a lot of cushion if I was going to break 3 hours, and there are still a lot of ups and downs in this race. Chip came by in one of the groups from wave one, so I asked him if he missed his start, but later he told me they wouldn't let him into the elite wave because he had bib 225. I think he got screwed, and should have lined up in the elite wave.

Double O came and went. I was feeling pretty good, my skis were gliding awesome, and my kick was decent. The kickwax worked much better for me in the skating lane, because there was a dusting to 2 inches of snow still in the classic tracks. I'd say I skied about 90% of this race out in the skating tracks. I made it to 34k still on schedule to break 3 hours, but by only a couple of minutes. I had to keep the pressure up if I was going to make it. I have to say the last 12 k was pretty brutal. My back was getting sore from all the double poling, but the thought of the finish line kept me going. There was a wind on the lake that was a little annoying, but it really wasn't as bad as others talked about after the race, but that's maybe because they were flying across the lake and I was struggling a little. Some years the lake seems like 10 miles, but today it was not too bad. I could see the beginning of main street, and a glance at my watch told me I was on schedule to break 3 hours! The very loose snow on the first part of main street was hard, and skiers were wavering back and forth fighting to stay up. I faintly heard Jeff's wife Rebbecca yell my name along with all of the cow-bells and cheering. In my past years doing the birkie I would often room with Jeff, who lives in Moorhead, MN, near where I went to college in Fargo.

I went across the finish line and it was at that point that I decided I had a good/great race, with a time of 2 hours 57 minutes. I would later learn that I won my age group in the classic race, and finished 8th overall. I was also over 15 minutes faster than my last attempt at skiing the birkie classic style (in 2004), so that felt pretty good. Birkie number 7, in the books. Hopefully see you next year, Hayward and Cable!