... and that's the season
· Mar 26, 08:50 AM
This season is over a week earlier than initially planned, and I have to say I’m kind of excited about it. I made it back to Bend last night after a couple relaxed days of travel back down from Whistler. Today is going to require some serious unpacking and car cleaning and tidying up the ends of travel season before the true relaxing can start. I was also planning on being able to bike commute my way around town, but there’s about half an inch of fresh snow overnight, so that might not be an option quite yet.
I decided to skip Fairbanks about 15k into Sunday’s race. At that point I was more concerned with finishing than with actually racing, and there was still a long way to go. The 50 was hard. Well, 50s are always hard, and this one was no exception. The race organizers changed the course a little the day before the race and knocked out the toughest climb from the skate race, but I don’t think anyone was complaining. Basically all it did was allow for the inclusion of a little bit of rolling terrain on each lap instead of having it be all up and down. We did 1×5 followed by 6×7.5, where the first 5k of each lap was the Olympic Classic course before we skied 2.5 on the lower part of the Olympic Skate. It was plenty hard.
After beautiful skiing on Saturday (bomber tracks) we woke up to heavy snow and wind on Sunday, with some serious accumulation already on the ground. When we got out to the stadium it was hard to tell whether or not the trails had been groomed. I think more than a few people woke up, looked outside and got sore throats – the thought did cross my mind briefly. There was a half hour delay to let the race organizers re-groom, then we were off. We tested kick wax just because, but hairies were the only thing that was even close to working. Mine were really quite good.
I skied the first 5k with the pack, nice and easy, but I knew I was going to be in trouble – actually, I knew I was in trouble warming up and testing skis, but I was hoping that my legs might magically wake up in time to race. As soon as Babikov decided to stretch the field a little on lap 2 I started my backwards progression through the field. I skied with other guys as they came past for a little while, but they were all charging up the hills, and when I tried to do that my arms and legs pretty much seized up and said no. So I just shuffled along.
Somewhere around 20k the sun came out (which just made it really slow) and my goals became (1) don’t get lapped and (2) don’t walk. I succeeded on both. I did walk around one uphill corner when the leaders in the Junior Men’s race came hauling by and I didn’t feel like being in the way, but mostly I just shuffled and ran along – albeit very slowly.
I was hopeful that I’d recover well for a good 50 up in Canada and have reason to go to Fairbanks to give Distance Nationals a go, but after the 50k it seemed like there was no point. I was more tired before that race than I’ve been on race morning all year. I just haven’t managed to recover well from race efforts all winter – it seems to make more sense to push reset now and give me a little time off before I have to get ready for next year.
It’s officially tax season.
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Congrats on being done! Any fun plans for the summer?
— Scott Mar 26, 12:33 PM #
Stuff happens. Sarah and I are thinking of you. Earn some dough and plan carefully for next season!
— Will Sweetser Mar 26, 02:43 PM #
Summer? Way too early to be thinking about that! I’m on more of a day by day approach right now.
— Brayt Mar 26, 04:22 PM #
You forgot the part about how much fun it was to have your family cheering you on!
— Em Mar 26, 07:25 PM #
Very true, I did forget. I think it might have been the first time since NCAAs? Maybe we should make it more of an annual vacation and have it happen a bit more often than every five years.
Yes, it was quite excellent to have Mom and Em and Dad out skiing around and cheering.
— Brayt Mar 26, 08:17 PM #