The Experience
· Feb 26, 09:31 PM
Okay. You need to experience the Birke to understand the craziness involved in just producing the race. I walked in to Telemark Lodge on Friday evening and it was not the same place we had SuperTours at last month. Wall-to-wall expo that made the one in West Yellowstone look small time and second rate. Everybody was there, I mean everyone. The big names, and then there are the companies that I didn’t even know existed in the US. Ski Trab? Oh, they were there.
Registration was somthing else. 7000 Entrants. There’s not going to be morning-of bib pick up. First step was ID check. After showing my drivers license and confirming my mailing address I was handed a printed slip of paper with all my registration info on it. Take this a few hundred feet down the hall to a 100 foot square conference room set up as bib-pick up. Bibs are all around the outside, timing chips on the inside. You get your bib, grab an enormous garbage bag that’s big enough to hold most duffels, and then get your timing chip. On the way out you can check the timing chip to make sure it’s actually you – not a bad idea.
The smooth efficiency of Friday night didn’t really exist on Saturday morning. We had an unreasonably early 8:20 start. I guess the idea is to give the people starting at 10:30 in wave 12 a chance to finish before it gets dark. Nice enough, but it was pretty cold then, not to mention the 6AM wake up and cram food down was not real pleasant. Anyways, we rolled out of the Lenroot only 15 minutes late and promptly hit bumper-to-bumper traffic. Commute time doubled, I’d say we hit Telemark about 7:45 and I got down to the snow to test skis in a couple of minutes. Warming up was pretty much impossible, instead I spent time making sure the skis I wasn’t racing on and my clothes were getting in a vehicle, not just lying on the ground. I was assured that if I left stuff at the start, I wasn’t going to find it at the end of the day.
Lining up for the Elite Wave was pretty relaxed (at least compared to all the other waves where sharp elbows are a must). I found myself with Violet on my left and Fauner (the same one that got dream sequenced last weekend on NBC) on my right. 5 minutes of standing around freezing listening to Norwegian and US National anthems and then the race started. They start by raising a banner and then shooting off the fireworks. A little backwards I think, but whatever. The start was actually pretty chill, way more so than I’d been expecting. Got out pretty easy and relaxed for the first 3k until we hit the power line. From there until “OO” at 22k my legs were not very good. Really crampy in the shins and calves and I didn’t even get into my quads much, but when I did they weren’t there.
I settled in about 13th and got dropped from the lead group with about 7 other guys around 12k. A couple ks later I fell off the back of that group when I took a feed. I skied on my own for a bit until Violet caught me around 19 or so, coming back from an impressive backwards somersault at 2k. We traded leads for the next 15k towing a group of 4 then 8 as a group working the downhills really hard caught us on the gradual stuff. I put in a move on Bitch Hill at 40k and spent about 10 minutes hovering 15 seconds off the front of that group as we picked up a few of the guys who’d blown big time. Then they reeled me back in and I promptly went to the back.
I had no interest in pulling at that point. I took a couple of feeds, missed the one from Peter with 6 to go and resigned myself to sprinting for the front of our group. We started gaining on people on the lake (which had a nasty headwind) and picked off a lot of the small group I’d been with 35k earlier. My Madshus teammate Michael (who I’ve barely met) put in a hero pull across the lake, and I did my part cleaning up the finish when we got to Main Street. Actually ended up 15th, only about two and a half out of 5th I think. Not a bad effort, but certainly not what I was looking for. I’ve had two colds since City of Lakes and I think I’m just a little drained. My chest isn’t clear right now, but racing is fun and I’ll still be ready for Spring Series.
The finish scene was ridiculous. Big lit torch, more fireworks and more noise than I’ve ever heard at a ski race. There were fans out there making it deafening for everyone. I couldn’t hear a thing in the finishing straight, and was too scared to look over my shoulder to see if anyone was coming. The last 100m was pure adrenaline. It was pretty cool. The post race scene was something to behold too. The world’s largest muskie and some pretty big walrus tusks hanging out at the Moccasin.
Really bummed I didn’t catch up with Scott M post race. My excuse is that I still haven’t seen my phone since I finished (though I think it’s on it’s way to Windham) and had no way to reach him. Good work to Brett for sporting the green mohawk despite the temps in the single digits.
I don’t know if I have the fever, but it is quite a scene.
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Um, I’m pretty impressed with 15th. Awesome job, Brayt. Congratulations.
— Jon Shea Feb 26, 10:01 PM #
Nice frickin work brayto.
Hmmm…looks like an XC Oregon contract this spring might help get you another place next year though…:)
Room available…
— Levi Feb 27, 05:03 PM #
I’m guessing by the time I dragged my exhausted ass up main street, you were probably on your way home :) My phone was completely useless as well, so, no worries. I’m going to post about my race at Hanover Collaboration some time today.
— Scott M. Feb 28, 08:56 AM #
I definitely want to hear the story. Based on the results I was definitely not on the way home. However, I may have been fairly useless sitting on a barstool at the aforementioned Moccasin. Maybe McArt can tell us if that is also part of Berkie tradition … the warmdown being the walk to the bar where the beer flows well before noon?
— Brayt Feb 28, 07:26 PM #
Well I’m pretty old and crusty now, but back in my day it was tradition to cross the finish line, head over to the pizza place (it was uphill to get there and -30C of course), eat pizza and drink beer, head back to the Rossi Johnson Wax compound, tear around on a 4-wheeler while pulling as many people on inner tubes as possible (uphill and downhill, but still -30C), try not to knock too many people’s teeth out with the bottles they were carrying, eat some ridiculous gourmet meal with $200 bottles of wine, sing Jimmy Buffett karayoke, then head out to that bar near double O until close to when the plane left the next day.
But I know you kids are delicate these days so I would never expect too many good stories…
— Scott Mar 2, 05:42 PM #
Oh, by the way, nice job in the race. And the wedding quiz is now online at scottandjess.net under the more info section. If someone gets a 20/20 the first round is on me…oh wait, all the rounds are on me…
Peace
— Scott Mar 2, 05:45 PM #