Minocqua, Wisconsin United States -2F / -19C Sunny

Total Time = 3h 33m Overall Rank = 6/11 Age Group = 30-34 Age Group Rank = 1/2

Aud and Verna picked me up from work on Friday afternoon, 1:30ish and we drove to Minocqua, WI, straight to the Winter Park Nordic Ski area to pick up our packets. It was a good and funny drive, as always, and took about 2.5 hours to get to the ski area (Winter Park is awesome, btw, Nice little chalet, ski shop with the essentials, small cafe, fireplace and couches. It's in the middle of nowhere so i was plesantly surprised at how legit it was!)
We picked up our packets, ate a spagetti dinner at the chalet then drove back into Minocqua. Stopped at the grocery store for bagles, oj, bananas and wine then headed to Aud's cabin. They hadn't been there since the last snowstorm so we had to park at the bottom of their driveway and tromp through snow to get our stuff into the house. We were only staying one night, so it wasn't so bad because for once we didn't have a crap ton of stuff, and all the tropming helped us stay warm (it was prob -10 degrees at that point.)
We relaxed, watched some old Bob Newhart shows, drank wine and went to bed. They postponed the start of the race by over 2 hours the next day because of the predicted cold so we didn't even have to get up early! We woke up by 7am, were out the door by 815 at at Winter Park by 9am. Pleanty of time to relax, get a good spot in the Chalet, and get ready. Our wave started at 11 so we had a TON of time.
Got dressed and kinda cold (it got cold in the small chalet because so many people were in and out). Sipped on a rockstar from about 930-1030 and had a gu at about 1045.
It was neat because the elite waves started at 1030 and we could see them through the huge windows in the chalet - those guys hauled azz in that start! It looked like they were starting a sprint even though they were heading out for 42K! I suppose it was to get good placement as the trail gets very narrow, very fast.
The 3 of us all started in the same wave with about 20ish other people. We went outside about 5 min before our start (whick was about 50 meters from the Chalet doors) and stood in the tracks for a couple minutes before they sent us off.

THE RACE:
Ok. Lesson learned: I start out in ski races too fast. I need to start slower, get my legs warmed up, get my balance solid and get into a groove before I start powering up hills. Jeez. Chill Tracy!!
So I started out too fast. Then the hills started and I was above my zone and had to tone it down. The trail got really narrow, really fast. Passing required one person to get super skinny with their strides. I passed a bunch of people in the first 10 min, only to get passed in the second 10 min.
Then the fun started. We got to the 'black diamond' trails. they were SUPER hilly (short and STEEP!) super twisty (They had cute signs nailed to the trees that said "Warning! Twisty Hill!"), and super narrow. By this time, our wave had spread out and I didn't feel pushed from behind to fly down the hills so that was nice. I was SO gun shy from all my falling last weekend that I took it SUPER EASY on the downhills - some of them were the steepest downhills I've ever gone down on cross country skis before! What an adventure! I'm positive that If I got better at downhills, I could shave 5-10 min off my time for this race because there were sooo many hills... but whatever, i'm not injured and that's my fear with those dang hills! The one good thing this weekend, was that there wasn't a ton of extra snow on the course so we didn't have huge burms on the hills to deal with. Infact, the grooming was PERFECT - couldn't have asked for better conditions.

I had a gu and water/energy at the first aid station at about 8k, just water/energy at the next one at 12k and a gu and water/energy again at the third station at 17K. Gu/water/energy at 27K, gu/water/energy at 33K, and water/energy at 39K. That worked out perfectly. Again, because this was a small race, the aid stations were relatively empty and the 'service' was super great! Thanks volunteers!! What troopers to be out there in the freezing cold!!

At about 12K this guy, #116, passed me and pulled away. It was hilly there so after a bit of trying to keep him in my sights, he pulled out of my sight. After the aid station at 17K, it got a bit flatter for a while and I caught up to him! He said to me 'either i'm slacking or your kicking butt!' I replied 'maybe I should only sign up for flat races!' as I'm clearly a stronger skier on flats (well, so is everyone, but...). I never passed him, but I did keep him within 50 meters of me for the whole rest of the race! He'd pull away when it got super hills, and I'd catch him when it flattened out or when the hills got longer and not as steep. He was like my carrot - it was great! (After the race we met up and I thanked him for pulling me for so long! He said he knew I was back there and thanked me for pushing him for so long! It worked out great for both of us!!)
It started to get pretty physically and mentally tough around the 27 K mark. I was suuuuuper tired, my legs didn't feel strong and I was digging deeper than I had last weekend at the 50K in Marquette. With 10K to go I caught a guy in my wave and passed him (yay!) and they started putting out K's to go signs at every K marker. Some people didn't like that, but it helped me to know I only had 9, then 8 then 5 K's to go and tricked myself into looking at it like a short little workout. with about 4 K to go, I caught up to a girl in my wave that had passed me in the first 15 min of the race. I passed her about 100 meters before the last water stop. I stopped to drink but she didn't - she just skied on through. I though Ok, Tracy, GO GET HER! So I pulled her in and passed her in the last 2k of the race. I was actually dying though. and that was the hardest end of a race I've had in a long time.
Turns out, that girl was the only other girl in my age group in the 42K skate distance. So, hahahaha, I won my age group and got announded at the awards ceremony and got a super cool, wooden medalion with 'first place age group' engraved on it! I'm stoked I caught her - it makes my 'win' seem more legit!!
I finished 9 min behine Audrey (she beat me by 30 min last weekend - so either I skied well or she skied worse this time) and about 20 min in front of verna.

I felt good about the the amount of effort i was able to give even though I felt SO SO tired. I was completely spent at the end and couldn't have gone further. So good use of energy stores I guess. I had enough to give at the end to pass that girl and finish strong, but was SUPER glad we werent' skiing 50K that day!!

We changed, then took off for home - about a 3 hr drive home full of great convo and lots of post race analysis - those girls are so much fun.

So, another race in the books! maybe this one will even result in me seeding up for next years birkie! It was a fun, well run race, fun and challenging course, good conditions, freezing weather... overall a great time and a SUPER good Birkie training day!!

None. It was -2 degrees at the start of that race, we stayed indoors for as long as possible. Because it's a small race and the start is so close to the chalet, this worked out perfectly!