January is a good time to enjoy nordic ski racing. On the “doing” side of things, I found out today that the Northfield High School nordic ski team is holding their annual fundraising race on Saturday, so I’m going to ski in that event, a little 5km around the Upper Arb. And yesterday I switched from competing in the 25km classic-technique race in the City of Lakes Loppet festival next month to the 32km freestyle-technique race, which should be an easier and better race for me, though longer. One of these years – maybe next year, when Vivi’s four and Julia’s six – I can actually do more than one long race in a season. There’s certainly no shortage of great events here in the Upper Midwest, whether a little north of the Twin Cities, a bit further away in the western end or the center of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, or in the middle of Wisconsin.
On the “watching” side of things, I hope I can go to cheer at the NHS nordic ski team’s meet in the Arb on Thursday. I’m still enjoying the drama of the just-concluded Tour de Ski, and regular World Cup racing resumes this weekend in Estonia, proceeds to Russia, and then comes to this hemisphere for pre-Olympic races in Canada. The “Marathon Cup” race series, which parallels the World Cup and shares some of its top racers, is now underway as well, and includes its usual twin peaks: the 70km Marcialonga ski marathon in northern Italy on January 31 and the 90km Vasaloppet in southern Sweden on March 7 – just after the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, which open on February 12 – four weeks from today. Medal events in nordic skiing start on the second day, with ski jumping and a women’s biathlon race, and continue right through the last day (February 28), when the men’s 50km “marathon” race will be contested. I can’t wait.
4 thoughts on “The Season for Ski Racing”