Today, the Northfield High School’s nordic ski team held their annual fundraising race in the Upper Arb over their 5 kilometer course. It’s a fun event, despite usually attracting a pretty small field of competitors as well as more people who are just skiing for fun. The course, which covers most of the Upper Arb, is varied, the track was very well prepared today, and the high school team members cheer madly at several crucial spots on the course. Beyond just enjoying the day, I was looking to ski under control and turn in a good time. Mission accomplished.
After a little warmup under blue skies and bright sunshine, I lined up with the half-dozen or so people who were going to skate the course. It appeared that about twice as many people were going to ski the event in the classic technique, which was tempting because the course was beautifully set with two sets of classic tracks – unheard of, and beautiful. At the gun, two Carleton skiers zoomed off. I got caught behind another skater who looked to be ready to go, but was actually just cruising. After making my way around him at the foot of the first and longest hill, I pretty easily caught and dropped the second Carl skier, who had let a substantial gap open to the other kid, now already cresting the hill. I put in a bit of a push to try to catch on, but he was just too damn fast on the downhill, and I didn’t see him again until the finish line.
Nor did I see anyone come up behind me, so I basically just time-trialed the rest of the course, focusing on trying to smoothly handle the transitions between flats, uphills, and downhills and on cornering well, having discovered this winter that I often bobble as I try to skate through corners. I didn’t have too much trouble in either area, though my uphill V2 skate left something to be desired. I had my heart rate pegged up around 170 the whole time, which for me is about 90% of maximum, but didn’t feel too heavy until confronting the last little uphill – five meters long, but unexpected. I was surely helped by the ski-team cheering sections, especially the girls who were all wearing Batman stuff and the boys who were atop “The Wall,” a short but very steep little ramp at just about a mile into the course, and bellowed the way adolescent boys can.
I came over the line at 19:32, and according to my watch the course was 3.7 miles, or 6 kilometers. That’s not world-record pace by any means, but it’s the fastest sustained skiing I’ve done so far this year, and puts me on pace I think to ski well at the City of Lakes Loppet in three weeks. Between now and then, I definitely have to work on my uphill skating and on flat-terrain speed, and to put in more overdistance time, but with conditions like those we enjoyed today, I should be able to do all three of those things before February 7.
And even if I can’t, the roughest ski race is still a pretty nice experience.