It is awesome to be back in Cali where there is sun and fast granular snow…and a whole lot of people I haven’t seen since December when I went on the road to race on the national circuit and do other races around the country in search of tougher competition which always teaches you more than you would learn in a less competitive race where the overall level of skiing is not as high.
However as we all know, the Great Race features some of the best competition of the year within Far West’s borders, other than maybe the college races at ASC. One of my big goals for this year was to try and win on what feels in a way like my “home course” even though today was only the second time I’ve ever gotten to ski it…but it’s the cheer-ers and fellow skiers that make it feel like home, along with the awesome CA conditions!
I had a rough 3 days of travel from Vermont to Truckee and whole bunch of unexpected things to deal with leading up to the race today, which tried to throw a wrench in my race preparations, but I did the best I could with it all and was fortunate to have some help from some generous people in the community. Running on 7 hours sleep and what felt like 70 hours of travel and hassle, I was glad to wake up actually feeling somewhat ready to go.
Adam Swank and I skied off the front of the group starting a few km into the race, and put a pretty big gap on everyone. Over the top of the course he pulled away by 15 or 20 seconds but then by the summit I was able to power back up to within 10 or 15 seconds of him or so.
Then I put my tuck-skate to work in a big way. I’ve been working on tuck-skate specifically all summer and fall and winter and have found that it’s a strength of mine and a place where I can usually drop people or reel people in (or maybe I’m just the only one dumb enough to blow up my legs on a downhill? Who knows…). I think tuck-skating isn’t generally focused on or taken very seriously but certainly in a race like this one, it can play a crucial part. I was able to close the gap on Adam over the first 2 or 3km of downhill, and in hindsight, probably should have kept it up and just dropped him right there and never looked back.
However, I was concerned about skiing all the way to the finish by myself with no one to take turns leading with, especially with what I imagined was a hard-charging chase pack trying to work together to close down the gap to Adam and I. It is always a big advantage on a long downhill or flat to be in a pack…the pack will always move faster than an individual skier or two skiers, just like in cycling. As it turned out, it was a non-issue since things had split apart back there, but I didn’t know that at the time.
So I did what probably turned out to be the worst possible choice, and purposely let Adam have time to accelerate and get in my draft, so that he would come along with me, when I passed him, and I didn’t try to drop him, but at the same time didn’t relax completely by any means. I skied a fast pace for the next 10 or 15k or more, in order to keep ahead of the chasers, but purposely avoided making an all-out break. Adam told me later that he was going at an all-out sprint pace just barely hanging onto me during that whole section. I sensed that he was barely hanging on but wasn’t quite confident enough to make a break for it, thinking maybe I’d be best off working together with him and having his help until the final couple kilometers where I could try to put my sprint skills to work, since Adam is not a sprinter (although he can be very tough to hang with at the end of a long skate race, which is his specialty!!)
This may have even worked if it were not for what happened at the final soup/feed station. For the second year in a row, there were about 10 people standing at the feed station, completely out to lunch. Last year I had not been able to get a feed there as I came by because nobody was paying any attention, so this time I started yelling loud from 300 yards away, and continued yelling for energy drink over and over, and reaching my hands out in case everyone was deaf. Not a single person had a cup in their hand despite the fact that they saw us both coming from 150 yards away or more. Instead they chose to ring their cowbells and/or stare aimlessly around.
Now, I feel conflicted about complaining about this too much since I fully realize these people are, bless their hearts, out there as unpaid volunteers, and we should be grateful that they and others like them are willing to put this race on at all. However, it is beyond my imagination why the decision was made to go to all the trouble to set up a feed station and then have it all be pointless because not a single person has been apparently clued in to the fact that, at least for the top 30 racers or so, it is not an option for us to pull over, stop, pick up a cup, have a little tea party, and then continue on our way. The standard practice, at ALL other feed stations I have ever gone through in ALL other races I’ve done all around the country including other ski and running races in California, is for anyone working a feed station to at LEAST have a cup in hand so that a passing athlete has some chance of grabbing it as they cruise by at 20mph or whatever. I would have even been happy with the novice-style “stand-there-motionless-and-wait-for-the-skier-to-smack-into-the-cup-at-20mph-and-necessarily-spill-80%-of-it-on-impact” feed (it’s much much much better when the person runs slightly as the skier comes by)…but why on earth not a single person had a cup in their hands EVEN after they all saw that we were coming and had PLENTY of time to react and MUST have heard me yelling or seen me motioning…is a little beyond me and a little frustrating for me knowing that getting a feed there could very well have made it possible for me to win today which could have put in a better position to get more support from my sponsors next year and not starve quite as much etc.
However, in the end, I am the racer and it was my responsibility to do whatever I needed to do in order to have a successful race and that was one area that I still didn’t get quite right I guess. It would just be cool if someone helped those people at that feed station next year so that they weren’t completely oblivious.
I did try to snag a drink off the table at the last second, however at 20mph it was pretty much impossible to not splash all the contents out immediately on impact, so I got less than a teaspoon down my throat. I think Adam may have actually managed to get one from a guy on the left who must have gotten a drink in his hands at the last second, so I guess I’m not completely accurate saying not a single person was on the ball.
In any case, immediately after that feed station, I started to run out of gas a little bit as Adam went to work on gapping me on the uphill. I managed to control the damage to 20sec. or so, and then was even able to close it down to about 6 or 8 seconds after the road crossing with 1k to go, but just couldn’t quite find that extra-special gear that you have to dig really, really deep for. I need to practice that more…hitting absolute max-speed at the end of a long hard effort, when you really do not feel like digging deep. I’ve done it many times before but every time takes a massive mental and physical effort.
So I had to settle for second place, 16 seconds out of first. I was still very happy though and had a great time out there. And even if the people at that feed station may have been utterly useless as feeders, it was still cool that they were out there and supporting the event. Hopefully they got some feeds to some of the subsequent racers.
It was fun to see my Far West Senior Team-mate Phil Violett come through a clear third ahead of Tav and Marcus and a couple Utah college racers and xc oregon skiers. And it was super fun to get to talk to people after the race who I hadn’t seen in awhile. I love the post-race hangout time when everyone can just share in the comradery of the sport and the shared race experience that we all just had, spectators/cheerers included. I love racing in CA and I’m really glad that the Great Race exists. It is awesome to see so many people enjoying the sport who may not get out on xc skis very often during the winter, but it seems like EVERYONE comes out for the Great Race.
If I have the opportunity to ski another year again next year, I am determined to make the leap to a whole other level so that it is not even a battle for first. I want to train hard enough that I can have bad skis, miss both feeds, crash in the final turns, break a pole, and still win without having to sprint for the line. I have to aim higher or I will always be kind of in that “pretty decent, almost great” kind of zone. I’m grateful to be able to finish 2nd but always want to keep making progress and giving it 100%. So I have that to shoot for next time, if I get to do a next-time.
For now I’m psyched to get some really good training in for the final SuperTour races of the year, which will be March 25, 26, and 27 in Fort Kent, Maine, an hour northwest of where the Junior Nationals are being held this week. Most of the top Americans and Canadians should be there so it will be the last chance to get some really good points. What better place to train than in CA in March!!!
Hope you all can get out there a lot and enjoy the awesome conditions. Thanks for being such an awesome ski community ; )
