DT Active Life 050617 for web

SO, HOW’D HE DO?
We touched based with Bill as he
was relaxing in Florida, and still
recovering from a cold that affected his
Birkie race. Here is his follow-up:
It is good to be back in the U.S. and settled.
I was still sick traveling home. Moving
luggage around and trying to guess
which medicine to take to avoid coughing
attacks on a long plane ride were stressful.
I wanted to avoid being asked to leave
the plane at 35,000 feet.
On race day I started cautiously, which
had been my plan. Within a kilometer,
however, I knew I had to almost hike the
initial 14 kms. I had good grip but very little
glide. I hoped to gain time on the mountaintops
where it would be flatter. But my
biggest concern was to finish and that
concern was real because I could feel the
negative effects of the cold and the lack of
sleep I had experienced as a result.
We waxed the night before the race,
(the bus to the start left at 4:15 AM). We
had skied the last 16 kms of the course
the day before the race and had a wax
job that worked well. The forecast for the
start, finish and high point of the course
was for no snow and temps like the day
before. My companion, Darwin Roosa,
and I felt (and our experienced group
leader agreed) that the wax job we had
been using should be good and we reapplied
it. We ironed in a very thin coat
of KR20, added a very thin coat of KR35
and then a coat of K21 silver universal.
After freezing that wax we added several
thin coats of extra blue hard wax in case
we encountered a dusting of powder.
The day was beautiful, sunny, no
serious wind and temps in the high 20s to
mid -30s along the course. Unfortunately,
counter to all the weather data we had,
there had been 1/4 to 1/2 an inch of powder
over about 80% of the course. So, I am
afraid we did not wax correctly as was the
case with a lot of others. At the high point
of the course, I pulled into a complementary
Swix Wax Station. As I explained my
problem (which was unnecessary, since
everyone was having the same problem),
the Swix guys released my bindings and
in about a minute and a half scraped most
of my klister off and applied VR 55. In two
minutes I was on my way! I had good wax
for about the last 18 kms including the big
down hills.
I got sweaty by the top of the initial 1700
ft. over 14 kms. At that point we hit a little
breeze and I was getting chilled. I stopped
for dry gloves but resisted the idea of a
warmer top. That was good because the
warmer hands and the sun above tree line
warmed me up.
There is a lot of time to think during a
race this long. It was discouraging when I
got up the first huge climb and discovered
that my wax was slow on the parts of the
course where I had been expecting to do
best. On down hills I’d be in a tuck and
skiers would be roaring past. I would be
double poling and they would be off in the
distance still in a tuck. In terrain where I
had been double poling with a kick while
training all winter I was single poling.
There were kilometer markers. At 25 kms
would be a sign announcing I was 29 kms
from the finish. It would cross my mind that
two weeks before I had skied about 25
kms, which was my longer training days of
the winter. Eventually I would subtract 14
kms from what I had left since I knew that
There is a lot of time to
think during a race this long.
It was discouraging when
I got up the first huge climb
and discovered that my wax
was slow...
part was mostly downhill followed by a few
level kms. That made things seem more
manageable!
Food and fluids were easy. There were
regular feed stations with warm sports
drinks, some bars and banana chunks
plus I had some favorite granola bars.
The course was every bit as challenging
as I had imagined. I was plenty tired at the
end but I have been more tired on many
occasions. Once I realized that my health
and wax job would make my time goal unrealistic,
I was not pushing the way I would
in race mode.
Approaching the finish line, I had no
idea of a big sprint finish. I was, however
eager to be done and at the last twenty
yards I changed tracks and passed two
guys rather than lose momentum.
Darwin, a youthful 66 and who has been
racing regularly all season, did well but
also suffered with a slow wax job. He finished
in 5 hours and 11 minutes. He was
160th out of 238 65-69 yr. olds. I was 5
hour and 59 minutes and 151st out of 177
70-74 yr. olds.
The best of it was the scenery, being
part of this huge cross country ski happening,
meeting interesting people from
all parts of the ski world and the thrills and
chills of the plummet down the final 13
kms towards Lillehammer. To appreciate
the hills go to https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=gxdz6_8gA-Q
Assuming you don’t want to watch all
2 1/2 hours, move your cursor to 2:03 and
watch Martin Sundby, (who double poles
the entire race), start down the hills. After
a brief look at the standings, a snowmobile
follows the second and third skiers down
the hill at 45 to 50 miles per hour. The
video will show what the conditions and
weather were like.
I did my first ski marathon in 1977. I
waited 40 years before doing this one and I
plan to continue doing them at that interval.
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DACKS & TOGA activelife | 23
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