Wednesday, APUNSC did our fall time trial up Gas Line. I had a pretty good effort considering the training load I felt coming into the race. I'm stoked!
I met the Mount Marathon age group champion at the AK Sports Hall of Fame event! So impressive because she goes up and down through the most technical portion of the mountain.
Coming off Mount Marathon- July 4th Credit: Peakthree
Hottest glacier camp to date... I came home with a sun rash under my biceps! Credit: Dre Foto
Starting my downhill. Photo Credit: Rob Whitney
First time racing Mt Marathon was quite the experience. I earned a start spot into this crazy race through winning one of the uphill only mountain races in Girdwood, AK last August. I have done several mountain races in Alaska, but Mt Marathon on July 4th is in its own category.
Approaching the final drop before hitting the road into town. Photo Credit: Peak3 Media
I had so much fun racing this weekend thanks to the epic course, strong competitors, and amazing crowds in Seward. I can't explain how amazing it was to run into town with crowds of people lining the street screaming me home to the finish. 30 minutes of climbing a mountain at near max effort and immediately descending 3,000 ft in ten minutes made for a punishing race, but as soon as I hit the bottom of the cliffs and I saw the crowd waiting for me the pain in my legs disappeared!
Truly epic and now I know why so many runners are hooked on this race!
Our route sent us into the mountains off of the Glen Highway about an hour from Anchorage. We used some common snow machine trails to access the mountains. The further we got from the highway the less snow machine tracks we saw! While we hoped and planned to ski on good crust once we got off the snow machine trails the crust wasn’t great yet. Thankfully, we were able to combine the marginal crust with old snow machine tracks to give us just enough of a base to travel our 50 mile route with decent ease- most of the time...
Getting up the valley on day 1
Digging a hole for home!
After digging through 3ft of sugar the tents have a solid foundation. Sleeping bag time!
When we didn’t travel with ease:
Attempting to ski down a gully that turned into what would have been a chain of waterfalls in the summer. Down climbing frozen waterfalls without any climbing gear and Nordic boots was a fun twist.
Post-holing with and without skis on our feet.
Skiing up steep climbs on narrow snow machine trails- had to double pole or hike. We initially attempted to be purest using the double pole technique, but soon the hiking became a judge free option.
Down climbing a snow covered waterfall!... Safely I assure you Mom :)
Scott side stepping with the shovel acting as his ice axe.
Minor hardships of the trip:
My pad had a huge leak. I woke up with no air meaning no insulation against the snow. That being said I had a cold butt and back until I blew my pad up for the remaining hours until morning.
Skiing or sliding down a creek.
Best parts of the trip:
Awesome views, jumped hundreds of ptarmigan from their hiding places in the snow, slept from 8pm to 7:30am, and eating an entire party pack of cola gummy bears about 8 hours into the second day of skiing.
Thanks boys for a fun ski
55 miles or so
So pumped!
I am so lucky to be surrounded by so many amazing people! This weekends win at the Birkie was a huge accomplishment and a level of result that I have been working towards. Crossing the line Saturday was the first time in my life where I threw up my hands and screamed in excitement! Taking the win, having the confidence to lead the last 800 meters of the race, and to pull it all off was an incredible feeling.
Lex T and myself- I am way happier than I look.
To top off all of my excitement at the line was seeing Lex Trienens and Tyler Kornfields faces light up when they realized I had taken the win. Lex was last years top American and by no means would his 17th place finish this year be satisfying to him. BUT within seconds of him crossing the line he had his skis off and ran over to give me the biggest hug of my life! Tyler soon followed to share the same kind of excitement. In addition, it was awesome to share the podium with fellow American, Caitlin Gregg- making it a double American Win!
Fun night at Trivia with Tyler Kornfield
All day I received this kind of sincere congratulations. Kikkan Randall who is used to winning World Cups saw that I was getting cold doing my interviews minutes after my race. She brought me my dry clothes bag without anyone asking. The Birkie represents the great ski community we have and why cross-country skiing is one of the best sports out there!
The Race!
The pace went out steady during the first 5km, which decreased the lead pack to just 20 men. The course is very rolling and I just skied as efficiently as possible throughout the race. There were a few accelerations between 10km-45km, but none of them stuck and our lead group would regather as the pace would slow back down. Around the 43km-45km marker the pace got challenging as a Frenchmen took charge and broke the mens pack.
After a steady climb skiing in maybe 6th or 7th with the Frenchmen about a 100 meters ahead and gaining I decided I needed to close that gap. I moved into second and started the chase. I caught the leader over the next few minutes and I had hoped he would continue his effort all the way to the lake. As expected he slowed down and I wasn’t interested in leading at that point because five others skiers were right on our heels. We regrouped and skied last 5km of the race as a pack of seven.
Dropping into Main Street. One last glance to check out where the competitors are.
As we neared the 1km until the finish mark I started to move towards the front. As I got to the front I held as relaxed of a pace as I could, but still while maintaining my position at the front. As we came off the lake with 700 meters to the finish I started my kick and gave it everything I had until the line. Main Street was so loud! Sprinting down Main Street was pure muscle memory and adrenaline cause my body felt numb with the excitement produced by the amazing spectators in Hayward.
A cool video of the race highlights can be found here: https://vimeo.com/156182805
A lot went into this weeks win. I had excellent skis provided to me by Rossignol. The Rossignol reps where out testing skis with a headlamp on the morning of the race after only getting a couple hours sleep Friday night. A huge thanks to Rossignol, Exel Poles, Bliz Eyewear, Toko Gloves, and the APU Nordic Ski Center. It was also blast getting to meet the Louis family and all their friends while they hosted me for the week in Wisconsin- thanks for your support!
Happy Thanksgiving all!
After the races I'm looking forward to Jessica making me more of these in Anchorage!
I’m getting excited about racing, snow, stuffing, cranberry sauce, Montana, and all things festive that I am blogging again. [round of applause] Getting to West was once again stressful as I procrastinated on most everything until the day before leaving. Had to base prep all my new skis and freshly ground pairs in addition to zeroing out the fleet. I might have thrown out my back and shoulder in the process, but it was worth it I tell you- the bases are looking nice!
Crushing base prep work thanks to Toko
Jessica and I rocking our new APU patches on our Sauce headbands. Thanks Sauce!!
Here in West things are going great. Awesome ski conditions and perfect grooming. Outside of training the ladies of the team are blasting Christmas music against the will of most every dude except for Packer. He has fully embraced the holiday spirit. I personally don’t mind a Frank Sinatra Christmas song, but Mariah Carrey is not my first choice of holiday jam. The lesson here is that it is all about compromise. I will endure the Christmas music now because I know when those beats are a rockin’, the girls are probably baking cookies or cinnamon rolls- the pleasure to the taste buds is worth the damage to the ears.
Found time to try tricking some fish on the Madison before the races start with Jordan Beutow.
Racing starts tomorrow!
