Birkie

Walking to the start is actually way better than the bus.

Ambivalence in training this year led to ambivalence for the American Birkebeiner. An early week ski with some other Birkie tribal members and a talk with Barb turned the tide. We ran up, checked out the skis, registered, checked in with our weekend hosts; all in record time. An anxious dinner confirmed I still had Birkie fever. Yup, same routine.

With a lighter training load I had no idea how I'd do or whether I would last. But a beautiful day and a beautiful course, today is a good day to ski. And a new classic-only route from start to mid-point was sweet too. After seeing Mike, Janeen and Jane at the second food stop, the mental calculations began. At 18k I'm one-third done and by 22k it's 40% done. Just keep picking off those milestones. And don't think half-empty 'cause 22k and 40% done sounds an awful lot better than "just 32k to go". Crushing.

Was actually holding my own and enjoying my third wave start. A lot more casual here than in the earlier waves. They're not all either cranking hard or blown; you can actually get some people to talk! I admired one birch-legger's bib (20th Birkie) and he gave me the advice of the day. "You don't have to be fast; just hard-headed."

As usual, most of us climbed into our own hurt-boxes in the march between 30k and 50k. Occasionally peeking out to recognize Bitch Hill, a wave 10 skier cruising through or a crash and burn along the side. I was shocked to pull in one elite wave woman.

I was maybe too ebullient at the top of the last hill, el moco. Something like "is that all you got?" A middle-aged wave three woman passed me. Methinks a little put-up-or-shut-up. And of course, my questionable waxing skills put me about 100 meters behind by the bottom of hill. Well I still had all of Lake Hayward to close the gap. Now my steady kick into the headwind worked in my favor. I got around her and another wave three about 2/3 across. Picked a few more off, I was getting hungry. Almost caused a crash in the bottleneck coming up from the lake. Yes, I am an idiot. Using my fellow starters as rabbits I passed the last available about 10 meters out.

This may be addictive. 4:44:19, 5:16 / k (classic). My slowest Birkie ever!

Everybody loves Main Street!