Suffering at 10,000 feet

Nothing makes you feel sorry for yourself faster than competing in a cross country ski race that starts, finishes and actually never dips below 10,000 feet in elevation. Today Kerry and I competed in the Leadville Loppet 44km x-c ski race. The race is held on the Mineral Belt Trail in Leadville, Colorado. Kerry skied the 44km classic ( makes my lower back hurt just thinking about it) and I skied the 44km Freestyle, known to many as skate skiing. The conditions were ideal with sunny skies, air temperatures in the mid 30's and snow tempurates well below freezing. Normally this race brings on the worst in Colorado weather.

I had the pleasure of skiing all but 1 km with former mountain bike pro and rando race skiing legend Pete Swenson. This is not a race you want to ski by yourself. Lots of wind and fast wide open decents. Having someone to draft makes a hard race just a bit more pleasurable. Neither Pete nor I were interested in pushing the pace probably due to having to use thin, dry Colorado air. The race came down to last 1 km climb to the finish line where Pete decided he had had enough.

The Vail Nordic Ski Team was well represented in the top 10 placings occupying 4 spots on the Men's side and Kerry taking 2nd overall in the Woman's classic. Travis was 3rd, Dawes Wilson 5th, Adam Plummer 9th and myself taking the overall.

Here is Kerry's take:

Today we went to Leadville to compete in the 44km race in the Mineral Belt Trail. The race is a fundraiser to keep the trail maintained.

It was beautiful and sunny very little wind and just a bit too warm for classic skiing. It started okay in the awesome treed runs right by the Colorado Mountain College Campus. They have some great terrain for Nordic skiing. Then you exit the treed nordic area onto the Mineral Belt trail and ski about 25k out an back on some beautiful trail with spectacular views. By this time the sun had been out for a while, the tracks were becoming a little glazed which made for some challenges on what is the right kick wax.

I had 4 layers of Toko red and one of Violet on top. Just after passing the 2nd aid station at about 11km I bonked. The morning had started with a blood sugar of 223 before warming up, then went to 78 10 minutes before the start so I had to eat a bunch of powerbar gel blasts, thought I would be good. However things got worse - I went way too hard at the start, had a huge crash at the bottom of the first descent right out of the start and then tried to catch up to the one other lady I could see classicing ahead of me. I drank gatorade at the first and second feed but then oh boy did I blow up. Had to stop twice to eat some powerbar and more gatorade at the third feed. Finally at about 18km I started feeling like I might survive the rest of the race, as I was passed by Stephen, then Travis, then Dawes and then Adam all on their way back to the finish. I had stopped feeling sorry for myself and finally got my pacing back.

I was doing okay at the 22km turnaround, the tracks were a little slippery but I still had enough wax to kick a bit and double pole on the flats. The mineral belt trail has pretty gentle inclines and declines so you can get by with limited kick. Then at around 15km to go it tops out and you begin the winding ups and downs in the trees back to the finish. The tracks were fast for a bit, then I hit some slush and nearly went head over tail. Laughed at myself and worked through the tree trails to the end with almost no kick but too close to the finish to stop and rewax.

Felt very thirsty at the end and Stephen was waiting to greet me with his camera so he could post me on facebook. He has become a facebook addict now. The feed after this race is always good with lots of homemade soups and chilis, but the prizes and raffle are a time sucker. We laughed a bunch while hoping one of our raffle tickets might come up so we could win a cookie or fanny pack, the best prize was a set of poles but not to be for Vail Nordic today.

Stephen had planned to have me drop him off in Red Cliff so he could skate up Shrine Rd and ski back on the Commando run but decided he had had enough for today - thank goodness as I was cooked and wanted to go home for couch time.