Fast Runner

This picture was taken recently near the village of Kaktovik, on the North Slope in Northwest Alaska. You better hope that this gentleman was able to get into his car.
There was nothing in the news about a bear attack, we can assume that he and another person at the next car over were okay.

USSA Distance Nationals 50 K - The Season's Final Stretch

While most everyone else wants warmth by the end of March, cross country skiers revel in the last weeks of snow cover.

On Sunday March 30, we had the treat to watch the USSA 50k classic race right here in Fairbanks. About 45 brave racers entered this event that would navigate seven laps on a brutal course, featuring 6,500 feet of elevation gain. Conditions were good, but transforming. It was about 32 F at the 1:30 PM start and by the last laps, it had to be 40. Definitely a klister/warm wax day.

Here are a series of pictures from early in the race.

BEGINNINGS
About 15 skiers would stay bunched up through the first lap, but by lap 2 (early for a marathon) the race broke open, with Babikov, Golovko, and Lillefjell taking the lead, followed in close pursuit by Violett and Korthauer.


Close behind the leaders was the core of Team USA. Here are Andy Newell (116), a sprint specialist competing in his first 50k, Tour of Anchorage winner James Southam (111), and Colin Rodgers (121).


The 2nd pursuit pack on Black Funk, lap 2. Already the grade was too steep and tracks too slick for most. They resorted to a quick herringbone shuffle up the grueling 200 foot hill, which they would need to climb seven times.

Frode Lillefjell stayed with the two leaders through lap 3, before falling back. He would ski on his own for the rest of the race.

EVERY RACE HAS A MIDDLE

Team USA distance star Kris Freeman (101)struggled with slow wax in the early stages as he leads a train of US Team members and junior racer Noah Hoffman (104).
After half way, sprinters Torin Koos and Andy Newell show outstanding strength and endurance as they separate from the US team and move into the top 6.


FINAL STRETCH


Babikov, making it look easy.

By the few laps of the race, three subplots of Nordic intrigue became apparent: who would win the overall, who would be the US champion, and who would win the junior race?

The three or four way battle for first pared down to Babikov and Gologov, with Babikov (practically unbeatable in North America this year and last) the heavy favorite. Lillefjell looked strong but was in that dreaded no-man's land. Zach Violett had faded from contact, but Torin Koos, 2 minutes back from Lillefjell on the 5th lap was still in the hunt for possible a podium finish. He really picked it up when officials and coaches realized that the Green Card carrying Lillefjell was eligible for the US championship. The hunt was on.


Torin Koos closing fast in the last laps.

Meanwhile, the impressive start by young Noah Hoffman of the Sun Valley team began to unravel. At the same time the even younger David Norris (17) broke away from an impressive train of college and post-college skiers, and began chasing after some of the best sponsored and college skiers in the US. Not far behind was Max Trienen, only 19, and his younger brother Lex 17.


David Norris on his way to an impressive finish in the 50k.


Max Trienen leads a tired train of marathoners.

On the last lap, Babikov pulled away to win convincingly in 2:32:37. Comfortably in 2nd strode Gologov with a 2:33:30. With just 2k to go Lillefjell appeared to have third and a surprise US title locked up. Torin Koos gained inexorably with each powerful stride. He would come up just short, less than 6 seconds behind the now faltering Lillefjell who finished in 2:35:01 to Koos' 2:35:07. Andy Newell scored an impressive marathon debut to take 5th and the US championships bronze in 2:36:51.

Sprinter Colin Rodgers, recent NCAA 20 Kchampion Marius Korthauer, and the US Ski Team's Kris Freeman took 6th, 7th, and 8th.

As if that wasn't enough excitement, Norris powered through the 6th lap in 17th place. He appeared to tire considerably toward the finish, but held on to win the junior title in 2:44:42, not far behind the big boys. Not to be outdone, Max Trienen also looked impressive and finished in 2:45:55, just 1:15 behind Norris. Brother Lex turned in a fast last lap to go by a tiring Noah Hoffman: 2:49:54 to 2:50:21.

A brilliant day out on the course. (hope they'll be back next year)

Ouch! Grinding to Crash at USSA Distance Nationals

Well, it's been a great winter with about a dozen ski and five snowshoe races. Except for two classic races early in the season, all others went well and several were beyond expectation.

I came into the USA distance nationals 20 years older than the next entrant, but bouyed by two recent solid finishes at the Tour of Anchorage (26th overall, 3rd masters) and Sonot Kkazhoot last weekend (8th overall and 2nd masters by just a few secs). In my races against top NCAA or USST level skiers I'd been in the 18% to 20% back range, which seemed be good enough to at least line up and not feel too bad about it.

The plan for Friday's 30 K pursuit to hang near some of the 20 and under skiers in the 15 K classic and maybe pick off a few of them on the skate leg. The course was tough, with about 100 ft of uphill per kilometer, but conditions were perfect with temps in the 20s at the start and firm but slightly icy snow.

My race was a disaster from the start. I had globbed on too much klister (a thin binder would have probably been sufficient) but it was too late to change anything. Within 500 m I was falling behind even the back of the pack, and up the steep 150 ft climb on South Tower I was both slow and having difficulty keeping a rhythm. It got worse with each lap; and by the 2nd lap my calves were cramping each time up South Tower. Guess that 6 days from a 43 K race was not enough recovery time.

Most people at this point would have dropped out, but I have never dropped out of a race and so as long as my body could move I kept going. Perhaps this was foolish (as was signing up in the first place). Anyway, even though I was having the worst of worst days, 13 minutes behind the leaders and several minutes behind the next to last skier, the Fairbanks faithful (and one Coloradoan!) were screaming their lungs out every time I came through the stadium. If the leaders and other skiers got half as much noise, they should be happy about crowd support.

After a slow and wobbly transition where I drank about 12 oz of sport drink, I made my way through the stadium and proceeded to skate. That was at least somewhat better than the classic portion. But I was bleary and by the 7th lap my triceps started cramping. Kept it going, with a lot of help from those willing to watch and cheer during my disasterous race--felt a bit lonely and exposed out there.

The numbers aren't pretty. 1:46:40, nearly 25 minutes out from the awesome Ivan Babikov. Based on comparative performances with some of these top skiers through the year I was a good 7 minutes off pace. Instead of 18 to 20% back it was 28 or 29%. Like I said, OUCH!

What can I say, but Thanks Fairbanks for the encouragement. I'm glad I didn't drop out or give up.

Will take an easy few weeks of rest, do some fun skiing, and then it's off to running.

The Sonot Kkazhoot: Nothing To Sneeze At

Although the name is unique, and the event totally obscure, this rough and tumble cross country ski race is a great local happening, usually coinciding close to the vernal equinox. The race was founded by local skier, Bad Bob Baker, in the late 1980s, and it literally translates to "spring slide" in Athapaskan.

Wow, what a day, Saturday! Temps at race time were about 6 degrees F at the start, and probably warmed up to the mid-teens by afternoon. The race was shortened by 7 k because they eliminated the river section because of a late February thaw that left the river with sketchy ice conditions. Usually skiers have 22k on the river and lowlands, and then 28k on rugged trails at Birch Hill. To accomodate the change the entire 43+ km course was at the Birch Hill ski center, roughly 2.5 loops of the all the trails. Lots of hills to contend with--averaging 100 ft or more of climb per kilometer of distance (i.e., 30+ meters per km, or 160 ft/mile; i.e., i.e., it's all up and down!).

I figured it would be a low key, local affair, what with AK state 30K championships down on the Kenai Peninsula and the US distance nationals here next week. And even entertained visions of a top 5 finish. But we had a couple of Norwegian ringers, including a top 10 skier for the men, fresh off a top 4 at the Under 23 World's last month...not to mention some hungry competition from a couple of Anchorage skiers.

We lined up pretty cramped up at the modified start/finish line (20 skiers within 20 yards). With a kilometer, the leaders (9-10), including a Norwegian woman who went to college here a few years back and netted a couple of NCAA titles along the way, took it out too fast for me, so I settled into the 2nd pack of 6 or so. Our group skied pretty frantically for 7-8km before settling into a rhythm on some of the flatter-rolling (one of two easy sections on the trail system) sections of White Bear Loop. The pack broke up at about 15km, and masters skier Jim Lokken and I were on our own for nearly 20km. We picked up a couple fast starters along toward the end, including Dave Edic, just returning from three top 10s and a bronze for 50-54 AG at World Masters in Idaho (with 3 USA masters medals in the mix). We caught him at about 32 km and before pulling way at 36 on a monster climb half way through White Bear. An added bonus was catching the top woman, Sigrid Aas, just with about 2.5 km to go.

I pushed pretty hard and led through most of that last 17km (maybe 12 or 13 of those clicks), but could never shake Jim, so when it came time to sprint with 200 m to go, the cupboard was bare and he got me by 4 sec. Oh well, it was still a good day. Finished in 2:14:27 for 8th OA.

Norwegian dude, Petter Eliassen went 1:57:55, to win easily over local and AK citizen racers about 6 min back.

Tour of Anchorage (way late!)

Almost three weeks late with this, but I went to Anchorage with my family and 12 or 13 other kids (ages 10 to 15) to do the Tour of Anchorage on the first weekend of March. The kids did 25k and three of us coaches did the 50. It was a crazy weekend--try waxing 20 or 25 pairs of skis (kids, some parents, plus our own) in a hotel vending room, while the kids are running amok. Add to the mix another 15 or so high schoolers from our town.

Anyway after all those histrionics on Saturday, race day went really well. The course starts at Service High School at the base of the Chugach Mountains, has some serious climbs and scary drops on the Spencer Loop 5 throuh 10K and then gets onto a connected bike/trail system that takes you to the coast, which you follow for about 15k before climbing back onto some ski trails on a peninsula by the airport.

The Chester Creek trail (km 10 through about 33) was chaos, as we had to pass through hundreds of slower skiers from the 40k, some of whom had a hard time standing on their skis. I took on wipe out, when several people in front of me also fell, but got right back with the pack I was with. The snow was the consistency of sugar.

The lead women caught our train of 4 (3 of us battling for the 45-49 crown) at about 25k. We stuck together until Earthquake Park (~36k) when things started to break up. I tried to shake them for a couple ks, but the 3 ladies and Jim stuck right with me and I ended up getting dropped just before 40k. Was near contact (20-30 sec back) until 47.5, when they hammered it and left me flailing and trying to pass 25 and 40k skiers without taking anyone, self-included, out of the action.

Probably my best race of the year--covered the distance in 2:29 (4:48/mile) for 26th place (1st was a US Olympian who did 2:07) and 2nd in age group (Jim was a min ahead).

The kids did well too. All finished and some got age group awards.

Hey I won! (without winning)

I didn't plan on entering all five of the races Finnish Line Snowshoe series this winter, but cold weather forced two ski races to postpone, so on days when more sensible people might stay indoors I ventured into the icy forests and bogs surrounding Fairbanks and did the snowshoe races, which are purportedly held "regardless of temperature."



Effectively, I should have been 2nd overall in the series, as local runner Chad Carroll won four of the five races and beat me every time. I'd have been happy with that and would have brought home a pair of Atlas Run snowshoes, to complement the pair I bought in December. However, they scored the standings by age group wins, not overall. So I scored 15 each week, while Chad was upset by 3-time Equinox Marathon and Midnight Sun Run winner, Kevin Brinegar at the Ballaine Ridge race on February 9. So I won by 5 points, and got a pair of ultra light Atlas Race shoes.

Here's a run down of the season
12/4/07 - Heart of Darkness 7 k (+10 F) 3rd overall in 33:04, 1:09 behind Chad
1/12/08 - Moose Mountain Challenge 8k (-22 F) 2nd overall in 41:29, 1:21 behind Chad
1/27/08 - Emily's 8k Memorial (-10 F) 2nd overall in 39:44, 25 sec behind Chad
2/9/08 - Ballaine Ridge 9k (-15 F) 3rd overall in 48:35, 1:56 behind Kevin (I was just coming off a cold and tried to run steady but not too hard)
2/23/08 - Fairbanks Snowshoe Classic (+12 F) 2nd overall, 13 sec behind Chad

Here's an article in the local paper: http://www.newsminer.com/news/2008/feb/25/sayre-celebrates-turning-50-winning-snowshoe-serie/

In this last race my new shoes broke and have sent back for warranty replacement so I was on some lower rate loaners. But just minutes before the race Andy Holland lent me his Atlas Race shoes. Those were so light, like putting on a pair of racing flats for the first time.

I felt a little wobbly for the first two or three km, wondering if I'd be able to keep Chad and Kevin in sight for much longer. But by 4k, they weren't pulling away, and in fact I began to gain on them. Felt good the rest of the way, but didn't quite have the guts or aerobic uptake to mount a serious challenge to Chad--kept him honest and wondering though!

My hat's off to both of them for putting on the series, and for the challenging competition this winter.

Snowshoe running is kind of weird, and some people knock it. I think it's legit and would like to see the sport to keep growing. Racing appears to be languishing in Alaska (http://www.adn.com/outdoors/story/317694.html), although it seems to be thriving elsewhere, particularly in the upper Midwest and Rockies. Very few runners here seem interested, and even fewer skier-runners. I find that the sports are very complementary. I hardly trained on shoes all winter--the five races plus maybe six or seven easy runs of 40 min to 1:10. Other than that I skied five or six times a week and ran about twice a week. Skiing builds up your quads and cardiovascular system like no other sport--and I'm thinking that it helps your agility so you are used to navigating those narrow trails. I also enjoyed the low key atmosphere at the snowshoe races.

At the world level, I don't think the lithe Kenyans would be so dominant. It'd be great to see this sport develop to the point that there are World Championships that get broad participation and publid attention, and of course inclusion to the Winter Olympics.

Razor's Edge at 8km

Over the past two weekends I raced in two 8 kilometer races. A week ago Sunday it was an 8k snowshoe race and last weekend we had an 8k cross country ski race, using the classical technique. Both were under what anyone but the most tough and hardcore would deem as near brutal conditions, with temps about 12 below zero--give or take.

Although I won my age group both times, the experiences and outcomes were quite different.

I don't even train as a snowshoe runner, other than a casual jog for 40-50 minutes once every week or two, and I only run about 15-20 miles a week total during the winter. Meanwhile, I train 7-8 hrs a week on skis, in addition to coaching. So you can throw out the principle of specificity. Nevertheless, I'm starting to develop a feel for what it takes at this diverticula of the sport of running.

We have a full schedule of ski and snowshoe races this winter and I'm doing most of them--just because they're there. However, I've been trying to compete/participate with a measured effort usually, especially with the snowshoe running. So at the first race I just paced myself, planning on mainting an effort which I could hold for about an hour, known in physiological and training circles as your lactate threshold. The effort seemed successful: the two leaders (top 20 overall in last year's US championships, and medalists in the 35-39 age group) took it out pretty hard and I just hung back with an up and coming high school runner on my heels. They had a good 30 to 40 seconds on us at about 3k, when I subtly put in a surge. By half way, a spruce bog where the inverted temperature was probably no more than -25, I could see that I was gaining on 2nd place. Rather than picking it up, I just kept it even. With some big climbs he started coming back, and at about 6k I passed him. NO Way! Here's a guy still running in the 33s for 10k, albeit coming off an injury now. What was more surpising was that I was catching the leader too. He usually beats me by a minute or two over these distances. I got to within 20 seconds, and crossed the line 24 seconds back at the finish. Go figure.

So this last weekend in the ski race, all the big shots were hunkered down or resting or elsewhere, so it was more of a JV/B team race, except for 3 of us aging masters skiers and one of the local high schools who was using the race as their final selector for Regionals and State coming up this month. A pack of 6 took it out pretty hard, but I was close enough, through about 2k, to reel them in if needed. I was in 8th following behind one of the high school skiers. At 2.5k, I got a little impatient and decided to go around him to stay within striking distance of my masters rival, vying for medals at World Masters this month, still about 15 or 20 seconds up.

That was a tactical error because by the 4k lap I was spent and just hanging on. Fighting off frostbite on my cheek, and in heavy oxygen debt I did hold on to 8th place, but finished the 2nd lap a good 20 seconds slower than the first, if not more.

At 50, even at top shape (I've averaged 10 hours aerobic training a week for about 10 weeks now), the ceiling, like the hit song is low low low. And if you hit that ceiling, maybe 170 beats/min for more than maybe 50 or 60 seconds, you'll hit the flo' and slap your own bootie in disgust. With steep hills and some intense competition in skiing, it can be difficult to find zone just below oxygen debt, especially in the short races. Meanwhile, these kids (and some masters skiers) thrive at heart rates of 170 - 190 bpm.

I'm looking forward to putting these short ski races (10k and under) behind me after this weekend. Coming up over the next 8 weeks or so are 30k, 50k, 20k, 50k, and 30k. Plus I'll mix in two snowshoe races, a 9k and a 10k.

Aerobics or bust, just bring it on!