GundeLoppet 15K, that was pretty awful

I now have the certifiably slowest skis in Fairbanks. At least they were today. No glide whatsoever. Got a bad start, but was still in contact with most everyone as we got off South Tower and onto Tower switch backs, but on that first downhill everyone just glided away and several more skiers came up from behind and went past. I just ended up stepping out of the track several times to let people past. Lost 40 sec between top of Tower to the Biathlon Range. That's just not right.

Course was great (probably a bit short of 15K), snow perfect and loved the temps. My only complaint--and it's significant--was that there was only single track from 1K on. What's up with that? There should be double track almost the entire way!! Passing was almost impossible because the outside lane wasn't even groomed much--very slow.

Anyway, fell way back by the 4.5K, 6K, and 7K cutoffs but coming back on White Bear I began to up some ground on the long climbs. That was good. The bad part was I would have needed another 5K and 800 ft of vertical (with no down) to make up enough ground to move up much. The good thing is that I gained a lot of confidence on the climbs. It's not my technique that sucks, it's the skis and the wax job. I had a short pocket, but maybe VR45 was too sticky for those skis on this day.

The damage:
26th male (last year 15th or so)
32nd overall (last year 15th or so)

The kids did well though. Erich 9th overall in 15K, David 2nd and Tristan 3rd in the 7.5K.