Skinnyski Race Team Weekend Recap
By Bruce Adelsman
December 28, 2002
Troll Hollow track under the lights
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Just before the Christmas holiday, Finn Sisu and Trollhaugen
hosted their new tradition of racing under the lights on the
eve of the Winter Solstice (Dec 22nd this year). Race organizer
Greg Weier chose an interesting duathlon format which called
for two laps of classic skiing, then a mandatory poles and
skis change before heading out for the final two laps in skate
technique.
The race featured a number of top regional skisers, many
of whom were home for the holiday break, including Olympian
Lindsey Weier with a number of her NMU teammates, along with
her brother Matt Weier, and the hot shot Duluth duo of Andre
Watt and Nikolai Anikin. Skinnyski.com Race Team member Sonja
Bostrom joined in the fun and notched an impressive third
place finish in the women's race. (Check the results
for a general race summary from Greg Weier.)
Race Team Results
Sonja Bostrom 3rd Citizen Female 7K duathlon 19:17
Team Member Race Reports
Race Report from Sonja Bostrom
I participated in the Winter Solstice race held last
Saturday at Trollhaugen. This was the first time I had done
a race in such a format and boy was it fun! I was basically
just looking for a high intensity workout and some snow
to do it on but when I got there I was excited to see all
the people who had showed up! Many of the college kids were
home on break and therefore the level of competition that
was there was "very high" as Kevin Brochman noted to me
before the race. I had stumbled into a hidden gold mine!
A fun and interesting race format, good people, great competition,
snow, and I only had to drive an hour to get there!
The big question of the day was what to do about boots.
Since we were switching technique after only 3.5k of skiing
it would be really inefficient to change boots along with
everything else (the minimum that must be changed was skis
and poles). I decided to go with skate boots as I�m a little
unstable on the down hills in my classic boots. I then tried
to use my limited waxing knowledge to be independent and
find something that would kick but that didn�t last very
long before I ran over to Kevin and had him put on something
he had cooked up in the kitchen (literally) which worked
great. I don�t know how I�m ever going to manage by myself!
They divided the field into highschoolers and everyone
else and the highschoolers went first. That was nice for
the rest of us because we then got to see how the format
of the race was going to work. Beside from a minor collision
with a snowboarder sitting in the middle of the trail, the
first race went off without a hitch.
After all the highschool racers had finished, the rest
of us toed the line. I was looking forward to the chance
of following people during the classic portion of the race
and trying to figure out what is wrong with my classic skiing
but that opportunity quickly passed me by as seemingly the
entire field pulled away from me up the first hill. I realized
that I should have warmed up better and that I need to work
on actual classic skiing on actual snow. We discovered on
the first lap that the turns were a little icy as Steph
Howe went flying next to me on the first one. I decided
to stick to the outside of all the turns and was glad I
wore my skate boots. By the time we finished the first lap
and started on the second the race was beginning to take
form. Matt Weier and Andre Watt were battling it out in
the front and Lindsey Weier had begun to form a commanding
lead with Lindsay Williams on her heals and the rest of
us close behind. As I came around at the end of the second
lap I took a quick look to see where my skate skis were
and headed in that direction. I heard after the race that
many people had had problems locating their skis in the
transition. I saw my "Norwegian wax tech" out of the corner
of my eye and threw my poles and skis in his direction as
I grabbed the next set of equipment. I threw on my skis
and started skiing up the hill figuring I would strap my
poles on the first downhill. When I started up the second
hill I heard a group of skiers approaching me from behind
and was worried that I was slowing down. I quickly realized
when group of men passed me that I wasn�t slowing and must�ve
had a good transition as they had been ahead of me before
the transition and were now having to pass me again. The
two skating laps went much better than the classical loops
did and I ended up third behind Lindsey and Lindsay which
I was pleased with.
After the race, I put my classic skis back on and did
a couple of loops to cool down. I wanted to keep skiing
because I didn�t know when I would next be able to ski on
snow, but I just finished my cool down, packed up and headed
out. My bed was calling me after such an eventful winter
solstice!
Special thanks to the people Finn Sisu and Trollhaugen
for putting on such a great race!
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