Skinnyski Race Team Weekend Recap: Birkie Story

On Thursday I headed up with Bruce Adelsman to Hayward for the Birkebeiner weekend. The weekend started with the elite sprints on Thursday morning. We arrived in Hayward and I got registered and started warming up. The format for the race was two skiers at a time sprinting down main street Hayward around a pole and back to the finish. The first skier across the finish line advances. I was surprised to find out when I got there that while there were twenty-two men registered, there were only six women, but the women the few women that were there were pretty tough.

The lanes were chosen by one of the skiers pulling a ping-pong ball out of a hat and unfortunately that ping-pong ball was a big factor in the outcome of the race. The weather that day was so warm and sunny that the right hand side of the street was really soft and slow whereas the left hand side, in the shade of the buildings was firm, icy and fast. So people were really hoping for the left lane. Some of the tougher sprinters who got the slow right lane would get out of the blocks really fast, cut over to the fast left lane, ski around their pole on the right hand side, cross back over to the fast side and then make a mad dash for their finish line back on the right side of the road. It was really impressive when it worked! I on the other hand got stuck with a bad combination…the slow side of the street and a fast skier to go up against. It was really fun for the 40 some seconds I was out there and I wished I had made it farther or there had been more skiers so I could've gone again! It was also really fun and impressive watching all the fast sprinters do their thing. Aside from the mainly Rossignol and Subaru factory team skiers, there were also a couple of Norwegians and a handful of Italians there as well. The Norwegian male skier who eventually won was especially fun to watch as he would jump and do a Telemark landing to entertain the crowds.

After the sprints we watched the Barnebirke which was adorable! There was a bald eagle flying overhead while the flags were being skied down the street during the flag ceremony! The best part was that when a kid would fall, volunteers would run out, pick the kid up, dust him/her off, and point their skis in the right direction! The last event of the day was the citizen sprints which were also a blast to watch! Everyone looked like they were having a good time enjoying the sun and the snow on main-street!

The Birkebeiner and Korteloppet were two days later on Saturday. I had done the Korte four times before, mostly in high-school, but this would be the first time I attempted the actual Birke. I was a little nervous but mostly excited! This would be the longest race I had ever done so I was mostly worried about bonking hard core. I took everyone's advice and brought a water bottle with sports drink, food and got something at every aid station.

When I arrived at the start, I found out that they had changed the waves for the elite group. They combined the men's and women's elite waves and started them in the scheduled women's elite wave time and created a wave for the FIS people who they started in the men's elite wave time. I was pretty disappointed about this because the majority of the fastest women were in the FIS wave and I was looking forward to getting the chance to ski with them, try to keep up, and learn something from them but I didn't get that chance. I did get to ski along with a lot of the elite men which was really fun.

About halfway through the race my coach Kevin Brochman caught up to me from the first wave. He had told me on the way to the start line that he was pretty out of shape and if he caught me it would mean I was not skiing well. As he passed I said "Hi Kevin! I guess I'm not skiing very well!" to which he replied "I guess I am!" and zoomed off down the trail. I hoped that Kevin was just feeling really good and not the other way around because I felt like I was skiing well and felt really good. I little while later I caught some of the women who had started in the FIS wave which helped to affirm how I was feeling. Up to this point I hadn't really seen any other women since the start of the race but now they started to appear. I would see one skiing way down the trail in front of me and I would make a goal to try to catch her. This little game worked out so well that I barely even noticed bi*$# hill as I was passing a small group of women when I got there.

All of the feeds that the volunteers and people were offering were really helpful and I made sure to take something whenever I got the chance. It was almost like skiing down the grocery store isle on free sample day!

As I was about 2k from the finish I hooked up with a birchleggings skier who told me all about the last two kilometer of the course but then decided to try to catch as many more people as he could before the finish and left me in the dust! When I got onto main-street it was really exciting to have all the people lining the streets cheering and ringing bells! I picked up my pace and pushed it hard all the way to the finish which always feels really good to do after any race. I ended up 11th place out of the women and 1st place in the 19-24 age group.

After the race I found my mom and her friend Kathy Clark and we went into their usual meeting spot to get some food. A little while later James Clark joined us after completing his classic Korte and busing to Hayward to meet us. We all went out to cheer for my dad who would be completing his 21st Birkebeiner. We were hopeful that he would do well but also a little worried because he had pulled a muscle in his back the day before and had been walking around crooked all day. We waited and waited and waited and still didn't see him. Right when we were starting to get worried, a man sticks his head between ours, looks down the street in the direction we are looking and says "who are you looking for?". "Dad!" I shouted! He had come in over an hour ago and had been waiting for us at the finish! He had his fastest Birke time ever and had finished even before we came out to look for him!

All in all we had a blast at "Den Amerikanske Birkebeineren" this year and are excited to do it again next year! My dad also adds that "it was fun to finally get to ski across lake Hayward and up main street again!"