A Trip to Canada and the Stowe Derby

First, I will say that there will be a round of pictures coming soon pertaining to the previous posts raving discussion of my new footbeds. I had said that I hoped my results could start backing up some of the things I was saying...and I think they have.

Last weekend Helen and I made the drive up to Ottowa - just about 4 hours from Burlington - for the Keskinada. The "Keski" is Canada's biggest distance race. They make a weekend of it, having 3 different classic distances Saturday and 3 different skate distances Sunday, including the main event 53km skate race that I was there for. All combined there are thousands of skiers and lots of countries represented - its a pretty cool scene.

To top it all off, the best winter festival going - "Winterlude" - is going on with canal skating, food, ice slides, music, snow sculptures, etc etc etc. Helen and I went up on Saturday - which was Valentines Day - which is, more importantly, Helen's Birthday. We went over to race registration and met up with an Alpina teammate David Cahill. David lives over by Alpina and had smuggled a pair of Alpina TCS 45 regular width boots into Canada for me to try out. With all that footbed shenanigans my size 44 narrow width boots were far to tight. The size 45 boots fit well, and I would go as far as to say my gloves now fit like my boots. Helen and I then went out to dinner at a great Thai restaurant and walked around the Winterlude celebrations before crashing to bed.

The race itself went as well as I could have hoped. The course is very wide and it was really well groomed. The start was fast, but I felt relaxed having done so many short-fast races this year. I maintained my position up front and once a couple extended climbs came I made the first couple splits. A group of about 8 skied for about 20 km before I came undone from the group. I got gapped and fought hard for about 5-6 km to get back to the group, but I just couldn't. The group had been skiing fast together though, so I was a ways up the trail from the next group. I eventually settled into my own rythme and made sure to slurp some Gu and drink water. I skied steady to the finish and moved by one other guy who came off the group - so I finished 7th. It turned out to be a screaming fast day - I was 5 minutes behind the winner, a very strong looking skier from Germany - and still skied 2:13, which when I did the math, came out to about 12:35 per 5k.

I rested up the days following that race and then did a hard race on Wednesday at the Sleepy Hollow Wednesday night series. Sam Morse, who is a biathlete with the Army National Guard, has come to a couple Wednesday nights this year (and he was at the Keski as well...getting 4th!). We skied together and had a great dual this past Wednesday night.

Then this weekend was a big couple goals for the winter. The Silver Fox Trot 10k skate race in Hanover on Saturday and the Stowe Derby on Sunday. The race in Hanover was solid. The course was skiing much faster than last year and I placed pretty similarly. It always amazes and encourages me to see how many darn fast skiers there are at the Eastern Cups. Although I was a couple places further behind where I was last year, I feel like I'm increasing in fitness right now unlike last year where I put everything I had into the eastern cup and petered out after that.

Today was the Derby and it was by far my most eventful Derby yet. It involved a restless night's sleep the night before, my first (and it was high speed) crash in the Derby, my second (high speed again) crash in the Derby, and then finally my first ever win in the Derby. I must say this, I am really starting to love the Peltonen Supra racing skate skis I have. They are always fast and today they were at times, too fast for me. The decent was powdery and 2 times I approached corners with way to much speed and caught a edge of my tip and wiped out. The first time I went off the trail and got my skis tied up in the trees and then the second time the quick release from my pole strap and handle released when I crashed and I had to scoot back up the trail to retrieve it and put it back together.

After the second crash I had to clean snow out of my sunglasses, take a deep breath, and get going again. When I did get going again I had two straight downhill stretches without super sharp turns to point the Peltonens straight and let them claw me back into the race. They did, and by the time we reached the Stowe touring center I could see in front of me the two racers from the heat after me who had caught and passed me and Marc Gilberston in the distance who was catching up to the leaders of our heat.

In the Derby its hard to know exactly how you're going to react once the climbing starts and today my body reacted well. Before I knew it I'd caught back up with Marc, and he, Jon Arne, and I skied away from the others. The three of us skied the rest of the way together until with about 1k to go I was able to accelerate and create some space between myself and them. We finished and I started praying that no skier in a later wave would ski faster. I miraculously lucked out, and no skier did, although Reid Greenburg, another Alpina skier, skied really well. Middlebury and Dartmouth also each had a skier who skied fast as well.

The best part of the Derby, by far, is talking with everybody else after its over about what this corner was like for them, or when they passed that guy or gal, or what wax they used, or how they did compared to their buddy. For such a relatively short race (19km) its got a heck of a lot of character...its like the Danny Devito of ski races....and you can quote me on that.