Racing
2002 White Pine Stampede Shortened to 33K
Feb 4, 2002

A lack of a major sponsor and spotty snow conditions leading up to the week of the White Pine Stampede threatened the race, but a core of dedicated volunteers and a little help from Mother nature allowed the race to go off successfully. Beautiful weather greeted us in the morning, mostly sunny skies with the temperatures rising out of the high teens and into the mid-to-high 20s. 

The Course.
The 50K race course was shortened to 33K because of poor snow conditions in one area. The remaining course for the most part had great snow. Racers brought up a little dirt in a few short sections, and one racer reported catching a little golf cart path asphalt under the snow. 

The start was hard pack with 2 inches of new snow on top. After a few K into the race, the groomer had packed down the new snow. Tracks for the classic skiers looked outstanding, although skaters tended to push snow into the near track and obliterate tracks around sharper corners.

Everyone commented on the hill at 14 Km marker. The race was very fast to that point, and many weren't prepared for or didn't expect the toughness of the hill. Several people blew up. Part of the issue was that hill climbs tend to be shaded and the snow was substantially slower. Very frustrating after the high speed flats with fast snow...

The Wax.
My waxing effort started early in the week watching the weather forecasts. By Thursday night the weather forecast for Bellaire from the Weather Underground suggested new snow, lows around 10 F, with a high in the mid 20s F. The forecast weather graph from the NGM MOS (shows the forecasted temperature, dew point, humidity, wind speed, cloud/sun/snow probability for every 3 hour period for the next 48 hours) suggested the relative humidity would be 60% or above for the day, the temperature at the 50K start would be about 15F, and temperatures would rise into the mid-20s F.

I followed the advice of Toko's online Wax Coach: on Thursday night, I waxed with Toko Dibloc High Fluoro grey Molybdenum, scraped and brushed with both plastic and horsehair brushes, covered 1:1 with Toko Dibloc High Fluoro blue and red, also scraped and brushed with plastic and horsehair brushes.

Then I made a mistake. Just before leaving work Friday afternoon, I checked the forecast. It was now predicting a low of 5 F: Toko blue weather. On the way up, I stopped at the Cross Country Ski Headquarters to borrow their wax bench. (I was going to be staying with the Washtenaw Ski Touring Club at a house near Bellaire and had been told waxing had to be done in the garage. I hate waxing in a cold garage. But I digress...) I added a layer of Toko High Fluoro blue on top, figuring I'd wear down to the Blue/Red combo partway through the race. 

Well, the weather at the start was much warmer than 5 F. The bank thermometer Bellaire showed 17 F as we drove by an hour before start time. I was waxed too cold...

The Race.
Excuses first. I've been sick on and off for the last several weeks, and only skied once since the Boyne race. Race morning, my voice was several octaves lower than normal, and my head was very stuffed up. But I didn't spend all year training just to sit on the sidelines watching other people race...

I warmed up for 15 minutes on the course - my skis were running fast! Maybe I wasn't waxed too cold. By the time I got to the start line, the first row was filled so I headed to the second row. When the gun went off, I double-poled the first 200 yards and easily passed several of the people in the first line and did better than people who were attempting to skate early. By the end of the 2nd K, I was in the first 40 or so racers. A large lead pack gradually pulled away. Several fellow Cross Country Ski Shop team members were right around me, including Bob Smith from the shop and Bruce Barton. Eventually I ended up in a group of 7 to 10 skiers, including Wendy Anderson. Wendy would move to the front on the uphills, then drop back on the downhills.

Bob and several others in the pack were tentative on the downhills. Downhills are my specialty. I decided to pass Bob, and it turned out I did it at a very fortuitous time: within the next couple minutes, Bob caught a tip in the snow on a sharp right turn at the bottom of a hill near 14K and crashed, taking another skier with him. They lost 200-300 yards and didn't catch up till much later in the race.

The pack I was with seemed to slow considerably on the uphills. In fact, we'd come to an uphill and get all bunched up, almost coming to a stop, then start up the hill. The hill at 14 K was no problem - we were at a pace I could keep (but not exceed).

During most of the first half of the race, V2 was the technique of choice, even up the gentle uphills. In fact, the first half of the race was pure pleasure! Everything was clicking!

In the middle of the race, the hills became steeper, and my transition to V1 was not pretty. I just can't V1 very well, and started getting passed on the uphills. I also had to start V1'ing on some of the flats were my skis seemed to be running slower than everyone else's. Even when my skis seemed fast, and I was moving like mad on the flats, I still lost time on people in front of me. Although I think wax was only a small part of the issue; more likely it was my current conditioning. I just didn't have it in me.

I spent the rest of the race getting passed ("Sorry bud, could I pass on your left?"). Being the realist, I stepped to the other side of the tracks and doublepoled while they went by ("Go for it, man!"). I did doublepole past three racers with about 2.5 K to go, but they passed me back on the approach to the finishing climb.

I finished 55th overall with a 1:47:10 time.