Talk about going from one extreme to another. This, now closer to 90 degree, temperature swing is harsh. It is -10 right now on the thermometer. I’m doing a 42 km ski race this morning. I haven’t skied since last January, nearly 13 months ago. I have no idea how this will go. Plus, I woke up this morning with a bunch of gunk in my throat, feeling all weird. Not a good thing.

I’m sort of a hacker skier, so I don’t have any idea how I’m going to do. The race is the Pre-Birkie. It is usually kind of a big regional race, but I think that there are a lot more good skiers showing up this year, so I won’t be skiing with the front guys at all.

Yesterday I went over to OO and skied an hour with Jeff Bradley and Tommy Matush. Both Jeff and Tommy have been skiing pretty seriously this season, so I think they have high expectations. I have no expectations. There was 4 inches of new snow on the ground, which hadn’t been groomed, so it was pretty slow going. Tomorrow it is going to be super fast I think after they get the big grooming machines out there tonight. That is not a good thing for the home team. I’m much better in slower, more stable conditions, not fast, slick stuff. Whatever, I’m not a ski racer, much, so it will be memorable.

Last night we went over to Cable and had dinner at the Rivers Eatery. It is super good stone oven pizza. It is sort of becoming a tradition celebrating birthdays there now it seems. It was pretty fun, we’ll probably go back there again tonight.

I’m heading out in just a little while. I haven’t entered the race yet, so have to get there a little early. I’m not going to ski an inch before the start. The race starts on Lake Hayward, which is not good for me. I don’t like skiing on lakes. I don’t like planting my poles on ice. Plus, it is pretty sketchy, which isn’t good for me. I’m going to get slaughtered off the line and have to play catch up all day.

Okay, I gotta get going. This is going to be an experience, if nothing else.

At the Rivers Eatery with Beth, Mick and Libby.

Skiing in new snow with Tommy and Jeff.

Jeff and Drew Holbrook discussing how to apply $300 worth of wax to my skis.

The birthday cake from Heather at the Brick House in Cable.

This chalk board doesn't apply here today.

Okay, my website was down all morning and now I’m somewhat lacking any motivation to post. I just got back from a nice 1/2 hour walk in the woods with the dogs and feel a little bit better. I’m on a downward slope sickness-wise. I woke up yesterday feeling pretty bad and haven’t gotten any better the last 24 hours. Worse actually. And Dennis is sick now too, so I don’t think I’m just being overly paranoid.

The race yesterday was a chore. I had no nervousness because I had no expectations. But things went pretty badly. I had horrible wax. Sorry Drew, but I thought it through and my skis were beyond bad. There is a section coming back to OO towards the end of the race that you go down and a pretty steep downhill and do a sharp right hand turn, that usually I have trouble negotiating because I’m going so fast. Yesterday I had to pole going around the turn.

So, bad skis were a real problem. It was pretty hard keeping motivated when everyone blows by you on each and every downhill section. Plus it is a ton more work everywhere else. The second issue was I put on nylon wind pants over thin thermal underwear to start. It around 0 at the start. I was way overheated the whole race. Like so overheated, I would have taken my jersey off if I could have. I took my hat off and dropped it when I was trying to put it in my pocket. I went back and got the hat and skied the rest of the day bare headed. And I was still roasting. I could feel the sweat running down my legs into my socks and shoes.

And on top of all of this, I was completely physically challenged skiing. I did start getting better and skied okay the last 8 km. But by then everyone else was pretty worn out and I was still going my slow and steady pace.

I really wasn’t too tired when I finished. I’m going to write a whole thing, probably tomorrow, about cross country ski racing. Some observations from a novice or something like that. Right now I think I’m going to go over and watch the finish of a classic race held in Cable today and get a bowl of soup at the Rivers Eatery. I’m going to try to ski for a while later this afternoon when it gets a tad warmer.

The complete results from the race are here at itiming. I was 106th.

The entry form for the race was the easiest entry I've had to fill out in recent memory.

600 people lined up on Lake Hayward.

Before the start.