Up until this week, I thought that the United States cross country ski culture consisted of just a handful of people: young racers, elite and professional skiers, and a few parents that do it to keep up with their kids. This week, that all changed.
Birkie Fever is real. It is alive and well in the Midwest and people go nuts for it all. Despite an altered race schedule, far fewer in person racers, and even fewer festivities, you could feel the energy in the community come alive the past week. I will never forget driving past a highway billboard on our way to Cable, Wisconsin from the Twin Cities that said “Congrats Jessie Diggens on your 2021 Tour de Ski win.”
This year, due to Covid mitigation procedures, rather than having all the races take place on Saturday, they were spread out over an entire week. Every pro team member raced the 45k Skate Birkie on Saturday which you can read about in Simon Zink’s previous blog update. The course was fast and many people ended up racing quite well!
For Finn O'Connell and I however, it didn’t end when we crossed the finish line on Saturday. We both went home that day, ate as much food as we could stomach, propped our feet up, and prepared ourselves to do it all over again the next day. Unlike previous years, when both the skate and classic race take place on the same day, this year the skate race was Saturday and the Classic race was Sunday. After a slightly disappointing start to the season, I figured I would really up the ante and do both races. At this point, I felt like I had nothing to lose. Boy was I wrong.
Sunday morning just a few minutes before the start of the race, it started to snow. We all knew there was 1-2 inches of forecasted snow and were prepared for it to be a bit slower than the day before. The gun went off and within minutes, Finn and I had both exchanged words about how slow our skis were. Within the first half hour of the race, things had strung out so much that I couldn't see the next person in front of me. From time to time, on a long straight away, I could see Finn or Andy (our coach also did the race) in the distance. For the most part however, I raced the 45k race alone. At about half way, there was already three inches of snow on the ground and it didn’t seem to be letting up any time soon.
Eventually, Peter Heins and another racer caught up to me and we skied together for a while before again getting separated by the inches of snow beneath our feet. By the end of the race, I was so tired that I was walking some hills and striding most of the downhills. Needless to say, it was slow, so slow that the race ended up being an entire hour slower than the day before.
Never have I had to slog through so much snow in a race and never have I been so tired after a weekend of racing. Two back to back 45km races is something that I might never have to do again. Would I do it again, maybe! The atmosphere and cheering fans that still made it onto the course in a blizzard made it memorable and rewarding. I’ll definitely come back to do it again in the future!
