Race Report: Birkie SuperTour
This past weekend I had the pleasure of competing at the “Gitchi Gami Games” SuperTour races in Cable, Wisconsin on the Birkie trails. This was the final installment of Period One of the SuperTour, which included last weekend in Duluth and now in Cable.
As a member of the all new Team Birkie, these races were circled on my calendar for quite some time now. I was really looking forward to the opportunity to race in front of our “home crowd,” so to speak. The weekend ended up being very successful for me and I will use this blog to go a bit more in depth on each of the race days and the events surrounding them. I’m currently writing this blog from my apartment in Minneapolis after we drove back home. It’s not procrastinating, I just actually had to wait for the races to be done before I could write about them! That said, I am pretty damn sleepy so I apologize if the writing quality is worse than normal.
Day 1: Skate 15K Mass Start
Leading the charge out of the start — trying to stay out of trouble.
The weekend began on Friday with a 15K Skate Mass Start race. We did 6 laps of a 2.5 km course that had a healthy amount of climbing. With last year being the notorious “COVID Season,” this was the first mass start race most of us had done in a long time. There was a ton of nervous excitement at the start as we all hoped that we hadn’t forgotten how to ski in a group of people.
The race started by going directly up a pretty steep and short climb, something that I was worried might be a cause for chaos. I did my best to avoid any potential trouble by leading out of the start and skiing pretty fast up the first hill to try to prevent my poles from getting broken by someone behind me. A few kilometers later, the race settled into a manageable pace and I did my best to stay relaxed in the group.
I anticipated the race coming down to a final sprint so I tried my best to conserve energy throughout the race. Sure enough, the race came down to a three-man sprint up the last climb between myself, Adam Martin, and Philippe Boucher. I was pretty disappointed with my energy at the end of the race and I lacked the fight left in my body to edge past them. I ended up narrowly getting 3rd in a sprint with Adam. Honestly, it was just a lot of fun to do a mass start again.
Final Place: 3rd
Day 2: Classic Sprint
It’s no secret that I was really disappointed after the skate sprint in Duluth where I exited in the quarterfinal. I like to think of myself as an all-round skier who can compete in both distance and sprint races and my experience in Duluth left me feeling pretty bummed and ready for another chance in Cable.
The course in Cable suited me really well by having a lot of striding terrain. I really enjoy striding and it is something that has always been a big focus for me.
I started off the day well by winning the qualifier. We had great skis and my body was responding a lot better than the previous weekend. After a short wait, we began the rounds and I continued to have really good energy throughout each heat. I was able to stride really well up the big climb in each of the rounds. When it came time for the Final, I gave it everything I had up the big climb and managed to get a small gap that I carried all the way to the finish. This race was a really big mental victory for me and a validation of a lot of hard work in the offseason.
Final Place: 1st
Running up the first hill in the Men's Final.
Looking back at the finish — generally not a smart thing to do.
Day 3: Classic 15K
By Sunday, I was feeling incredibly tired. I logged just over 3 hours of training time on the sprint the day before from the racing and the easy skiing in between. I have so much respect for Klaebo and other World Cup skiers that are able to successfully do sprint finals and distance races every weekend, all season.
Also, for whatever reason I slept like absolute garbage the Saturday night after the sprint. My body was just insanely hot and awake despite my desperately needing sleep. I somehow only found sleep from 1:30 AM to 4:30 AM and had to tell myself all sorts of lies in the morning to convince myself that it could actually be a good thing.
Excuses aside, I felt excited and ready to go for the final race of the weekend. Classic distance racing is usually my favorite type of race and I went into the race with a lot of motivation to try to compete for the win.
The race ended up going pretty well. I did not feel “amazing” by any means but I was able to stay focused and fight through the entire duration of the race. It ended up being good enough for 2nd place, only behind Mr. Adam Martin. I spent enough time being Adam’s teammate at NMU to know that he is really damn hard to beat when he is skiing well — and he definitely skied well on Sunday. Congrats, Marty.
Final Place: 2nd
Heading out for my first lap in the classic race. The buff seen around my neck lasted about 3 kilometers before I got incredibly warm and threw it off.
In summary, it was a pretty amazing weekend on the Birkie trails. I am really proud to see my hard work pay off and it is a huge bonus to be able to do it in front of so many supportive friends and family. I feel so grateful and lucky to be able to have these experiences.
Up next, some rest and relaxation before the next races of the season!
Thank you for reading!!!
This week’s bonus content comes in the form of a couple of the lunches I threw together after the races. I was told that these did not look appetizing - what do you guys think?
Friday Lunch: 6 slices of gluten free bread including scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, ketchup, ground beef, banana, and jam.
Saturday Lunch: Rice, canned tuna, squash, sweet potato, cut up hard boiled egg, cottage cheese, ketchup — served cold.
