Race report - Sunday River Langlauf - 3/6/04

This race is a point-to-point, starting at the Jordan Grand Hotel, to which the competitors are transported in an ancient, underpowered, yet charming bus, and finishing at the Sunday River Inn and Cross County Ski Center. Although the adductor muscles in my legs were still not recovered from getting in touch with my Swedish heritage at the Boston Vasalopp (9k classic ski race at Weston on Feb. 22, which I did even though I don't know how to classic ski), I figured I would be okay to skate and lined up in the chilly rain with 20 or so other competitors.

We started off by jumping on to the lower section of a green-rated downhill ski trail called Lollapalooza. I think that all but the most skilled skiers ended up sliding down this part on their rear ends, as it was a sheet of ice. (Dammit! I should have worn waterproof pants.) We were soon back on snow though and headed down to AP Road, which connects up with a back country trail. After a hard left into the back country section, I herringboned my way up a short, but quite mushy climb. Next was a long, scary, still-mushy downhill, during I fell probably five times (gorgeous bruise now in full bloom on left knee to show for it), and then I was in the cross country system.

I was relieved to regain control of my skis, managing to "keep the waxed side down" and ski strongly until the finish. The mushy conditions and constant falling meant that, sadly, I went almost 5 minutes slower than I did in 2003, but fortunately that was good enough for second place out of the five women and a nifty wooden "medal" with a CNC'd (?) Sunday River XC logo.