Sunday presented three options, easy distance at Higley, skating on the Rideau Canal in Ottawa (see earlier post) or a 10K freestyle which I also raced in at Gatineau Park. This is the second time I have raced this event the 1pm start time sort of throws off the morning preparation but it also makes it easy to get to while leaving from campus in the morning. Adam, Sam, and Emma opted to join me for the event which has a field of around 175 racers most of which are under 17 years old. I was able to once again dominate my age group of course the real races of the weekend are the 50K loppet events which start earlier in the morning. The real comical part of the 10K is the start which is en masse and non seeded. So basically all the little kids get the line about 30 minutes prior and take up the first few rows. I managed to squeeze myself in on the second row behind some older Chelsea and Nakkertok Nordic skiers who looked reasonably fast. The only hassel I had was getting by a middleaged guy who for some reason thought he needed to be in the front row, between that and the multitude of really fast little kids it made the start rather intense.
Note: I rejected the comment made regarding the preceding statement. The comment does rightly point out that my attitude here is rather elitist, sorry about that you are right, point taken.
Yes it is great that this skier was in the race, I certainly do not fault him for participating. However when I attend triathlons for example I make a concerted to start somewhere in the middle of the pack, because I lack swimming skill. When I play hockey on Sunday nights, I don't demand to play center or get passed the puck on every play, I lack skill. In the same way I don't understand why it would not be obvious to this guy that maybe he would be better off starting few rows back rather than lining up with the fastest racers. I am quite certain that his race experience would be better had he done this.
As for the race itself the girls started a little further back and I think did well or at least seemed to enjoy the event but I didn't see them during the race. Adam who started a few rows behind came storming past around 1K, nocked over a kid who was maybe 13 or 14 years old, and then proceeded to bridge up to the Nakkertok Nordic team boys who I think weren't planning to race that hard until they saw Adam (aka the kid from the States). I got to watch the whole thing from a healthy distance of about 500 meters and was never able to close on them. Around 7k is a rather long uphill which I really struggled on toward the end but thankfully made it to the downhill finish and put on a clinic for those that had closed on me during the climb, it was a lot fun after that uphill.
It was certainly good for me to feel what racing is like at least once or twice a season just to remind me how hard it really is, I still have the post race hack.
1 comment:
Accident, I swear
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