Lung Burner 10K Skate Ski Race

Happy Jack X-C Ski Area

Laramie, Wyoming

27 January, 2001

Pole Mountain Shuffle

Happy Jack X-C Ski Area

Laramie, Wyoming

24 February, 2001

I’m pretty new to cross country ski racing. I’ve done the Pole Mountain Shuffle each of the last two years, but always the short 5K version. This year I skied a bit more than in past years and figured that I could do the longer distances without stopping, which is my personal requirement for entering any type of race. The Lung Burner was one of those rare races that I’ll always remember: my equipment was good, my effort was strong throughout, and I had fun. The first half of the race was virtually all uphill, swinging out around the summit loop. That was the toughest moment – getting up the back side of the summit loop without stopping. There were about 30 people out there, and I settled somewhere in the middle and raced with about 5 or so folks who were in my vicinity. I managed to pick off Ed Sherline on the way back from the Summit loop, and that was a highlight. I ended up drafting one guy on the way back down and around the Black Jack loop, and figured to do everything I could to stay with him until the finish, sprinting with him if I could summon anything. But just that fast, he caught a tip and went down and I instinctively went as hard as I could to the top of the hill. I kept it going as hard as I could up the remaining hills and glided as smoothly as possible down, and staggered across the line in about 39 minutes. My neighbor Kurt won the race in about 29 minutes, taking a minute or two out of Derek Mitchum. I don’t really know what place I came in, but I do know that it was one of those rare events where I couldn’t point to anything I could have done better on that day. Sure, my technique sucks, the wax could have been better, and I can always be in better shape – but on that day, what I had was good enough.

In contrast, the Pole Mountain Shuffle was a miserable affair. As usual, I prepared my skis with Swix Purple, a nice generic wax. The first thing I did wrong was not take Kurt up on his offer to wax my skis with a fluoro-containing wax. The snow was sort of wet and my skis were way slow. Well, if they had even been fast, I would have suffered. My lungs were tight and I was miserably slow – and I just couldn’t make myself hurt. Kurt was feeling slow too and got beat by several folks who normally would never have sight of him. The only true success in this race was not stopping, and in reality that was a major victory. Within a couple of days, Kurt and I both came down with the flu – a particularly nasty form of it, although I must say Kurt had the worst of it. And by the way, if a neighbor who just happens to be a former collegiate skier offers to wax your skis, take him up on it…

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