We very nearly didn't make it to this year's Kangaroo hoppet (Dad lost his keys and had locked the spare inside the car - official VW line was that the only way to get in was to smash a window! Luckily we were able to organise a locksmith to come from Geelong at 7 pm and he had the door open after 15 minutes) and to be honest, it wouldn't have been too much of a disappointment after the weather today!
Even on Friday as we drove into Mt Beauty, the race wasn't looking too healthy. Despite a very promising start to the season, the snow just hasn't fallen and they had decided to shorten the course. I hadn't come all this way to just do 14k, so I paid $30 to upgrade to the full Kangaroo Hoppet marathon, which at the time was to be 32k, though in the end it only amounted to 25k.
The lady at the registration office tried to dissuade me, saying it wasn't worth it considering the weather was going to be awful. I brushed off her concerns 'It's gloriously sunny right now and the last three years have been the same. The Bureau (of Meteorology) must have it wrong!' She rolled her eyes and gave me a new bib, muttering about the supreme overconfidence of youth:P
Sure enough, I woke up this morning to the sound of rain drumming down on the roof of our lodge. If it had only been two degrees colder, it would've been snow, but instead it was miserable weather that would melt all the snow away:(
I ate a large breakfast (still a bit too large, but I think I'm getting better at pre-race nutrition) and skiied down to the Nordic bowl with dad. It was dry at the start of the race, but I was taking no chances and kept my warm and waterproof jacket on. It was a wise decision.
The snow was soft, very soft. For the first three km, there was no room to move or pass people because every little hill acted as a bottle neck. People were tripping over all over the place, and I went down briefly at one stage when a bloke trying to pass stuck his ski tip on top of mine (grr). Didn't cost me much time though and I just focused on going with the flow and not getting trampled in the process.
After about five km, the field had thinned out somewhat and I upped the intensity level, trying to catch up to a friend who'd snuck past at the start. It soon became clear that the lack of ski specific training I'd done was going to cost me. With every stroke I was throwing wasted kilos of inefficiency around, and the soft snow made for very hard work. My calves began to throb and I lost focus, letting quite a few people go past me.
It was only when a woman with quite a high number and a beautiful technique overtook me that I forced myself into action. I stuck behind her, trying my best to mimic her effortless skating motion. The three NoDoz tablets I'd taken seemed to kick in at that point too, and my calves stopped protesting at the indignities they were being subjected to. More from brute force than anything else, I managed to claw back a few places as we hit a prolonged uphill stretch. I was basically running up - the snow was too soft and the trail too narrow to skate properly.
Then it was downhill for a few km and I tucked into an aero crouch, stacking momentarily when I hit an unexpected mogul that was obscured by the fog, but somehow managing to roll right back onto my feet and keep going.
As we went past the finish area for the first time, I started feeling really good in spite of the morale destroying rain that had started up. My technique was returning to me bit by bit, and the hill work that I'd done started to pay off as I passed a stack of old guys on the uphills. It was almost pleasant as we skiied along the aqueduct, protected from the wind by the fir trees. I caught up to two guys in skin suits who were setting a good pace and tried to stay with them, conscious that a windbreak would be mighty handy when we hit the swirling, windy Sun valley for the second time.
Visibility was awful as we emerged from the trees. It was very disconcerting when you'd go from cruising along in the tracks to slowing down suddenly and inexplicably, the fog completely disguising the hill that had reared its ugly head in front of you. I was really looking forward to finishing and had my hopes dashed by many a false turnaround.
Eventually we hit the downhill section that marked the furthest point of the loop and having noticed that I was fading, I locked on to a woman who had just passed me and did my best to haul her back in. I got her on one of the last uphills of the race and sensing the end of the discomfort was near, I kicked it up another notch and managed to get past a few more bedraggled competitors before crossing the line feeling very relieved, but also quite exhilarated.
Dad had just finished too, and after exchanging a quick greeting with the friend who'd gone past early in the race and my old ski coach from Melbourne high, we headed back to the lodge, far too cold and wet to stay around for the winner's ceremony.
My finish time was 1:34:xx and while I can't vouch for the distance, having forgotten to start my garmin at the start of the race, that would be a decent Birkebeiner PB (1:19ish) if the 25k pace was extrapolated back over 21.1k. Official results come out tomorrow. I'll be interested to see what place I ended up with.
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Took it very easy this week leading up to the race. The balls of my feet were a bit sore after last Sunday's 25k, so I didn't run at all after Monday's painful efforts. I was a little concerned about a possible metatarsal stressie, but it's much better now and I'm pretty sure I can trace it back to wearing my pair of massively overbuilt Loco running shoes (I do not recommend this company) for my Sunday night recovery run.
Next week will be another relatively easy one. I'm aiming for around 100k with proper workouts Monday to Wednesday and then a few easy days to taper for the Aths vic half on Sunday where I hope to break 80 minutes. A long, easy ride on Sunday would be nice afterwards I think, study load permitting.
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