Race: NorAm

So to get to the Empire State Games (ESG), I need a certain number of races. With all the races cancelled, it's grab any and all ESG qualifier races. The only next race between now and then is, *gulp*, the North American Cup/National Masters Champs! Let's be clear: I am not nationals material. I'm a guy having a mid-life crisis, trying to get in shape, fulfilling a childhood dream, yada, yada, yada. With this being the only option I figured I'd better go.

My brother said there's a line in the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, 'Where the Guide is wrong, it strives to be definitively wrong'. So he said, 'if you're going to do this, be decisive about it'. Does that mean if I'm bad, I should be bad on a really grand scale?? Whatever the implication, being decisive is good advice.

Getting there was the trick. Normally I head north along Rt. 81, then take Rt 3 east from Watertown. The problem is that those towns between Syracuse to Watertown has received anywhere from 8 to 10 feet of snow. Yes, that’s feet. These poor folks don’t even have a place to shovel the stuff. So I’m not going that way. This time I’ll head East along the Thruway and head North along Rt 87 and come into Lake Placid the back way. This turned out to be a very good move. When I left Friday morning, it was really snowing hard in Syracuse. 30 minutes East and all was well. In fact, near Albany, the road were very dry. We’ll be taking this route in the future – can set the cruse control to 75 and not get the kids car sick weaving through the roads up north.

I stayed at the Northway motel right in Lake Placid - clean rooms, easy access to town, etc - good thing. Had to leave the wife home - bad thing. It sucks being alone in a strange land without someone to support and cheer.

The race was held at the 1980's Olympics course. This course has any positive attributes: very wide trails, steep hills with very good run offs (no sharp turns, narrow bridges, etc), very well groomed, great waxing rooms to prepare skis in. It does, however, have some tough hills. Three in fact. Three loops x Three hills = lactic acid. Lots of it.

This race was a 10Km sprint – three loops each at 3.3km, two shoots: prone and standing. The word 'sprint' is a little misleading. 'Sprinting' over 6 miles seems like a contradiction in terms. The race was very hard for me. First loop went well – kept a good pace and even the hills felt okay. Knocked down my first two targets in prone, but missed the next three – I think I was low. It was during the second hill on the second loop that my thighs didn’t think this was a good idea. It takes a lot of muscle power/strength to keep the rolling/springing gate of the V1 ski stride up hill. At the standing shoot I hit two and missed three. Out on the last loop I was ready to jump in the stream that flowed through the valley. “How’d he die?” they’d ask. Somehow that would work better than, say putting a ski pole through my gut to end the pain. It was the second hill that was the worst. This baby goes straight up, gives you hope by leveling off, then goes straight up again. Why DID those ski patrol guys look at me like that??

My time for 10K was 1:06, that’s one hour, six minutes. The winner was 30min! How do they do that? And get this, they do two warm down loops! The pain in my body said not to do that.

We’ll the good news: I’ve done what I need to do and am going to the Empire State Games. The bad news: same course and it’s a 15Km race! That will be five loops at 3km each. Hopefully they’ll take out one of the hills.