Ski Season in Review

For those who don't know, my family has cross country ski raced for years.   I guess we really love to be outside regardless of the weather, and we really like to race.  I spent a lot of weekends in my childhood ski racing, riding in the car, and playing in the giant parking lot snow piles at the various trail heads around Michigan.  This year Mike (my husband) and I raced the whole Michigan Cup ski circuit, which finished up on Sunday.  I had a fantastic year of racing, and I really enjoyed learning from the some of the other women I competed against.

My teammate Kaitlyn is probably one of the toughest competitors I know.  She beat me in nearly every race of the year, finding another gear somewhere at the end of the race and skiing easily away from me.  In the only 50k classic race we did this year I thought I had her beat, but with 8k to go she sailed by me like I was standing still.  I learned from her that you can never get complacent if you are in the lead, and that you can never give up when you are behind.

(Myself, Erica, and Kaitlyn together early in a race- photo credit Frosty Freestyle)

One of my favorite people to ski around is Erica.  She is on a different team and probably the most natural skier I know.  I only was able to beat her in one race all year, so most of the time I just tried to ski behind her for as long as possible and gain as much technique as I could from her.  She makes every part of the race look easy, and it reminds me that my skiing should be that way, too.  Going harder doesn't always make you faster.  Skiing behind Erica is deceptively easy; that is until I realize that all of those little things that make her better than me also make my legs very tired.  At that point I just have to deal with the fatigue and just try to keep her gap from growing too fast.  She has taught me to ski smarter, not harder.

Probably my favorite race of the season was my worst finish, but I skied with a good friend, Mariah.  Mariah is the most fun loving person I know.  This particular race was my first 50k skate race and I was apprehensive about even being able to make it the whole way.  Mariah is usually the next girl behind me in most ski races. She always finishes strong, and I knew that wasn't my normal race pattern.  For the 50k race I decided to ski behind Mariah from the start, hopefully being able to finish strong since I paced it better than usual.  About half way through the race she wiped out on a downhill and I was ready to ski away from her; two minutes later I broke my ski pole and fell in right behind her again.  The whole rest of the way I skied right behind Mariah, even across the finish line.  We both had so much fun, and it made the distance seem like nothing.  I have learned from her to stay positive, keep going, and to love everything that you do.

(Mariah skiing into the finish just ahead of me- photo credit White Pine Stampede)

After getting to spend time with all of these ladies, and enjoying such a wonderful racing season, it is bittersweet to see it end.  Thursday we are headed to Florida for the kick-off of canoe training, and I am excited for that too, but it is hard to say goodbye to my ski friends until next year.