Day 3 - Monday 10K Skate Races and The Rest of the Day Off the Skis

March 3, 2008

Temperatures on Monday were in the upper 20s, so a bit warmer than Sunday’s races, especially for us in the afternoon skate races. 10K classic races were this morning, followed by a brief re-grooming of the course, and then 10K skate races starting at 12:30pm. The fact that we could not see our breaths during our warm-up laps, like we could before Sunday morning’s races, was a sign to us today that it was going to be a warmer run around the trails today.

Given the shorter races today, Bill and John were insistent on a thorough warm-up, meaning multiple loops and loops around the practice track. A 1K loop, if that. Our pre-race routine wouldn’t be complete without some glides down the glide hill. This was essentially a meaningless exercise for Bill and Eric, as they both had only one pair of skate skis and nothing to do if the skis were dogs and running slow. John, on the other hand, had skis waxed with both HF7 and HF8, and he worked hard on evaluating which ski to use. He went with his newer Madshus Nanosonic skis in the end, I believe. None of us made it as far as some of the long distance markers at the end of the glide hill that some skiers seemed to be indicating was their superior glide distance. However, I wonder if our competitors were simply placing markers 5 meters farther in distance than any ski could realistically glide in today’s conditions, just to play psychological games with us shortly before the start of competition??

Convinced that adding some additional structure to our skis may improve our glide, Bill immediately became good friends with one of the Toko reps working his tent in the practice area. Before we knew it, Bill had convinced him to place a rill in all 3 sets of our skis. These were not “chevron” rills, but instead lineal rills, which some believe may be inferior to the chevrons. Simply content on having additional structure in our skis, we headed back to our practice loop for additional warm-up, proud of our skis that suddenly seemed significantly faster. We certainly attributed it to the rills!

By 12:30pm, M1 class race was starting. We proceeded to ski marking and check-in quickly. Eric’s M2 race started at 12:40pm, John & Bill’s M3 race at 12:50pm, and Odd and Bjorn’s races not until closer to 3pm. Will had already completed his day’s race as he raced the classic 10K in the morning and was now strategically positioned out on the course for some action photography shots. Too bad he wasn’t able to get John’s crash early on in the race!

Due to starting problems from previous days’ races (such as John getting tracked and jumping out of his lane prematurely during his 30K race the day before), the starter reminded us again of proper starting procedures and rules: (1) Do NOT leave your lane until it ends (Herr Lynch) and you enter the “mix zone”; (2) M1-M6 racers are skiing the RED 10K loop today – l lap only; Do NOT ski the Blue course! (3) the air horn will sound 1 minute prior to race start as your first warning; (4) orange flag will be raised with 30 seconds prior to start; (5) lowering of orange flag commences the race.

The orange flag went down, and it was a clean start for M2. No crashes observed. The Russians and Italians seemed to take the early lead mixed in with an American. Eric raced better in M2 today than yesterday’s 30K, maybe due to a full day’s experience with World Masters racing, or better glide wax with the warmer conditions, or was it the Toko rill? John & Bill did well again in their M3 race, with both of them skating down the finish lanes side-by-side with skiers behind them. A close finish, but John got Bill by 0.3seconds. Maybe a redemption for the victory by Bill over John the day prior. Following the M1-M6 races, we watched some of the women’s 10K freestyle races out along the course and cheered them up the hills. We caught the start of M10 and saw Bjorn head out for his 5K freestyle race, and then watched Odd finish as the #2 American in his M8 class. Like Odd, Bjorn also finished #2 USA skier in his class and 4th overall.

One of our new close personal McCall friends now, Brian, picked us up for the shuttle ride back to the Majestic View house. Bjorn entertained us as usual by giving a Swede a hard time for not giving his seat up for a lady who had just climbed onboard. Bjorn was even receiving hugs onboard, simply due to the fact, as he put it, “I’m Norwegian”.

For the second day in a row, Bill was confident enough with his multi-functional briefs/swimsuit/jacuzzi jockey outfit that we headed to the hot tub for a second day in a row. We met some new friends again, and even ones that told Bill – “you’re a famous Midwest skier!” Must have been that decades-old Vasaloppet win that some people just can’t forget. Even more fun, though, was listening to the next group that entered the hot tub who shared stories of celebrity costume parties on the downhill ski slopes and one man’s attempt at being a Britney Spears look-a-like. At that point, our finger tips were wrinkled, Bill’s self-confidence in his attire was waning, and it was time to leave.

Upon arrival back at the house, we realized we had very limited options for dinner, yet Will, Bjorn, and Odd were waiting for a dinner decision. We did have a dozen eggs in the refrigerator along with tortilla shells and some apples, but that was about it, so we went with it. Hard to beat a dinner of scrambled eggs on top of over-crisp tortilla shells and a platter of sliced apples (including the cores) on the side. The camaraderie during the dinner definitely trumped the food, as we shared good stories and laughs.

Following dinner, John, Bill, and Eric headed into McCall to experience what could be had for night life at 9:30pm on a Monday night. Our initial plan was to visit the local brewpub, but unfortunately we discovered that they had already closed at 9pm. A brewpub closing at 9pm??? We couldn’t believe it, so John tried to enter the closed brewpub and convince the workers that they should stay open for tourists like us --World Masters Skiers. Needless to say, he was back in the minivan less than a minute later. He did get a recommendation though to head a few blocks up the street to “The Mill” where the local brew could still be found on tap.

We entered “The Mill”, but soon learned that it would be closing within 15 minutes at 10pm. How could this be?? Fortunately, the bartender and waitress soon warmed up to our humor (or felt sorry for us) and bar closing time eventually seemed to slip until nearly 11:30pm. The only close call of nearly getting kicked out of the establishment by 10pm was when Bill grabbed the “poker” for the open-pit fireplace in the middle of the bar and started taking log rearrangement and placement into his own hands. After a brief warning, Bill found his place again in his chair-lift seat along the perimeter of the fire pit.
We did share some international goodwill with the nearby Germans at the table next to us. Eric noticed familiar faces from meeting some of these same Germans at the shuttle stop at Ponderosa State Park earlier in the day. We soon realized that we had re-connected with Erwin and Pietra!! Via marginal German language comprehension and a bit of eaves-dropping, Eric seemed to hear the word “Jaegermeister” be repeated several times. Unbeknowst to the Germans, Eric’s seizied his chance for a prompt, unannounced benevolent World Masters gesture and ordered up a Jaegermeister for the Germans to enjoy. It was soon delivered to the Germans, and they were astonished (and maybe impressed?) about what had just arrived on their table, but soon howled in laughter regarding the timing of this. That broke the ice and our two separate groups soon became one. As is true with every European he meets, Bill continued to invite the Germans to come over to race in the American Birkebeiner and stay with us. Maybe it was lost in translation, but we weren’t sure if they ever accepted or rejected Bill’s invitation that night. Maybe we’ll find out via a phone call from Germany a week before next year’s Birkie? It was a fun evening without worries about waxing later that night or getting ready the next morning for an early morning race. Ah, a rest day to look forward to on Tuesday!