Australian Birkebeiner

What a day we had for the race, blue bird, little wind and fast snow. I could not have been happier than I was. My fitness was average this year and it was all about enjoying the race.
I got a great start and stayed out of trouble and kept myself in the green zone and did not push to hard in the first 8km of relative flatness. I slowly worked myself into a rhythm that I thought would be maintainable for the whole race. The first section of Sun Valley went well and I avoided the few accidents in front of me. Once onto the Omeo road I opened up the speed a little and pulled back a few spots, constantly looking for open snow as it is really easy to get boxed in. From here it was up the Paralyser which I struggled with. It is a climb of maybe 3km and the pitch varies as you climb.... I was struggling after about 1.5km and went to pass a skier that was too slow for me, at least I thought that was the case. I blew big time and from there getting to the top became a real struggle. The lesson here is more hill work for next year.... running stairs and the like should sort me out during the summer months.
Once at the top it is a easy glide through the park before climbing to the highest part of the course for the descent down the Blade runner. I had a hoot coming down, being a big guy it helps with coming down the descents. Across the dam wall and up and into the finish chute..... 21km done and dusted.
I ended up 56th out of 163 male starters and 4th in my age group... 1 min down on third.
Happy with the end result, it was fun.
Ryan Moody joined me for the day after crashing at our place for the night. He skied himself into 24th overall and 4th in his age group I think. Shows you what you can do when you have a decent sized engine! He is a fit bastard, god help us if he gets his technique down pat and combines it with his fitness.
It appears that my season may be over as I have a long list of stuff to do around the house before I go back to work. The weather looks like it is going to be too warm for snow, but I might try and get to Lake Mountain again before the end of the season. I dropped my skis of at Pullins in Mansfield on the way home for some stone grinding and a bit of hot box love. I had obtained a few nasty stone scratches and need them to be sorted with a stone grind. Below is a video of some of the snow trip related stuff and a little pirated footage of the Hoppet race start.



The plan from here now is a bit of preparation for the 2010 SSWC in October. I have to pull the finger out and get the leg over the SS and get moving. I am going to get off the beer, Thai take away and ice cream to get the weight down.... time for a Big Mak slim down. A few decent road kilometers before I go back to work are in order as well. Maybe from next week I will post the adventures of the Big Mak slim down challange!
Happy trails!