Lake Placid Loppet

This past Saturday, I competed in the Lake Placid Loppet 50km skate. Chad and Jason also did the race, which would be the first 50km skate race for all three of us. The LP Loppet has quite a reputation for it's course, which mirrors the one used at the 1980 Olympics and includes a lot of hills (and some big ones). Essentially, the 50km course is two 25km laps with the bulk of the climbing happening on the first 15 km of each lap.

With a race of that length, there are a variety of other things that we needed to worry about, including nutrition. Luckily, we had a great support crew. Nancy, Jane and Chad's parents were all on course feeding us fresh bottles and gels. This was very important, because it enabled us to blow through all the feed zones and carry our own bottles. So, a huge thanks to them for helping out (and ringing cowbells)!!

Not being bashful, the three of us all hopped onto the front line in the mass start area. The beginning of the race was really fast. About 15 minutes into the race 12 or so skiers were pretty much together, then three guys went off the front of that group at the beginning of the main portion of the Porter Mountain climb. Once we got into the main climb, things broke up further and by the time we we came back through the stadium at the 15k mark, almost everyone in that initial group of 12 or so was skiing alone. I didn't see anyone the rest of the race, although it turns out there were two guys less than a minute behind me. Personally, I felt that I skied the flats and V2 sections of the course pretty fluidly and just tried to survive the steep sections. In the end, Jason just missed the podium finishing 4th, and all three of us ended up in the top 10. So next year, I guess we'll have to stop messing around and go 1-2-3! Another highlight was that Rochester-area skier Carl Johnston made the trip up and had a great race, and provided some guidance to us. He's a wealth of knowledge on these types of races as he's done almost every loppet in the country and several in Europe.

For nutrition, I had a larger than usual breakfast (although not huge) - 1 bagel with PB, two packets of instant oatmeal. During the race, I ended up going through three bottles of different sports drinks and three GU gels (two with Caffeine). I think this was a good strategy as I never felt close to a bonk (although, I was really fried at the end, I think this had more to do with skiing up big hills as opposed to not eating enough or being dehydrated).

Here are some pics that Nancy took from the weekend:

Action shot of Jane ringing her industrial strength cowbell. The PA announcer made several comments thanking Nancy and Jane for rocking the cowbells!

Jason post race talking with Chad's dad and brother (who skied in a college race the following day in LP).
That's me after just passing the 100 meters to go sign. I'm pretty sure I was skiing in slow motion (and potentially not in a straight line) at this point. So, good thing no one had a video camera!

Me at the finish. Going in to the race, I was hoping that I would be close to someone at the end, so we could sprint it out. However, when I came through the tunnel the last time and saw the finish line, I was relieved when I took one last glance over my shoulder and saw no one there. I could coast across the finish line and didn't have to worry about any sprint, I can't imagine that would have ended well, I was totally spent!

Chad hammering it to the finish.

Post race. These three look ready for a beer (which was of course was drank later that night at zig zags and the brew pub)!

I honestly didn't completely know what to expect as I'd never done that distance and I'd never raced a course as demanding as the one up there. Overall, it was a really fun race. In general, I think doing these ski marathons will be something I get in to more and more. Next up, I'm heading back to Lake Placid on Thursday for two NorAm Cup biathlon races this weekend. Time for me to reacquaint myself with my rifle!