January and February Fun ☀️
Post US. Nationals we had a little week to rest and recover before the next weekend of races. A lot of the team went back to Minneapolis for that week, Erin and Renae went to Lake Placid for the World University Games, Zak was overseas competing at the World Cup, and I was lucky enough to have a chill week in Cable to prepare for the next weekend of SuperTours!
We had a large crew for the Seeley weekend and most of the team stayed at Adler Lodge, including a few fun guests, and the lodge did not disappoint! We cooked great food, relaxed in between the workouts, and got to hang out like on a great camp. There was a guitar, games were played, and books read.
Saturday the 14th of January was race I have personally heard a lot about and wanted to participate in since I came to the Midwest – The 42km Seeley Hills Classic. This was also the day for the SuperTour distance race – a 32 km classic on pretty much the exact same trails as the original Seeley Hills.
Team Birkie had racers in both the Supertour and distance event. It was an awesome event with perfect conditions, weather, and atmosphere. The course is quite hilly, and I can genuinely say it was hard. This race is a great challenge if you are looking for one in the future! ☺ The course offers great downhills, some challenging double pole flats, and lots of striding and quick movements. There were tons of people cheering and lots of people out enjoying the nice weather.
I could not have been happier to realize that the last few 100 meters into the finish was a slight downhill with the potential for a little tuck and people were cheering so loud. Great event! The day ended with award ceremonies at the Sawmill Salon.
Myself striding over the bridge by OO trailhead. Thanks Ethan Kennedy for pictures!
The race was maybe not the perfect pre-race for a sprint, but for me, it worked out very well and I have never felt better hah! (kind of hoping I don’t have to do a 42km before sprints from now on) …
Results Seeley Hills Classic event, 42km can be found here: https://my.raceresult.com/215798/
Ingrid and Andrew chilling in between races in Wisconsin.
Results Seeley Hills SuperTour event, 31km can be found here: https://my.raceresult.com/230927/
Sunday there was a SuperTour classic sprint at the Birkie trailhead and this course is dear and near to our hearts as we have been racing on this challenging sprint course a couple of times. Again – sun and just beautiful weather!
Team Birkie was waxing with NMU for this sprint, and we had amazing skis! Great kick and glide! What more can you ask for? It was a lot of fun, so many people came to watch and cheer, and the Birkebeiner Foundation knows how to run these things!
Results SuperTour Sprint Cable can be found here: https://my.raceresult.com/230836/
Two weeks later, some of the Team Birkie members drove to the U.P (Upper Peninsula) to participate in another famous Midwest marathon, the Noquemanon.
The Noquemanon is a 50km race starting at Al Quaal, Ishpeming, going through Forestville and finishing by the large wooden dome by Lake Superior. I went to NMU for several years and had wanted to do this race for so long. This year offered us perfect weather, perfect conditions, and an amazing crowd of people.
Xavier, Jonathan, Sam, and I did our best to represent the team and I can only speak for myself, but I hope to come back, and I am thankful for such a great experience! The feeling of finishing a race and being so incredibly tired is amazing and something I long for very often – maybe too often for it to be efficient in terms of peak performance.
But to summarize, a great weekend in the UP, and was ready for some relaxation after that!
I got my first cowbell!
Sam took the third and got a great sounding cowbell as well!
Results from the Noquemanon can be found here: https://my.raceresult.com/231888/
This past weekend (February 4th and 5th), the first weekend of February was the time of the City of Lakes Loppet (both classic and skate). This weekend is iconic and represents so much more than just a ski race. It is not called the Urban Ski Festival for nothing!
The weekend gave us the best views of not only the city, but the trail system and the parks we have here in Minneapolis. The community and the vibes are unmatched, and I just cannot believe the number of racers I observed – so many skijoring racers, snowshoeing, fat bikers, tourers, 10km racers, 20km racers, and 31km racers! Young, older, and even older racers were participating.
I know I mention the weather a lot, but even this weekend offered the best of the best, sun and fast snow. It was really hard for me and got dropped quite quickly, but I had teammates that crushed it and it was fun!
Pictured: Sam, Renae, Erin, Jordan, Caitlin, me, Peter, Brian, Ingrid and Chris!
All results from the City of Lakes Loppet Weekend can be found here: https://www.mtecresults.com/event/show/4696/2023_City_of_Lakes_Loppet_Festival
This upcoming weekend we have some people doing the Mora Vasaloppet, both classic and skate before we are ready for the two main events for Team Birkie this year (in my humble opinion) – SuperTour weekend at Theodore Wirth (our home course) and the American Birkebeiner (also our home course)!
Find information about these events on the following websites:
https://www.loppet.org/events/mayorschallenge/#register
https://www.birkie.com/ski/events/birkie/
EXCITED!
See you out there! ☺
You gotta wanna go out here!! Wirth showing off its best self!
