My New Year's resolution was to make this the year of endurance activities, I decided to start by signing up for Anchorage's "Tour of Anchorage" 40K ski race. Bryant bought some skating skis this year and I dusted off my twenty year old skis. Although the colors are a bit retro, its amazing how little the technology has changed on skate skis. This winter we've been attempting to give them a good workout. We've been pretty good about hitting the trails each weekend for an hour or two.
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| Skate skiing at Independence Mine - Hatcher's Pass |
Yesterday, we decided to "scout the course". One of his co-workers, who has done the race, was available to go with us and help with the shuttle, so it was the perfect opportunity. Bryant never skied that far and the furthest I skied was a 25K race once in college and although we both have a solid fitness base, I wasn't sure what to expect.
We lucked out with sunny skies and temperatures in the upper teens. The unfortunate timing for us was that Anchorage received 6 inches of snow Thursday night through Friday afternoon, so the grooming wasn't at its finest. The first third of the trail was nicely groomed, the second third was tolerably smashed down and skiable and the last third was survival skiing and then turned to mostly poling in a skier made classical track. My many mornings of soaking myself in the chlorine at Palmer Pool had finally paid off as I actually had some stomach muscles and arm strength to persevere. Near the very end, we were able to cut in from the Coastal Trail to the groomed Kincaid Park trails and finish in the last minutes of twilight near exhaustion, but completing the course nonetheless, and a certain level of confidence that race day conditions shouldn't be quite so miserable.
I want to be optimistic, but this is Alaska and who really knows what nature will throw our way come March 6th.
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