A race to remember
Saturday I raced in the Fossavatnsgangan 50km race in Iceland. It was the first time I had ever been to Iceland and raced outside of North America. This race was especially memorable because my grandfather passed away last week. He was one of the major reasons why I came to love skiing so much. Growing up skiing was a family activity. All of my extended family on my father’s side would go cross country skiing together from ski races where we had most of the family competing and days spent touring around Stowe, VT. I remember my grandfather best for staying active despite growing older. At 80 he finished the bike race up the Mount Washington Auto Road. At 82 he raced the 25km Great Glenn’s to Bretton Woods Ski Marathon and this fall at 90 years old he was still riding his road bike with clip on pedals. The red bike, from 1985, I use for a road bike used to belong to him and has traveled thousands of miles under both of our own power.
Here is a picture of my dad and I with our (grand)father’s skis at the race here in Iceland.
The race itself was quite the adventure. Due to a very wet and windy storm they changed the race courses, distances, start times, and start location the day before the race. Visibility was fairly low and wind was high, there are almost no trees in Iceland just open snowfields. It would be fair to say over the last few weeks my focus wasn’t prioritized on ski racing and I skied most of the race by myself. I had a blast and just kept on going, like my grandfather did. In the end I finished 8th, but managed to walk away with some hardware.
I got a plaque for finishing 3rd in my age group 16-34 because they didn’t include the racers on the podium in the age group awards. Engraved on the plaque is a map of the course we were supposed to ski but didn’t.
Maybe the best part of the race was the awards/cake party. In town after the race, all of the locals made hundreds of amazing cakes for all the racers. I ate so much I was almost asleep when they called me up for the awards, which was difficult to follow since it was in Icelandic.
Tomorrow the top priority is to find some hot springs on the drive to the airport. There are tons of super scenic naturally occurring hot springs here!!
And here is the whole crew I came with on the Red Carpet
Springtime is for adventuring
Spicy is wrapping up the season in Wind and Ice Land…Gus is off to the Promised Land. After a hectic and awesome Spring Series and a summery Distance Nationals (big shoutout to all the Far West coaches and all the volunteers for a fantastic end to the season), I kicked off the spring in Colorado with some epic shredding DOWN the mountain for once….
(skiing down hills is surprisingly tiring)
and some bomber nordie-style crust skiing
(skiing in Vail doesn’t suck.)
and now it’s time to get back to some intense summer training….Tahoe style.
see ya out on the trails….or the lake. happy summer.
Iceland?
More like Windland…
We’ll ski Thursday and Friday before the race on Saturday.
Here are some of the winning photos of the day.
And the Ben Grasseschi honorable mention of the day…
All sorts of adventures
In an effort to visit some family and prolong the race season as long as possible, I’m off to Iceland to do one more ski race. The race is called the Fossavatnsgangan (for real, http://www.fossavatn.com/) and is a 50km classic on May 4th. I’ll be doing the race with my dad and some of his ski friends. I realized today this race will be closer to the first race I do next season than the first race I did this season, Yikes.
Here’s a photo courtesy of wyatt of a little late season training in CA. Who says style doesn’t count for anything.
Super Touriffic
It was a treat to have the Super Tour Finals in Truckee. Besides getting to race alongside the best in the nation, I think it was an excellent show of support from the local community for hosting quality races and supporting elite athletes. Truckee/Tahoe proved that it is a legitimate venue(s) for high-level racing, even with barely any snow! Big thanks to all the volunteers who got it rolling and kept it on the white stuff, despite numerous challenges. Hope we get one next year again!
Go fast. Like this.
Billy Dutton Downhill
“Look for the helpers. You’ll always find people who are helping.” — Fred Rogers, on what to do when scary things are on the news #boston
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) April 15, 2013
This tweet struck me, and I think it's important to keep in mind today. On a day when we're all glued to sad news and the social networks following the incidents in Boston, I wanted to share a lighthearted video of the aftermath of the Billy Dutton Uphill: the Billy Dutton Downhill.
G-Unit
Music: Be thoughtful today. Listen to something unplugged or slow.
Connect With Far West Nordic
By PDCLEAR ClearPaydayLoans