It was long (even though short for the Birkie), ugly, icy, and kind of hilarious. My knees and ankles and shins all hurt. So did my lungs, and my pride for that matter. But I finished! And other than one MEGA crash it wasn't too bad. It wasn't fast. I could not find any of my old hill climbing gears. But honestly in this year of absolutely no winter, I did the best I could and it was ok.
The race was 30km, 3 laps of a 10km course. The course was a ribbon of snow in the otherwise brown northwoods of WI. If you crashed too epically you would shoot off the course into trees, grass, dirt, whatever. But not snow. And people DID crash. I saw at least 3 guys pulling themselves out of the bushes, brambles, and branches. My crash was a stylish "got it, don't got it" slide that took out another racer. But hey, the hill was an ice sheet. I started laughing. I got up but had a hard time getting moving again because my feet were cramping! Skiing on ice is HARD, going uphill and downhill with your feet trying to hold onto an edge through your ski, is not a recipe for fun. Funny, yes. Fun, no.
You know what didn't hurt? My shoulder. HA! So there. It's done. I'm glad to move on to a new sports season. No more depressing 2.5 hour ski/pole hikes. Ugh.
But I did it. Yay me! Yay shoulder. And now I'm going to go relax for a bit.
