Today’s 10K/15K classic races were canceled due to the cold. A classic sprint is scheduled for tomorrow, but the forcasat does not look good.
Archive for January, 2009
Another Cancellation
Posted: Tuesday, January 6th, 200910km Skate.
Posted: Monday, January 5th, 2009Well, the racing has finally started here in frigid Anchorage. After waiting around for two days they were able to hold the 5/10km skate races today. The intervals were reduced to 15 seconds in order for the races to go by as quickly as possible. This did not keep me, or many others, all that warm. My hands turned into hard blocks after about 3km and then came back around 7km. Other than that I stayed pretty warm while I was racing. I know a lot of others that did not fare that well though.
All in all, the CXC crew did quite well. We had the national champion, Caitlin, and the 3rd place finisher in Matt. We also had three CXC men in the top 15 and four CXC women in the top 20! The skis were fast as usual. We have extra support here with Brandon Ostroot our wax tech, Wayne Fish who is Bryan Fish’s dad, and John Hugus the father of CXC junior Ben.
To be honest, the race went by really fast and I do not have too much to report. Matt started 15 seconds in front of me, Garrott started 15 seconds behind me, and Brian Gregg start 15 seconds behind Garrott. After about 1km Garrott caught up with me and we skied together pretty much the rest of the way. He was leading at about 3km and we were both skiing within ourselves. He pulled away from me at about 5km but I reeled him in pretty close by the finish. I felt that I skied well and I do not really know where I ended up losing time which is a little frustrating. Both Garrott and I saw Matt in the second lap but he really killed it the last few kilometers which was really key for him finishing so well. Big ups to Matt for his race as we are waiting to see if tomorrow will be a 10km or 15km classic!
5K Skate
Posted: Monday, January 5th, 2009The temperatures cooperated today and the skate races were able to start. It was still very cold and the distances were shortened from 10K/15K to 5K/10K. I was pretty excited about the distance switch because the 5K skate is my favorite race. The race went pretty well for me. I went out like I normally do and had a great first 3K. After that, my technique fell apart when I got tired. Hopefully, I can fix this problem with some more interval training. In a 5K race, there is no room to go out slower. Hopefully, by the end of the year I will be able to finish as strong as I start.
My CXC teammate Caitlin Compton won the women’s race today, she was 3.5 seconds in front of Kikkan Randall of USST and APU. We are very proud of her and it feels pretty good to know that I train with her all year round. Kristina Owen was the next CXC girl in finishing 17th with a time of 16:02.6, Johanna Winters was 18th (16:03.0), I was 20th (16:04.1), Jessie Diggins was 21st (16:04.2), Heather Zimmerman was 62nd (17:04.5), Libby Ellis was 67th (17:09) and Jen Rolfes was 101 (17:53.9). There were 169 women in the race and times were extremely tight. Around me, there were 5 girls within 1 second of each other (19-23).
Several of my former NMU teammates also had notable races including Caitlin Compton, Lindsey Dehlin of the USST in 8th (15:39.3), Morgan Smyth of the USST in 21st (16:04.2), Marie-Helen Soderman of NMU in 31st (16:18.4), Laura Dewitt of NMU in 49th (16:41.5), and Ingrid Fjeldheim of NMU in 57th (16:57.5). I have a feeling these NMU girls will be out for blood tomorrow.
I will let Bryan report on the Men’s race later, but I can’t help but mention that Matt Liebsch was third today! I also took a few pictures of the boys finish.
Matt Liebsch within the final 150 meters of his 3rd place finish
Garrott Kuzzy #246 skiing to his 8th place finish
Bryan Cook #245 skiing to 14th place overall
Justin Singleton #290 of NMU on the far right
Canceled Again
Posted: Sunday, January 4th, 2009Today’s races were canceled, again. It is still bitterely cold. I heard a rumor that tomorrow’s 10k/15k skate races have been shortened to 5K/10K for the women and men, respectively. Stay tuned for updates.
Bitterly Cold
Posted: Sunday, January 4th, 2009The races today were canceled due to “bitterly cold” weather conditions. They will try again tomorrow, but the forecast is similar.