Yesterday was the third day of racing out here in Alaska, with a 20 k classic for the women, and a 30k for the men. The night before the race, Pepa had just finished waxing all of our skis with a base layer of klister, and came inside saying “Now we are all ready for tomorrow! It better not be snowing when I get up tomorrow.” It wasn’t supposed to snow.
And it wasn’t snowing when we got up at the pre-dawn hour of 7:00. But then at 7:30 we got a call that it was snowing at Kincaid. Sure enough, it started snowing at the house too, and by the time we got to Kincaid it was DUMPING snow. Also, it was 29 degrees, and there were still several hours until the sun rose. But Pepa was in good spirits! She cleaned off all of the skis without letting Ida or I near them, and soon had us testing various hardwaxes, and even zeroes.
By the start of the women’s race, there was quite a few inches of fresh powder on the course and it was still dumping. But our skis were working well! The 7k loop that we did 3 laps around very quickly turned into a very soft, hilly, skied-up mess, but Ida and I both had good races. Ida took her second top-10 of the week, finishing 8th, and I took 14th.
The snow more or less stopped for the men’s race, but there was still plenty of snow on course. Tim had a solid race, finishing 23rd, while Pepa and Ida and I ran around to cheer him on.
It was an exciting day, and some great results for all of us, but I’m pretty sure we all agree that Pepa gets the prize for best performance!
