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All of us need to take a break from our jobs every now and then and do something a little bit—out there— which challenges us. For many, that’s going for a long ski, or some other outdoor activity like a hard bike ride or a tough hike. The physical break provides a nice and often essential mental refresh.
But what do you do if your profession already involves physical challenges, say like being a professional skier? What happens when the world’s reigning cross-country skiing champion needs a refresh? For Jessie Diggins, that refresh comes in the form of an annual event which she has dubbed, “the big stupid.” Basically, it’s an extremely hard physical challenge involving a sport other than skiing.
For Diggins, her “big stupid” this year was racing the 46 kilometer category Broken Arrow Skyrace (Diggins ran 69 kilometers *), which is a mountain run held June 22nd. The race, which takes place in Palisades Tahoe— near Lake Tahoe— has seriously steep sections with slopes hitting 30 percent, huge elevation gains, and hits almost 9,000 feet in altitude. It’s a major challenge for even serious runners. What would motivate the current Crystal Globe Overall Champion to decide to throw down an effort at such a difficult event in an area outside her specialty?
Jessie Diggins was kind enough to answer this and other questions about the “big stupid” events she does every year. (This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity).
FasterSkier: You began doing these “big stupid” events several years ago. Why do you still keep doing them?
Jessie Diggins: I still keep doing these because it does have more meaning than just one big epic day. Although I love running for the sake of running … the reason I love these big adventures is it fills up my soul in a different way. It challenges me and really forces me to push deep and see how I confront challenges when they come up. You’re going to have low points when you’re running for ten hours (*the race was two laps, but Diggins opted to do an extra third lap giving her 69 k total and an overall time of 9:53:09, which even including her ‘bonus’ lap put her 48th in her age group out of 70 participants and 391st overall. An indicator of the race’s difficulty was that there were 13 DNFs in her age group. The age group winner’s time was 4:52:34 (for two laps)). I want to see what I say to myself in these moments, how do I get through them, and use what I learn in ski racing. I learn so much about myself and really grow my mind when I do these events.
FasterSkier: What are the qualities an event needs to be worthy of obtaining the “big stupid” label?
Jessie Diggins: It’s just something I feel will challenge me. So, some years it was a 100 kilometer roller ski, one year it was the Presidential Traverse (an 18.5 mile hike in the White Mountains of New Hampshire). They tend to keep getting bigger and stupider as I get older and have more training under my belt. But I do want to say that they have stepped up gradually, and I’ve always done them in a way where I feel like I’m going to be safe. While I want to challenge myself, I don’t want to actually risk my ski career.
FasterSkier: How challenging was this year’s? Was it the hardest “big stupid” ever?
Jessie Diggins: Gosh. I think it was the hardest. It was the furthest I’ve ever run because it ended up being 59 kilometers. It was 14,000 feet of climbing, which for sure was more than I’ve ever done. I have run for ten hours before … but this was probably the hardest one that I’ve ever done.
FasterSkier: Is it important for you to have a sense of accomplishment in a physical challenge which doesn’t involve skiing?
Jessie Diggins: Yes. I think what’s really nice about this, when I’m skiing it’s all about needing to go really fast … there are a lot of eyes on me, and there’s a lot of pressure and expectations, and it’s all about how fast can you do this? It’s never a question of can I finish this 10 k race. With my “big stupid” the goal is just to finish. Because doing it is challenging in itself. I really like that. I love that it’s challenging me in a mode that’s not “my sport.” I find that really satisfying.
FasterSkier: The day after the event you worked at a pancake breakfast and did a book signing. Any regrets about being on your feet that much after a ten hour run through the mountains? How sore were you after the race?
Jessie Diggins: I don’t have any regrets. Serving pancakes to kids was incredibly fun. It was a really good way to get my day started. The book signing was so cool. I met so many amazing people. I was pretty sore. I think walking around the vendor village helped me out with a little bit of active recovery. If I had just laid in bed all day, I probably would have felt worse.
FasterSkier: The race hit 8,900 feet altitude. Was it tough to deal with the altitude? Was that the highest you’ve ever raced.
Jessie Diggins: That was for sure the highest. I purposely didn’t even try to acclimate to the altitude. I just rolled in two nights before and then raced, because I know if I do something hard on the second or third day, I usually feel ok. But day four through seven feel pretty bad for me. I knew I wasn’t going to have time to acclimate … so that strategy worked pretty well for me.
FasterSkier: Do you set any goals for yourself for doing these events, or is it just to participate, finish, and have fun?
Jessie Diggins: It’s just participating, finishing, and having fun. This is the first time I’ve done my big stupid in a race format, but I figured with this challenge, with the altitude, the dryness and heat … having aid stations and support … was amazing. It allowed me to pick something that was so much more physically demanding than I’ve ever done before.
FasterSkier: Did you have any goals for time, distance, or place?
Jessie Diggins: Nope. Anything except the cutoff time … I made it by two minutes! So, I was looking at the clock, but that was the only kind of race that was happening for me.
FasterSkier: You posted about doing a 32 mile trail run to train for the event. Did you do any other specific training for this event?
Jessie Diggins: Normally I don’t specifically train for my “big stupid.” But for this, I knew it was going to be so much climbing, 14,000 feet … so I did a lot of runs just to make sure that I was getting my legs used to being on for that long. The weekend before I went for my O.D. (over distance). Instead of roller skiing, I went up and down Stratton for 4 ½ hours. So that helped as well. The other thing I did was I got some collapsible poles from Swix so I practiced going up and down Stratton with the poles, so I could offload some of my weight onto my arms, and save my knees a little bit more.
FasterSkier: At some point, do you say to yourself that “yeah this really is a big stupid idea?”
Jessie Diggins: Yes! There were several points where I was, “wow, I’m really dumb for loving this.” But I did honestly love it. There were only a couple of low points. It was something I’ve been looking forward to for so long. I decided last October that I wanted to do this. When you look forward to something for so long, even though it’s hard, there’s a sense of “wow I finally get to be here and get to challenge myself with this.”
FasterSkier: Any other big epic training days this summer?
Jessie Diggins: No. From here on out it’s kind of normal training. We are going to go down to New Zealand, with Julia (Kern) and Jason Cork … for a training camp on snow for three weeks like we have done in years past. So, I hope we get good conditions for crust cruising. We like to end the camp with a big long ski. I’m hoping that comes around for us. For now, it’s just normal training in Stratton which I love.
FasterSkier thanks Jessie Diggins for taking the time to speak to us about her “big stupid.”
