Time to Race

My conference is over and I am on my way to Anchorage. It's Tour of Anchorage time!

This morning when I woke up I had already mentally checked out from the conference. So when I went to breakfast before heading out to the airport I was surprised to see all my conference friends eating breakfast too, and getting ready for another day of the conference. I'd already forgotten about the conference. But I sat with some of my fellow Alaskan archaeologists and talked shop and mentally 're-checked in' for a moment until I caught the shuttle to the light rail station and hence on to the airport.

But now that I am at the airline terminal the conference really is over. Now I am thinking about the Tour of Anchorage. Tomorrow at 9:30 AM I am in the 25K classic nordic ski race. I usually do the 50K skate race but this year I decided to do the 25K classic with Zoya. Classic skiing requires more finesse and technique than skate skiing and I have been trying to improve my classic technique all winter. Zoya and I even took lessons in Anchorage. So tomorrow we will find out how we did.

I always like to put my goals down in writing before the race - so here they are: I want to finish in the top 20 and I will be ecstatic if I finish in the top 10. Time wise, I hope to break 1:40 and will be supremely pleased if I break 1:30. In 2008 I also did the 25K classic and that year I was 6th overall with a 1:26 time. But that year I got to do a lot more double poling beforehand. This year the snow has been so deep that I have mostly worked out my legs while training and have not got the upper body strength so critical for the flat Tour of Anchorage course. Nonetheless, I am hopeful that I'll break 1:40 because in the Pia's Classic 30K race that Zoya and I did earlier this year I was at 1:35 at the 25K point in the race. So we'll see!

Photo is Barometer Mountain on the morning I left Kodiak to go to Seattle. This is the view as I walked into the Kodiak terminal after parking my car in long-term parking. Patrick