The last 3 years I’ve headed out to the Birkie, which has
been a lot of fun and I think I’d finally dialed in all the logistics and had
had a couple good races. Having gotten
that figured out I decided to forego the Birkie for a new challenge, the Gatineau marathon at Gatineau Parc in Gatineau , Quebec Canada
for the Ski Tour of Canada and so I could stay for the sprints. Awesome!
With the snow disappearing rapidly in New England ,
it wasn’t hard to convince Rob to join me in between Feb. vacation ski camp and
JNs and so he signed up for the 27 km skate race.
At the time it seemed like a good idea to stop at Craftsbury
for a ski on the drive, but we arrived after driving through some pretty warm
and torrential rains to find sheets of ice with standing water, so went to Plan
B and did a little speedhike down Lost
Nation Road instead. The next morning a fresh coating of snow made
everything look a bit more like winter and after a good Craftsbury breakfast we
made the longish drive to Gatineau Parc to find…..wait for it…..mounds of
snow! White, cold, sparkling snow with
no grass, no rocks, no dirt, no gravel!!!!
It was like heaven! After getting
some advice at the Parc visitors center we got in a nice ski and some wax
testing on the hardest part of the classic marathon course in brilliant
sunshine. The trip was already worth
it. The only dilemma was whether to go
with straight hard wax or klister covered given that a bit of rain had fallen
the day before and left behind a light glaze.
So, I waxed up two pair of skis in the warm and dry parking garage that
evening just before bed and then stewed about it all night during sleepless
bouts.
Given that I was doing the point-to-point 51 km classic race
on Sat. and Rob was doing the half marathon skate race on Sunday he helped me
get my skis finally prepped and tested.
The overnight grooming was good and I felt that straight hard wax would
do just fine, hopped on the bus to the start while Rob went for a ski and
lunch. At the start there was little but
the start area, a nice warmup track and some fluids and porta-johns. It was pretty chilly, but no wind. I got in a good warmup, dumped my bag on the
truck and lined up on the start. Steve
Wright from NWVE was right behind me, Joanne Hanowski off to one side, Damian
Bolduc (NWVE) was in Wave 2, and a few other familiar faces in Wave 1 of
4. At the gun we took off and wrapped
around the field a couple times to spread things out and then narrowed to 2
tracks into the woods. I have to say
that the snow was perfect, the grooming was excellent, the weather just fine
(Toko Red covered by Toko Blue was great) and the course a delight for the
first rolling 27 km. In that stretch
there was 10 m of herringbone and everything else strideable and really nice
skiing on rolling hills on park roads with lakes, sun and white, white, clean
snow. Delightful!!!! I was dangling off the back of a good group
of about 6, realizing that I was going to have to pace myself carefully as I
didn’t have a lot of pop. At about 27 km
we turned off onto Trail 36, a narrower double tracked trail and this is where
the real work would happen for the next 8 km where we climbed several long
herringbone hills with some pretty tricky but fun decents past some more
lakes. At 30 km we came down the last
tricky downhill to P11 parking lot where Rob and Jim Fredricks were waiting to
cheer us on. Up ahead Joanne Hanowski
was having a great race, having passed me about 11 km in and Damian Bolduc had
also passed me early starting from Wave 2, also having an excellent race. I had a good group of masters skiers to chase
all through the hills but I just wasn’t closing the distance much and now was
getting really tired. After 30 km we
climbed up a tough little section with off-camber herringbone sections until we
got back up on park roads. Now it
clouded over and the wind came up and I struggled to keep it moving effectively
into the wind. Now we faced long, gradual
uphills, very strideable, but I was shuffling a lot of it. It helped at one point when I was able to
tuck into the draft of a young woman for a couple km and recover a bit, but
eventually she dusted me as we headed onto Trail 1 for the last tough climbs of
the race to the height of the course at 35 km.
Just for perspective, the Gatineau
has 3500 feet of elevation, compared to 2800 for Craftsbury, just to give you a
comparison. A lot of it is nice rolling
hills, but this middle stretch took the starch our of me and I was very happy
to turn back onto the wide park roads and start heading downhill for a change,
allowing some recovery. I started
chasing a group in front in earnest as we hit the longest downhill in the race,
about 1 km long or more. In an endless
tuck at about 23 mph my back was seizing up and I stood up in the squirrelly
tracks and decided it was better to tuck as much as possible. I was not comfortable! Now the wind was tough in places and I was
really starting to fade…..but the ks started to click by reasonably quickly…..48
km, 49 km, and finally 50 km at the end of the last long downhill where I
passed one last skier. Only a km to
go!!! Uffffff, my elation blew away with the wind, now in my face when I
realized on the flats that I had nothing left.
Ok, I can get through one lousy km and I noodled along with limp arms
waiting to turn off the road on the final trail to the school…… except that it
seemed to go on and on and on. Past the
race photographers (why don’t they take race photos somewhere besides the end
of the race! They are terrible!) and
finally we turned off at about 51 km.
Almost there…up a hill and around a corner and……a 1000 m to go sign! Wait, what???
A total fake-out and now for real the last km. No one to chase, no one passing me I settled
in and finally limped in to the finish line happy to just stand still for a few
moments. Not a bad race, but not a great
one either. However, it was a great
course with great snow and grooming, so nice to bang out 51 km in such nice
conditions on a point to point course through the beautiful Gatineau Parc.
I conked out as soon as I hit my bed for a well-deserved nap.
The next morning it was Rob’s turn to race, but things could
be a bit more relaxed because no bus ride was required. The skate race took off with snow falling
fairly heavily, which made for slower skiing than many wanted. I skied out on the course and found a good spot for photos and got well
chilled watching Rob, Robert, Dave, Jim Fredricks and some other New England
compatriots (Damian was doing a double, having signed up for the 27 km skate) ski
by a couple times before they headed out on some serious climbs up a narrow
trail that was quite difficult. I skied
around and then positioned myself to catch Rob in the last km as he skied in,
quite tired and happy that he had not signed up for the longer race. Damian looked fresh as a daisy in his second
race and Robert had the best race of the season and was very happy with his
result.
The next couple days we got in some delightful, sunny,
powder skis on some of the really nice Gatineau
trails. This really is a very nice place
to ski and we only skied a fraction of what is available, and all within a
short drive of downtown Ottawa . One afternoon we got a very nice tour of
Parliament that was just Rob and I and a very knowledgeable tour guide and so
we got to pepper her with questions. The
next afternoon after our 2 hr morning ski we took in the National Gallery and
then the official opening of the Tour of Canada World Cup. Tuesday we skied early and then headed to the
sprint venue dressed very warmly a bit too late to watch the qualifying races,
but in plenty of time to snag an excellent viewing spot for the heats! It was great fun watching the US contingent
of Sophie, Andy, Jessie, Simi, Ida and Sadie ski the heats with Simi and Jessie
thrilling us all with their historic double podium. The next day we started the drive home,
stopping off in Montreal
long enough to watch the women’s classic distance race in Mont Royale Parc on a
twisty, turny course laid out just for the Tour in fresh snow that appeared to
cause waxing problems for many. Lots of
herringbone going on, something you don’t see a lot on some of the world cup
courses. Theresa Johaug destroyed the field
as the cold wind swirled around blowing snow everywhere. It was great to see so many Americans racing
in the field and for some like Katherine Ogden, getting their first World Cup
experience right after some good performances at Jr. Worlds. Then, sadly, it was time for the rest of the long
drive home through an almost snowless, brown Vermont landscape….very strange after a week
of perfect skiing conditions.
Jamie
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