2015: Great Bear Chase

The past year since the last edition of this home area event, except for the month of December 2014, has seen me ski at least a few kilometers every month we have had moderate to really good or excellent trail conditions. While signing up for this year’s edition didn’t cost me any brain cell at all, I had neither really put in enough quality base miles simulating the Great Bear Chase course conditions nor had I skied longer than 8k in the weeks/months leading up to retain my initial registration for 25k classic. The decision to drop down to 10k classic still didn’t cost any brain cell nor extra work either — thanks to the handy/magic work of dear friends, Cynthia and Angela.

Given that I only do two ski races per calendar year and given that I had chickened/wimped/pansied out from one of them — Book Across The Bay — that is more of a party than a race already, chickening/wimping/pansying out again would have given my dear friends a lot more fodder and material for one of their upcoming books, A Beginner’s Guide To Guilting and Heckling G. However, participating in the Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon and racking up close to 40 miles in a week’s stay in sunny California about five weeks ago did leave me a bit of sharp pain in the lower left calf which, along with not so warm weather in February, significantly limited my attempts at outdoor activities.

All kidding aside, it’s not every day that a home area event comes along with as many benefits as this one does: long running and well established, managed and reputed event, a chance to sleep in my own bed (or couch) and/or avoid hassles of driving to a distant town, being with dear friends and community members before/during/after the event, and observe seasoned skiers and their techniques and learn from it. Missing it, except for extremely unavoidable reasons, would leave me with a lot of regret and headache.

Goal vs Reality Goal: 6.22 mi in 2:13:26 (21:27 min/mi) Reality: 6.32 mi in 1:22:25.0 (13:02 min/mi)
Distance mi	Lap Time m:ss	Lap Elevation feet	Total Time h:mm:ss	Total Elevation feet	Avg Pace min/mile	Projected Finish Time h:mm:ss	Differential Goal Time h:mm:ss
1.00	12:51	31↑ 38↓	0:12:51	31↑ 38↓	12:51	1:19:55	0:53:31
2.00	13:32	21↑ 15↓	0:26:23	52↑ 53↓	13:11	1:22:00	0:51:26
3.00	12:23	21↑ 20↓	0:38:46	73↑ 73↓	12:55	1:20:20	0:53:06
4.00	12:50	37↑ 46↓	0:51:36	110↑ 119↓	12:54	1:20:14	0:53:12
5.00	13:54	0↑ 11↓	1:05:30	110↑ 130↓	13:06	1:21:28	0:51:58
6.00	13:34	80↑ 41↓	1:19:04	190↑ 171↓	13:10	1:21:54	0:51:32
6.32	3:21	0↑ 0↓	1:22:25	190↑ 171↓	13:02	1:21:04	0:52:22
The final cumulative time, 1:22:25, may not match the official time (1:22:25.0) owing to rounding errors. Starting my watch a few seconds before the start and stopping it a few seconds after crossing the finish line can be an additional reason for this discrepancy. The overall distance, 6.32 mi, may not match the designated (or certified) event distance (6.22 mi) owing to idiosyncrasies associated with GPS data collection OR my inability to take the tangents OR the aforementioned early start/late stop reasons, and in some rare cases, incorrectly measured (or advertised) courses or DNFs. As a result, the cumulative pace and the projected finish time might not match the official values as well.

A pair of quick trips to the Michigan Tech Nordic Ski Club and Down Wind Sports — former unsuccessful, and the latter easy and successful thanks to dear friends Heidi and Emily — to rent out a pair of skis for Amanda were followed by a short trip up north to Calumet to pick up the race packet. And a successful packet pick up was very soon followed by a hearty pre-race carb loading feast at the Christine-Stephen Handler residence with many a dear friends and Christine’s parents. A sneak peak into a rabbit hole called waxing technique was the last thing before calling it an early night.

The race day morning came, as it has done for last many now, at an easier pace but did so with a rather unexpected (at least to me) snowfall. Start/Finish area, being more open and unprotected, seemed windy, blistery, and cold. Having seen and chatted with many a friendly faces, it was nice to very many of them go off on their merry ways in their respective events. Unlike last year’s comedy, I didn’t miss the start of my event. The trail/snow conditions fit my current skill set very well — slow enough to keep me mostly upright on slopes, and good enough to help me make up any time/distance I had lost to passers by in hill climbs. The pace throughout the course was fairly consistent — well below 14 min/mile (apologies to my dear friend for having lied about it past mile two) and would have been much better had I not fallen down as many times as I did by spending the aforementioned quality time training in simulated course conditions OR had I made time to strength train a few more times over the last several weeks.

With about 200 meters to the finish line, Brockit‘s ever popular Orange Helmet showed up on my head without which, I am quite sure, my finish wouldn’t have looked nearly as good. If not for dear friend Sam‘s kind offer to store it in his warm jeep, my winter jacket would have felt like a sheet of ice. And if not for Amanda’s suggestion to stop by the Calumet High School for a pasty nourishment, I would have missed checking out the official results and in turn, missed out on collecting the materialistic memorabilia symbolizing my first ever podium finish in a ski race that came a few years ahead of its time. The post-race activities included the said hearty pasty meal, chats and discussions with dear friends that stayed back for longer than planned to see me get the aforementioned materialistic memorabilia, hanging out with Hannah and Matt Abbotts’ baby daughter for a few minutes and an uneventful ride back to Houghton on what most certifiably was the best skiing day of my life so far.

Thanks be to

the rejections and opportunities life has brought my way, event folks (organizers, sponsors, volunteers, timers, law enforcement officials, photographers, fellow participants and spectators) and my family of good friends, mentors and coaches in and outside of my community for all the unexpected, undeserved and unrewarded acts of kindness and constant encouragement as well as offerings of constructive criticism to improve myself as a human and an athlete. I am eternally grateful to all those who let me train with them, who shared their meals and experiences with me, who helped keep me in good health, who helped me stay the course, and who cheered me on from home or along the course.