The day after the day after

Let's see. Stiff right hand. Tender right arch. Right knee, well, the muscle right above the knee. Walking a little funny. Tight shoulders still, and triceps sore right above the elbow.

More training will take care of these issues.

Other things to take care of. Get a water bottle parka at MEC, made by ORS. Experiment with different hats. Find food that is yummy when cold (anyway) like beef jerky or something my doctor would kill me for.

Sorry, frozen bananas don't count.

And thank you a thousand times to Robert Saunders, permanent bib#113, for inspiring me to do this. Thanks to my bud Gord who emailed with me from the start and gave me tons of tips and encouragement. His bid for Gold this year ended with equipment failure.

And finally my new bud Ted (@TedKalMtl9) who breezed through Saturday and parts of Sunday. His constant advice and encouragement got me to the start line, which some say is the toughest job!

CSM - Take 1. No Bronze Coureur de Bois for me this year

So I awoke at 3am Saturday morning, the 10th. Breakfast at 3:30 with my buddy Ted, and onto the bus by 4:30. The bus took us to Buckinhgham Golf course, about 40 minutes away.

Doesn't everybody want to be in a schoolbus at 4:45 am on a saturday?

We stood around and waited while the Gold CdB and Silvers went off. At 5:55 we lined up and then waited the longest 5 minutes of my life! Finally, a stream of skiers with headlamps, silently sliding along. It was great to be moving and I felt fine....well, I felt horrible but I knew it would be fine once I had an hour or two behind me.

The Gold CdB pack leaving at 5:40 am.

The kilometre markers fell like dominos as I huffed and puffed my way along. Every 13 or so kilometres I would hit a checkpoint, and following the advice I had been given, wasted no time in refreshing my water bottles and moving on. When I crossed km 40, I was very happy, half way there! It was 11:30. So that meant 5 1/2 hours to go 40 kms. That meant 7 1/4 kms per hour, short of the 8 I needed to finish. But I figured as long as I made the cutoff by 3:15, 65kms, I'd be okay.

Somewhere around km 44...note the dilated pupils, a sign of major distress!

There was  hot soup and bluegrass musicians at checkopint 7. I think that was km 46. I left  at 12:15, after about a ten minute stop. I quite enjoyed the first 46 kms, the short 13-16km lengths were manageable. I figured I had three hours to make the 21 kms to the cutoff Check Point, right? Well after the "5km until the next CP" sign, it just kept going ON and ON and ON. There was a really rough downhill where people were taking their skis off very close to the cutoff, well I took mine off there too. But there was one about 8kms out, I went down that one...the trail was a disaster by the time I got there. I went down, took a fall (my only one) in the powder snow, got up and went on.

Live music and hot soup...why continue!??

Anyway I FINALLY got to CP 5 at 3:35....much slower than I anticipated, but conditions were bad, and I was, well...slow!

Somewhere around km54

So I got in the "Bus of Shame", felt like a Bachelor getting sent home, and went back to my room....dinner and a massage and 1 bath and three hot showers later I started feeling human again. And instead of washing all my clothes and re-waxing etc I watched the hockey and tweeted my brains out. Perfect! I tweeted so much Lixar gave me a technical tee and a technical bike/ski jacket....SWAG! Thank you Lixar/Canadian Ski Marathon!

A cool Technical Tee offered by my twitter friends From the Marathon

My feet were so darn sore and my right knee felt weird, so this morning instead of heading back out to "cherry pick" bits of trail, I got in the car and went home. -19 and wind....well if I climbed one more hill today it would have been too many! So my wife was able to go riding and I just hung out with my daughters. Well, they watched TV and I don't remember what I did.

Wife said I have big colorful bags under my eyes, which I never have! Feet are stiffening up too!

So in sum, yesterday was just another excellent training day. The sensory overload of going field to field, forest to forest, and negotiating the shitty roadside track is exhausting but gratifying. The CSM's accomplishment of stitching together so many pieces to make a point-to-point trail that long is sheer genius. Skiing in the dark is beautiful and exhilarating! (Rookie error, my batteries were running out...doh!).

The clothes all worked perfectly, the skis were fine. I hotboxed blue swix into my base and then added six layers more of blue in the hotel room. I added blue/violet later and then violet when I was ready to kill someone from all the slippage. I still haven't figured out how to keep drinking water from freezing, and I really DON'T enjoy eating freezing cold trail mix out of a little cup at the checkpoints (imagine eating small rocks). I DO like warmed up watered down honey water and Gatorade. I did take some photos with my iPhone that I'm glad I took. The Army are amazing and I'm glad I peed where and when I did.

I need better technique, this is clear. I need a lot more skating practice in my classic setup, there were so many places I could have added speed by skating. And frankly, watching people go by me with 20 year old skis and boots and fluorescent fanny packs....well, yeah, I need more technique! But when I signed up for the Marathon December 21st was the time that marked my return to classic skiing. I've been passing the time on my touring skis, but with no particular goal. Having completed 67 kms is short of what I wanted, but certainly a decent accomplishment given the time I had on the right gear.

So next year???? Yes for me!