Well the Canadian Ski Marathon was great! I missed the giant fireplace at the Chateau Montebello, and the 4:30 am school bus ride, and the beautiful scenery of the countryside rolling by me mile by mile. I missed the fiddle band playing next to the waxing station and the free chocolate milk being handed out by the milk producer.
I also missed having to ski 80 kilometres on back to back days, which was kind of nice!
I showed up at the Sucrerie de la Montagne in Rigaud at 6:40am Saturday, February 6th, and began skiing the Escapade loop clockwise. I had brought hot honey water in a thermos, BBQ chips, Chips Ahoy cookies, granola bars, an apple and a Caramilk bar. And plenty of water.
I had waxed blue, as it was about -9, warming to -6C with overcast skies. I hoped the ski trails would have been freshly cut, but they weren't. It had snowed Thursday, and there was enough heavy loose snow that Rigaud didn't think they'd be able to set new tracks. Unfortunate, but there you go. I needed some kind of challenge!
The day was uneventful except for slipping on the ATV/Snowmobile track and landing on the arm I broke in 2015, one of the reasons I had hesitated to ski....I felt a small but sharp pain...hoped it wasn't anything serious, and continued skiing (it wasn't serious or painful later on!). I also fell much later on going downhill, some loose snow messed me up, but that fall was nothing also. Once I had completed 3 loops, I heard a voice in the parking lot. My friend Bryan, himself an accomplished ultra athlete had showed with his skis to accompany me on my last 8 kilometres! I was in no mood for being social but Bryan gets that, and a few silly remarks later I was grateful for his company, and off we went.
The Finish Line of day one, was Bryan way ahead of me, stopping to let me finish with him and telling me he was proud of me, which was kind of cool! At the "real" CSM, there is an announcer who calls your name. I missed that this year!
My time wasn't outstanding, but it was a finish, good enough for 2020! 7 hours, 10 minutes. Remember I have trained all of 35 kms for this event, and not been on skis since 2015 for a total 28kms.
It's funny, at the CSM your whole focus is recovery, wax, and the next day. This year, I got home, went to the barn with my daughter, made dinner, waxed my skis and turned in at a decent hour!
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| Sucrerie Parking at 5:58am, Sunday morning. |
Sunday morning I was able to start earlier, this time at 6am. I was tired, stiff, and the trail was dark, and cold, -14C. I plodded around the loop, this time counterclockwise (the big hill had destroyed me the day before...three times!).
Pretty soon I ran into my friend Olaf Knutson, doing his second day of Gold Bar #1, with his pack on. He was going the other way, and I was dedicated to my direction, so we moved on alone, instead of skiing together. Olaf had skied his first day at Whitlock Golf in Hudson, starting with 15kms with his 10-year old son! He slept out in his backyard. Tough!
As I completed my first loop, my running friend Donalda showed up, followed by Bryan. She had brought her famous homemade cookies, and a McDonald's Apple Turnover...what a treat!
She was dressed to run, so off we went, the three of us. Almost as soon as we left the parking we came across another Gold Camper, none other than CSM President, Sylvain Parent! So cool, we chatted with him for a bit and kept going.
Then we crossed Olaf again. I was starting to get a little frustrated, all this socializing...I needed to ski! At the beginning of my third loop, Bryan and Donalda left me and my friend Andrew showed up. He and I had done the CSM touring together in 2014 (2x50kms) and play jazz together as well (he's an amazing tenor sax player!). So off we went, chatting and skiing.
It seems the new trend in these shared use areas is to set ONE pair of ski tracks and leave the other side groomed for walking, snowshoes and fat biking. That's okay with me, except it's hard to chat. Used to be we'd have parallel tracks and we could chat while we skied.
Oh well. The 14kms went quickly enough, although I was getting slow and the ski tracks were getting really bad after a weekend of very heavy use.
Andrew left me after his loop, and I hit the trail for my last 8kms, which went quickly enough...turned my watch off at 50.1kms, good enough for bronze...this year!
Funny, I have run so many kilometres since 2015, ultras, half marathons, thousands of kms in training, so the cumulative effect on my body of 100kms of Nordic skiing was very minor. Slightly sore elbow extensors (the left one creaks!), and two "almost" blisters on my big toes. That's it. I slept great, ate like a horse, and of course enjoyed the warming up process!
Someone started a Facebook group for the Virtual Canadian Ski Marathon and it has been like a fireside chat as skier after skier posts their photos and stories from the day. People from Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and Vermont so far! Better than nothing, I'd say, the CSM is successful in large part because of that sense of community.
Will I attempt the Silver next year? If the snow is as good as it was this year, sure!
