This week I have skied 60k (37.3 miles) but have only cycled 18 miles. Is this the bizaro world or what? I have not been outside all day. I plan to go outside since the sun is trying to poke it's way through my blinds asking me to play. My ankle is sore and I fear the there is some kind of tendon pull or hairline crack. The staff infection seems to be under control. The reason for not going outside to play is my soreness after yesterdays …. what should I call it? Adventure, no! Ordeal! Yes! That is a good term to explain it. !Wanna see pictures ?
PDA Blog : 1/27/07 8.02 am
I feel sick! I am in Alden's car as I blog to take my mind off of puking all over. We are at that stretch of road between Bonner and Potomac. Real twisty! !See our trip !
We are headed to the OSCAR ski race in Seeley Lake. I think O means Ovando and the S is Seeley Lake. I don't know what C or A means but R is race. The history is that there was this race from Ovando to Seeley Lake. Now it is a annual 50k race.
PDA Blog : 1/27/07 3.54 PM
The race is over and I came in around 2:15, which means that it took me around 5 hours and 15 minutes to do approximately 60k. I know you may be wondering why it was 60 instead of the advertised 50. Well let me tell you!
Flash To Today
The scenery of the race course was some of the most beautiful that I have experienced during a race. The Swan Range towering and beyond that the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The scenery was so stunning I escaped into it to endure the pain in my ankle.
My ankle has been injured for about a month and I spent all of last week getting it ready for the race. Starting off it felt good although I noticed that my left ski was un reliable. Like I had no control like my right side.
The morning was cold and soon I realized that the course was hard and so frozen that only a good strong style and good set of skate ski boots would make the ski controllable. I had neither. Soon I hooked my ski in a snowmobile rut and when I put my weight on my sore side the ski went to the root and redirected my ski in a way that threw my balance off to the left. I balanced on one ski trying to ovoid a fall. I was able to overcome but my ankle bristled with pain. I started to become disgusted.
Suddenly the parking lot where we started the race was coming into view. Some front runners started to turn around. This was a sure sign that we had gone the wrong way. We turned around to find where we had left the course. In all we had gone a mile off course and the mile back was all uphill. When we reached the intersection (Unmarked) I started to pass all the racers that I had passed before.
The scenery was gorgeous and I felt like I was going the wrong way. Why did I think this? I was gawking at the mountains so much I was not paying attention. I stopped to loosen my skate boot. The others caught up and surely enough we were still on the course. I soon realized that a loose but hurt worse than a tight one and re tightened. My ankle was hurting so bad my leg was going numb. I cringe now thinking of it.
Then I reached the climb. I started to climb and noticed that I could catch my friend Alden and some others if I stayed strong. I got into a climbing mind set.
And hour passed and I was still climbing. I remembered reading about a seven mile climb. I was on it and I will tell you that I never have skate skied a climb that long. The views of the Swan range was just spiritual. I wished I was up on them skinning up.
On the other side of the pass that I was climbing was the Mission Mountain Range. When I saw them and reached the summit of the climb I was excited and relieved. My ankle hurt but it was all downhill from here. Right! I took and Advil from a first aid person and skied down the other side and back towards the finish line.
The decent was not as long as I thought and I realized that I was frozen solid. The sweat of the climb had frozen my clothes and I felt like a knight in armor. I felt the Advil start working. My stomach felt funny and my ankle became looser in my boot suggesting that the swelling had gone down. That or the stuff was actually numbing it. One major drawback of Advil while racing is that your upper body cramps up. I couldn't use my poles. I was starting to panic. I was so far out.
The rest was a matter of pure survival. Making little goal just to survive to the end. After what seemed a week of skiing, suffering, and survival I reached another aid station (a man with a snowmobile full of drink and gue packets). The man said that I was within 5 miles of the finish and it was all downhill.
I decided to double poll the rest of the way. I just couldn't skate any more because my ankle hurt so bad I could not control the ski or put all of my body weight on it. As I got closer I became more excited. When was back on the ski trails near the finish line I started skiing strong again. I ignored my ankle and just went for it.
I was looking forward to a finish line. I reached a sign that said"<- 50K". The arrow was pointing left. I asked a bystander if the sign was correct. She said it was. As I started to head up the trail away from the direction from the finish line I muttered, "Is this some kind of sick joke"? I skied and skied. I was heading towards the Bob Marshall and the finish line area was the other direction towards Seeley lake. I skied and skied! I kept hoping for the trail to turn and go back. I climbed and climbed. I started to get passed. I was totally out of gas.
After another 30 minutes I joined the others coming back towards me. They said that the trail could not possibly be the race course. If we turned around though we had to climb another 600 vertical feet to get back out of the valley we just skied into. After some discussion (when has this happened before?), we headed back. I could not continue. I stopped to remove my skis. There was someone behind me suffering too so I decided to keep them on and just wait for him to pass me. I climbed and climbed.
This was an extra 3 miles at least and soon I was up and over the hill. I struggled to get up enough energy to continue my skate back the finish line. I went the wrong way one more time before taking my final finish place behind someone that I had skied with since getting lost the second time.
So I guess you can call it an ordeal. My friend Alden had come in an hour and a half in front of me.
Boneshakerbike 
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