XC Skiing race 4:50:00 [4] 45.0 km (9.3 kph)
Rock and Ice Day 3. Cloudy with a nice gentle tailwind today.
Determined not to overheat, I stopped after 10 minutes to de-layer, and skied in my thin liner gloves only once my hands got hot. (I'd put the big mitts on immediately after stops) The hotshots were moving well today, and got about 10 minutes on me by the 20km mark. Snow was hard so I kept up a good stride with occasional skate, but the big boys were skating lots, even with pulks. I could use their tracks until a snowmachine drove over them for 10km. Very nice ski conditions, perfect weather, and didn't see a soul except for the CP staff and safety snowmobiles. Once on the ice road to YK, I tried to skate and flew along for about 20 strokes until my ankle couldn't take it. I met traffic outbound, including my Bro, a couple of km from the finish. I could see the lead skiers had skated the whole way in.
I finished in my usual 6th place overall, but last in my category- I'd picked a hard year for 3-day ski apparently, but did my own thing and had a great time of it. I had time to dash back to Bro's place for dry clothes and a vat of Thai soup for me, and a thermos of it for Bash at the line. I'll let Bash tell her story, but it was great to see her finish.
We saw the 6-day racers in too, who luckily got to go to town for a shower, pizza, and refill their pulks with fresh food and dry clothes.
This is a tough race due to potential weather issues, but the safety and logistics are fantastic, and camp comfort is great. It's an amazingly well run event!
Note- turns out I got some light frostbite on my face the first day under my neoprene mask- go figure! I guess the beard had better stay on, as shaving woudl be brutal.