Wholistic Fitness

Location:   Grand Mesa, Colorado.

Elevation: 10,000′

Race Start Temp:  22-degree Fahrenheit

Distance:  10k

Style:  Classic

How It Ended:
Just so happened?  Team Ilg placed both the youngest and the oldest in the Top Ten of 40 racers!

What Happened:
Okay, ya’ll can see it on the Vlog c(om)ing this Monday…major choice about the wax…typically? Grand Mesa is so high the snow is quite cold and dry.  Yet, this crazy storm that dumped 22″ of snow in 48 hours and was continuing to nuke was a Pacific Ocean storm;  wet, warm, brining plenty of humidity.

For waxing?  That makes for a crazy mix of factors.

Kick Wax:  two layers of ironed in Swix Green. next layer were another two light layers of Swix Blue; 1st layer entire kick zone, 2nd was toe kick zone only. Dewa tested the wax and reported not enough kick.  We defaulted to our Saving Grace: Swix Blue Extra and?  BYAAAM!

Glide Wax:  Waxed Dewa’s skis with my final *LF (low flourocarbon) Green.  I waxed mine with Swix’s non Flouro replacement Green Wax.

Start (with an obvious wane into an old predictably curmudgeonly philosophical soap box monolouge):
Super cold, into a headwind and my start sucked eggs.  So did Dewa’s.  I lined up on First Line (got the photo bomb!). D for some reason lined up 3rd row.  Gun goes off.  Both D and Daddy get swarmed.  Approaching the first separator hillclimb (15m@15%) we were both 20″ off the lead.

INSERT DADDY’S CURMUDGEONLY SOAP BOX HERE: SKIP TO NEXT PARAGRAPH TO AVOID:
Dewa has inherited Her daddy’s Classic genes (which is far more sacred than the other option) yet sadly nearly 90% of all nordic ski races these Kali Yuga daze are stupid Skate style.  Boring. So much so?  Even ilg’s hometown Nordic Center – once the renown developer of several Nordic Olympic and WC champions all grown by the Classic tradition, now list 4 Series Events and only mention distance without even having a Classic race or say if it’s Freestyle (Classic or Skate), Skate, or Classic.  They just assumed that ALL races will be Skate!?!??!   Wait, what!?!??!   Anyway, that’s why feeble ilg, literally the Poster Child of the SW Cup no longer contends the Series I once won and for which am the poster model!   Instead?  Ilg has been embracing the Grand Mesa Nordic Series which I won in the 50-59 AG last year because they have 2 Classic races in their Series.  I mean really…how do you crown a Nordic Champion across a Season if they were not tested in the very discipline (Classic) from which Skate was born!?!?!  Is ilg wrong!?!?

The Race:
At the first uphill ilg senses Dewa passing me on my right…breathing heavily, all ilg can offer is a fractured “Good job, babe, GO!”

Between you and ilg?  Been dreaming of this m(om)ent since ilg first held Dewa in my arms, watching Her countless lifetimes flicker across Her precious newly born eyelids and She began to haul Herself from the Bardo into this new lifetime under MY WATCH!!??!?!   OMG!

Suddenly sure enough, there She was, my daughter, dancing atop the soft snows, engaged like a Snow Tiger on the next racer in front of Her…the soft tracks where the death knoll of ilg…my $ in Classic is double poling;  comes “easy” to me…a throwback to perhaps Germanic stabbing of swords into enemy’s… just stab the snow, crunch your abs, and keep doing it until the Finish Line appears…Dewa of lighter bodyweight and the inheritor of ilg’s Double Poling capacity was and would remain 30″ in front of ilg the whole race.

Daddy had a great battle with two other men – both younger – yet, got them in the final k of the Double Pole section and held on to get 9th OA while finishing behind Dewa by 45″s… ironically the same time She finished BEHIND me last year at same race!

It’s a heaving heaven type of thing to Toe These Starts Lines of what is arguably this precious Plane(t)s most difficult endurance sport and ski race with your daughter and finally see Her pass you and best you.  For?  Ilg has trained Her since She could basically walk to ski.

Helluva Heaven Sent Race… watch it on the Vlog and?

Please send whatever $ you can via PayPal or Venmo to Steve@WholisticFitness.com

I need your help to keep this Girl in a very white, privileged sport which ilg cannot afford without you.

See my other Blog post this week which details what we need money wise; basically $8k for this season…

Blessed Be Thy Sacred Sweat,

head bowed,

spirit vowed,

coach ilg 

* Flourocarbon waxes are being phased out at the World Cup Level and will no longer be made due to their toxic effects on both humans and the environment.