Rising Sun 2006

Sunday, February 26, 2006

All my photos - Last Year's Race Report - Race Flyer and Description

The Rocky Mounts – Izze cycling team notched its first victory of the year…thanks to the little known fact that a ski waxing iron can be used to cook eggs. Eggs? You’re probably wondering what cooking eggs has to do with bike racing, but I’m not talking about bike racing, I’m talking about Nordic ski racing. The Rocky Mounts kit was merely a costume. Now do you understand? If not, you haven’t heard about the Rising Sun Nordic Ski Race.

This race is just flat out fun. You can make it hurt as much as you want, but the race can be many things to many people. I take the race seriously and try to work hard the entire way. I shave time with a fancy, fast stove and an ultra-light sleeping bag and I bring treats for bribing the judges. You know, the standard stuff in a Nordic ski race. What? You didn’t notice this stuff going on at the Olympics? Well, that’s because the coverage sucked and if you blinked, you missed the few seconds they did show. That’s because Americans suck at Nordic skiing and why show an American getting 27^th when you can show Bode failing to finish yet another ski race. Just trust me that it’s all there… Oh, did I mention the costumes? I’ll get to it.

Ken Leiden is now the race director, but he recruited me to this race a number of years ago to knock off the perennial winner Lexi Armatrage. She has won the race so many times that they’ve lost track. This year was the race’s 22^nd running, but it would be only my third. The first time, I was the first skier to finish (a snowshoer beat me), but lacked a costume, an old ski map, bribes, etc. I finished in 7^th place due to the arbitrary and capricious nature of the judging. I knew this ahead of time and I not only have no problem with this judging, but welcome it. It adds a lot of fun to the race. Lexi won again that year.

The second year I raced, which was last year, I won the race on time in a thrilling three-way egg cook-off. I had a big lead, but missed a turn on the way down. I climbed back up the reverse course and then did my tele-turns, but fell behind Lexi and Jeff. I won on the strength of my super fast Jet Boil stove. Or rather, I finished first, but I did not win. I got second place, losing to Lexi once again because of a lack of costume and the close finish.

This year I recruited a few fit friends to try and take Lexi down. Stefan Griebel and Alan Doak showed up for this race, but Eric Coppock was a no show. The field was about average in size: eight. Yes, only eight people. This race should be bigger than this. It doesn’t cost anything to enter and everyone just brings a gift for the prizes, which are selected in order of finish. Despite my efforts to either beat or recruit someone to challenge Lexi, it was all for naught: she wasn’t there! She was out of town on vacation. Even if I won now, it would be like Lance winning the Tour in 1999 without Ullrich or Pantani there. The legitimacy of anyone’s victory would be challenged.

The fittest person in the race was probably Kreighton Beiger. He ran both the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon last year and finished in the top 20 in both (an astounding 13th in the ultra-competitive Ascent). If this was a running race, it would have been over before the start. Thankfully it is a ski race and that’s not Kreighton’s strong suit. Last year he competed on snow shoes, but this year he was on skis. Mark Sunderland was the sole snowshoe entrant.

A Le Mans start kicks off the race and we dashed for our skis. I fumbled getting my skis on and was late getting going. Ken was out first and working hard. Kreighton was next, dressed completely as Spiderman, followed by Jeff, who was the strongest skier. I finally got the skis attached and took off, probably a bit too fast. Soon I was in second place, but it took awhile to chase down Ken. I went into first place about three minutes into the race, but with Jeff right on my heels.

Brian Hunter was at Eldorado doing a skate skiing workout and I recruited him to be the pace skier. He led the way through the first ten minutes of the race, up until the steep singletrack section leading up to the Tennessee Cabin. At that point Jeff had about a 20-second lead on me and no one else was in sight behind us. I wondered where was Kreighton and Stefan. I knew Kreighton would be slower on the downhill, but expected him to be very fast on the ascent. Stefan is generally faster than me and is an excellent skier, but apparently his Hilly Billy costume, which included a full six-pack of Bud, was slowing him down.

Jeff was using wax skis and was able to move faster on the flatter sections, but now that we were climbing steeply, my fish-scale bottoms gave me better traction and I had to do considerably less herringbone steps than he did. I knew I had a stove advantage at the hut, but I figured I needed a lead to hold off a skier as fast as Jeff. I’d find out later that Jeff wasn’t really fond of steep, tight, icy descents. I passed Jeff a few minutes up the singletrack and put about 90 seconds on him by the time I got to the cabin. I took off my skis, dumped my pack and dug out my secret weapon: the Jet Boil. While my stove was boiling the 8 ounces of water, I distributed chocolate kisses and other candies to bribe the three judges. I barely had time to do this before my water was boiling. I killed the stove and rolled it in the snow to cool it before stuffing it back into my pack. I was at the cabin for only 3.5 minutes.

The start of the descent from the cabin was barren of snow and I had to run down it, carrying my skis. When I got back onto the snow I was a bit disturbed to find no tracks at all and no course markings. I had done the course before and I should have been able to find it, but at a junction, I went left – the wrong way. I was on a trail and it was marked with pink ribbons. Unfortunately the race course wasn’t marked with pink ribbons. After a couple of minutes, I knew I had gone wrong, but hoped the trail would hook up with the right one. I knew the correct trail was north of me and eventually I just went cross-country through the woods. The entire time I was breaking trail and it was deep. This slowed me down and I knew that if the others went the right way, I could lose the lead. I did think that my tracks would probably lead at least a couple down the wrong path as well.

I eventually hit the correct path and worked hard on it. Not knowing if I was still in first or not, I studied the track to see if the pole plants were recent. It was inconclusive. I made the tricky hairpin turn and then lost the trail again, plunging into deep woods once more. This time I was less sure of where the correct was – either to my left or right. I just kept going until I hit the correct trail and descended that a great speed. I ran into Brian Hunter, coming up the reverse course and knew I was close to the Snow Pit section. I made the right turn (well marked) and then another right and soon was on the wide track again and climbing up to the Snow Pit area, with Brian beside me.

While I dug my snow pit, Brian distributed more of my candies to the Snow Pit Judge. Despite these bribes he was a hard ass about me getting my head completely below the snow level. I’d learn later that I need to be bring better bribes. With the pit done, I stuffed my sleeping bag back into my pack and headed down the final section of the course. When I hit the downhill ski run, I threw in my twenty telemark turns and cruised into the finish area in the lead. I dumped my pack and dug out my stove, my eggs, my pan, my cheese and turkey for a deluxe omelet. Was victory finally going to be mine?

Just a minute into the cooking of my eggs, my stove ran out of fuel. I knew I was low on fuel and meant to bring a second canister, but forgot! It is legal to borrow another racer’s stove, but there were no other racers at the finish and anyone arriving would say, “Sure, you can borrow my stove…as soon as I’m done with it!” The best I could do now was second…or was it. Was there another way to cook the eggs? I searched the area and found the ski tuning shack, complete with waxing iron. I wondered how hot that iron would get. I put it on high, turned it over and placed my pan of eggs on top of it. At first only the smoke and smell of wax emanated and there was no discernable cooking, but then, slowly, but surely, the eggs started to cook. I scanned the slopes for any other competitors with their faster stoves, but none appeared.

The eggs got completely cooked and the finish judge, Big Foot, gave me the okay to eat them. I doused them with a bit of water to cool them off and ate them in a very relaxed manner, as no competitor was still in sight. I finished after one hour and 23 minutes and we waited for second place. And we waited. And waited some more. Finally, Ken led Jeff down into the finish. They had followed my erroneous tracks. Just after then Mark arrived from the wrong direction, having missed a key turn after the snow pit test. All three were cooking their eggs simultaneously, but Ken finished first, 27 minutes after I finished. Mark nearly burned down the wood deck when fuel leaked through the picnic table and lit it on fire. I doused with some snow, but not after it got the ladies a bit nervous.

Figure 1: My heartrate and altitude profile

Figure 2: My split times

After another sizeable gap the Trashman (aka George Bell) came a telemarking into the finish with Spiderman (Kreighton) just behind him. Kreighton had done the entire climb to the cabin with his Spiderman mask on – a very hot prospect. As he skied down the alpine slope at the finish all the kids in ski school adjacent to him yelled, “Hi, Spiderman!” The first thing Spiderman did at the finish, before getting out his stove even, was to lay out a selection of treats to bribe the judges. And what a selection it was. He had two small bottles of wine and a selection of mini-bottles of hard liquor, along with gourmet chocolates and a huge bag of Rice Krispy Treats. I pretended to be a judge and allocated a couple of the latter treats for myself.

We waited so long for the last two to arrive that I was seriously considering a rescue operation. It seems every single participant got at least a little bit lost, with Stefan and Alan getting the most lost. Stefan had everyone in stiches at the Tenessee Cabin, showing off pictures of his family from down south. This is a family with serious dental issues. At the cabin, he pulled out a Bud, popped the top and downed it. Then he cut the top off with a big Bowie knife, poured in his required 8 ounces of water, and pulled out his "stove." His stove was a blow torch and he blasted the beer can until the water boiled.

Alan did the race with a big sombero and Mardi Gras beads. He distributed his beads to the female judges at the cabin, but I don't know if they flashed their breasts for him. Don't you have to do that to get the beads? I'm a bit unclear on the Fat Tuesday traditions. At the snow pit, Alan had to dig a particularly large pit to accommodate his rather large hat, but he wouldn't remove it.

At the finish line, Alan has his eggs done before Stefan, since he was having trouble with his blow torch. Here he went through the same routine of downing a Bud first and then cutting off the top. Into this beer can he cracked his two eggs and proceeded to cook them in the can. With is funny teeth, his chained wallet of hilarious photos and mostly his portrayal of a Hill Billy, always staying in character, he was the star of the race. A big crowd had developed and he had everyone rolling with laughter. For me, it was the highlight of the race. Stefan exemplified this race. He's very fit and I'm sure he worked hard at times, but never too hard that he fell out of character. He got lost, but did he get pissed with the course marshals? Of course not. He was so late at the snow pit that the judge had left, but Stefan caught up with him on the way down and was able to dig his pit in a different location. He wasn't about to be cheated out of any of the race tasks. He made me feel silly for going so hard and trying to win. I was like someone taking it out hard, start to finish, in the Basic Boulder Mountain Marathon. It just isn't done.

The final finishing order was as follows:

Bill Wright
Ken Leiden
Mark Sunderland
Jeff ?
George Bell
Kreighton Beiger
Alan Doak
Stefan Griebel

Surprisingly and a bit disappointingly, I think this matched exactly with the finishing times. I thought Stefan should have placed at least third and maybe second for amount of hilarity he provided and creativity displayed. (Note: Ken would later agree with this assessment and wish he had placed Stefan second.) Yes, second or third would have been correct. Certainly not first… Kreighton also should have placed higher based on his great costume and bribes. The judges seem to take this race much more seriously than most of the competitors and nearly as serious as I did. No one was disappointed, though, and all the awards were great. I chose a great book called “Wild Snow” about classic ski descents in North America.

The costume results (not really a separate category, but factored into the judging) were:

Stefan (1st place costume for the entire package of BillyBob wardrobe, blow torch, budweiser cans for stove, wallet pics of family, hydration system)
Kreighton (2nd place - Spiderman)
Alan (3rd place - Mardi Gras man)

I really enjoy this race, certainly for the workout and challenge, somewhat for the off beat nature, but mostly because of the competitors. What a fun group. I’m already planning for next year. Okay, that isn’t true. I never plan. That’s why my costumes have either been non-existent or marginal (like this year). Next year I need better bribes, a better costume, more fuel for my stove, and…? Now what am I forgetting? Oh, yeah! Learn the dang course!

Here's the Hill Billy Hydration System (Camelbacks are for city folk!):