1st ever xc ski marathon: 2hrs 24min 35sec, 34th overall

 This past weekend was the badger state games ski race in Wausau WI. The snow this year has been overall excellent, and this weekend was no different in the north woods. This was my first foray into long-distance ski racing, but a fairly successful one none the less. My goal for the race was to get in some good training as well as upgrade my wave placement for the American Birkebeiner http://www.birkie.com/ . Being a rookie at this distance (on skis anyways), I had to of course make a couple of rookie mistakes 1) going out too hard, 2) not enough nutrition. My average heart rate for the first half of the race was 172, second half was 143. Ouch!! Let’s just say you can’t hold it at redline for a 26 mile race, even though I know this, still tried to make some physiological miracles. This, with a combination of lack of nutrition- a meltdown occured at mile 14, at which point I fell off what I think at the time was a second grupetto #5-12 or so. I didn’t take in any nutrition the first half of the race, and in skiing when you can be burning over 1000kcal per hour, this is a necessity. I still managed to regroup by pounding some gatorade and powergel. I will find out this week if I get an upgraded wave placement for the birkie.