Snow Mountain Stampede 42 Km

Melissa-it was good to hear about your Tour of Anchorage race, and know the alum are out there representing.

I'm on a recovery week now and I don't like it. It is my third rest day since the 42 km Snow Mountain Stampede skate race, and I'm already feeling the withdrawl from my excercise addiction. It was totally worth it though. The race was awesome- gorgeous day, lots of people, and a wonderful course. Like Melissa, previous to last weekend I'd never raced over 15 km.

We-Gina, Aubree, Grigory and I were all laughing about getting in a good warm up before the big race, and I didn't ski at all before the mass start. I'd been planning on using the first 5 or 10 km as a warm up. But in the mass start excitement, I started out faster that I had planned, zone 3 probably, but Aubree and I were still in the back of the pack. I was really surprised that everyone was going so fast. I was thinking I should have warmed up a little but was too scared of cramping up to try and keep up. Most racers did eventually slow down, and I started picking people off starting at around 10km and ended up in the middle of the pack. The last guy I passed near the end of the race said, "Wyoming... where did you come from, I haven't seen you all day!"

I thought that I would be skiing in zone one the whole race, but I couldn't make myself go anywhere near that slow. I was a little worried the whole first lap that I was going to bonk on the second lap, but I just kept feeling really good untill about the last km when my legs started to feel pretty tired. I think I owe a lot of that to GU and gatorade. Rachel was right, it didn't take me 4 hours like I expected, only 2:45, a little slower than my Cowboy Chase 15km speed. It was so much fun, and not at all painfall like I was expecting, except for the raspberry I got on my shoulder from a falling clump of icy snow. I think I've found my new favorite distance for a race, and I think I am going to be up for that Steamboat 90 km in a couple weeks!

I Can't wait to hear about the Sprints at Nationals today!