Nordic Nuts-24 Hours of Telemark 2006

1/12/05
Just a quick note that there is a most excellent blog entry by Renee Callaway with some sweet pictures here. I almost forgot. Here's a podium shot of our team supplied by Sara Balbin.

1/9/05
Saturday Photoset from Catie Cogger
More pictures and results links are below. More pictures to follow later in the week.
It is officially story time.
Saturday morning Doug and Dennis showed up, and we decided on an order of myself leading off, Dennis, Tyler and Doug anchoring. After the pre-race meeting I went back up to the room to finish getting suited up and grab my skis. We headed down to the start line and I got in a nice warm up. And by nice warm up, I mean I skied around easy for about 20 minutes, not the traditional, "get the heart rate way up there" warm up. My cold RS-11s were running pretty nicely with Solda F-31 purple. At the start, I lined up a couple of rows back and got ready to rock. Our game plan was to start off skiing single laps the first couple times around and then move into two laps each. After a nice version of the national anthem, we were off. I didn't do any real hammering, but I passed a few people and kept things moving along nicely for a 15:20ish lap and tagged off to Dennis. I grabbed my warmups and some accelerade and hung out, and snapped some photos. Dennis skied a solid lap, handed off to Tyler, who skied solid and handed off to Doug, and the next thing I knew, I was up again. I went out a good bit more conservatively, and did a 17 minute lap. We did another round of single laps, and then I headed out for two in a row. The first lap felt pretty good, but the second lap felt great. I really got into a groove and was starting to feel relaxed, riding the glide nice and long on every stroke. My second lap was faster than the first by about 30 seconds, even though I felt like I was doing less work. That was the feeling I knew I would need if I was going to ski solidly through the night. My two laps over way to soon, I tagged off to Dennis, who headed out for a couple laps, and I headed back to the hotel room for a change of clothes and some food. I also grabbed the other pair of RS-11s, which had some Fast Wax Salmon with Solda fluoro on top, figuring that they would run nicely in the slightly warmer snow. We were sitting in first place by about 8 minutes, but it was still early. I threw down some pb and j sandwiches and and a banana, got some fresh clothing and headed back out for a couple more laps. I pushed those laps a bit more than maybe I should have, but felt super relaxed and turned in a couple nice laps. I headed back to the room for some more calories and start getting some stuff ready for a web update on my turtle of a laptop. Catie Cogger had turned up to check out the scene and snapped some shots which will make their way here eventually. On this break, I tried a cup of cheesy ramen, and I all I have to say is, not my favorite. I had a pb&j again too. In an event like this, I force myself to eat more than I want, because it comes back later, and getting behind on calories is a really tough place to dig out of. We were now in second, after a team was moved over after being placed in the wrong division earlier, but we still had roughly the same lead over the team behind us "Rolo's Brown Krausenhaus." My next two laps were my first night laps and I consciously slowed down just a hair because I wasn't sure I could maintain the pace I had been setting. After those laps, I headed back and coaxed the laptop to upload the update for the site and threw down a bunch more calories because I was heading out for an hour and a half of skiing. Our team was trying out a new strategy of skiing on time rather than laps. It is mostly a mental difference because you're skiing the same distance, but it makes it a bit easier to calculate when you need to be ready to rock for your next set of laps, and has the added benefit of making you a bit more flexible if your guy isn't there for the hand off. I headed out with a pocket full of dried apricots and planned on hitting the aid station for accelerade on every lap. I skied pretty consistent 18-19 minute laps, but toward the end of the 4th one, I started feeling a bit wobbly so I downed the rest of my apricots, but still felt kind of off for my 5th lap. I think part of the problem was that the accelerade at the aid stations was pretty weak, which, while more palatable, wasn't doing wonders for my carb situation. We were sitting a few laps down on this first place team, with no real thoughts of catching them unless they blew up and still only a lap up on Krausenhaus. After tagging off with Dennis, I bee lined back to the room to do some serious eating. After eating as much I could stand, I climbed into bed to try to sleep. After a while I managed to nod off and woke up a couple hours later when Tyler told me it was time to head out for my next round. My back was so stiff that I could barely get dressed to head out, but it seemed to be loosening up a bit. I grabbed granola bar to eat on my way down to the start line, some energy gels and a bottle of pretty thick accelerade. After my experience on the last lap, I wanted to be sure that I kept my energy levels up on this set of laps. Matt Aro pulled through the stadium a couple minutes ahead of me, and it took me a couple of laps, but I reeled him in. He was definitely skiing like a machine, and I think in the lead at that point. I downed a gel on my third lap and it powered me through my last couple laps feeling really good. I tagged off to Dennis right around 4 am, crunch time in 24 hour racing. Our team was still skiing in second place in our division, but only about 10 minutes up on Krausenhaus in third, so I knew we needed to avoid making mistakes like missing hand-offs, not paying attention to nuitrition, or losing lighting. I headed back to the room to refuel and catch some Zs. After eating a bunch and getting Tyler up and running, I crashed pretty hard. Tyler got me out of bed around 7:45, and I dressed and got my stuff together for a couple quick laps. When I tagged off with Doug, he said that Krausenhaus had been putting in single and double laps and was charging hard, and was probably less than a half-lap down. Given some nice motivation, I went out for two of my faster laps of the event at 15:22 and 15:30. It was definitely crunch time, and Doug got Dennis and Tyler fired up. I saw Matt Aro out on the course again, and he was looking really good for a guy who had been skiing for 22 hours and change. I handed off to Dennis who put down his fastest lap of the race at 18:20 (not bad for a guy that lived in Hawaii for the past 15 years before moving back 9 months ago) and handed off to Tyler. Results after 23 hours had us a lap up on Krausenhaus, but we wanted to be sure we sealed the deal and not lose the race in the last hour. Tyler rocked off a smokin' 15:11 lap and tagged back off to me. It was going to be super close for me to get us in before 10 a.m. so that Dennis could head out for one more lap. I put my head down and pushed it. Both Matt and Chris were still rocking away, skiing way solid, but Matt was pulling big time back on Chris according to the rumors flying around. I turned in a 15:26 lap to get us across the finish line at about 23:58 giving Dennis that chance to head out for one more lap. He turned in another solid lap and we were done, and apparently had managed to hold onto second place! Meanwhile, Chris and Matt were fighting it out. Chris was pushing to get over the line before the 24 hour mark and head out for one more lap, but in the end came up about 12 seconds or about 200 meters short and had to settle for a sweet pirouette and crossing the finish line backwards about 3 minutes ahead of a head of Matt. Chris Fehrman was a distant third with a still really impressive 52 laps. With the race over, the race to pack and shower began. The awards ceremony was great and they gave away mountains of swag including a lot of really nice stuff. Congrats to the solo guys, they skied their hearts out, and bumped the solo 24 hour record up to 355 km. Think about this. Our team skied the second most kilometers in the event (380) behind 3 Binge Skiers and a Skiaholic and the solo guys were only 25k behind. Wow. Chris Ransom claims he's retiring next year, but I'm not sure I believe it. Also, props to Rolo's Brown Krausenhaus for pushing us to the end, and to 3 Binge Skiers and a Skiaholic for kicking our butts. I think that probably abut wraps things up. Oh, more mad props to all the awesome volunteers who made the event possible, and the people who got 'r done: Harry Spehar, TS Events and Tom Schuler, Gary Crandall, etc. etc. Oh, and the grooming crew of Jack Moin, et al. deserves a huge thanks as well. We had phenomenal conditions all weekend. Thanks everyone!
PS-I could keep going forever about how much this weekend rocked, but I'm trying to keep this "short"

1/8/05
Photo Set
Results (.pdfs)
24 Hour Results
12 Hour Results
6 Hour Results
3 Hour Results
6:45 pm-Photo set is up. I should have a bit more later tonight after I get some dinner.
5:55 pm-Sorry about the late update. The end of the race for me was pretty hectic and sleepless (as for everyone) and our team was in a pretty tight battle for 2nd place in the 4 man division so I was focused on skiing fast rather than getting on here. And when I got home, I really couldn't keep my eyes focused on the computer screen long enough to do an update for the site. A quick hour nap and things are much better. My team did manage to hold onto second behind "3 Binge Skiers and a Skiaholic" and ahead of a team from UW madison with a delightfully german name which escapes my still dead brain at the moment. The solo race came right down to the wire. Chris Ransom had a 13 minute lead with a couple hours to go, but Matt Aro was charging hard. In my final laps, I saw both skiers out on the course, and they were moving fast for guys who had been skiing for 24 hours straight. Ransom came into the stadium with about a minute to go until 10 am and wasn't able to make it across the line so he could head out for another lap. His final margin over Matt was ~3 minutes! I'll get a more complete update with another photoset later tonight, but for now here are a couple pictures of Chris Ransom and Matt Aro in the closing minutes. Results are not available yet, but should be sometime tonight.

Matt Aro in hot pursuit.

Chris Ransom crosses the finish line backwards after taking the solo victory.

1/7/05
Photo Set
6:30 update-Chris Ransom is back on top in the solo category, followed by Matt Aro. The former leader Chester Fehrman (? (brain is shutting down a bit) is in third. Our team is in second after another team was moved to our category. We're now about a lap down on first and a lap up on third. I"m outta here. Need food.
Checking back in it is 4:45 in the afternoon, so we're about 7 hours into the race. The snow is rockin fast and we're having a great time. Our team "The A Team" is holding a tiny 3 minute lead in the 4 man 24 hour class. Everyone has been skiing really well. We started out with single laps and then moved to doubles and that is going really well. In the solo class, Chester is leading Chris Ransom and Matt Aro. But in all cases, it is early yet, and a lot can happen in the night. I think we'll keep this short so I can go get ready for my next set of laps

1/6/05
Greetings from Telemark. Tyler and I got down here this afternoon, got checked in and then headed down to registration to see if they needed any help. Turns out they needed some people to assemble blinky lights (technical term) and place them around the course at dangerous/confusing points. This meant we had to ski the course a couple of times. The course is in great shape, probably the best I've ever seen it. It should be a great race. Our next big event was to gorge ourselves on spaghetti at the restaurant. The vegitarian sauce was particularly tasty. Here are a couple of pictures from today. Later.

Tyler making sure the lights working...Me checking on the lights

Tyler enjoying his second plate of pasta.

24T 2006
Home	Racing	Links	Snow Report	Etc.
1/12/05 Just a quick note that there is a most excellent blog entry by Renee Callaway with some sweet pictures here. I almost forgot. Here's a podium shot of our team supplied by Sara Balbin.

1/9/05 Saturday Photoset from Catie Cogger More pictures and results links are below. More pictures to follow later in the week. It is officially story time. Saturday morning Doug and Dennis showed up, and we decided on an order of myself leading off, Dennis, Tyler and Doug anchoring. After the pre-race meeting I went back up to the room to finish getting suited up and grab my skis. We headed down to the start line and I got in a nice warm up. And by nice warm up, I mean I skied around easy for about 20 minutes, not the traditional, "get the heart rate way up there" warm up. My cold RS-11s were running pretty nicely with Solda F-31 purple. At the start, I lined up a couple of rows back and got ready to rock. Our game plan was to start off skiing single laps the first couple times around and then move into two laps each. After a nice version of the national anthem, we were off. I didn't do any real hammering, but I passed a few people and kept things moving along nicely for a 15:20ish lap and tagged off to Dennis. I grabbed my warmups and some accelerade and hung out, and snapped some photos. Dennis skied a solid lap, handed off to Tyler, who skied solid and handed off to Doug, and the next thing I knew, I was up again. I went out a good bit more conservatively, and did a 17 minute lap. We did another round of single laps, and then I headed out for two in a row. The first lap felt pretty good, but the second lap felt great. I really got into a groove and was starting to feel relaxed, riding the glide nice and long on every stroke. My second lap was faster than the first by about 30 seconds, even though I felt like I was doing less work. That was the feeling I knew I would need if I was going to ski solidly through the night. My two laps over way to soon, I tagged off to Dennis, who headed out for a couple laps, and I headed back to the hotel room for a change of clothes and some food. I also grabbed the other pair of RS-11s, which had some Fast Wax Salmon with Solda fluoro on top, figuring that they would run nicely in the slightly warmer snow. We were sitting in first place by about 8 minutes, but it was still early. I threw down some pb and j sandwiches and and a banana, got some fresh clothing and headed back out for a couple more laps. I pushed those laps a bit more than maybe I should have, but felt super relaxed and turned in a couple nice laps. I headed back to the room for some more calories and start getting some stuff ready for a web update on my turtle of a laptop. Catie Cogger had turned up to check out the scene and snapped some shots which will make their way here eventually. On this break, I tried a cup of cheesy ramen, and I all I have to say is, not my favorite. I had a pb&j again too. In an event like this, I force myself to eat more than I want, because it comes back later, and getting behind on calories is a really tough place to dig out of. We were now in second, after a team was moved over after being placed in the wrong division earlier, but we still had roughly the same lead over the team behind us "Rolo's Brown Krausenhaus." My next two laps were my first night laps and I consciously slowed down just a hair because I wasn't sure I could maintain the pace I had been setting. After those laps, I headed back and coaxed the laptop to upload the update for the site and threw down a bunch more calories because I was heading out for an hour and a half of skiing. Our team was trying out a new strategy of skiing on time rather than laps. It is mostly a mental difference because you're skiing the same distance, but it makes it a bit easier to calculate when you need to be ready to rock for your next set of laps, and has the added benefit of making you a bit more flexible if your guy isn't there for the hand off. I headed out with a pocket full of dried apricots and planned on hitting the aid station for accelerade on every lap. I skied pretty consistent 18-19 minute laps, but toward the end of the 4th one, I started feeling a bit wobbly so I downed the rest of my apricots, but still felt kind of off for my 5th lap. I think part of the problem was that the accelerade at the aid stations was pretty weak, which, while more palatable, wasn't doing wonders for my carb situation. We were sitting a few laps down on this first place team, with no real thoughts of catching them unless they blew up and still only a lap up on Krausenhaus. After tagging off with Dennis, I bee lined back to the room to do some serious eating. After eating as much I could stand, I climbed into bed to try to sleep. After a while I managed to nod off and woke up a couple hours later when Tyler told me it was time to head out for my next round. My back was so stiff that I could barely get dressed to head out, but it seemed to be loosening up a bit. I grabbed granola bar to eat on my way down to the start line, some energy gels and a bottle of pretty thick accelerade. After my experience on the last lap, I wanted to be sure that I kept my energy levels up on this set of laps. Matt Aro pulled through the stadium a couple minutes ahead of me, and it took me a couple of laps, but I reeled him in. He was definitely skiing like a machine, and I think in the lead at that point. I downed a gel on my third lap and it powered me through my last couple laps feeling really good. I tagged off to Dennis right around 4 am, crunch time in 24 hour racing. Our team was still skiing in second place in our division, but only about 10 minutes up on Krausenhaus in third, so I knew we needed to avoid making mistakes like missing hand-offs, not paying attention to nuitrition, or losing lighting. I headed back to the room to refuel and catch some Zs. After eating a bunch and getting Tyler up and running, I crashed pretty hard. Tyler got me out of bed around 7:45, and I dressed and got my stuff together for a couple quick laps. When I tagged off with Doug, he said that Krausenhaus had been putting in single and double laps and was charging hard, and was probably less than a half-lap down. Given some nice motivation, I went out for two of my faster laps of the event at 15:22 and 15:30. It was definitely crunch time, and Doug got Dennis and Tyler fired up. I saw Matt Aro out on the course again, and he was looking really good for a guy who had been skiing for 22 hours and change. I handed off to Dennis who put down his fastest lap of the race at 18:20 (not bad for a guy that lived in Hawaii for the past 15 years before moving back 9 months ago) and handed off to Tyler. Results after 23 hours had us a lap up on Krausenhaus, but we wanted to be sure we sealed the deal and not lose the race in the last hour. Tyler rocked off a smokin' 15:11 lap and tagged back off to me. It was going to be super close for me to get us in before 10 a.m. so that Dennis could head out for one more lap. I put my head down and pushed it. Both Matt and Chris were still rocking away, skiing way solid, but Matt was pulling big time back on Chris according to the rumors flying around. I turned in a 15:26 lap to get us across the finish line at about 23:58 giving Dennis that chance to head out for one more lap. He turned in another solid lap and we were done, and apparently had managed to hold onto second place! Meanwhile, Chris and Matt were fighting it out. Chris was pushing to get over the line before the 24 hour mark and head out for one more lap, but in the end came up about 12 seconds or about 200 meters short and had to settle for a sweet pirouette and crossing the finish line backwards about 3 minutes ahead of a head of Matt. Chris Fehrman was a distant third with a still really impressive 52 laps. With the race over, the race to pack and shower began. The awards ceremony was great and they gave away mountains of swag including a lot of really nice stuff. Congrats to the solo guys, they skied their hearts out, and bumped the solo 24 hour record up to 355 km. Think about this. Our team skied the second most kilometers in the event (380) behind 3 Binge Skiers and a Skiaholic and the solo guys were only 25k behind. Wow. Chris Ransom claims he's retiring next year, but I'm not sure I believe it. Also, props to Rolo's Brown Krausenhaus for pushing us to the end, and to 3 Binge Skiers and a Skiaholic for kicking our butts. I think that probably abut wraps things up. Oh, more mad props to all the awesome volunteers who made the event possible, and the people who got 'r done: Harry Spehar, TS Events and Tom Schuler, Gary Crandall, etc. etc. Oh, and the grooming crew of Jack Moin, et al. deserves a huge thanks as well. We had phenomenal conditions all weekend. Thanks everyone! PS-I could keep going forever about how much this weekend rocked, but I'm trying to keep this "short"
1/8/05 Photo Set Results (.pdfs) 24 Hour Results 12 Hour Results 6 Hour Results 3 Hour Results 6:45 pm-Photo set is up. I should have a bit more later tonight after I get some dinner. 5:55 pm-Sorry about the late update. The end of the race for me was pretty hectic and sleepless (as for everyone) and our team was in a pretty tight battle for 2nd place in the 4 man division so I was focused on skiing fast rather than getting on here. And when I got home, I really couldn't keep my eyes focused on the computer screen long enough to do an update for the site. A quick hour nap and things are much better. My team did manage to hold onto second behind "3 Binge Skiers and a Skiaholic" and ahead of a team from UW madison with a delightfully german name which escapes my still dead brain at the moment. The solo race came right down to the wire. Chris Ransom had a 13 minute lead with a couple hours to go, but Matt Aro was charging hard. In my final laps, I saw both skiers out on the course, and they were moving fast for guys who had been skiing for 24 hours straight. Ransom came into the stadium with about a minute to go until 10 am and wasn't able to make it across the line so he could head out for another lap. His final margin over Matt was ~3 minutes! I'll get a more complete update with another photoset later tonight, but for now here are a couple pictures of Chris Ransom and Matt Aro in the closing minutes. Results are not available yet, but should be sometime tonight.
Matt Aro in hot pursuit.			Chris Ransom crosses the finish line backwards after taking the solo victory.
1/7/05 Photo Set 6:30 update-Chris Ransom is back on top in the solo category, followed by Matt Aro. The former leader Chester Fehrman (? (brain is shutting down a bit) is in third. Our team is in second after another team was moved to our category. We're now about a lap down on first and a lap up on third. I"m outta here. Need food. Checking back in it is 4:45 in the afternoon, so we're about 7 hours into the race. The snow is rockin fast and we're having a great time. Our team "The A Team" is holding a tiny 3 minute lead in the 4 man 24 hour class. Everyone has been skiing really well. We started out with single laps and then moved to doubles and that is going really well. In the solo class, Chester is leading Chris Ransom and Matt Aro. But in all cases, it is early yet, and a lot can happen in the night. I think we'll keep this short so I can go get ready for my next set of laps
1/6/05 Greetings from Telemark. Tyler and I got down here this afternoon, got checked in and then headed down to registration to see if they needed any help. Turns out they needed some people to assemble blinky lights (technical term) and place them around the course at dangerous/confusing points. This meant we had to ski the course a couple of times. The course is in great shape, probably the best I've ever seen it. It should be a great race. Our next big event was to gorge ourselves on spaghetti at the restaurant. The vegitarian sauce was particularly tasty. Here are a couple of pictures from today. Later.
Tyler making sure the lights working...Me checking on the lights
Tyler enjoying his second plate of pasta.