[BUMP from 2/08]
The Birkie is 2/21! Follow it online at ” rel=”nofollow”>www.birkie.com.]
[FROM 2008: The Birkie was won in the very fast time of 2:06 for 51 very hilly km’s. Whoa. I notice that the 7th place finisher in the Classic (striding) division was 60+ years old. Cool!]
The Birkie Ski Marathon is America’s biggest annual celebration of 50km XC ski racing. Thousands of racers head up north in mid-February. They take off in the woods but finish up on Main Street in downtown Hayward, Wisconsin.
This photo captures it all, I think.
It’s taken way back in the pack at about the halfway point. These skiers are fighting for top 100’s positioning. Just look at em. They’re still duking it out in the thick of it after an hour of nonstop pedal-to-the-floor action. These guys are race-winners back on their home turf. Halfway thru a regular race they’d be on their own or in a small group. At the Birkie they’re just part of the big pack, of the many trains of skiers rocketing thru the woods. And that’s the whole point. Each one of them should be proud of being in such a community of champs. It’s an awesome thing to have so much talent going back so deep at an event. It’s a privilege to be part of it. A fiesta of energy and color!
I particularly enjoy it that 2 classic striding skiers are right up there with all these hot-shot skaters. Check out the first strider, on the left in yellow. Ah yes! (Can you spot the 2nd?) Old ways are good ways. And, everything old is new again someday…!
Thanks to Paul Phillips, of Minneapolis, for this super photo. He’s a photographer with Competitive Image. Check out the many vibrant Birkie pics at their website.
Birkie Fever builds to a fever pitch starting in Feb for those who’ve registered. They’re putting in their daily ski outings with occasional long days on the weekends or smaller marathons. And every other marathon is smaller. (Except for those who are doing other World Loppet events—more than a few of those are bigger!)
The Birkie is a tough one. Thousands wonder if they’ll be ready for the seemingly endless series of roller-hills that hit you in the mid-section of this course.
I’m happy to say that I’ve done it. Once. In 1991. What a weekend. I had a dandy race, finishing 2nd place in Wave 2, at the peak fitness of my life, during the one and only winter I also did the 3 marathons on the Michigan circuit. Then we moved to low-snows, no-hills country. Oh well!
This photo is part of my article on “Our Homegrown Marathons” in the #10 issue of OYB. But it’s black’n’white in the mag. I just love the web! Check out all that COLOR! Of course the article gives one a better hands-on sense of the whole world of backwoods marathons that it covers. The two media go together!
