Race results at bottom

This was one heck of an old school race! To be fair, the Bogburn is kind of ALWAYS an old school race, with winding narrow trails, quick transitions, and a backwoods farm setting. But something about the 60F temps, slushy snow and omnipresent klister just made things even more fun and memorable. As an added bonus to traditionalist fans of classic skiing, the soft snowpack made double poling very tough, so nobody, even the @real_nordic_skier Adam Glueck, was about to break out their skate skis for this one (although a Williams skier tried it out in his warmup, just to remind us all that this is 2017).

Brandon’s Strava file from the race. Give you a good sense for the winding course!

Brandon summed it up perfectly when he arrived:

“If you had a race in California this far off the beaten path, you might have 5 people show up. Either that or it just wouldn’t happen.”

In New England, you get a field of 150 racers of all ages. BKL skiers. Club skiers. College racers. Masters racers. Professional ski racers. Oh, and US Ski Team member and recent Junior World Champs bronze medalist Julia Kern. It’s no secret why this area is a perennial hotbed for stellar Nordic racers.

Things began in a dense fog, with BKL racers tackling a course that generally wound down and then up toward the excited crowd of waxers and spectators. Great to see strong skiing from the Haydock siblings and the Thurston siblings!

Ready to shred the slush: Ava and Camille

As the races continued and the sun made some appearances, the trail really began to get dirty. Thankfully, the organizers had shoveled snow onto several sections and kept the race alive. There was a lot of doubt beforehand about what might happen and if the race would be cancelled, but incredibly all the events were carried out!

The women and U16 athletes raced 1 lap of the larger 7k course, and in the thick slush and hot temps Eliza reported it was “literally the hardest race I’ve ever done” but to be fair she said that with a smile! The klister was being furiously spread but from the wax bench you could look up through the pines and spot racers making their way along the first kilometer of uphill which was really neat. Karen, Ellie, and Renate all pushed through the slush, and Coach Rosemary even got in on the fun.

Ava and Timmy won their respective age groups to cement their status as official Bogburn legends!

Cool to see MNC names past and present in this fast crowd!

I raced the men’s event and can give a firsthand account that all of the balance and agility training we do was really beneficial for the downhill sections, which were massively rutted and variable. Despite that I was definitely doing a little bit of unintentional one foot All of that no-tracks classic skiing we end up doing (by virtue of training at a biathlon venue) also paid dividends as for the most part the only tracks left by 1:30pm were the ruts gouged by the skiers ahead of you! After hearing me talk all season about the wonders of East Coast skiing Brandon really got to experience it all this day, while Mike suffered an unfortunate fall after a run-in with some trail detritus and popped his shoulder out. Luckily it doesn’t look like it’ll hinder him for too long, and he might be making a comeback for some spring races!

Who needs tracks anyway!

It was the kind of snow and conditions that really required smooth skiing and a bit less power…in many sections going at a L3 or threshold pace was faster than trying to fight through at a faster tempo or with more power…you really had to suss that out and it was a race that required a lot of “track-craft” at the British Eurosport commentators would say.

Here is a photo Adam Glueck snapped on his cooldown. This is the “shoveled” section as you can probably tell. It’s not much but it’s racing!

2017 Bogburn Results

BKL Races

All U16 + Women’s Race

Men’s Race