Michael Angaiak celebrated finishing Kristen Rozell’s Sonot Kkaazoot Training Class by skating the 30 km virtual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot in 2:36:02. He was a little late in sending in his results, but his report was so upbeat and complete, it’s wasn’t much work to post.

Michael writes:

Time: 2:36:02  (I’m confident I skied the full correct course but the “Map My Fitness” app I used on my phone only lists 16.99 miles. Hmm…)

Description: My first Sonot Kkaazoot experience! I had taken Kristen Rozell’s Tuesday night “Train for the Sonot Kkaazzoot” class last spring only to have everything canceled, so I was excited to take her class again this spring. I didn’t V2 nearly as much as we practiced, without the river portion this year, but my technique sure has improved! A number of us from class started the race together on Sunday morning so I appreciated the extra motivation. I felt better over the last 20 k then the first 10 k as it warmed up a bit. Perhaps the adrenaline rush from the moose that crossed in front of me at the end of Relay was what helped me pick up the pace! Big thanks to Kristen and all of the teachers from NSCF for the wonderful variety of excellent class offerings for all levels. I’m looking forward to building up to the 50 k next year!”

Congratulations, Michael! We definitely hope that you will be skating the 50 km Sonot Kkaazoot next year.

Max Kaufman skate skied his 30 km virtual Denalii State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot in 1:54:58.

He writes: “I started too late on Saturday and got caught on course by some snow showers.  That slowed things down for me, and sadly,  I wasn’t able to beat my classic time. The corduroy was great while it lasted.”

Erica Blake skated the virtual 30 km Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot in 2:44.

She writes: “Snow was slower than expected and my skis were not waxed for the cold slow snow, but completed the 30k course under glorious sunshine, and finished smiling.”

Tom Dale skate skied the virtual 10 and 30 km Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot courses in times of 47:09 and 2:38:23, respectively.

He reports:

Skated the 10k mapped route 3/15/21     47:09
Skated the mapped 30k route 3/17/21  2:38:23

Lots of new ungroomed snow both times, but I appreciated the ability to do the routes virtually. I really enjoy skiing the non lighted tracks at Birch, although “enjoying” the black loops might be overstating things. 🙂

Tom Dale
Age 63

Luke Langhorst skate skied the virtual 30 km Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot in 1:36:36.

Luke writes: “It was another great Sunday out at birch. Lots of people were out and about enjoying the weather and snow. Unfortunately my heart rate on my phone didn’t seem to be recording things accurately as it had my HR much lower than it certainly felt like! Thanks again  for all that you have done with the event and to everyone else. The face masks are great! Looking forward to the real deal next year.”

Tyson Flaharty skate skied the 30 km virtual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot Friday in 1:50:34 with an extra Roller Coaster skied for good measure. Davya skied her virtual 30 km in 2:05:33.

Here is Tyson’s course and statistics:

Tyson writes: “We had fun in the fresh snow this morning!  I did the 30k course plus accidentally skiing all of roller coaster on the start lap.  But that got me a little closer to 30k. We had a little blizzard near the end. Otherwise it was a perfect day.”  

And here are Davya’s data (she knew the proper course):