Dale skis the 10 and 30 km virtual Sonot courses

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

FXCers take to the virtual Sonot Kkaazoot trail

Report submitted by Benjamin Bagonier:

A handful of FXC comp skiers went out on the Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot course on the final Sunday of the event. Some athletes threw themselves at the work while others were happy to take a lighter-duty approach to the end of race season. 

Elias Engman, Nelson Hays, Ian Tragis, and PJ Bragonier put on their game faces and raced the course. They reported a glaring mismatch between their prior evening’s waxing for warm temperatures and the race-day snow thermometer needle pegged at -13 C.

In stark contrast to the aforementioned racers, Eli Merrill started his race by double-polling backwards and then performed a signature 180 once he was up to speed. Caleb Peterson sported mismatched boots and rode on his “game” skis — most likely in regular use when he was under the tutelage of Coach Pam in Jr. Nordics. Zarah Laker-Morris was kind enough to slow things down and chaperone her male high school peers around the course. (It’s so sad when they get off course.) As with other FXCers, Josh Baurick has distinguished himself many times this ski season, but the low-key Kkaazoot inspired a mellow pace where fun in the sun was his order of business. 

Riley Whisler was the only known FXCer to select the 30 KM course. The fleets of 50-somethings and 60-somethings out on the longer courses appreciated that Riley feigned being visibly taxed as she skied by them. There’s no doubt in this writer’s mind that she could have manageably tacked on a subsequent 50 KM — you know, in an effort to finally work up a sweat. 

Last, FXC Coach Asne graced the 10 KM course. We all know that she could have broken thirty-minutes, but then again, she might have risked forfeiting her infectious ear-to-ear smile.

U16 GIRLS – 10 KM

Zarah Laker-Morris (skate) 45:44

U18 GIRLS – 30 KM

Riley Wisler (classic) 3:01:28

U16 BOYS – 10 KM

PJ Bragonier (skate) 31:27

Elias Engman (skate) 32:01

Nelson Hays (skate) 34:20

Ian Tragis (skate) 35:20

U18 BOYS – 10 KM

Caleb Petersen (skate) 45:42

Josh Baurick (classic) 45:44

Eli Merrill (classic) 45:45

FXC COACHES – 10 KM

Åsne Honerød Hoveid (classic) 41:22

The Sonot blogger thanks Ben for the interesting and thorough report on the FXC participation in the 2021 Virtual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot. I’m recommending you to Bad Bob to supply future reports.

Hicks skate skis virtual 10 km Sonot

Paula Hicks skate skied the virtual 10 km Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot in 47:44 on Sunday.

She writes:

Awesome trails. Thank you!I

The conversation going on in my head.

Happy Heart “Wow the snow is fast today, I love these new skis!”

Healthy Heart “Did you train at all for this? Did that sign just say coronary bypass?”

Yes, Paula, the sign did say Coronary Bypass. Come back next year and ski the 30 km so you can keep skiing up Heartrate Hill.

Langhorst skis virtual 30 km

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.”

 

Anna Rix skis all 3 virtual Sonot Kkaazoot courses on Sunday

Anna Rix skied all three official courses for the Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot on Sunday.

She writes: “I decided to wait till the last day and ski all 3 courses back to back.
50k course classic 4:43:37
30k course skate 2:38:57
10k course classic 1:02:04
Total elapsed time was 8:57:57 including my ski to and from the start and finish lines. 54.27 miles according to my Garmin which includes one turnaround since I was not sure which turn on North Forty I was taking.

Nice day skiing!”

O’Clair skis virtual 50 km Sonot Kkaazoot

Tom O’Clair skated the virtual 50 km Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot in 4:06 on Sunday.

Tom writes: “I skied the 50k course today.  Started at 10:30 in the cold with the FXC Masters folks that had various objectives. I skied with some of them the first half of the race and then skied on my own coming across several folks as it warmed up during the day.  At the end of the course, I was confused about the 48-49-50k so I skied two more k.  Time:  4:06 on cold styrofoam snow.  Fun!”

Tom wanted to make sure he got his full workout even though Bad Bob’s course was short.

Tyson and Davya Flaharty ski 30 km Sonot

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):

Tyson after his virtual 30 km
Davya crushing it.(in orange like her dad)

“Kneed to Ski” members complete all 3 virtual Sonot Kkaazoot courses

By finishing her 30 km virtual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot today, Susan Sugai joined her “Kneed to Ski” teammates Bill Husby and Byron Broda in completing the Sonot Kkaazoot hat trick (all three of the official 2021 virtual Sonot Kkaazoot courses). When Bill, Byron, and Susan skied in the 2015 Turkey Day Relays, “Kneed to Ski” had the oldest skiers with the youngest knees because all three skiers have had bilateral total knee replacements. (https://www.adn.com/commentary/article/kneed-ski-team/2015/11/28/)

When Bill and Byron completed the 10, 30, and 50 km virtual courses, some of them more than once, the pressure was on Mother SCUM to ski the 30 km this weekend. She skate skied the 30 km virtual Sonot Kkaazoot in two segments, 15+ km on Saturday and the remaining trails on the 6 deg snow this morning. Her combined time was 3:18:51.

On Saturday, temperatures warmed from 22 to 26 degs as Susan skied the start loop of the South Tower and Roller Coaster Bypass, then completed all the black loops, blue, Outhouse, Tower and Medevac trails:

On Sunday, temperatures were in the low single digits so Susan utilized some of Christina Turman’s power hour training to doublepole in the tracks when it was faster than skating on slow snow:

Photo by Bill Husby

Norma Haubenstock, who wisely chose to classical ski, motivated me to ski faster and more efficiently so I wouldn’t lose the distance I gained on the downhills and graduals quite so quickly on the steep uphill sections. Watching younger skiers ahead of me pause on Heartrate Hill and in Moilanen Meadows convinced me that my pain was real.

However, once the finish line was in sight, I knew I could doublepole across it. The pain of having to doublepole and single stick uphill in subzero new snow at UAF in Christina’s power hour FXC Masters class made my finish today possible. My legs thank you Christina! (However, my wrist is complaining).

Mother SCUM (left) and Norma,awesome motivator after Sunday’s ski–photo by Don Pendergrast