Teacup Classic for the Smiles -- Joy's Race Report

 

[ed. note: For those who haven't yet found this wonderful race, Teacup Snow-Park is on the sunny side of Mount Hood, 30 minutes south of Hood River, and the trails are expertly groomed (follow Teacup Nordic on Instagram for the descriptive, envy-inducing grooming reports!), wide and open and gorgeous and fun and full of surprising, in-your-face views of Mount Hood around almost every corner.  The Teacup Classic is two races, 5k and 15k; the 15k race is a big scenic rolling 10k loop followed by the 5k loop, so there isn't a lot of repetition.  The race timers hand you a printout of your results (the "pink slip" in Joy's report) literally as soon as you cross the finish line, which is awesome, and after the race there is delicious soup and bread and goodies and awards.  This race is SO worth the trip, plus ... Hood River!]

(first photo is Debbie's; the other two are Joy's)

Teacup Classic -- Joy's Race Report

The race started with an ankle bracelet and ended with a pink slip and that wasn't even the most interesting part. We knew the choice of skis and wax would be paramount, with lovely cold fresh snow, temps at night down in the 20s, sunny daytime temps in the 40s, and a race start for the 15k at 11:45 a.m. We're not sure why, on the latter, although it was also Super Bowl Sunday, but that didn't start until after the race. 

Skins, scales, or klister? At 11:15 we were testing universal klister and of course it was really sticky on the shady, cold snow. OK, top it off with a little red and if you kept the skis moving fast enough, you could keep them clear. Of course there was the guy at the start (shade, cold snow) who forgot to do that and took a couple of strides and went sprawling. 

The course is beautiful, with a long swoopy forested downhill run and perfect striding hill that goes and goes and goes ... to Revenge Hill, now fully in the sun, delivering warm masher snow. And that last 5k was by then sunny loops with two times up Nordic Way and down Wahoo Gulch. I quit tucking the downhills so that I wouldn't fall over when I got slow whiplash when the track hit sunny spots, followed by spicy slick shady spots.

The finish couldn't come fast enough, along with that pink slip, which verified what I already suspected--that everyone else in my age group opted for skins or scales. But there was plenty of commiseration to go around with my fellow KSCers!

[not to mention the friendly goofball who took the group picture above and threw in a bonus selfie!]