American Birkie Race Report #2

 David Evans has done a lot of cool races in his athletic career, but somehow never the American Birkie. That changed last weekend, and here is his fun race report:

After all these decades of having sundry Carleton buddies regale me with their tales of  having skied "The Birkie," and after last year's measly fake-out 30K on similarly fake snow, I was finally able to classic ski the full Birkie on 2/23, from Cable to Hayward, WI - which at 53K is a little "fuller" than the skate race's 50K.  

You must earn your early-wave honor badge at Birkie, so any rank newcomer like myself, and despite protestations and appeals, is required to start behind most of the assembled 5,000+ of the day's uber-fit guests.  So of the classic race's 6 waves, I was in the 5th, meaning that in parts of the race I was making altogether feeble attempts at pretending I was Mikaela Shiffrin as I slalomed back and forth from one track to the next, trying to claim brief respite and free track.  Other times, I was surveying Times Square-worthy traffic jams on the steeper pitches, like a rock climber making a best guess at the simplest way through a complex terrain, praying that I wouldn't somehow mix my equipment and/or body up with someone else's and doing my best to herringbone through the English Patient-esque sand by now masquerading as snow on the steepest slopes.  Most fun and terrifying were the downhills, preferably tucked in behind a veteran skier, as I watched their every move on unfamiliar descents, doing my best to adhere to Newton's 2nd Law, conservation of momentum, and repeating repeatedly the Dave Lindahl mantra of "Evans, don't you dare snowplow!" 

By the end on glorious Hayward's Main Street, I'd thanked at least 100 of the 5,000 race volunteers whose expert ministrations became the day's hallmark, and who consistently reminded us lucky skiers what a well-oiled machine The Birkie is. Joining wife Jennifer at the finish were two other Carleton buddies, down from Duluth, taking in the latest escapades of their long-lost alumnus, the last time having been cheering me on in Brooklyn (this time not on skis!) way, way back in the '89 New York City Marathon. 

A final college reunion was served up the next day, now back in the Twin Cities, when we met up for a hearty brunch with another Carl, a buddy who became the brainchild behind the Carleton Triathlon, whose first two iterations, in '81 and '82, I was fortunate to have won, and which led inexorably to five years in the sport for me. Now the longest continuously running triathlon in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, the Carleton Triathlon on June 6, 2025 will enjoy its 45th iteration, and so we were planning on how best to invite as many as we can from those earliest years... just to raise the average age of the competitor list a bit 😄 - and whether in the busy lives of college students, and in the days just before their Finals, anyone would want to hear a bunch of old farts talk about something their grandparents may vaguely remember!