On Wednesday of Birkie week, I had arranged to meet Caitlin at Mooselips Coffee to plan for the Ski and Tea clinic we were hosting that afternoon.  Randomly, (or not so randomly if you know Caitlin) she had gotten a ride down from the OO trailhead by Allison Barta, better known to me at the time as “The Birkie Sweater Lady.”  As soon as the car pulled up, I saw the backseat overflowing with knit Birkie apparel and I immediately got star struck and bombarded her with questions and asked to get my picture taken with her and an autograph.  We talked for a while and I bought a pattern book from her in the parking lot, fully intending to start knitting immediately and have my Birkie sweater ready by 2016.

So Awesome!

Fortunately for me, I don’t have to knit my own sweater, because after Caitlin and I finished (and Caitlin won!!!), Allison had sweaters made for us with our names, results and the year knitted into them!  She also sent hats to match!!  I’m sorry for all the exclamation points but I’m having trouble accurately portraying my excitement with words.

Such Detail

The sweaters are beautiful and I would strongly recommend going to http://www.irishcableknitting.com/ to pick one up for yourself.  Just looking at it makes me excited for next year.  If you’re not a sweater wearing person, there are all kinds of hats, mittens, scarves, and (my favorite) blankets.  Although it’s not pictured on the website, you can get a Birchlegger blanket in the color of the Birchlegger bib.  It could be proudly displayed on a bed or the back of a chair and looks much classier than tacking all 25 of your bibs to the wall.  Don’t get me wrong, I have my bibs tacked on my wall.  Only 22 more years until I can purchase one of those blankets.  Maybe that gives me enough time to make one if I start knitting now.  Gosh I love the Birkie. 

If you look closely at the lower left hand corner, Caitlin's sweater has her name and her time and the words "Birkie Champion" knitted right into it!

Thank you so much for the wonderful gift Allison.  Your sweater will be a part of my Birkie preparation for many years to come.

Good luck to all my teammates finishing up the season in Sun Valley.  I wish I was there!

Well, spring flew by and summer is doing the same.  I just got back from a long road trip that took me all over the Midwest.  I started out relaxing with my family over the 4th of July in Eagle River, WI (or “Up North,” as we like to call it).  Then, I drove to LaCrosse, WI to see my cousin Cathy and her family who I have not seen forever.  Next I was off to Minneapolis to see Maggie Sorenson, one of my very best friends who has been in Albania as a member of the Peace Corps for the past 2 years.  We had a little celebration for her and were joined by friends from all over the country, including Adriaan Ostrander (currently living in Alabama), and Nielsen (currently doing his residency in North Dakota).

Maggie and I have a lot in common and can be a very dangerous combination when we get together.  Here is an example: within 24 hours of our reunion, each of us (on separate occasions) left a purse or wallet on the roof of a car and found it while driving to another location.

Finally, I went back to Rhinelander for the Hodag Country Festival.  It was a great trip and really the only thing I had planned this summer besides my brother’s wedding in Idaho next month.

Maggie and Ostrander (years ago)

It’s good to be back home and back to work.  There is not much to report here.  Training has been going well.  This past week was one of the biggest weeks of the year for me, and I should cash in at around 22 hours.

My Birkie Finish (SkinnySki.com Photo)

The CXC Team Vertical Limit has been away from internet service and totally absorbed in all the wonderful Birkie festivities in Hayward, WI.  Most of us headed to Hayward, immediately after the Madison Winter Festival.  I stopped in Minocqua, WI to visit the dentist, (Thank you Dr. Kozeluh!) and arrived in Hayward on Tuesday night.  On Wednesday Bryan Cook and I did some private lessons for a couple friends in the Hayward area and waxed a lot of skis.  On Thursday we competed in the Elite Birkie Sprints and I hung out with some family friends from the Waukesha area.  On Friday we tested skis, worked at the expo, waxed a bunch, and got ready for the Big Show on Snow.

My Birkie experience was incredible.  I got to stand on the start line with Tami Kochen, had all the highs and lows of a true Birkie bonk, and I was still able to place 4th overall.  Thankfully, the bonk happened about 25K later this year than last year.  There was a pack of four women for the first 44 K, consisting of Rebecca Dussault (CXC Team Vertical Limit-1st), Tax Mannix (USST-2nd), and Brooke Gosling (Alberta World Cup Academy-3rd), and me (CXC Team Vertical Limit-4th).  I sat in this group, not working very hard.  The pace felt really comfortable and then all of a sudden, without really pushing harder of increasing the pace, 40K of racing caught up with me and my legs began to burn.  I made it a few more K and I did everything I could to hang with the group, so when I fell off the back I really started to struggle.  I had 4K to go when I really fell apart, stomping up the hills and twisting like crazy.  I started to find it funny when I began cheering for myself in my head.  Since skiing up the hills was not going well, I focused on skiing over the tops of the hills.  I hit the lake alone, but thankfully was able to pull myself together enough to catch a ride from a passing wave 1 skier that went by me with about 1.5K of lake to go.  The cheering on Main Street was the loudest cheering I have ever heard in my life.  I loved it.

It would have been very nice to make it onto the podium, but I am 100% certain that I could not have done any better in that race on that day.

I staggered to the finish line, spent a good amount of time laying on the floor of the changing tent nursing my cramping feet, and greeted my female friends and teammates as they trickled in.  Then, I went out to the lake to cheer people in.

You can read more about the news HERE.

We are so very proud of you Kuzzy!

Garrott Kuzzy (teamtoday.org photo)

I was especially excited for today’s race because I love 5K races and I don’t get to do them as often now that I’m out of college. The Women’s race started at 9AM. Minutes before the first skiers went out on course, it started to pour. When I set my warm up jacket down on the snow, a puddle of water immediately formed in the middle. Fortunately, it did not pour all day, it mostly sprinkled and the courses held up as well as possible. The ups were mushy and the downs were sloppy making transitions extra important.

CXC Team Vertical Limit’s Rebecca Dusualt and I (Maria) took the top two places, followed by Aurelia Korthauer of UAF, Christina Gillis of NMU, and Melissa Schwartz (formerly Oram) one of NMU’s super star alumni. JoJo Winters of the CXC Team Vertical Limit was next in 6th place.

Women's Podium

The CXC Team Vertical Limit Men’s Team was able to do a 1, 2, 3 sweep of the podium with Matt Liebsch taking first place, followed by Brian Gregg and Bryan Cook. Bryan’s brother, Chris Cook of Steinbock Racing was just a few seconds off the podium, followed closely by Sylvan Ellefson of Fischer/SSCV Homegrown.

Men's Podium

Tomorrow we will be doing a mass start 10/15K classic race. Keep your fingers crossed that the weather cooperates.

Full results can be found at http://www.pttiming.com.

Collage from Ski and Tea Clinic #3 courtesy of Linda Cook

After my trip to Hayward, I went back to Lakeville, MN for the Stuber Family Christmas. I did another on snow clinic with a Women’s group that meets in the Southern Metro area. We organized at the Cleary Lake trails and worked on classic technique. Most women at this clinic were beginners and made some drastic improvements at the clinic. Hopefully no one was overwhelmed by all the new information. I had a lot of fun working with this wonderful group. I got a chance to ski on some different trails in the Twin Cities area. Before the big snow storm, Bryan Cook and I went up to Battle Creek to ski. We were absolutely amazed at how well the trails looked for having only a few inches on the ground. We were not surprised to find Phil Zink hard at work pulling a Tidd Tech groomer around the trails.

I’m currently in Rhinelander, WI enjoying the last couple days of Christmas decorations, home cooked meals, and relaxation. Tomorrow I will drive back to Minneapolis and fly to Anchorage, AK for the U.S. National Championships. So far the racing season is going great and I can not wait to do some races at sea level.

Right to Left: Rebecca Dussault, Holly Brooks, Maria Stuber in a quarterfinal heat at Sovereign Lakes (photo courtesy of Brian Gregg at http://www.xcskilife.com)

Men’s Podium

This weekend’s races are Olympic Qualifiers for the Canadian team, meaning that the top Canadian finisher earned an automatic Olympic spot.

The CXC Team Vertical Limit Men’s team put 4 boys in the top 6 overall!  Kuzzy was 1st by almost a whole minute, followed by Matt Liebsch (3rd), Brian Gregg (5th), and Bryan Cook (6th).  Absolutely amazing.

Rebecca Dussault lead the women’s team taking 3rd place.  Caitlin Compton, former NMU and CXC Elite teammate who is also traveling with us, was  5th place.  I missed the top 10 by a narrow 0.2 seconds, and finished 11th overall.

Our fall clinic tour started on November 7th, with the Ski and Tea women of Hayward, WI.

The next day we went to Winona, MN, where we held a dryland clinic at the St. Mary’s ski trails.  NMU alumni, Brad Skillicorn was instrumental in organizing this clinic.  We had a wonderful stay in Winona with my Uncle Bob and Aunt Mary.  We also got a chance to ski up, “Homer Hill” which is a mountain by midwest standards, and I’d love to go back there for some intervals in the future.

On November 10th, we did an evening clinic for a new group of women in the Southern Twin Cities area that was organized by Lynda Stuber (my mom).

November 13th-15th we spent at the Bicycle Doctor in Dousman, WI where we sold tons of the new Salomon Equipe 10 skis, boots, bindings, and Swix poles.  The CXC crew did a clinic each day of the clinic.  Bryan and I were present at the Saturday clinic on November 14th and I took a few pictures there.

On November 15th, I did a “thank you” clinic for the Lapham Ladies who have been instrumental in my development as a ski racer.  For the 2010 season, the Lapham Ladies and Salomon, organized a jacket fundraiser for my Adopt-an-Athlete program.  I would not be the ski racer that I am today without this wonderful group of women.  Thank you Lapham Ladies!!!!  I’ll be sure to show off the jacket when they are finished.

More details about these clinics can be found HERE.  Clinics are an intergral part of our livelyhood.  Like many things, we rely on our friends, family, and the wonderful ski community to help organize these events.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone who helped make these clinics possible!

“Couldn’t have ordered up a nicer day.”

Maria and Audrey

The 2009 Bergkönig Trail Run went off without a hitch.  The weather was marvelous and the participants were too.  Thank you to everyone who came out to participate whether you wanted to race or just came out to support the cause.  View the race results HERE.

This race was unique because of the extreme difficulty of the course.  We spent a lot of time squeezing as many hills as possible into each mile at Lapham Peak State Park in Delafield, WI.  Unfortunately, the distance was a little off and the course was slightly long (5.9 miles instead of the estimated 5.0).  Next year we will be sure to have two course options: maybe a 3 mile and a 6 mile.

Men's Winner Scott Mueller 37:21

2nd and 3rd place on the home stretch, Erik Teig and Chad Tolbert, Respectively

Women's Winner, Renee Schaefer, 53:42

Finish Area

Margaret Layo and Lori Trader smiling at the finish

Carrie Furry and Josh Mundt charging hard

John MaCarthy checking his watch at the Finish

It was a relatively small race, but good sized for the first year with 64 people registered.  I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped make this race possible especially my little brother, Thomas, who was a gigantic help.  He lives in Waukesha now and he helped me do all the things that I could not do from out of town.  Mike and Jane Mandli, Sean Becker, Josh North, Mike Eckert, Yuriy Gusev, Bryan Cook, Jenny Melville, Scott Olsen, and Ben Lund were my race day volunteer force.  They devoted their whole day to this event and it would not have been possible without their effort and organization on race day.  Also, Shane Mundt of MundtArts did a wonderful job designing the Bergkönig Race Website and logo.  He donated this to the cause and his handy work is greatly appreciated.

I’d like to say an additional big thank you to all the local businesses and organizations that contributed to this event: 10 Feet Back, 4imprint, Salomon, PowerBar (courtesy of PowerBar athlete Chris Cook), Wheel and Sprocket, InStep, Great Harvest Bread Co., Bicycle Doctor, WIN Racing, Be Fitness, Brennan’s Market, CXC Skiing, MundtArts, Pick’n Save, West Wood Health and Fitness Center, Stone Creek Coffee, and Starbucks Coffee.

It feels great to have planned my first big event.  I had fun learning the in’s and out’s of event planning and hopefully I can do an even better job on this race in the future.