Two race reports came in today. The first was from Ferdinand Lauffer who skied the Canadian Ski Marathon last weekend. This is a two day event that covers over 160k. It has all types of divisions to include everyone and challenge them to their full potential. Ferdinand participates in the most advanced where the skiers are self supported, having to carry their own supplies and shelter for the duration of the event. His account follows:

I had a great time at the CSM. It was a very frigid -22 Celsius at the
start on Sat, but the temps went up into the high teens/low twenties
(F),
and the waxing was no problem: green and special blue. Got to the Gold
camp
at 3:20 which allowed for a leisurely camp setup. My mashed potatoes
tasted
great for dinner, and I slept well under plenty of hay. Sunday started
at a
chilly - 24 C, and the green klister binder was the right choice. It
was a
bit hard to apply, though. The Coureurs de bois Gold had an extra 5 km
to
ski because of a logging operation. Section 3 was as tough as ever.
Crossed finish line at 4:30.
It was a lot of fun, and I'll be back next year for my second gold
bar. Check out the pictures at http://www.lixar.com/csm/csm_photos/index.php
You can see me drying my socks over the fire in pictures 83and 90.
Ferdinand

I strongly urge you to check out all the photos. They really capture the whole spirit of the event, only part of which is roasting your socks after a long day of skiing. Check out more on the CSM at http://www.csm-mcs.com/index2.html

The next write-up is of Kevin Bessett's experience at the Keskinada World Loppet. This was a 53k race which is part of the World Loppet Series, and draws serious competition from around the world. For more on the 53k marathon and other events of the weekend go to http://www.keskinada.com/en/cdr_en.htm

The race was good. I was 84 out of 384 men, (18th out Team of 60 in my
age group) and finished 90th overall out of 434. I was the 10th
American
to cross the line, too.

It was corn snow and they had to do a lot of work to break up the layer
of
ice on top that formed from the rain on Friday.

The conditions seemed fast, but all the people I looked at (except for
the
top guys) were slower than last year by 2 or 3 minutes. It is a
different
course, but I was only 15sec slower, so I feel like I was two or three
minutes faster than last year.

The conditions were tricky. 15k into the race, on a 90 degree slowish
corner I almost went over a bank because I lost my outside ski on the
ice.
I managed to stay up right, but it was close and I think that ropes
would
have been needed to get me out.

I raged up penguin hill (20k into race) and bridged up to the next
group
of guys. This is a 4k climb and is pretty steep in places. But about
10
minutes after that someone fell in front of me on a corner, and I
thought
that I got around him, but my outside ski slid out and I went down. I
lost a lot of time on that one because of where the fall took place and
I
never was able to catch the two that I passed up the hill that passed
me
back. That was a big mental hit.

I also took a high speed fall on the parkway back to the finish area
about
12k out. Just caught an edge in snow in the shade. I got going again
and
a minute later 4 guys caught and dropped me. We were on a down hill on
the parkway and they dropped me. My skis were not gliding well at
that
point and it was clear that I missed the wax (in fact, just after 5k it
was clear that my skis weren't gong fast in snow that had exposure to
the
sun). I just went into auto-pilot after the last fall.

The funny thing is that even though I was relatively faster this year
by a
few minutes over people from last year, I ended up placing a bit
farther
down the list.
Kevin

Congratulations to both on their success, and thank you for sharing your experiences in these extraordinary events. I know I enjoyed reading and learning more about both.

Damian