It was nice meeting Pete Hickey in person -- thanks to Ken Roberts for
bringing us together..

The Keskinada went pretty well for me. I did the 50K skate, which was
either 42.5 or 46.5K -- there is conflicting info on the race website,
and the signage during the race itself was rather confusing.

It's a fun race -- lots of nice people, good atmoshere and a beautiful
venue -- Gatineau Park. The course was in a really good condition
too. The new section (Burma) was fun to ski, though a bit narrow for a
big race.

I was in the 3rd wave of 5, which was about right, and tried to ski
consistenly firmly, but be a bit conservative on the early hills. And
with good technique. I was able to do that most of the time, so it was
a good race for me. The only bad part was that I totally cracked on
the last climb with 3K to go -- Mont Bleu -- and just crawled up it --
actually walking some of it. I lost a couple minutes there. About six
people passed me there,which was annoying. I think I have a problem
with muscular endurance, because I was OK going on shallow climbs just
before and could ski the little flat section afterwards OK. Maybe I
needed a bit more sugar. My bottle froze -- again. I forgot to put
it in upside down and didn't notice that until about KM10.

The weather was cold -- it wasn't more than -16C during the race, and
perhaps was -19 or -20 at the start (which was delayed). But it was
sunny, with little wind, so that wasn't a problem compared to 2003.
Just that my lips hurt a little on the long downhills and I had to
keep my hands in front of my mouth at times because of that. Two
people I know got frostbite on their ears.

The snow was really slow due to the low temps and it being new snow.
I had OK or good glide compared to other middle of the pack people --
I didn't see anyone outgliding me in the tracks at least. Fast Wax
White over FW Teal/Green over Map Black. But even so, the snow
affected my technique. In fast snow I could V2 (I mean 1-skate, we
were in Canada,right?) a lot more of the shallow parkway cliimbs on
the way back, whereas this year it had to be "offset" for me.

Ken Roberts also did the 50 and commented that the course seemed
really hilly in comparison to when he did it in classic technique two
years ago. I think the snow explains that.

What else? I saw Beckie Scott but missed seeing her skiing. She is
really tan and really smiley and really fit looking. A winning
combination. And I finally know my way around inside the CEGEP which
is comforting.

Jim Farrell's explanation of how to grab fees in races in the thread
"Eating while Racing" works great. I may seem obvious, but I had no
clue about this until trying it on Sunday.

I'm looking forward to next year already.

JT