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Birkie thanks
My 12th Birkie experience will definitely go down in my personal archives as one of the most memorable. It's not the results (a DNF), but it's the extreme selflessness that two Birkie skiers showed during the race to help a fellow skier. I decided a few weeks prior to the Birkie that I would join the classic ranks. All was going well until a few KMs past 00. The rest is still somewhat of a blur, but I will try to reconstruct. I was heading down a hill, in the tracks, when I noticed some debris (a foil wrapper). I'd seen debris in the tracks before, and simply lifted my ski to go over. I really don't know what happened next...perhaps the foil wrapper caught on my kick zone, or I caught an edge...but I suddenly found myself down on the ground, hard. At first, I thought I just broke a pole. But the sudden, intense pain in my left shoulder told me otherwise. So, here I lay in the middle of the trail, flailing about and in severe pain. I could do nothing. I tried to move to the side, but it was dreadfully painful. I really don't know how long I was on the trail. It probably was only a few moments, but it seemed like an eternity. Soon, two skiers stopped and dragged me to the side of the trail. So, there I sat. I was unable to move my left arm and was in extreme pain. These two skiers stayed with me until the ski patrol arrived, and even helped as I was loaded into the snowmobile sled. I was driven to Gravel Pit, where I was loaded onto an ambulance and transported to Hayward. The diagnosis was a broken left collarbone. It will heal, in time. But my skiing is over for the winter. While it wasn't the way I wanted to finish my Birkie, I was very thankful for a number of folks, including the ski patrol, the ambulance drivers, and the volunteers at the aid station. But most of all, I would like to thank the two skiers who stopped and rendered aid. In the blur and my state of mind, I unfortunately can't recall exact names or numbers. One was a wave 4 skier and the other a wave 3 skier. They both stayed with me even after the ski patrol had arrived. I'm still very sore, and in time will heal completely. I will be back next year. But I will also be back with a renewed sense of what the Birkie is all about. Sure, finishing times and personal bests are important. But so is the sense of family that the Birkie brings. I will never be able to thank those two skiers enough. And I will probably never be able to repay them for the aid they rendered. I only hope to carry on their selflessness by aiding my fellow skiers whenever I can. Mark Moore |
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