Great Bear Chase Report

This year's Bear Chase was much different than last year's edition.
Gone were the images of people skiing with duct-taped faces and
frostbitten cheeks. This year it was a balmy 30 deg at start time,
about 35 degrees warmer than last year.

The bears were out, too. Although they had to scramble pretty fast to
get out of the way at the start, definitely the fastest start of the
races I've done the last two years. I started too fast and ended up
skiing myself into a stupor at the 10k point. It's amazing what my
brain will tell me when that happens: "You should have done more
hills; maybe your getting the flu and you should pull out; too much
bike training this week; maybe you should pull out." You get the idea.
I figured I would survival ski the next 14k and then decide at the
halfway feed station located at the beginning of the second loop, in
front of the very cozy and comfortable Swedetown Chalet. I'm sure
that this is the single greatest cause of all of those DNF's in the
Bear Chase, coming around and stopping in front of the chalet and
forcing oneself to continue a second loop.

My wife says that every race is a few hours dedicated to doing we love
without the distraction of the rest of our lives and this (and a
couple of awful tasting chocolate Carbboom gels) carried me up the
hill and onto the second lap.

My times for each 10k went something like 34m, 45m and then settled
into the 41m range and the second lap brought a nice rhythm. The snow
was warm and humid and very well-groomed; Cera F over Salmon over Tan
with little structure gave me great glide and except for losing a
basket with 10k to go, everything went well and I finished with a
smile on my face. What a great race and what great people!

One interesting thing, with the popularity of the internet and this
group, I experienced this thing where people kept asking for names
during and after the race; maybe we should wear name tags or identify
ourselves in postings with our ski suit colors???

Still smiling,

Chris Sauer
ne iowa
Red Holstein suit (old US Master's colors)

(BeeCharmer) wrote in message . com...
This year's Bear Chase was much different than last year's edition.

Last year's edition shouldn't have happened. It's stupid to send
skiers out in -30 to -50 F wind chills. They guarenteed the race would
happen, so if another storm came through and knocked down 20 trees,
the ski race would have been a steeple chase.

I see Tommy was second. Almost a big win for him.

Jay Wenner