See?
To save you the suspense, I'll cut to the chase: I won the women's 40-49 age class (yes, I'm 50, and in international meets I'm in the 50-54 class. US Speedskating uses a different cutoff and so I'm still in the 40 class this season). My team won the women's (not-for-points) team pursuit. My club, Twin Cities Speedskating, won the Club Championship (and all of the TCSS skaters except 3 were masters!)
I'd say it was a successful weekend. Of course, there were high points and low points...
Some of the lows:
- It was cold.
- And windy.
- And cold.
- Due to another epic snowstorm on Thursday the roads were still heinous for my 25 mile commute to the oval each day, which meant I started out the day of racing a lot more tense than I'd like.
- My legs were apparently protesting the huge carb reduction they've undertaken (despite my continually raiding the dried fruit jar) since starting the Paleo diet in conjunction with the CrossFit SISU challenge. I remember the feeling (and the lovely calf cramps) from when I used to low carb, but I had thought I was eating enough fruit to combat it...but the 3K was definitely a long and painful slog.
- I don't know exactly how long the 3K was--although I do know exactly how painful it was--because, due to the final hours of our ice time being usurped by a Minnesota Wild event on the oval, the officials combined pretty much every women's class over age 12 in the 3K, and thus we had 14 people on the starting line. This led to much confusion, including (I'm convinced) us being required to skate an extra lap; me getting a time only 14 seconds slower than Mel's, even though she lapped me; and no one being truly sure what their final time was (or, for that matter, how far they'd actually skated). Oh, well...it's pack. Only the finishing order really matters.
- I'm pretty sure that, in addition to my bad legs, I got my heart arrhythmia (PVC's) 300 meters into the 3000 meter race. This did not help my "good lord, this hurts" feeling.
- Due to the youngest class of skaters being called "Ponies," and due to hearing "Pony boys to the heat box" over the loudspeaker multiple times, I had the Bruce Springsteen song "Pony Boy" stuck in my head throughout much of the weekend. Let's just say it's not one of his big hits.
On to the good stuff:
- Lots of my friends did really well, including: Melissa setting a new Senior division record in the 1500; Sprinter Boy and 60's Boy winning their divisions; Hawkeye Boy and Cross Boy coming in second in their division; and a lot of others doing great and getting places I can't remember.
- I didn't succumb to my usual pre-pack freak-out. Partly this was because I actually practiced starts with many people on the line during workouts the week before; partly it was because there were less people in my age group than the last time I did this. Until they started combining age groups, anyway. And by then I was kind of used to it.
- I won all my races. That's always fun!
- Three separate skaters told me I "looked like a different skater"--in a good way. This was awesome to hear, especially since I felt like I was flailing around and completely forgetting all my new technique skills.
- One of these skaters was Coach TieGuy, who was one of the starters for the meet and who I hadn't seen since last year. Praise from him is high praise indeed, so I was thrilled that he thought that my skating had improved.
So all in all, a great way to spend the last weekend of racing for the season (well, the last weekend for those of us too slow to qualify for the final American Cup, anyway). Just two more evening workouts and two weekend workouts left for me this winter.
So this is a good way to end the 2013-14 racing season.
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