Ski to Sea 2009

Well, it is Memorial Day weekend, so that naturally means: Ski to Sea! The Ski to Sea race is a multi-leg team race that starts at Mount Baker and ends in Bellingham Bay. There are 8 people on a team with 7 legs. They are:

x-country ski

downhill or snowboard

run

road bike

canoe

mountain bike

ocean kayak

This year the family did not put together a team, so Jule, my neighbor and x-country ski replacement for last year, became free agents. Jule found a team that needed people, and we joined. Of course, I did the x-country and this year Jule did the kayak. 

Like last year, Jule and I drove up the mountain on Saturday to check out conditions and have a practice ski. Unlike last year, when we were childless, this year we had all four children. Jule's husband went fishing all day, and my hubby went mountain biking and kayaking with his brother and friend. 

The kids had a blast in the snow and just playing around. We had PERFECT weather the entire weekend and Jule and I just traded skiing and watching kids. 

After our lovely time on the mountain, we had a team meeting at our captains house. We had never met these people before and we needed to get our bibs and shirts, etc. Our team members consisted of four women who all recently turned 50 and wanted to "do something big", 2 college-guys who were also free-agents, and Jule and myself. Quite a mix! We had a great bbq and the kids all enjoyed playing around on the swings and playhouse. 

This year the race started at 8am. But they close the road up to Baker at 7:30. Plus, civilization is at least an hour away, so I woke up at 5am to meet my team at 

5:30 to get to the top of the mountain! We camped in my brothers yard again.

Since I was alone, I left Levi and Claire sleeping and Aaron watched them till I got back. He even took them to church!

The skiing conditions were great this year. The course is a 4 mile loop on 

the downhill portion of the resort, so it is a lot of big up and down hills. Lots of carnage! Supposedly the x-country ski portion of the race is where there is the biggest degree of skills between the competitors. There are some super fast people (fastest time this year was 17 minutes!) and some really slow people who are on skis for the first time (times close to two hours). I did the race is 40 minutes this year,which is a vast improvement over my time in 2007. 

Once I cross the finish line, I hand the timing chip to the downhill skier, who, get this, hikes UP the ENTIRE MOUNTAIN and then skis down. One of my carpool mates jokes that it should be called the UPHILL ski/snowboard! 

After the skier crosses the finish line, and hands over the chip, the runner starts to head down the mountain. This is a brutal 8.3 mile run completely downhill. I think they drop 2000 ft in elevation in 8 miles. Crazy on the knees! 

The road remains closed until about 9:30, but then they only let a few cars out at a time, since there are so many runners on the road. The cars also have to drive on the left. This year there were 415 teams. 

We just waited with the other skiers at the top till about 11am, when we came down. I was back at Aaron's by noon. I then got the kids ready and we headed to the finish line where we could watch Jule end the race.

They had fun waiting, put we eventually had to leave to pick up Josh, who was kayaking nearby. We barely missed Jule's finish! But we all went out to dinner and then had a bonfire at Aaron's; complete with oysters provided by my uncle!

The next morning I went on a long country run early in the morning. Everson is so beautiful! We packed up and headed to Birch Bay to do some clamming. This was our families first time clamming, but it is so fun! Levi got quite a few and I am going to try my hands at clam chowder tonight. 

All in all we had a terrific weekend!