The Lakeland Loppet Part 1

As I promised last week, this week's story is the non-fictional tale of a novice cross country skier (me) attempting  to successfully complete an 8K cross country ski race in sub-zero temperatures.  Be warned; the events of this story are real.    

 

After spending last Friday night at a friends house in Land O' Lakes, WI, I awoke at 6:15am from a delicious Sealy PosturePedic slumber, only to learn that temperature were hovering near -20 (that's negative twenty) degrees Fahrenheit.  2018 Winter Olympic Cross Country Skier Mo-T Wilks joined me on this adventure, as she would be skiing in the 25k Classic Race later that morning.  I had a scrumptious bowl of strawberries and cream oatmeal, and we hit the road by 6:45am.  An hour drive to Minacqua loomed, which is home of the annual Lakeland Loppet Nordic Ski Race.

As we pulled into the Minacqua Winter Park, I couldn't have felt more out of place.  Talk about a fish out of water.  I felt more out of place than Christian Laettner on the '92 Dream Team.  I felt more out of place than Gus Frerotte's neck after he celebrated a touchdown by head-butting a wall.  I felt more out of place than I did during the one semester I spent as anArchitecture major.  Okay, you get the idea.  I felt out of place.  Why?  Because sometimes I agree to do things before I really think them through.  An 8k race when I haven't been on cross country ski's more than 10 times total?  This had disaster written all over it.  

To be continued...