Perhaps my second favorite event in the month of February, the Birkie. It’s 54K if hills, rolling terrain, one flat lake just before the end, and a main street finish in a little northern Wisconsin town called Hayward. I have skied the Birkie twice now and the Korte once, all classic, and all fun. The 54K classic trail has a lot of hills in the first half of the race following a north/south trending Moraine located between Cable and Hayward. The second half, from county OO to the finish has more downhill sections and flat sections of the trail, to make up some time if needed.

The day started out great, little wind, a temp hovering around 10 (if I remember correctly) at the starting line and a little new snow the night before. My wax was spot on for the conditions I experienced on the trail for starting in wave 6. I was fast on the downhills, catching up to a lot of people that were beating me on the uphills. I love going fast downhill! This year though, it was a tough race for me. I almost quit around 30K with both quads almost fully cramping up on me…no fun. So, I slowed down a bit and rubbed out my muscles as best as I could. I got some more food and drink in me and in another 6 K my quads finally worked out and I was able to finish what I started in just over 6 hours. My goal was to finish with a time under 6 hours, so that will have to wait until next year. Cant wait for Feb 2010! ~Jon Jugenheimer, AAO rep