we did it!

at first, the birkie fever was high at home, and the skis had to be waxed in the living room because of the basement. usually we wax in the basement, but... remember the basement?

so the wax went flinging around the living room and the skis got raceREADY.



here is the waxing cheering section...


then, we brought the kids to their happy place: mormor camp. my parents very willingly entertained ramona and james and we went off to northwest wisconsin for our ski race. birkie fever very much intensified on that drive.
(meanwhile, our little cheeseheads wore some cheeseheads because they are some cheeseheads....)


we got up to cable in time to pick up a friend's car, drive it under the finish line bridge in downtown hayward,


and watch our friends finish the korteloppet half distance race in glory.


we cheered for the korte skiers, and felt all kinds of feelings of fear and excitement.

after a night of jumpy nervous pre-race sleep, we got up, got ready,


and got to the start line via the big yellow bluebird.


bus ride selfie!


at the start line we found an old friend,


had a last hug,


 and got all lined up in our starting pens.


oh, man, my heart was in my mouth. i had only every done the shorter race (first in 2015 and then in 2016, and it was cancelled in 2017), and those unknown 55 kilometers laid out in front of me terrified me like nothing ever has before. but the snow was crisp and the sun was out, and it was a most perfect day, and once the skiing started, it wasn't so scary or so hard after all.

in fact, it was just the best. it's so beautiful out there.

this is the only picture i took of the course, and this is right at the mid way point, in a more wide open stretch of the trail. usually the scene is of tighter, deeper woods and a narrower, twistier, up-and-down rolling path. this little spot was finally wide enough for me to pull over and take out my phone and record a memory. oh, this place, it's just breathtaking.


although david did the race in the freestyle/skate ski style and i did it in classic style (and our races follow different paths through the woods for much of the race), i thought about him all the time, wondering where he was and how he was. it turns out he was great, and he killed that race in under 4 hours. he's amazing. it's true. (also amazing? that yellow race suit.)

i didn't get to see him out there tearing it up, but the professional race photographers did get to see him and look how totally adorable he is.


finishing down main street!


and old mr beard icicles took his own finish line selfie.


my race brought me to tears of absolute joy when i saw that bridge to the main street finish. i was happy--elated, even--and so full of a sense of accomplishment and happiness and pride and you can't see them, but there were so many tears behind those sunglasses i'm wearing on my way to the finish line.




later, we pretended we won,


had some bratwurst,


had dinner and drinks and looked at taxidermy with these skiing friends and madison neighbors,


and lingered at night for one final goodbye to hayward's main street from atop the bridge.


the next day we woke up to a fresh 6 inch pile of snow laying fresh and light and gorgeous on everything, sparkling in the trees and making the winter wonderland even more magical. and then we

drove home to see those sweet kids, who had an adorable mormor tea party pretty much all weekend long.