Matt Wong's Birkie Experience

I went out hard with the Elite Wave and stuck with the lead pack for a few kilometers before pulling back to settle in with a chase group, where friend and fellow teammate Jay Woodbeck was sitting. We skied together for another 20km or so, before it started to string out.

By about 35km, I had lost contact with the chase group, and Jay had fallen off the back. By this point, my bottle had already frozen, and in desperate need of fuel, I had to stop myself in the race to unscrew the bottle and consume the entirety of the liquid contents. Feeling a little better, I trucked on.  

At Mosquito Brook, about 38km into the race, I started to shut down. My pace started going backwards, I started cramping everywhere, and was no longer in contact with anyone. With the help of another teammate and friend, Raphael Bechtiger (Tech) and Max Olex (Alaska), I was able to get two more feeds with only a few kilometers left in the race.

All that was left was Lake Hayward, and Main Street. Skiing up to the lake, I could see some flag poles. My heart dropped after what I witnessed: stiff flags. A headwind blowing across the lake meant a brutal two kilometers of flat, barren ski trails. I am convinced that those two kilometers were the lowest point in my life—begging the question why anyone would want to be a cross-country skier. But by sheer will and a little idiocy, I managed to ski across the lake and into downtown Hayward. There, the last few hundred meters were all that were between my battered body, and chicken noodle soup, a delicacy for post-Birkie foodies.

Crossing the finish line, I was unable to form many thoughts. I don't think I managed to say anything coherent or productive. But it didn't matter at that point. I started, and finished, the 2014 American Birkebeiner, rounding out what I consider my best and final season at Tech.

QUOTES:

"Turns out 18 inches of new snow makes for a painfully slow Birkie."

"Not sure if I can keep this pace up, probably going to bonk in a few kilometers."

"If my skis weren't that fast, or I was in a later wave, I probably would have had a much slower race."