Spurklands finish course at Vasaloppet
By Ryan M. Long
Helicopters whirred overhead, thousands of people were jam-packed into a small area and lines for the bathrooms stretched on endlessly.
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It may sound like a big name concert or a New Year's Eve celebration, but it's Vasaloppet, and it's where local ski-couple and coaches of the Homer High School Cross-Country Ski Team, Jan and Megan Spurkland, competed in Sweden on March 5.
The Spurklands and 15,800 other athletes from around the globe.
Megan writes that she and Jan woke up at 3:20 a.m. to make the 90km drive 2.5 hours to the course. After having taken so long to get to the start area Megan and Jan had 30 minutes to load their bags onto the truck that would take their gear to the finish, stand in line for the bathroom and try and warm up before taking the plunge on a long 90km ski race.
For warm-ups two Swedish women in red jumpsuits led skiers on a platform. There was no time for a warm-up lap. There was no time to test wax. Just enough time to grab skis and hit go.
Megan writes that out of the chute she saw the backsides of some 2,200 people already making their way along the trail.
She could only guess at the number of people behind as the skiers were herded on at breakneck speed, trying to gain not just distance toward the finish, but also distance away from other skiers and the inherent risk of a spill with no way of getting back up and racing competitively.
iI saw the most horrible fall beside me and it was so utterly disgraceful. That is the only word to describe this poor man who took a tumble forwards and then immediately 15 people piled up on him, burying his face into the track and pushing his butt up above his head and over it in a complete somersault. No dignity in that crash,i she writes.
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She was passed by thousands of skiers.
She suffered both a dime-sized blister on her left hand and tennis elbow that prevented her from double poling, a maneuver where a skier will drive with both poles to gain overall speed, rather than alternating poles or single poling.
While her goal of finishing in the top 5 percent at Vasaloppet was dashed in part by her inability to continue double poling with the strain of the blister and worn elbow, she did finish just one percent off, or in the top 6 percent.
iYou ski through the countryside the whole time, around old log cabins and horses in pastures and people sit on their snowmachines and cheer you on and the village people build fires right beside the trail and cheer you on,i she writes.
Despite all of what makes a race like Vasaloppet tough on skiers, there is a reason that many come back to compete year after year and a lot of it comes from the experience of being there, seeing the country, and the camaraderie that can only be built in trials of the body and the will.
Megan finished with a time of 06:18:15 and Jan finished with a time of 05:34:43.
The Spurklands make their next stop in Norway.
Ryan M. Long can be reached at ryan.long@homernews.com.
