Leadville Loppet 44km. Used the Redlines with matrix green (to save the little blue I have left) and SkiGo HF purple kick, both worked well, or well enough. Thought it was going to be 10F and snowing at the start, it was 18F and clearing, so I dressed a touch lighter with just tights and the HH top under the suit. However, I felt the weather could change and opted for a buff and heavier gloves, turned out to be a good call. Every year in every race I do (except the Brikie) the competition gets weaker and weaker, its sad really. Though there is some fun in total domination, it was more fun 3 years ago when I got to ski with a group, then one other, before deciding when to try to drop him. This year, like last, I probably had 30sec lead in the classic race at 1km. No matter, so my attention was then just focused on putting in a good effort. I skied conservatively on the first 10km (almost constant climb), it had started to snow very early in the race and it started to pick up, by the big downhill to the dog park it was snowing heavy and the tracks were filled so I skied in the skate lane. There also was a stiff headwind and I wished I was wearing more on the body, but I just kept warm enough and I was really happy I had the buff and heavier gloves. This part of the race was not much fun as the new snow made it slow and I just didn't have much ambition other than to just get the race done (only 2 more hours to go). At the dog park, the snow started to end and the nasty headwind was now a tailwind and I was now headed back up hill so was able to warm up and felt fine the rest of the race. The tracks slowly got skied in by others so by the later part of the race, it wasn't that much slower than the skate lane, though icing was a minor issue. Elbow started to hurt maybe around 30km. There was very very little tuck, it was slow enough that the downhills required DP the whole way. Drank 2/3rd of a water bottle, that's all that I needed to finish (though hungry at the end). An OK effort, certainly didn't come close to pushing it to my max at any point.
Results:
https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/535a70_d1a63555b7b1...