The 24 Hours of Telemark is America's only 24 Hour Cross Country Team Relay Race. Skiers from all over the country form up to six-member freestyle teams and take turns skiing an approximate 10-kilometer loop for a continuous 24-hour period. There are 19 categories for all abilities. The UW Nordic Ski club entered three teams in the race-the \J-Team,"" ""Enduro Burger"" and the ""Skinoritas."" UW-Madison sophomore and Enduro Burger member, Seth Bichler, recalls his experience.
The most enthusiastic and adventurous people of Wisconsin opened the new year with 24 hours of cross-country skiing Jan. 8-9 at Telemark Lodge and Ski Resort in Cable, Wis. That's 24 hours of skiing in a row.
At the end of the race, Madison resident Matt Aro broke the world record with 335 kilometers skied in 24 hours. We, the UW Nordic Ski team, didn't break any world records, but our three teams did have an amazingly long ski race, eventually totaling over 1,200 kilometers skied.
Jan. 8, 11:00 a.m.
The race begins smoothly with extremely fast snow and mild temperatures hanging below freezing but comfortably above zero, altogether ideal conditions for nordic skiing. Our four best male skiers formed a team in the four-person event known as the J-Team. Led by UW Nordic captain, senior Jesse Coenen, the J-Team took off ahead.
After watching the start, I returned to our hotel room to try to sleep. I was going to be the fourth leg of our six-man squad known as Enduro Burger. The name was originally Enduro Badger, but after a misinterpretation by team members, the name stuck. Our first skier, senior Ryan Wilson started with a fast 17-minute lap of the hilly five-kilometer course. Close behind were the UW women of the team, who had entered in the six-member team competition under the name of Skinoritas.
While I waited, my teammates ahead of me were turning in laps of about 17-20 minutes, an above average time. Doing two laps at a time, we were working in shifts of about 40 minutes. I was nervous to start because the day before I had started to get sick, and I wasn't sure how much I could accomplish on the course.
Lap One
Having only skied about 10 kilometers all year at that point, doing the first two laps was difficult. I struggled to turn in two laps at just over 40 minutes, not fast-but not horribly slow either. By overdressing and consequently overheating, I soon triggered a minor asthma attack. Part of me wanted to quit.
My Enduro Burger team spirit kept me in the race, but we decided as a team that I should only ski a five-kilometer lap the next time so I could still ski the longer segments we had planned for later in the night. Meanwhile, senior member Matt Braun skied his first lap remarkably well, considering he had never skied freestyle before in his life.
My teammates all kept a great pace, and by switching from fourth to fifth in the rotation I was able to rest long enough that I felt much better by the time my second term had come around. After doing one quick lap of the course I realized that I could probably stay in the race for its entirety and not put any additional burden on the rest of Enduro Burger.
At the end of two turns we were running a slight lead over the Skinoritas, and beating them happened to be our main goal since the J-Team was clearly untouchable.
By the time my third turn came, night had fallen. Donning small headlamps we took to the trails without fear, despite the fact that at the tops of the hills we could not see the bottom. The best strategy I found for avoiding oak trees was to follow the vague white blur and memorize the course.
My first lap in the darkness was my fastest at that point. Something about skiing at night was exhilirating, I had never done so before on unlighted trails. Everything seemed faster-something about not being able to see the whole hill made the uphill work less difficult and the trail was much emptier after the three, six and 12-hour events finished. I was able to go back to two laps per turn because I was feeling much better by that point.
Sleeping Through
The next rotation we switched to three laps because the idea in mind was with a longer turn we could also rest longer and possibly sleep a little...It worked a little too well. I remember waking to senior Josh Rolnitzky, the Enduro Burger team captain, standing over me looking very exhausted and frozen. Apparently no one had woken me up for my turn, but since Matt (Braun) had fallen asleep with his ski gear and bib on, he took off and I got a bit of extra sleep. Josh proved his leadership on the trail by skiing four laps instead of the planned three when he realized there was no one there to start the next lap.
The night was a challenge, but there was a communal psychosis setting in among the remaining competing skiers.
Waiting at the starting line for Matt to finish, Bob Dylan's song, ""Maggie's Farm"" came on. With those epic lyrics for inspiration, the rest of the race was a breeze.
OK, so the last 20 kilometers were actually the hardest thing I have done since high school football, but I did manage to finish without dying.
The UW Nordic skied over 1,200 kilometers, or 745.6 miles-the equivalent of skiing from Madison to Winnipeg, Manitoba in 24 hours. It was an incredibly unique experience for both endurance training and team bonding.
""In no other event do you have the opportunity to sit for several hours with your teammates and talk in depth about the race, snow conditions, or anything you want to, then go back out and ski again,"" Coenen said.
