Tour of Anchorage - initial results

Sunday was the big day. The Tour of Anchorage. Andrea did the 40K and I did the 50K. Both of us were really nervous before the start as neither had raced this distance before (Actually, Andrea just started skate skiing in November). But we concentrated on taking it easy and staying hydrated. I have never skiied the Spencer Loop so slowly but I was following a Tour veteran (Peter Van Tuyn) and I knew if he was skiing it this slow and still expected to finish in under 3 hours, he must know something I don't.

The slow pace paid off later in the race as both of us doubled on the speed after Westchester Lagoon set a pretty good pace all the way to the end. Having a Red Bull at Point Waronzoff made all the difference for me.

So the official times are: Aaron Ostrovsky, 2:55:44 for the 50K (77th out of248) and Andrea Ostrovsky, 2:38:28 for the 40K (70th out of 174).















Aaron, Andrea, Sandra, and Larry - just before the start at Service H.S.


After some waxing madness on Saturday, I settled on using a mix of Toko LF Red and Blue on the skis. The waxing pattern was recommended by my friend Bill Pearson's sister, Kate, who is on the Rossignol factory team and finished 2nd overall for women. We used one coat of LF Moly, then one coat of 1:1 LF Red/Blue, then one coat of HF Red/Blue from the tips to the binding, then all HF Red from the binding to the end. Although the air temperature was about 30, the snow was colder and the blue/red combo worked great. Thanks for sharing the wealth of knowledge Kate!

More to come!