Just like Goldilocks in Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Howard Gelderman found the perfect cross-country skiing distance — one that wasn’t too short or too long, but just right.
On Saturday, Feb. 10, Gelderman, a teacher at Neerlandia Public Christian School, along with his son Cameron and sister Rose, joined more than 1,000 cross-country skiers taking part in the Canadian Birkenbeiner Ski Festival.
The event is patterned after a pair of Norweigian warriors who in 1206, during a civil war, smuggled the king’s son out of the palace and skied the infant to safety, over a great distance.
In the modern version, the Birkenbeiner, or the ‘Birkie’ as participants affectionately call it, is a long-distance ski race, with distances ranging from two to 55 kilometres, starting at the Ukrainian Cultural Village, about 30 minutes east of Edmonton. The race has been taking place since 1985.
Usually Gelderman, who has taken part in the race for about the last 15 years, competes in the 55 kilometre distance, but this year decided to go for the shorter 31 kilometre race.
“I was a little bit leery of skiing the longer distance because this year I wasn’t able to put in the same amount of training,” he said, adding he does the majority of his training on the cross-country trails at Misty Ridge Ski Hill, but another year of abnormal conditions hampered his training.
For the second ski season in a row, Misty Ridge Ski Hill has received below normal amounts of snow.
“Then we had that stint where it was really cold and as a result I just didn’t get on the trails as much as I would have liked,” Gelderman said.
However, now that the race is over, Gelderman said he is pleased with his decision to ski the shorter distance.
Besides feeling better physically after the race, noting he was less stiff and sore, he found he actually enjoyed the shorter distance.
“I might have not gotten the same sense of accomplishment, but I had a lot more fun,” he said. “I was able to take some time, look around at my surroundings, and really enjoy it.”
Although Gelderman isn’t competitive by nature, the other benefit of skiing the shorter distance is that he finished much higher than he might have ordinarily. Out of the 300 skiers taking part in the 31 kilometre distance, Gelderman finished 28th overall and fifth in the 50-59 age category, with a time of 2 hours and 20 minutes.
Gelderman also believes, if he decides to compete in the shorter distance again, that he could improve on that placement.
“Not that it would be easy to do, but I think I was about 12 minutes out of a Top 10 (overall) finish,” he said, adding he could improve his time by making some simple changes. “I skied the race like I was still doing 55 kilometres, but when you are skiing a shorter distances, there are things you can do differently, like not stopping at all the food and water stations, which I did just because I am so used to doing it.”
As for how the conditions were going into the race, Gelderman said they were almost perfect.
There was some concern that conditions would be poor or that the event would be cancelled, especially considering a few weeks prior to it a biathlon event in Edmonton was cancelled due to the lack of snow.
“It was really breezy. In some sections, if you weren’t in a deep tuck you would almost be blown back from the 50 to 70 km/h winds, but in terms of temperature, it hovered just about zero and grip (of the snow) the conditions were quite good,” he said, adding if it wasn’t for a snowfall on two days before the race things might have been different.
Gelderman also credited his strong performance to choosing the correct type of wax.
“Getting the waxing right is a huge part of the race and it is often difficult to know what is the right combination because in cross-country skiing you need parts of your ski that glides well over the snow and areas that grip,” he said, adding the issue is complicated further by changing temperatures. “At the start of the race, it is colder, but as the day goes on, especially in these longer races, the air temperature gets warmer and you have to take that all into account.”
Another highlight for Gelderman was the opportunity to be able to ski with his son Cameron. For the majority of the race they skied together. However, eventually the elder Gelderman outpaced his younger counterpart.
“It was fun being able to hang out with him and it just goes to show you that cross-country skiing is a sport for a lifetime,” he said, adding that although Cameron is an elite athlete (a volleyball player with Kings University) in his own right he hasn’t done a lot of cross-country skiing this season.
“A lot of it is technique and I’m not sure if I want to let him in on that, at least not yet,” Gelderman joked.
