A Night at the Races

Time for the XCOttawa Pursuit race. New date, new Race Director, same good time. This time it was a night race under the lights at Nakkertok which surely added some new challenges for the racers. I headed out once more to help out with setting up the course and marshalling the route. Setting the course for a pursuit race requires a two loop course - one for classic and one for skating – and a great big pit area so the racers can swing in, swap skis from one technique to the next and tear off on to the skate leg. Takes a little while to get it all set and (hopefully) make it self evident for the racers. While looping the course to set up v-boards at various intersections – thus keeping the racers on course - I was also careful to look for any 3m deep pot holes along the edge of the course. I figured I would flag those hazards, you know, for safety. Wouldn’t want to have to call for Dr. Hakenbush (blog title? Anyone? okay that was "A Day at the Races" ;-) As it turns out we’ve had closer to 3 inches of snow rather than 3m so there were no big hazards to flag.


The main pack climbing the first hill
Course set I headed off to marshal a corner. Want to make sure people ski the right way and don’t head off into the gloom of the night down the wrong trail. For the most part however people had previewed the course during warm up so my marshalling duties were pretty light. Gave me an opportunity to take a few photos which was interesting. While I’m quite happy to take long exposure night shots of static things AND I enjoy shooting fast paced sporting events… fast paced sporting events at night is a new challenge. Probably one I need some work at but still got some interesting... ummm, artistic? shots. All in all another good event. Skiing the loops after the race to pick up the v-boards and clean up the course I discovered the real workout for the racers was probably on their optic nerves. We’d set the course with a little bit of daylight left but picking up the course it was full on night. From one light standard to the next (spaced at 200m or so) – at speed – light to dark to light to dark must have made for some interesting challenges. Sounds like a good time was had by all though so well worth the effort.