Flash back ten years…

It’s January 1999. US Cross Country Ski Championships in Rumford, Maine. Tryout races for the World Championships, to be held a month later in Ramsau, Austria. I was an up-and-coming racer, 24 years old, and I finished 4th, 6th, 6th, and 10th in those tryout races. Four strong races that I thought might get me on the Worlds team. However…

There was a junior skier from Alaska who was storming up the ranks at that time. Rob Whitney was only nineteen years old, but he had been beating up on senior skiers for a couple of seasons already. In Rumford, he finished 5th, 6th, and 7th. That included a memorable pursuit race where I edged Rob in the classic race by 6 seconds, but he destroyed me in the pursuit. This earned the promising junior a ticket to Austria, alongside four established members of the US Ski Team. They only took five men on the team, and I was left at home.

Back to the present…

I now spend my days working a desk job in Anchorage. I’m married and raising an 18 month old son, and juggling a few side projects. I exercise whenever I can, which in a good week is about 6 hours. My priorities have shifted, and I am happy with the changes, but I still long for the fitness I had when I could devote 20 hours a week to training.

Rob Whitney is now a firefighter here in Anchorage. He’s got a house, and is well on his way to being married. Like me, he still exercises sporadically and does adventures when he gets the chance, but he has also lost the exceptional fitness he once had. Rob’s put some extra pounds on his tall frame since his racing days ended.

Several weeks ago, Rob casually mentioned that he was thinking of getting serious about training for a few months. The idea was to see if he could lose some weight and jump into a race at the US Cross Country Ski Championships at Kincaid Park in January. I immediately told him I’d do it too. It would be good for both of us to have something to train for.

I always enjoy slightly hair-brained schemes. After all, I’m the same guy who tried out for the Olympic bobsled team simply because they had open trials. Rob and I have no business racing against the best skiers in the country these days. But that is exactly why it would be fun. Plus, I’m always looking for extra motivation to train. There is nothing like the fear of being totally embarrassed to get me out the door.

We tried to recruit others to join our quest, but for some reason there aren’t too many out-of-shape skiers who want to race against guys like Kris Freeman and Andy Newell. So it quickly became an internal competition. The trash-talking commenced almost immediately, and the “we’re both in this together” vibe disintigrated into a mano e mano vibe. Rob versus Cory. Cory versus Rob. The intensity went to new heights on Monday when I went to the APU weight room on my lunch hour, hoping to sneak in a little closet training. Imagine my surprise when I discovered Rob was already there, doing the same thing! Uh oh. He’s already shed some pounds. I quickly regretted my recent two week hiatus. Time to get to work.

So this thing is definitely ON. Here’s the tale of the tape:

2008 Tour of Anchorage 50K Results
(the only ski race we’ve done head-to-head recently):
Cory: 2:23:15.2
Rob: 2:30:31.7

Potential weekly training between now and January:
Cory: 8 hours a week, tops
Rob: potentially a lot more than 8 hours a week (key word: potentially)

Current weight vs Racing weight:
Cory: Racing: 173; Current: 174 (but much softer)
Rob: Racing: 180; Current: Umm, quite a bit more than 180. This could be his ace in the hole. Lots of potential.

On paper, this looks like a tremendous match-up. I’ve got the early advantage, but Rob has the potential to close the gap. Will Rob regain his 1999 form and utterly destroy me? Can I hold him off? Will either of us beat the J2 skiers? Will we both get laughed off the trail before we even finish the race? Stay tuned. This is going to be fun.

Programming Note:

We initially chose the 10K classic race at US Nationals on January 5 to be our showdown. However, we recently realized that we’d need join USSA and pay a high race entry fee, just for the privilege of embarrasing ourselves on the nation’s biggest nordic stage. I’m sure we can find a way to embarrass ourselves without paying over $200 to do it. The showdown date is currently pending.