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January 27, 2008
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Record Turnout at Nordic Spirit 2008
Full Race Results
View Photos From the Nordic Spirit Race
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179 skiers made history at this year’s Lake Superior College Nordic Spirit Ski Race and Tour as the largest field to date. A spectacular sunrise over the lake and harbor greeted racers as they filed in for their race packets. Once again, Nordic Spirit lucked out with ideal racing temperatures.
The colorfully-clad crew, many of whom were donning their new white ski hats, cranked out of the starting gate, over the hill and across Skyline Boulevard to the Spirit Mountain Nordic and Magney-Snively ski trails. The City of Duluth groomer had spent most of the night ensuring a splendid carpet of corduroy for the skaters and nice deep tracks for the striders.
The 10k classic skiers returned first with Joe Gerard and Staci Gilpin taking first place. It wasn’t long after that Theodore Kraus and Jen Houck surged in from their 13k freestyle. The overall winner of the 25k freestyle was Duluth’s own Nikolai Anikin, Jr - fresh off his win in the 51k Noque the previous day. Michelle Flanagan-Haag smiled right through the finish line and into the chute as the women’s champion.
Smiles were everywhere in the finishing area as racers slid in. The bright sunshine and warm temps enabled skiers to hang around the food table and swap their adventure tales of the day. A common theme amongst skiers was definitely that the course was perfect - great conditions, great grooming, beautiful trails. And how about those hills?
The awards ceremony was very well attended thanks to some very tempting door prizes. A huge thanks to all of our sponsors for making this race possible. The volunteers were fabulous! Thank you to all who helped make this such a great day.
We’ll look forward to seeing you all in 2009!
Full Nordic Spirit Race Results
Results by AGE Division
Thanks to:
All the skiers who participated in the Nordic Spirit
The City of Duluth Grooming Crew
Spirit Mountain Recreation Center
The Countless volunteers who made this day possible
and thanks to our sponsors:
Lake Superior College
Miller Hill Subaru
Duluth Running Co.
The Ski Hut
Occupational and Manual Medicine of Duluth
Lakewalk Surgery Center
Continental Ski and Bike
SuperOne Foods
Hammer Nutrition
RollerskiShop.com
Trailfitters of Duluth
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January 27, 2008 at 6:44 pm |
Professionally executed race from start to finish! Kudo’s to all who organized this event… (and to Darren - for the grooming!) See ya next year!
January 28, 2008 at 11:52 am |
Great race! It was fun to have my skis on for a change and not worry about the timing! Big thanks to Brian, Patti and all the volunteers!
If anyone has pictures they’d like the club to publish, email them to info@duluthxc.com and we will include them in the final albums.
Thanks everyone - see you next year! (Or next Wednesday!)
January 28, 2008 at 1:08 pm |
As the oldest skier in the race, I probably have attended as many Duluth race fiasco’s as anyone. But not this race. What a treat! From the excellent course marking to fabulous grooming, I had a ball. Thanks for doing it right and I hope you can keep it up.
January 29, 2008 at 12:03 pm |
Congratulations to DXC! Everything was cadillac, from the website, to online registration, to an idiotproof and well-groomed course to a logical use of the Moosehead Chalet as a race start and finish. You’ve come a long way since 2005! Awesome class act all the way around! Thanks to all the volunteers, sponsors, and the city groomers and Spirit groomers!
Oh, and for the first time in my life, while I was tucking downhill to the finish at 1k to go marker, a fisher bounded across the trail in front of me. If I was ten seconds earlier or later, I would’ve missed it. I’ve always wanted to see one and had to wait 40 years, but it finally happened during our race!
February 3, 2008 at 3:39 pm |
I am not able to see the photos on the link from the Nordic Spirit Website. Is this working properly for anybody else?
February 3, 2008 at 11:02 pm |
Hi Joe. No, it is not working perfectly. Technical difficulties and all…
For the moment, you can view them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/frenchbc/sets/72157603845452464
We are working on a long-term fix for the photo issue.
Bryan
February 4, 2008 at 12:36 am |
Sweet. Thanks.