Family Sport

This last weekend we dropped the 2 little girls off at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, and took the 3 older kids to their yearly ski race.  This was Elias’ first time competing.  Last year he was 4, and not a very strong skier, but when we saw little 3 year olds competing, we figured we’d sign him up for the next year.

The “Miniloppet” has 3 options: the 1.5 km, the 4 km, and the 7 km.  Last year Silje and David did the 1.5 km, and finished a little too easily, so they both did the 4 km this year.  Parents are able to ski next to their kids, so Knut went back and forth between Silje and David on their course, and I skied alongside Elias.

Of course I cannot go to any ski event without having my camera ready for all the cool knitted garments I see.  This baby hat on the left was so interesting.  I’ve never seen one shaped like that before with a flap hanging down the back.  This was the grandma holding this little one, and she said the hat was hand knit by a relative years ago, and was a very well used heirloom.

Back to my kids’ race…

There were 200 kids at the starting line.  This little 3 year old was about Solveig’s size, and had the most adorable, huge zebra print glasses.  Oh my.  Large speakers started blasting “We will, we will, ROCK YOU!” and you could see all these kids between 3 and 12 years old head bobbing to the music as they were getting pumped up.  Then, of course, was the National Anthem.  Then a big cannon went off and the race was on.

The big kids followed the 4 and 7 km trails that broke off to the left, and Elias and I headed to the shorter course on the right.

Elias isn’t exactly known in our family for speed, but let me say that I have never seen him move his feet so fast.  Our kids normally train without poles, but Knut gave them their poles back for the race.  I’m not sure how productive that was for Elias as he wasn’t used to them, but it seemed to work.  He moved those feet like crazy through the turns, but when it came time to cross the lake portion of the race, he saw the track stretch out far before him and he lost all confidence.  This was also the portion of the race where the various lengths combined and lots of the older kids started speeding past him.

He started crying that he wasn’t going to win, and he wasn’t going to get a metal.  Too many kids were passing him.  I thought he understood that in marathon type races, even Daddy’s ski races, do finisher’s metals.  You’re not racing against others in these races, but yourself.  I told him that a metal was waiting for him at the finish line.  They only give them out to kids who finish.

Knut met up with us there, and gave Elias another pep talk, and some water and a quick snack.  At that point, Elias set his jaw and decided to finish.  He was going to be a finisher.  He knew in his heart.

The last hill was so steep that they had a bunch of high school kids in green vests at the bottom that literally carried the kids to the top by wrapping their arms around the little kids’ waists and skiing with them to the top, and then coming down to retrieve more kids.  I wish they had help for the grown ups too, because I barely made it up myself.  I’m not that great of a skier, and I saw several mothers just take their skis off and walk up the hill.  I’m proud to say I made it up with my skis on.

David was already done with his 4 km, and was waiting for us at the finish line.  I skied on ahead to  take pictures, and Knut finished up the race with Elias.

Silje was about a minute behind Elias with her 4 km.  She has made it clear to us that while she enjoys skiing, she doesn’t like rushing.  She likes looking at the trees and chatting with people.  So we told her to just enjoy herself.  She enjoys the art of the sport more than the competition of it.

Although, when she saw the skijoring race that followed the kids’ race, she decided that she wouldn’t mind going really fast if a dog was pulling her.  I’m not sure if Lena would be interested in the job, but I bet Missy wouldn’t mind.  One of the skijorners that we talked to before the race said that huskies do the best in this type of sport, but he breeds his huskies with greyhounds to supercharge them.  It was a fun crowd.

Knut did his 58km adult race the next day as the kids and I hung out in the pool at the hotel.  I think he did pretty well overall, but he was a little disappointed with his time.  About half way through the race he had a fall and something went wrong with the binding of his ski.  So he had to spend a bit of time looking for his ski in the woods, and then figuring out how to make the binding work again, in at least a band-aid sort of way, and then limp through the last half of the race.  All that considered, I think he did pretty well.  He wasn’t sure if the ski breaking caused his fall, or if his fall broke the ski.  At any rate, he finished and not that far off from his goal.

Yesterday was tough with everyone back home and super tired.  Today the kids are a bit more rational.

A good time was had by all.