Anna Rix proved to be the fastest while Tracie Curry and Clinton Brown were the longest in the 2020 Spring SKI-dash.
Rix’s gold medal time of 37 minutes, 27 seconds held up despite several attempts by Mark Ross to unseat her. Ross got to within spitting distance of Rix with a time of 38:32. He had planned one last attempt on Saturday, the last day of the race, but warming temperatures and rain doused that plan in cold water.
“Victory was within my reach,” Ross said, “but at 8:30am with rain at the Mushers Hall, no skis in my quiver could have traversed the course in 37 minutes.”
Ross proclaimed himself “satisfied” with his silver medal effort.
Kieran and Max Kaufman took third with a time of 1 hour, 9 min, 4 sec. Knocked off the podium were one-time contenders Mark Simon* and Eric Troyer. (Though Simon* did win extra points by getting the SKI-dash into the News-Miner in this story.)
Distance Event
Tracie Curry and Clinton Brown dominated the Distance Event with an impressive 22.8 miles, putting several miles in between them and silver-medalist Andy Blossy (13.6 miles).
No award was given for third place in Distance. The Panel of Very Serious Judges considered giving third place to one of the Speed participants but decided they were much to busy with Very Important Stuff to pore over the records and figure that out.
Investigations!
Some of that Very Important Stuff was video footage uncovered by a Secret Investigator. A portion of the SI’s Very Important Report is included below. The PVSJ used the video links to examine some possible violations.
For example, one video appears to show Mark Ross stopping short of the actual Start/Finish sign at Musher’s Hall, a clear violation of race rules, which caused much Officious Harrumphing by the judges. But a blip in the video suggests the truncated run may have been due to a Social Distance Avoidance Situation, which is somewhat allowed in the rules. In any case, Ross had three second-place runs, so his placement would not have changed had one of his runs been disqualified.
The videos also revealed that Kieran Kaufman stopped short of the Start/Finish sign at Musher’s Hall while his father Max appeared to go the distance. After much Thinking, Pondering, and Considering, the PVSJ decided to shower Kieran with mercy and allow Max’s time to stand for both. After all, Kieran had a miserable time during his ski. The PVSJ want everyone to know they are not without hearts! In fact, they have Huge hearts. The Biggest Ever!
Conclusion
And so the 2020 Spring SKI-dash ended amid soggy days. The finish heralds a close to the 2019-2020 cross-country skiing season, which was Quite Awesome despite some Very Cold Temperatures in the early part of this calendar year.
The Organizers would like to thank everyone who participated in this the Most Awesomest Event Ever.
Race standings
www.interioralaskatrails.org/2020-spring-ski-dash-results-so-far/
Very Important Report excerpt
Anna at Crossman Road:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/kgOjIECpU0CQlR47KEvYQK7sVRNTO1DszBa9pAwJlOK
Mark R. and the Kaufman’s at the hall:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/bgezLJwJx11PlMeOhH0pufX7Vu3xwcNJRg6cx3tbEwz
Kaufman’s at bottom of Crossman:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/IfMYwvVnum9W1DL4N9eSP34X9uSq7IgS16F87Dh6grs
I don’t seem to have any pictures of Mark S. on Easter. I did see a dog team go out about 8:45 am, which was probably the one he saw. Maybe he was over on the inbound to avoid all evidence gathering attempts!
Asterisk explained
* Mark Simon’s once-disputed time was approved by the PVSJ (due to the Social Distance Avoidance Situation ruling) and it was going to remove the asterisk from his time, but one artsy judge liked it so much that he convinced the others to keep it attached. They Humbly suggest to Mr. Simon that he keep the asterisk as a marker of his uniqueness (since he clearly doesn’t have the speed).
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