Cookie Race 24km Mmmm.. coookie

It's always great to do the cookie race. I have done it many times, and I really enjoy the trails in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park. Best of all, you get as many home baked cookies as you can stuff yourself with. After a 24k race, this can be quite a few, although I also tried all the different soups. The race itself started fairly well for me, my skis felt great and was staying in the pack fairly comfortably. There was quite a bit of traffic from earlier waves to weave through, but I let the others be my battering ram. At one point I had to go up the middle between the two tracks. Thanks other racers, for your understanding. After 3.3k, the course turns and the conditions changed from soft tracks with fresh dry snow to wet, glazy hard tracks. By about 5k I had to resign to the fact that my skis were not fast enough for me to stay in the lead group. I had used a lot of energy, and even going just about all out, I was losing time on all the gliding sections. Eventually I got passed by Cyrus and Brent, the latter having really fast skis. He passed me in a tuck while I was double poling. Packers was tough since it was not groomed, and I had no snap left. The last 6.6k was back on the groomed part, which was brutal for me as my skis just kept getting slower as the snow warmed up. I tried everything I could: changing tracks, outside the tracks, slow tempo, fast tempo. Despite this more guys easily passed me. My time was slower than 2 years ago when it was much colder, and presumably slower. Oh well, it was a tough resistance workout.