Ten ways cross-country ski races are different than running races

1. They give you an actual cloth bib. I am not actually sure what to do with it now. Since it has two sides, I'm almost tempted to make a bag out of it.

2. I actually skied behind a 80 year old Swede named Sven-Olaf for a mile. Until I wiped out going down a hill and never caught the old man again. Did I mention he was doing the 42k and I was doing the 13k? Also I only know his name because he had a special bib indicating he was a "Vasaloppet Veteran" - he has done the sister race in Sweden (a 90k) 30 times. Talk about badass.

3. At water stops you get heated water and... blueberry soup. Really. I was told that you haven't really done Mora until you have dribbled blueberry soup all over your bib from trying to ski and drink at the same time. Although I was also told to beware of the blueberry soup since apparently blueberries? Natural laxative.

4. You think the beginning of some running races is a clusterfuck? Put all those people on skis. Watch them go down the first hill and fall down. Watch a pile up ensue.

5. You want to see a bottleneck? Any hill, even a short one, that is too steep to glide up results in a huge mass of people trying to fishtail their way up, some of whom really suck at it and fall down and take out everyone behind them. Or at the least they cause everyone to stay at a standstill while they try and get up. If they don't fall, they spread their skis so wide, no one can get past them.

6. I don't know about you all, but from running, my hip flexors are very tight. Hey did you know that cross country skiing involves leading with your hips? Hey did you know I could barely walk for two days afterwards?

7. In freestyle races, you can either skate or classic ski and apparently they don't have separate divisions. That's kinda almost like making a runner race someone on rollerblades. I classic. So I got passed. A lot.

8. Apparently even though I suck at going up hills while running and I am good at going down hills, on skis, it's like Bizarro world, so I pass a lot of people going up hills (well when they aren't falling down and taking me out like a bowling pin). I almost feel like when I cross country ski race in the future, I should have a goatee.

9. This has less to do with skiing vs. running and more to do with racing in north-ish Minnesota. I said thank you to a policeman directing traffic (the trail actually crossed roads at points) and he said "You betcha!" Yay for stereotypes!

10. Not that running isn't superfun too, but cross country ski racing seems so much more like frolicking through the woods, but someone gives you a medal when you are done frolicking!