Well, I didn't make Numero Uno like himself did, but there I was on the front page of THE MINING JOURNAL, the Upper Peninsula's largest daily newspaper!!! "Chuck and Sally Martin traveled here from Jones Mills Pa., just to race in the National Masters. Chuck, 76, said that he has skied in events in Lake Placid, Germany, and Switzerland among other venues. 'But that doesn't mean I win,' said Chuck who had knee-replacement surgery two years ago. 'I finish last or next to last - but it beats sitting down for a bingo game.'"

We had traveled to the ends of the USA on a sort of spur of the moment thing. At the Erie Quad ski race on Sunday, January 11, we met up with Thomas Cook, not of the travel agency fame but of the Ohio Nordics. He was trying to put together a women's team and he and I had corresponded over the net about that. Actually, I, only to back out of some early races because I felt very unready for racing. At the Quad, we sat by the giver of awards, awaiting ours. Thomas Cook is a friend of the guy who occasionally beats Jimmy Samuels (Jimmy won in 2003). Thomas wanted us to go to Nationals and pick up an award for Ohio Nordics. So, not having a very full schedule, we said, yes. After all, Nationals was to begin the next Friday in Marquette, Michigan. This gave us little time to slowly wend our way south to pick up the cat and dump her off with the only person who will take in such a bad-tempered feline.

We dropped off the cat on Wednesday and were in Marquette by Friday afternoon. The drive is pretty spectacular, especially the very beautiful Mackinac bridge over the water that connects Lake Michigan to Lake Huron. The water was a freezing mix of bright blue to icy white and the bridge a challenge to an acrophobic. Arriving in Marquette, we had just enough time to find the charming, European style motel and then locate the Saturday 20 K for Chas and 15 K for me free style race. The Free Style course was pleasant but could have been marked better. It was always a bit of a mystery whether I was on the right one or not. The younger men were doing 30 Ks and the younger women 20 Ks. The race director announced that none of the race people would give directions to prevent their telling something not so????? He is an MD and hard to argue with though some of the ladies tried. My usual experience is that the rest of the competitors all disappear at the start and I have the course to myself. This was again the usual thing. Only Charlotte had just arrived in my 70 + age group, leaving me the oldest female. Not bad. Finish the thing and I've got second. I don't often skate 10 miles so I spent a lot of time double poling in the classic groves and had a nice time. Chas was gone on his 20 Ks when I got in so I took a bus back to the parking lot an got some drier clothes and went back to cheer him on. He had given up skating before the knee replacement and had taken up skating again just three weeks before Marquette. I looked at the results and they had me in a special category of 20 K and first. Charlotte told me to get that changed! So I mentioned it to the lady official and she said it would be changed. Himself managed to take a spill just before the finish and came in all snowy and with his hat on crooked. He was very pleased to have skated 20 Ks, even though it put him at the end of a line of Svens and Orvalds in the 70+.

Actually, friend Paul Kaald from Seattle and his wife, Pat, were some to the people we look forward to seeing at these events and Paul had just turned 70. He had had an operation for a tumor in his heart and was just happy to be alive and skiing.
The second race was a relay, each one doing 750 meters 3 times. A fellow, Al, from Ohio Nordics had signed us up. It was very cold, 0 degrees and windy and everybody hid behind a building out of the wind waiting for their fellow competitors to come by. There weren't many competitors and we got a second place for Ohio Nordics in some category....Coed? Third race was a duathlon: classic/skate. Someone managed to find a really hilly course for the skate. Lots of herring bone straight up and I side slipped down one hill. Most of the older skiers, including world-class Sven, 83 years old, decided to classic the whole thing. Age somehow diminishes the size and capacity of the lungs. I have to stop and gasp for breath if skating a steep uphill. I can usually make it without stopping if I classic. It was nice to find that even Paul, just a kid, really, was going to classic the whole thing. It was a little colder than the last race but in the woods, out of the wind. It was a fun course and we all ended up in pretty much the same positions as the other races.

The awards ceremony wasn't very ceremonial. There were no short, middle, tall boxes to stand on. I had already complained to J.D. about the age groups ending at 70+. I jumped him again to complain for 83 year-old Sven, who is such a cute old codger and world class competitor. He should get some recognition! J.D. said that he had taken care of everything. I said what about Chuck, for whom there should be a 75-79 group? He said that he had fixed that and that Chuck was the only one in the age group!!!!

Well, how about that????? National champion!!!! When the medals were handed out, J.D, muttered something about a special category and gave me a first? Then another first? I protested as I took the medals that I was second. Charlotte went up to J.D, and complained and he came around to exchange the firsts for seconds. This is NATIONALS. (Perhaps Charlotte protested because, somewhere along, she had
suffered so much when I beat her in Switzerland that she had worked for two years to beat me here and didn't want to lose that victory.) Well, now. I guess I have my work cut out for me. Just wait until next year. The battle of the old crones.