City of Lakes Loppet

The City of Lakes Loppet was this weekend. It is an outdoor winter activity smorgasbord. Activites are at Theodore Worth park, Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles or for some events on all three.

Jenny and I went onto Lake Calhoun Saturday for speed skating, ice biking, skijoring, cross-country skiing and snow sculptures.

The speed skating was on a one kilometer oval of cleared ice on Lake Calhoun. Eight or nine co-ed skaters started at 1:30. It was a 50 lap race! That's 50 kilometers! We saw the start and a few of the laps before we realized that event was going to take a long time.

We headed over to ice biking that was very close by. The course this year on Lake Calhoun was boring compared to previous year's races on the lagoon between Calhoun and Isles. Nonetheless we had fun with another spectator. There is an odd 20 minute the final lap format bit we had fun cheering the competitors.

We then turned around for the start of the skijoring. Skijoring is cross-country skiimg with one or two dogs pulling the skier. The start is fantastic with dozens of dogs and their humans flying past. Most of the dogs were crazy excited to be running at full speed. Others were excited to be out with their humans. Others were distracted by all the other dogs. It all was so much fun.

We headed over to the event village to see the snow sculptures. The photos speak for themselves. We also got to watch the skiers crossing the finish line.

On the way back home we got to see the finish of the 50 kilometer skating event. The two leaders had been together the entire two hours! The skater in second had drafted the lead skater for 49 laps. The lead was out of gas and was easily taken over by the guy behind. I felt bad for the guy who had done all the work but ended up in second.

Jenny and I had a great time.

50k speed skating

ice biking

skijoring

skijoring

this white poodle ran full out the entire race

frozen pizza oven

Liked this snow sculpture

very artsy