By A.M. Kelley
Superior Catholic Herald
Birkebeiner race: Local Catholics are right in the thick of things
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SUPERIOR -- Cable is a little town with 836 residents and one really big shindig.
On Feb. 23 upwards of 6,500 skiers and 15,000 spectators from at least 19 countries and 45 states will descend on this sweet little bit of Wisconsin countryside for the 35th annual American Birkebeiner Cross Country Ski Race.
Cable's Catholic community is right in the thick of things and it's hard to find a member of St. Ann Parish (113 families) who is not involved in one way or the other. From St. Ann parish director and longtime Birkie volunteer, Sr. Virginia Schwartz, OSM, to 86-year-old Gertrude Rieckhoff, the race is the thing.
The 51K (32 mile) Birkie race starts in Cable and many volunteers are needed just to help the racers register at the Telemark Resort, where they pick up information and "bibs," the numbered identification patches all participants wear.
Winnie Gall and her husband Fred will volunteer at the Birkie this year. This is nothing new. The Galls have been on the scene since the first running of the world-famous race in 1973. They've helped out in many ways--sometimes staffing food stations along the trail and other years, as timers at the finish line.
"Those early Birkies were really exciting," Winnie Gall said. "It was most fun when skiers crossed the finish line in one big mass."
Now Birkie organizers stagger racers in waves from the start so they are spread out and cross the finish line in like fashion. But Winnie Gall likes those earlier years and the wild and chaotic finish line scenes.
The Galls have many Birkie stories. They've lived in Cable since 1971, the year Fred quit his job with Sears in the Chicago area to buy and operate a 10-cabin resort. They had six children, ages 8 to 17, at the time.
"(Living in Cable) was a whole new thing," Winnie said, admitting that this comment is an understatement.
Her husband was the outdoorsman but she learned "a lot of new things" including tennis and how to cross-country ski.
Some of Birkie's biggest winners have stayed in their cabins over the years including members of Italy's ski team, which made a little history of their own in 2006. That year Italian teammates Marco Cattaneo and Roberto DeZolt led the pack. The two men wanted to share the victory so they linked hands while crossing the finish line.
"They wanted to go over the line together," Winnie said. "But (the rules) wouldn't let two (skiers) win."
According to race history, it was ruled that Cattaneo's foot was one-half inch ahead of DeZolt's and he went on record as the year's winner.
Cable residents and St. Ann parishioners Dave and Kathleen Tomasula are familiar with the Birkie from another angle. They don't volunteer at registration or at the finish line. The 61-year-old couple will ski the race and it's safe to say that they know the course; they've participated 28 times.
He's a primary school teacher in Hayward, semi-retired, and she's a social worker. They moved to Cable 34 years ago from Hammond, Ind., in pursuit of the northern Wisconsin "lifestyle--outdoor and active," he said. "But back in those days there was a lot less people."
The Tomasulas train "quite a bit" before the Birkie and ski about five days a week to get into shape but still consider the huge event as a "a social gathering" and enjoy hobnobbing with the other athletes from around the world. (Birkie promoters say that Canada, Germany, Norway, Russia and Switzerland send the most skiers).
Another resort owner, Gertrude Rieckhoff, calls herself a nonskier but a perennial Birkie enthusiast.
"I live here and I want to help out," she said.
Chicago natives, she and her husband bought a business, the Norway Lodge on Lake Owen, and moved north to manage it in 1963.
She likes to hand out the bibs at Telemark. Rieckhoff remembers when there were so few racers that their names could be kept in a box, "it looked like a recipe box," she said. "Now it's all computerized. It's amazing. It's so streamedlined."
It takes at least 2,000 volunteers--spread out between Cable and Hayward--to make the Birkie a success each year. Every four miles there are food stops. Lions or church groups or Boy Scout troops often get involved here. School bus drivers are needed to transport racers to the start line. There are EMT volunteers and ski patrols, and a highly organized lost and found system. If skiers want to shed clothing during a race they know if they drop it on the trail the article can be reclaimed later at the lost and found station.
No one knows the ins and outs of the Birkie better than Jacque Lindskoog, a member of St. Ann Parish. She and her late husband Wayne were two of the race's founders. They both skied the first Birkie in 1973 and she was the only woman in that group of 34 skiers.
Lindskoog has skied almost every Birkie since, up until five years ago. She fractured her shoulder and had to let one race go by without her. And again last year the 67-year-old had both knee joints replaced. But she plans to race again this year--only if the conditions are not icy.
With a lifelong interest in fitness and exercise, Lindskoog hopes her story will give others the confidence to take on physical challenges.
"As we all age everyone has issues," she said. "Maybe this will be encouraging to others."
Regardless of age, St. Ann parishioners have found many ways to stay in the game.
"Ours is a parish of senior citizens," Schwartz said. "There are very few children."
Along with other parishioners who don't ski or don't want to brave the cold, she will help register skiers and host some in her home, not an uncommon practice.
"Accommodations become very limited in the area," Schwartz said. "Many in the parish open their homes to skiers, people we've come to know who come every year."
St. Ann is involved in the race on every level and tops off their hospitality to the visiting athletes by offering an additional Mass, the traditional "Birkie Mass" at 5:45 p.m. on Saturday.
'Birkie' has a long history
This year the 51K American Birkebeiner Cross Country Ski Race takes place on Saturday, Feb. 23. Elite skiers, weekend athletes and novices will fill the trail from Cable (in Bayfield County) to the finish line in Hayward (in Sawyer County) on Saturday. But activities for every age and ability--from the "super fit" to "those vowing to get in shape"--are spread throughout the 3-day Birkie festival. These include: winter sports demos, seminars, a snowshoe family hike, races for children ages 3 to 13, a noncompetitive 12K race and a spaghetti feed. All events are explained in detail on the race Web site: www.birkie.com.
Dating back to 1973 the Birkie began small (only 33 men and one woman skied the first year) and, according to the race organization, "was patterned after the Birkebeiner Rennetin Lillehammer, Norway, an event which commemorates an historic event in that nation. During a civil war in the 13th century, an invading force was about to capture an infant prince and heir to the throne. Two Viking warriors, called "birkebeiners" for the birch bark leggings they wore, took the child and skied 55 kilometers to safety. The baby went on to become a great Norwegian king, Haakon Hakonsson."
The Birkie has put Cable on the world map but area businesses host events throughout the year including other cross-country ski races, snowmobile races, ice-fishing contests, barstools-on-skis races, and the world's longest weenie roast. In the spring and summer, Cable visitors can take in mountain bike races, golf tournaments and an arts and crafts fair. Cable event information is available at www.cable4fun.com.
St. Ann Parish in Cable regularly celebrates Mass on Sunday at 8:30 p.m. On Birkie weekend there's an additional one on Saturday. According to parish director Sr. Virginia Schwartz, OSM, this "Mass of convenience" is held at 5:45 p.m. Fr. Philip Juza, from Hayward's St. Joseph Parish, is St. Anne's supervising pastor.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2008