With 17 kilometres to go, Harry Seaton was well in front of the pack in the 50-kilometre skate race at the 35th annual Sleeping Giant Loppet.
With the wind chill hovering around the -40 C mark and swirling snow lessening visibility by the moment, Seaton's sure-bet victory became a little less certain in the final third of the marathon trek through the snowy forests of Sibley.
"I actually broke away at 13 kilometres and I was by myself for quite awhile," said Seaton, a National Development Centre Thunder Bay team member who was warming up for a trip to nationals at St. Anne, Que. later this month.
"Then at about 33 kilometres done, my pole nicked on my boot and it actually broke, so I lost about eight to 10 inches off of one of my poles, so I wound up skiing the last 17 kilometres with a short pole."
It's not an easy feat, especially with some of the region's fastest cross-country skiers on your tail.
"It's difficult because you can't really push. It sticks in because there's no basket. It was tricky, but I was able to hang on and hold in there," the Orillia, Ont. native said.
There was no need to worry.
Seaton crossed the line in 2:13.18, a whopping 11 minutes faster than veteran Werner Schwar, to capture his first Loppet title.
"It was a little cold for the first bit, but the snow was good, the trails were really firm. It was great and I'm pleased with how it went," he said.
Not bad for his Loppet debut.
"I've been wanting to do the 50, it's been kind of Thunder Bay's feature race for as long as I can remember. This year it kind of worked out for our race schedule, so I decided to do it," said Seaton, the first Thunder Bay-based skier to take the marquee race since Stephen Hart in 2008.
"It's good to put Thunder Bay back on the map," he said.
If Seaton was redrawing the map, Brook Latimer created it in the first place.
Latimer, who battled a cold an only entered the Loppet on race-day morning, cruised through the course in 2:32.21, the sixth-fastest time of any skier, to capture her record ninth women's crown.
The win surprised Latimer, who last tasted victory in 2008, as much as anyone.
"I haven't been preparing this year. I've just kind of been skiing. It's been a good year, and Kamview was a good prep for this," she said. "I was kind of hoping it would be the same conditions as Kamview, sunny and warm, but it was good conditions out there, a good, tough 50."
Former two-time winner Adam Swank of Duluth switched over to the 50-kilometre classic race, and crossed the line in 2:50.10, slightly more than a minute ahead of Lakehead University's Greg Kilroy of Powassan, Ont.|
Kilroy said he, Swank and Jeff Campbell swapped in and out of the lead for the first 40 per cent of the race.
"Then at about 25 kilometres Swank went for it in the hillier section in the middle. I tried responding and chasing after him, but he just got such a lead on me that I was skiing by myself and thought I could blow up. So I eased off a little bit, Jeff caught up to me and we worked together trying to catch him," Kilroy said.
Thunder Bay's Christina Groulx took top spot on the female side, followed by Duluth's Lindsay Wallis and Thunder Bay's Amanda Holdsworth, who coaches the OUA champion Lakehead University Nordic teams.
In the 35-kilometre event, Kakabeka Falls skier Kevin Paradis finished first, in a virtual tie with Thunder Bay's Robert Martin. Hovland, Mich.'s Levi Axtell was third, the first female to finish.
NDC's Erin Tribe won the 20-kilometre women's race, outpacing teammate Andrea Lee to capture gold. Men's results weren't immediately available.
About 850 skiers took part in the race, which organizer Peter Gallagher attributed in part to last Sunday's snowfall.
