Rebecca Dussault defends American Birkebeiner title

Next stop, the Al Johnson

After becoming the first American to win the Winter World Triathlon Championships two weeks ago in Norway, Rebecca Dussault jetted back to the States in time to defend her American Birkebeiner title, winning the 50-kilometer race in a time of 2 hours, 18 minutes and 18 seconds, 11 minutes faster than her time last year.

 “It’s hard to win the Birkie once,” says Dussault. “It’s harder to win it again.”
Dussault came into the 2010 event with a target on her back, having won the 2009 race. Add in the fact that the Birkebeiner is part of the FIS (Federation Internationale de Ski) Marathon Cup attracting the European teams, and the chance to repeat becomes even dicier.
Then the week leading up to the race, Dussault came down with an upper respiratory infection and two days prior to the race didn’t even know if she would be able to line up at the start.
“Thursday night I didn’t even know if I could race, let alone defend my title,” says Dussault. “I got one day of training in and that was for just 45 minutes.”
She received some advice from former Birkie champion Ingrid Butts, who suggested Dussault try acupuncture.
By Saturday’s race her health improved, at least enough to show up, but questions of how she would feel in the race still swirled in her head.
“I felt good enough to get on the start line,” says Dussault.
Fortunately, at least for Dussault, racers were met with fairly mild temperatures when they lined up Saturday morning and continued to warm up throughout the race.
Dussault emerged out of the mass start near the front of the pack and did her part taking the lead on a couple of occasions, testing the limits of her competitors.
“When I would get up front I would charge and see who can hang,” says Dussault.
At the 14-kilometer mark, a lead pack of four women, including Dussault, took off leaving the field in their wake.
From then on the four women spent the next 30 kilometers trading off “pulls” and Dussault bided her time using her time in the pack to draft.
“I was drafting when and where possible,” says Dussault.
With five kilometers left to go Dussault decided it was time to make her move, hoping to avoid a final dash to the finish that culminated her 2009 race.
“I knew I didn’t want to sprint like last year,” says Dussault.
When she stepped on the throttle, Dussault left the other three skiers behind, including U.S. Olympic cross-country team member Tazlina Mannix.
With a windy lake crossing between her and the turn on Main Street, Dussault looked to draft off a camera crew filming the race leaders on the home stretch from a snowmobile.
“I kept trying to draft off of the snowmobile,” says Dussault.
This year, Dussault had Main Street to herself as she crossed the finish line 31 seconds ahead of her closest competitor.
“I had my own space on Main Street,” explains Dussault. “Last year I had tunnel vision in the final sprint. This year was a bit more celebratory. Then, I felt like a truck hit me.”
Dussault now gets her picture on the Wall of Frames once again and a healthy paycheck.
While Dussault qualified earlier this year for a paid trip to Europe to compete on the World Cup circuit in March, she’s opting out but will return to the race circuit in mid-March.
“I’m going to come home and rest and do the Al Johnson—that’s my next big event,” says Dussault.