January 14, 2016 – The inaugural CXC Marathon Cup race series will kick off Saturday, January 16 with the 42k Seeley Hills Classic race in Seeley, WI. Seeley Hills is the first of many highly ranked courses the race series has to offer to the weekend warriors competing in the Cup.

Central Cross Country Ski Association has partnered with the six most prominent marathons in the Midwest and Great Lakes, which brings events from three states (MN,WI,MI) into one cohesive competition.

The Seeley Hills Classic event is set on the Birkie Trailhead, where skiers will wind through the scenic northern part of the Birkie Classic Trail throughout the race. There will be four basic competition categories in this race including: overall, age-indexed overall, age class, and team/club. The race series is sanctioned and scored by CXC.

The CXC Marathon Cup race series are evenly split between classic and skate techniques, with two classic weekends, two skate weekends, one skiathlon, and one weekend with back-to-back classic and skate races. Next weekend’s race is the Noquemanon 50k Classic, January 23 in Marquette, Michigan.

Numerous victories will be fought to claim a total purse prize of $60,000 between the six events for the CXC Marathon Cup crown.

Other exciting prizes include a Masters Fantasy Camp, where the top three males and females in each age group from the final points list of the race series will be eligible to participate. The camp will be three days of structured training, complemented with technique sessions and video analysis by professional coaching. The camp will be an experience in an environment as it would be at the National Team Camp!

We hope the <http://centralcrosscountryskiassociation.cmail20.com/t/r-l-vttbdl-jlludjjlm-m/>CXC Marathon Cup will become a tradition for many years to come, not only to bring skiers together weekend after weekend to celebrate cross country skiing through long distance events, but to share a common goal of promoting the sport as well.

CXC Marathon Cup Schedule

January 16, 2016 – Seeley Hills Classic / 42K Classic

January 23, 2016 – Noquemanon Ski Marathon / 50K Classic

February 7, 2016 – City of Lakes Loppet / Minne Tour or Loppet Challenge

February 13, 2016 – Vasaloppet USA / 58K Freestyle

February 20, 2016 – American Birkebeiner / 51K Skate

March 5, 2016 – Great Bear Chase / 50K Skiathlon

View Complete Cup Details here.