 The mild weather this past weekend didn't stop a yearly tradition for area cross-country skiers. In this week's Northwood Adventure, our Josh Peterson shows us how Finlandia adapted to the weather conditions. The morning break, Finlandia. For 35 years, each February at the Buena Vista ski area, the Finlandia ski marathon attracts cross-country skiers from all over, and this year was no different. Finlandia has become an annual tradition for the area, and helps make Bemidji a winter destination. So it's good for our community, brings a lot of people up to see what we have in Bemidji, and gives us local people a good excuse to get some big toys out and have fun. Despite the unseasonably warm conditions, this year's Finlandia still went on, but being able to adapt to all the types of weather to make holding the marathon a challenge. With the February heatwave we're experiencing, there were concerns about the race course conditions. That is why an early starting time was put in place. Even the course itself had to adapt. Shortening the race course was done because portions of the course had melted away. So the course was shortened, making planning and strategizing a necessity to make sure the course was ready for the big day. So we're doing a lap course, because we don't have our 25K loop. Those big fields out there, they can't hold the snow when the sun comes. So we had to shorten the course, keep it in the woods, and then we groomed the heck out of it. Throughout its history, the Finlandia Marathon has only been canceled a couple of times, but never because of cold temperatures or too much snow. It's the warm weather that can control whether or not the race happens. If it's cold, we're able to push the start back a couple hours if need be, but we've never had to cancel for cold, it's only because of lack of snow. For the competitors, the marathon course was slick and fast. Craig Cardinal finished first in the pursuit race and said the course conditions changed by his second lap. It started out really slick, there were a couple icy spots, but then by the second lap when it was warming up, it started to slow down quite a bit. On a day that was more like spring than winter, the race between a heat wave and a winter sport gave victory to the Finlandia Marathon. But this week's Northwood's adventure in Bemidji, I'm Josh Peterson, Lakeland News. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.