It’s all about the skiing: Hudson attorney Gherty hits cross-country trail for charity

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Olympic skier Bode Miller once said, “Sometimes it’s all about the win; sometimes it’s about the skiing.”

Hudson attorney Mark Gherty disagrees.

To Gherty, who’s completed the American Birkebeiner 24 times, it’s always been all about the skiing — and winning isn’t as important as succeeding.

Consider last year, when he competed in the “Birkie,” a cross-country ski race in northern Wisconsin, for Team Fox, an arm of the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

“My sister has Parkinson’s disease. She was supposed to come to the race, but couldn’t make it due to a relapse,” Gherty said. “I hit the top of Duffy’s Hill, and looked out at Lake Hayward. I knew I had about four kilometers to go.

I’m not sure how many people donated last year, but I raised close to $7,000. To know that that many people had that much faith in me … it was really emotional.”

He wants to raise even more on Team Fox when he does the race again Feb. 23.

It will be his fifth time competing as a charity skier, and his 31st consecutive year at the Birkie. In addition to doing the full 50-kilometer skate race, he’s done the Korteloppet, a 26-kilometer race, five times, and one year he had to withdraw.

Gherty started skiing in 1973, the same year as the first Birkie. He didn’t try it until 1982, when he was a relatively new lawyer.

These days, he said, it’s a days-long festival. Back then, however, they only held the 54-kilometer classic race, with all competitors starting at the same time. The atmosphere simultaneously was chaotic, electrifying and addictive, he said.

“The Wisconsin Marching Band was there playing ‘Rocky,’ and they blew off a huge cannon. Because it was warm we started in Duffy’s Field, straight uphill. Then it was constantly up and down,” he recalled. “It was the farthest I’d gone in any one day.”

The event draws a mix of world-class elites and recreational skiers, such as Gherty. He calls himself a “plodder.”

His fastest time was four hours, 25 minutes, but for the past several years he’s been over five-hours — and he’s very satisfied with that.

There’ve been years Gherty said he was certain he couldn’t finish because of weather, but did. And there was one year he hadn’t trained adequately but toughed it out.

“As the song says, ‘If you don’t do the training, you get the paining,’ Gherty said with a laugh. “It’s a Birkie song, and it’s true.”

He turns 60 this year, placing him in a new age group. Ultimately, he wants to complete 30 Birkies. He’ll be 65, and will qualify for a new bib color, an extremely meaningful benchmark within the Birkie community.

Gherty is a trial attorney, a practice area notorious for long hours. It takes commitment to train after or before a long day in court, but he sees it as just another part of the day.

“It’s part of life. There’s time. I do a lot of thinking,” he said. “I’ve mapped out opening and closing statements while on my bike or my skis. Long distances are perfect for that.”

It’s all about the journey, after all, he said.

“I know I’m never going to be an elite,” Gherty said, “but it’s every individual’s race.

“I’ll watch the Olympics and see great runners, but two weeks later when the Paralympics come on, or whenever I go to Special Olympics and they’re running their hearts out, that’s what it’s all about.”