Just back from the Middlebury Carnival, a furious weekend of skate racing at Breadloaf. For the first time I can remember in my 10 years coaching, other than a couple of weekends where a race got cancelled, our league scheduled an entire weekend of a single technique, in this case skating. The way it turned out with Mother Nature I'm not complaining about that. I'm sure Lary and I would have hit the klister mix on either day (probably some yummy mix of KR60/K22N Friday, perhaps K35 covered with hardwax today), but I'm ok with not tempting fate.
Given the forecast, the trails held up surprisingly well Friday. The Rikert crew has certainly done their homework in January and February (and before that with trail prep). Although there were spots on the race course where your baskets could punch through, step 6" off the packed trail for an idea of how soft it could have been...thigh deep. The lack of sunshine and only 10 minutes of light rain kept the race course consistent for the late starters as for the early bibs, making for a fair race all around.
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| Bear's a blur early in Friday's race |
Congrats to Gabi and Katlyn for having the best races of their college careers, so far. Every week I see somebody step up and have a good race, and it feels good to see us making progress. It may not always show up when you take a quick look at the results sheets, but when you look at "seconds/km" behind we are making measureable progress. Until you start getting in the Top 30 on a regular basis it's all about working to close that gap, which is where we're currently at.
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| Katlyn strong out of the gate for her best college race |
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| Gabi with a quick early split |
Today was a sprint relay, one of my favorite formats to be a spectator at. Since our league coaches decided to implement a "no top coats" wax policy for this race, other than driving the van and brushing a few skis I was mostly in spectator mode for the morning. 3 skiers per team, a ~1km loop (3:33/loop for the top women's teams, 2:53 for the top men's teams), and each skier races 3 laps (non-consecutively of course). A big thanks to Colby and Bowdoin for giving our extra skiers, Bear and Larissa, a chance to join their teams. One of the great things about the EISA circuit is the mix of competitiveness and camaraderie. When we race relays that is on display in full force. If you could have heard the roar of the crowd on that last climb, it was just awesome!
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| Dynamic tag zone action between Kat and Sam |
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| Larissa heads up on the last climb of the sprint course looking for the distinctive black and white Bowdoin uniforms to tag in her teammate |
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| Bear leads Bowdoin and Harvard skiers on the climb to the tag zone |
After the relays it was back across the street to the touring center for an adaptive ski race. Patrick Standen of the Northeast Disabled Athletic Association (
http://www.disabledathletics.org/) and I go way back through my other job at Vermont City Marathon. Patrick is one of the top handcycle racers in New England and a philosophy professor here at Saint Michael's. Last year we saw our first adaptive XC ski race at Rikert, and this year Colin Delaney from our team actually competed in it. Colin's still on crutches after his December crash in Lake Placid. Watching those racers climb the hills of the Battell Loop blows me away. Think about skiing up those hills; if you're skating and V2 bogs down you switch to V1 and keep going, if you're classic skiing and the hill gets too steep you switch to herringbone and run up it. In the adaptive bucket your only option is to keep pushing with your arms. Essentially, this is double poling up every hill out there.
Kudos to the dozen or so racers in the adaptive event. And kudos to the folks at Middlebury for providing this competitive outlet.
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| 19:16 later Colin's quote after finishing the 3k was "I'm probably going to be pretty sore tomorrow" |
Also thanks to our parents, friends, and team alums for coming out...Larissa's people, Mom & Pop Sitzer, Chaz (I know you were working it but no matter you were there), Geneseo Andrew, and our melodic world travelers Josh and Claire. Your support means the world to us, so from the bottom of our hearts Thank You!!!
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| The SMC crew (front: Colin Delaney, Patrick Standen)(back: Katlyn Keane, Gabi Naranja, Josh Lanney, Joe Connelly, Sam Martell, Larissa Spaulding, Claire Eisenberg)(Bear and Lary were still out skiing-sorry we missed you guys!) |
(posted by Joe)
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