JO classic race

With no mass start, it looked a little silly to have people firing off one at a time onto the mass start area, since its a huge, wide-open field, but all the J2s got special instructions to not win the race up that hill, so things went well. Corey started 15 seconds behind Heather, who started 15 seconds behind Maddy, but they all took that in stride, and Corey won, with Heather just after, Maddy in 4th, Hannah in 9th, Heidi in 12th, and Cate in 31st, just 15 seconds out of the top 20! Those girls are some tough fighters and good skiers, I was pumped to be able to get out on course and cheer for them.

The boys all started in a group also, and that was a really close race - the top 5 were within 8 seconds. Jack was 2nd, 0.6s back, Eli was 4th, Paddy was 5th, and Hamish was 13th, in his first distance race as a J2! Devlin and Tyler had some tough races, but they're rallying well for tomorrow's race. I got to watch the older kids' races also, and some of those OJ boys were just super impressive to watch. The girls skied really well too, with Izzy C in 3rd for J1 girls and Kaitlyn Miller winning the OJ girls. New England won the day again (this is becoming sort of common, eh?), and looking at the Alaska cup points, we got more points on the first day than Alaska (2nd place) has total. We're ON.

Today was a training day, and after skiing the course and scraping some race wax, we took the kids out for an adventure - my group went to Marden's to pick up a proper outfit for bowling, and then we headed to the bowling alley. Upon arrival, however, we discovered that we only had 30 minutes to bowl until they'd kick us out (Great Lakes had reserved the entire place at 3:30), and it reeked like sweat and cigarette smoke, so we just went back. Fail.

The kids are preparing for tomorrow, and I'm sucking down cough drops so I can keep yelling at the same volume when I cheer for them. Gonna be another beautiful day!

Maddy, Heather, and Corey lined up.

Maddy starting out - check out the LINE of spectators!



Hamish starting out.

Sabra testing wax.

Mass start changed

Today we were previewing the classic course, where Wednesday's mass start was supposed to be held. It had set up really nicely overnight, and was a really hard track - Awesome! I was skiing with the J2s, and we were kicking like mules on KR40, previewing the course and practicing the downhills. There are some hairy downhills but they're nothing you can't get down safely - some of the younger skiers preferred sliding some of the corners rather than step turning them, and thats just fine. Anyway, we were getting all psyched up for the mass start, practicing downhills in groups and throwing elbows and all the other intricacies of mass starts.

Apparently, some time after we'd finished our course tour, the Midwestern team's J1 girls went down the first hill, and one girl fell and the rest of the team ran into her and she tore her ACL, or did something of that magnitude to her knee. This sent the Intermountain coach into a frenzy, and he made enough noise that he managed to convince the technical delegate that the course was unsafe for a mass start. Which is ridiculous, because in an individual start, skiers will be going way more aggressively on those downhills, trying to eke out every second.

Needless to say, team New England is pretty pissed about that turn of events - we do really well in head-to-head races, and its not like we won't clean up tomorrow, but it just sucks that people are such whiners. Its a ski race, for god's sake - the downhills are SUPPOSED to be fast and technical. Gah.

Anyway, the kids are taking this in stride, and they're pumped to rock it tomorrow. So am I!

Beautiful klister skiing up here, you can keep your extra blue days, I'll take sunny klister days. Too bad my camera battery died and I didn't bring the charger or I'd have photos.

Sprint day

I want you to look at the following pictures:


OJ boys: 1. Alex Schulz (NE), 2. Skyler Davis (NE), 3. Chase Marston (NE).

J2 boys: 1. Cole Morgan (IM), 2. Eli Hoenig (NE), 3. ?, 4. Jack Hegman (NE)

J1 boys: 1. David Sinclair (NE), 2. Jackson Rich (NE), 3. Hans Halvorson (NE)

OJ girls: 1. Kaitlyn Miller (NE), 2. Alaska girl, 3. Midwestern girl.

J2 girls: 1. Corey Stock (NE), 2. Heather Mooney (NE), 3. Maddy Pfeifer (NE)

J1 girls: 1. Isabel Caldwell (NE), 2. Alaska girl, 3. Gage Fichter (NE)

We took 13 of 18 possible podium spots. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that we had an awesome day. We gave a bunch of fast kids some awesome skis, and look what happened!

The Junior Olympics report, first two training days

We left Boston after only 15 minutes of packing the van, new record! We did have to take out the rear seats so that everyone's huge duffels could fit, I took one for the team and didn't bring enough clothes to wear clean ones all week... but at least I packed light. We were planning to stop in Bangor for dinner, we'd called in takeout, but when we got there, they'd forgotten to do the separate checks, so we were waiting for them to do that, and a guy walked up to us and asked what we were doing up there - I said we were heading to Presque Isle for the junior olympics in xc skiing, and he got super excited - apparently he is from Fort Kent, and he was super pumped that we were going up there to ski. So, he bought us dinner. I made the kids go up and shake his hand and thank him, and it turns out he is the mayor of Bangor - thanks Bangor!

We got to Presque Isle right around 10pm, got the kids into bed, and were up bright and early for the first training day on Saturday. Skate skiing at the venue, and it was a beautiful warm day - a good day to be outside! Sunday was more of the same, previewing the classic sprint course, with the opening ceremonies in the evening. The organizers outdid themselves, with a whole bunch of performances by dancers, singers, drummers, and a presentation about the history of Aroostook county, that finished with a short video from some of the USST members currently racing in Finland. The kids were super into it, and I think that was definitely one of the best opening ceremonies I've ever been at (for all sorts of competitions). Below are some sweet pictures of the last couple days - gorgeous spring skiing. Tomorrow is the first race, the classic sprint!

Pretty sweet spring skiing...

CSU skiers scraping race wax.


The arsenal of brushes.



Study hall!

Hamish dressing sharp for the opening ceremonies.

Opening ceremonies - girls in sparkles dancing on the stage, they were a big hit.

Drummers in the opening ceremonies.

On the road again...

I'm coaching at the Junior Olympics next week, originally as an "intern", but I've since been promoted to J2 coach, when someone couldn't come on the trip. I was all set to be an intern with an attitude, but now I get to sass the kids instead of the other coaches. CSU is sending seven, four of whom are J2s, so I'll get to coach my kids, always fun. Anyway, we're headed north today after their last class in school, along with Tony Ryerson from Harvard, who is still a junior too and qualified for JOs in New England. The van ride is gonna be AWESOME, eight hours but at least its almost all on highway, where the only thing you need to worry about is hitting a moose.

New England will probably clean up as a team, and I'm hoping the shining stars will be the CSU skiers. Go CSU!

Flaring off some fitness

I've managed to successfully avoid Tuesday night races all winter. They tend to be pretty soft, which isn't so good for my left shin/calf combo that might have compartment syndrome going on, so avoiding these races worked pretty well to keep the rest of my season going smoothly. Of course, missing out on the Tuesday night fights, which is where the real racing goes down every week, means I did not have the credentials to line up where I did, which was somewhere around the third row. I tried to tell myself it would be this soft and disgusting for everyone out there, and that I would actually have an advantage being light so I could float over the snow, but boy did it suck anyway.

Andy counted down to go time, and when we got moving, for some reason I was really taken aback by just how much snow (and goose poop) was flying into my face courtesy of the folks ahead of me. Ugh! I got gapped quickly, but then people slowed down on the flats, and I hopped into the tracks and double poled for a bit, until I realized I was getting gapped again, so I floundered around pretending I was skating when really what I was doing was drowning - should have had a snorkel!

By halfway through the first lap, I was trailing well behind the lead group and their followers, and Bob Burnham, Marc Jacobson, and Terry McNatt caught up to me. I hung in their draft to Mt. Weston, although there wasn't much to be said for drafting when we were all lurching around the mashed potatoes. Then Bob stumbled, and since I was in last, I skied up on him and then had to come to a stop and then he got going again and I was gapped. Damn. Luckily, this time I was chasing people who were my speed, as opposed to that front group, which is NOT my speed, so I caught back on by the corner thats in the dark. Bob and I had figured out that the tracks were waaaaay faster (and easier!) on the downhills, so we were zipping along merrily double poling where we could, but by the time we finished the second lap and started the third one, I was letting a few too many gaps open up - its so easy to lie to yourself and say "oh, I'll catch them on the next slight downhill, my skis are better" - this is never actually true. Once you start that talk, you're done.

My calves were blowing up pretty bad, so that the floundering around bit was getting increasingly painful. I was noticing that I was looking behind me far more often than I was looking ahead and trying to close the gap, and I knew that was it for this race. Bob and Terry reeled in one more skier, and I tried not to tip over, as we finally finished that hellfest. Even double poling wasn't efficient, because your poles would just sink and keep sinking into the muck. The goose poop was holding up better than the snow, for sure.

But, at least I did one race - that weekend stuff hardly counts, its way too easy compared to Tuesday night slushfests. Gotta do at least one of these a year, even if it leaves me dry heaving at the end with my legs on fire. Now I remember why I didn't do any of these yet!

The Birkie!

When I went to pick up my bib Friday, the guy handing it to me looks at the number and says "23 - you're a speedy one!" I'd been getting more and more jittery all day and that just did it, full-blown Birkie fever, I couldn't WAIT to race. Tapering does that to me, when I'm not blowing energy on workouts I become somewhat of a useless wreck - racing is definitely an addiction, I needed a hit, and that hit was a 50k with 10,000 of my closest new best friends. Lay off the coffee, kiddo...

Since Alpina wasn't at the demo this year, I was on my own for lodging, so I joined forces with the Colby boys (plus Colin) - Aaron Blazar, his girlfriend Lauren, Cary Fridrich, John Swain, and Nick Kline, with a guest appearance of Matt Briggs Saturday night. Cary and Colin were starting in wave 10, which meant they would start close to the time that the rest of us were finishing, so John, Nick, Blazar and I were in the early bus to the start, although I was a bit alarmed at how little time I had to warm up - I ended up doing jumping jacks in line for the porta potty because I wouldn't have time to warm up otherwise. For most marathons I don't worry much about the warmup, but my suicidal race strategy involved going out pretty hard, and the course starts climbing pretty soon, so going into this cold would have been bad. As it was, I could have used an extra ten minutes of jogging around, but I didn't get the fluttery heart feeling so its all good.

I got in the pen, ate a gel, and lined up behind someone who looked fast - I think it was Kristina Trygstaad. Off we went, and it was easier than I thought to slide into the top 10. Part A of the plan involved staying out of the wind as much as possible, which at times was tough as people jockeyed for position, but I'm pretty steady on my feet and it didn't really bother me. Just before the turn to the powerlines Tazlina Mannix took the lead moving a little faster, and as we started the climb I realized that my boots were too tight. Not like "I put the velcro strap on too tight" but "I can't feel my left foot or bend my left ankle" too tight. I tried to chalk it up to not enough of a warmup, and got ready to suffer until my body was warmed up, but those first hills sure didn't feel good. I was working hard, but to my relief it looked like everyone else was, too.

Eventually we stopped climbing, and through the rolling bits of the powerlines, I'd discovered that my skis were fast - maybe not the absolute fastest out there, but faster than maybe half the girls in the top 15. Nice. I'll take any advantage I can get. However, my left leg was in shear agony - it felt like compartment syndrome had felt, like my shin and calf were completely blowing up. I still couldn't bend that ankle, which kind of throws a wrench in your skate technique, requiring a much more upright stance, fine on the flats but definitely not fine on the hills. I popped from the lead pack around 6k, I knew I couldn't keep going at that pace, and I hoped an easier pace would help my leg. But the chase pack came and went, and I knew that if I didn't loosen my boot, this race was over, I'm no Petra Madjic, I can't go fast when part of me hurts that bad. I suffered through the climb at 7k, knowing that the longer I could stay dangling off the back of the chase pack, the more time I was putting on people behind me before I had to stop, but at 12k, that was it - off came the poles and gloves, and I took the 30-60 seconds to loosen my boot. It took a km or two, but once I had blood going to my foot again, life was way better.

Three girls had passed me during this operation, and as I started to chase, a Rossignol skier, Kim Rudd, caught up - she had started conservatively, but was skiing really smoothly, working the transitions, and she had good enough skis to hang with me on the downhills. We worked together without a word for ~6k, picking off two of the women who had passed me tying my boot before OO, and after that, realizing we were close to the same speed, we agreed to try and work together to catch that chase group. The course was flying by, we picked off another straggler or two, and it was fun to have someone to ski with who skis in a similar manner, working the transitions and using a lot of V2 on the gradual stuff, but we weren't catching that group - someone was at the front driving it hard.

Around 35k, I felt the first tremor of a spasm in my right tricep. That didn't take long. I switched to doing more V1 right, since that uses the left arm more, but my right leg was a little tired too. Just before Bitch hill, we picked up Paulette Niemi, whose skis couldn't keep up with the chase pack - she picked up the pace up Bitch hill, and I thought the race was over for me. But I worked the downhill hard, and made contact again. Kim and I were able to drop Paulette on some of the downhill rollers onto the lake, but I was pretty done at that point - my triceps were spasming badly, and if I did any V2 alternate, where your arms go straight because of the slower tempo, I'd get a full-on charlie horse, it wasn't fun. Kim asked if I could lead, and I panted out something to the effect of "I can try, but its all I can do to hold on right now", and so she kept pulling. A dick move, perhaps, but I was losing contact even in her draft.

A guy from wave 1 came through as we were halfway across the lake, not much faster than us, but fast enough that Kim got in his draft, and that was the end for me - I couldn't go any faster. Paulette caught up, and I managed to stay in her draft as we finally got off the lake. The corner onto Main st. was super slushy, sugar, but I was on the inside, and next to Paulette, which meant she was pushed towards the big statue thing with the oil tank and the burning torch, and had to change her line a bit to not run into either that or me - I realized I was pushing her that way and corrected, as we hit the harder snow, but she was as done as I was, and my "sprint" held her off - I could see Kim just ahead of me, maybe a second ahead, and I just couldn't move any faster. My body just would not respond. This was beyond tiredness, I've never felt this dead before - if I caught an edge and fell down, I'm not sure I would have gotten up. I was a mess, and couldn't close the gap to Kim, but at least I held off Paulette.

It was super fun to ski with people for that long, usually I end up in no-man's land somewhere, suffering alone with no idea where people were, but this race was different. I ended up 16th, which is a bummer because if I'd been able to beat Kim to the line I would have had that top 15, but at the same time, I'm happy with my place - aside from the boot incident, I skied well, I had good skis, and I had good legs too. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to race 50k without cramping, but until then, I'm happy with this one. Its a good note to end the season on. And most importantly, I crushed Cary, Colin, and Blazar, to the tune of 15 minutes. Swain and Kline are a little too close to still being legit racers for me to get, although I was only 6min off of Nick's time.

Full results, for the women.

The lake, near where you get back onto dry land - people are just chilling, having a picnic, as the racers go by - its a sweet scene.

Finishing straight down main st. Each side of the street is packed with people, for the full 400m or however long Main st. is - its intense. The announcer announces everyone, too, which is really cool.

Finish line!

There was a lot of getting on buses this weekend. Including when I got on a bus and I shouldn't have, and spent two hours waiting at Telemark for Cary and Colin to come get me, while they were actually back in the condo drinking margaritas. Thanks.

The view from our condo, this place is actually very pretty country.

John in the midst of an intense game of oreo-face-nose-mouth.

Colin and Mr. Blazar figuring out the best way to attach a fisheye lens to Colin's waterbottle-belt-cam.