The less-than-posh life of a nordic skier: waxing skis the night before a race, under a flood-lamp, at below-zero temperatures.
And they're off! 170 men bolt out of the start at the same time.
Caleb and Keith hold their own in the melee, as Evan, in the background, tries not to get his pole stepped on.
Sam Kapala races a pack of skiers up the last hill.
Wow, what a weekend! Two mass start races with a total of 300 racers, around a 5 kilometer loop that had a half-foot of fresh powder covering the tracks made for some excitement! The fresh snow did slow things down a little bit, but the races were still very fast and very aggressive.
With all of the colleges represented at this open race, our men's team had the most impressive showing, taking third place behind Dartmouth and UNH. This year ALL FIVE of our top men came in before our first finisher from last year! Dimitri Luthi headed up the front of this pack, finishing in 8th, with his teammates Keith Kantack and Erik Anderson right behind him in 10th and 14th.
The kick waxing was easy, but the kick was tough, as the tracks were less than solid on the flats and downhills and completely wiped out on the uphills. Still, with the temp at 14 and our team used to skiing these past couple weeks at temps below 10 degrees, we all thought it felt quite balmy! And the fresh falling snow, which didn't let up once during the day, was a beautiful backdrop for the race scene.
The women finished really solid as well, capturing three places in the top thirty-five: Alice Nelson at 9th, Kirsten Johnson at 22nd, and Fiona Worcester at 34th.
We now have only 3 days at home before we travel again to Rumford, ME to compete in our first college carnival races. Our home course, at Prospect mountain, has tons of snow and we are looking forward to some easy distance ski training this week as we prepare for the back-to-back races on Friday and Saturday.
The link for full results are: http://www.nensa.net/results/index.php?io_view=events&top_event_id=184&season=
(sorry, no pics of the women's race - I was waxing and did not have my camera out! But more pics of mens race are on the web album)
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