New England Rollerski Championships

We brought a small group down to Cumberland for the New England Rollerski Championships last Sunday - Shem, Sarah, Forrest, Tom, Matt, and Ezra. It was a beautiful but unseasonably warm day, so it was fitting that the organizers, Coastal Nordic Ski Club, had designated this race as a "carbon-neutral" event. CNSC had purchased "cool tags" for each racer from a company called NativeEnergy - the money goes toward investments in renewable energy sources, which, in theory, will balance out the CO2 emissions generated by travel to the event. I know that the jury's still out on whether or not carbon offsets are effective at slowing climate change, but I think it's great that CNSC stepped up to try something creative and thought-provoking.

The race itself was a mixed bag for our team. Rollerski races are pretty unreliable measures of skiing ability, because ski speeds vary tremendously. Most people on our team ski on V2 910s or 920s, some of the slowest skis made. V2s are great for training, because, in my opinion, they provide similar speeds to snow skiing; however, they're not so much fun to race on. Consequently, our skiers were never really in the mix for this race - most of the competitors were on Marwes, which are pretty fast, and the lead group pulled away quickly. Forrest actually hung in with the chase pack for a few k, which was impressive, but he broke a pole tip and was immediately dropped. He skied without poles for a few k before getting a replacement pair, but it was too late to get back into the race by then. In general, the race was more of a chance for our team to get a good hard workout and to go through the process of racing - mentally preparing, warming up, figuring out pre-race details, feeling for the right pacing and exertion, etc. With a couple more efforts like this, we should have a much more relaxed and streamlined approach to race day when we get to the races that count.

After the race, we stopped by the Shepards' home in Yarmouth for a mid-morning brunch - good food and great company. Andy Shepard is a former coach of the Bowdoin Nordic team from way back - he's the keeper of some team history that I'm looking forward to unearthing in the future. All in all, a great way to cap off the morning.