Williams Sprint Relay

Today was a good day, but it didn't start off that way. It was a cold morning, and we were expecting yesterday's transformed snow to freeze into typical klister conditions, so we showed up a bit early to test waxes. Ezra and I were the first coaches at the venue by at least half an hour, but we didn't get much done with all that extra time. We set out to test some klister and found that none of the 57 matchbooks that we had would light, so no torch. The shed with electric outlets was locked, so no power for our heat gun. Eventually we got power, but it went down quickly - too many irons and heat guns going. Back to the torch. We got ahold of a lighter, but for some reason the torch head wasn't working. Back to the heat gun. We found another power source, but Ezra nearly electrocuted himself when he plugged in the gun - the cord was worn, and today was the day that it finally frayed through to expose the wires. No more heat gun. Back to the torch. Bates generously agreed to lend us a torch head, and at last we were in business. We soon found that all our troubles were for naught, though, because somehow hard wax was working better than klister - just enough of a dusting last night to keep the surface fresh, I guess. After some testing, I determined that straight Toko green binder was kicking and gliding better than hard wax, so this was our call for the men. I'd been waiting for years to use straight Toko binder in a race - today was the day at last. Happy day. However, the snow was ridiculously abrasive, and the wax showed wear even after just one turn around the 1.2k loop - fortunately, the race format allowed us to reapply wax to each person's skis after each lap. The men gave a good show - Colman scrambled, and was right with the leaders until nearly the end of the lap when he wiped out on the downhill - tough skiing in a crowd with such sketchy conditions. Later, on his second lap, he crashed again when trying to pass another skier - tough day, but he skied pretty well when he was on his feet, which is encouraging. Forrest and Walt skied well and kept the team in the thick of it - they ended up 14th overall, with Walt posting some of the better lap times of the day. Nick, John, and Niko skied solidly and finished 18th.

The women's race was a treat to watch. Something was up with our women today. Maybe it was the image of the Virgin Mary that Elissa and Sarah saw in the fog on their motel room window. Maybe it was the tasty Fruit Roll-Ups the restaurant owner gave us last night at dinner. Maybe it was just hard work paying off. Whatever it was, they were on. Elissa got off to a fast start and put the team right in the middle of the action at the first tag. She, Courtney, and Sarah skied strongly throughout the race and ended up 16th. However, they were upstaged by Maresa and Grace, skiing on a mixed team with a UVM skier, who finished just ahead in 15th. Both of these two were skiing with as much snap as I've ever seen from them - they looked great. All in all, this was a great day for all 5 of them - by far the most competitive race our women's team has had all season. I can't wait to see them ski next weekend.

A vast number of Hall family members were at the race today, which was great - so nice to have Bowdoin fans cheering our team on. As always, they provided us with a wonderful lunch - I'm starting to wonder if there's some kind of competition going on among the team parents. Right now I'm daydreaming about the peanut butter cookies. Can I make it till next weekend?