NCAAs and JNs So Far

The first few days of NCAAs have gone by quickly - it's hard to believe that it's almost over already.  We started our trip with a couple beautiful sunny days, our first warm weather in what seems like forever.  The venue was in perfect shape and there was a festive feel - it's always fun to see a bunch of new faces and new race suits out on the trails in the early days of the championships.  It's also easy to get caught up in the intense atmosphere - coaches feverishly testing wax, athletes hammering their pre-race intervals, multiple foreign languages being spoken.  Sometimes it seems like everyone there is bigger, stronger, older, and faster than you are.  Hannah is always very even-keeled at races, but even she was feeling some nerves as yesterday's skate approached.

It clouded up a bit on race morning, but temps stayed high, so we got to try out all the warm waxes that have been gathering dust in our box for the last couple months.  After endless rounds of testing and some serious over-thinking, I threw three different fluoros on Hannah's skis, rolled on some structure, and sent her on her way.  As soon as she left the gate, Hannah snapped into race mode and went to work.  The plan was to be conservative on the steep climbs of the first kilometer, gradually pick up the pace, and pour it on for the rolling and downhill sections in the second half of the race.  She got caught by the skier behind her at about 1 1/2k, but was able to keep it close and work the middle section of the course as planned.  On the big downhill after the high point, she skied aggressively, passed the other skier back, and put in a strong sprint in the final half k to the finish.  When the results came up with Hannah in 30th, we were thrilled.  We'd entered the week with no real expectations, knowing that she was a bit of an underdog - we figured a top-30 finish was possible, but only if everything went right - fortunately, everything did.  It was a great performance on a big stage, and I'm really proud of her.  Best of all, she made the cutoff for scoring team points, so we know we'll leave this championship with at least one point on the board for Bowdoin.

We had some great support at the races, not only from Kaitlynn and Deb Miller, but from Shelby and H. Marshall, who made the trip over from VT to cheer their hearts out.  It was a great lift to have some friendly faces out there, and we're looking forward to seeing them again tomorrow.  Hoping for another great day!

Junior Nationals are also halfway through.  After much travel, Mac and Ellie joined Sarah in California late last week to beautiful sunshine and very little snow.  The opening race was a skate sprint - both of them were feeling the altitude but battled through.  Yesterday's 5/10k skate was a definite step forward despite some on-and-off snow that produced variable conditions for different starters - they both beat some really fast juniors and were close behind several more.  By all reports, everyone's having a good time.  The mass start for tomorrow might be in jeopardy due to the dwindling snow, but it should be a fun race regardless of the format.  Looking forward to seeing how things go the rest of the way!