Back to Quarry Road last weekend, this time for the actual Colby Carnival. This carnival featured a fun and spectator-friendly set of races - a mass start 15k classic and an Olympic-style sprint relay: 2 person teams with each person alternating laps for a total of 6 laps. For Saturday's mass start, we were able to use the full 5k race loop, which is one of the toughest courses I've seen in an EISA race. The terrain is all up and down - lots of big climbs with minimal flat - and the downhills feature lots of fast, sweeping turns, which are technical and not at all restful. It's a really challenging and (I think) fun course - one of my favorites on the circuit. The setup of the loop also made for an interesting waxing situation - half the lap was abrasive manmade snow, and the other half was more forgiving natural snow. Fortunately, we had expert assistance from Walt Shepard '10, who showed up armed with a couple boxes of Frosty's Donuts and top-shelf waxing skills. With Walt's help, we were able to test a lot of binders and kickers in a short time and find a good solution for both races. The men's race started off conservatively - as the pace picked up gradually and the field strung out, Sean was able to move up from his mid-pack start position, first into the 30s, then the 20s, and finally a strong surge on the last lap to finish in 18th place. Jake skied really aggressively on the climbs to lock up a 36th place finish, his best classic result by far. August also skied his best classic race ever, showing much improved technique over last year. The women went out fast and the top few skiers got separation immediately, but there was a good cluster of chasers, and Hannah jumped right in with this group. For a while it looked like she was going to get shaken off the back, but she skied tenaciously and hung on for a 10th place finish. Emma was seeded way in the back, but she was able to weave her way through the crowds for a 56th place finish as our third scorer. Other highlights were strong races from Ellie and August - they both showed major technique improvements over last year and put up the best classic races I've seen from them so far. This was a really grueling race, and the whole team gave a great effort - a day to be proud of. We celebrated that night with a pasta dinner at Tim and Tara's house, featuring a hotly contested Maine vs. World trivia contest won by Team World (although Maine still claimed the overall victory, 5-3).
Sunday's sprint relay had a much different feel - bright and sunny, with everyone fired up but also laid back and ready for a fun race. With 20+ teams in each heat, the skiing was fast and furious, with big potential for carnage on the downhills and chaos in the tag zone. Somehow, the skiers managed to minimize the mayhem, and the races went off pretty smoothly for most people. Unfortunately, our skiers were not most people - we had more than our share of mishaps. Each of our three men's teams had a crash on the big tricky downhill turn, along with a lost pole and a minor fall on a climb. This was frustrating, because when the guys were on their feet they were skiing really well - all three teams were right in the mix and would have certainly finished higher without the crashes. But crashes are part of ski racing - now we know what we need to work on going forward! The women had better luck - no crashes - but also a stroke of misfortune. Hannah and Ellie were skiing well and hovering around 5th or 6th when another skier stepped on Ellie's pole and pulled it out of her hand, and she had to ski most of a lap with one pole, Jessie Diggins-style. She skied remarkably well, but obviously dropped back a few places. Hannah skied a great last lap to bring them back a bit, and then Ellie closed it out with a tremendous effort on her final lap - she got caught by Colby's top skier with a couple hundred meters to go, but somehow held her off down the stretch to hold onto 10th place by a ski length. Although it was disappointing to miss out on a bigger finish, this was still pretty exciting - those Colby women are two of the best skiers in the league, and it was a major accomplishment to edge them at the line. Our other two women's teams skied great as well - both had exciting sprint finishes, and although we were just on the wrong side of both of them, it was still a lot of fun and also valuable experience for our skiers. A fun day and a fun carnival - I'm really happy with how our team skied and very proud of their effort and good energy, and I'm confident that we'll keep getting stronger as the season goes on.
We had amazing support this weekend - several Bowdoin students and a couple alumni showed up, and there was an army of parents serving up great food and taking photos (all of the great photos for this post are from Everett Marshall and Doug Hands). Everyone's presence really helped make this a fun weekend. We're lucky to have such a great group of people supporting the team - thanks to all of you!
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