Gunstock/Jackson Weekend

Just got back yesterday from a delightful weekend in New Hampshire - great way to start the new year!  On Saturday morning we did a 8/12k skate race at Gunstock - a competitive field with a nice mix of college, high school, and master skiers.  It's good for our skiers to see a healthy crop of master skiers - a reminder that ski racing doesn't end after college.  There were two racers in the M11 (80-85) category - WOW!  That was very inspiring for those of us who are starting to feel the effects of our advancing age.  The course was fun as well - rolling terrain that you really needed to work and some fast downhills with tough turns.  Good showing by the group overall - Hannah was 2nd overall for women, and Russell led the men in 10th.  Our next 4 guys were all within 16 seconds of Russell, which was pretty cool - looks like we have lots of people ready to challenge for scoring and carnival team spots.  Pat on the back for Katja as well for putting up a nice race despite flying from Anchorage to Maine just the day before - can't go much further than that and still stay in North America!

Women's Results
Men's Results

Right after the race we drove up to Jackson - after a nice afternoon ski we settled into our lodging right across the street in the legendary Eagle Mountain House.  We put the wraps on a fun and busy day with some Thai take-out and our first Maine vs. World challenge, a memory competition.  With so many people and so few Mainers on the team this year, we have 3 teams:  East, West, and Central.  Team East took the first round on the strength of a clutch final round performance by Lily.

Sunday was v. cold but also beautiful and sunny.  We started the morning with a downhill lesson and several mini-laps through the toughest turns of Jackson's 5k race loop, which we'll see again soon at the UNH Carnival (and hopefully NCAAs).  With some solid improvements in turning skills, we switched over the classic and finished the workout with a long easy cruise through the woods.  The tracks were perfect, the views were fantastic, and the downhills were fast and technical.  Just a great, great day of skiing - one of the best days we've had in a long time.

One other note from the weekend:  US Nationals got underway with the 10/15k skate and classic sprint races.  Jake raced and was solid in both, with his best performance coming in the skate - he finished 105th in the biggest Nationals field I've ever seen.  Kaitlynn Miller '14 was 22nd in the skate and qualified 1st in the sprint, ultimately finishing 3rd to earn her third Nationals podium in the past 2 years!  She'll be back at it later this week in the 15k classic and skate sprint, while Jake is on his way back east to rejoin the team.  Looking forward to lots of great racing to come!