First carnival of the year is always an exciting time - after months and months of training, we finally get to see how we stack up against the rest of the league. Pre-season time trials and races are great and necessary, and they give you a vague sense of how competitive you'll be in carnivals, but you never really know until you get out there. So we were fired up and also a bit nervous for the St. Lawrence Carnival last weekend. Day 1 was a classic sprint. The course was pretty flat, with just a couple gradual climbs and no technical dowhill turns to kill speed. Even just 5 or 6 years ago it would have been a bold move to double pole the whole race on a course like this, but these days everyone is doing a ton of upper body training and pushing the limits of what's possible with double poling. So it wasn't a surprise that most people decided to double pole this race - probably two-thirds of the women and all but a handful of the men. Our skiers looked sharp - all those long DP workouts and rollerboard sessions paying off! Lily rocked her first-ever college race, qualifying in 22nd. This was super cool - we knew she was a talented skier, but we weren't expecting her to break through so quickly! The men put 3 in the heats - Mac 10th, Sean 21st, and Russell 25th, with Ian just missing out in 36th. Everyone fought hard in the quarterfinals and stayed in the mix, but in the end only Mac was able to advance. Lily ended in 24th, Sean 23rd, and Russell 27th. Two first-years in the top 30 - great start to their careers! In the semis, Mac was in good position at the halfway mark, but his skis dragged a bit on the downhill and he lost some ground. He brought himself back into contention with a powerful effort over the last few hundred meters but ran out of room and had to settle for 11th - still a great showing and one of the best-ever results for a Bowdoin skier! The men ended up 5th on the day. We haven't had a lot of top-5 team finishes in our history, so this was exciting - hopefully the first of many this season!
Day 2 was a 5/10k skate on the Ladies' 5k loop from the 1980 Olympics. We've raced this course several times before, including at NCAAs 2 years ago, but I must have forgotten just how steep and unrelenting the hills are - it was a bit of a shock to see what a grind it was just testing wax! The course skied extra tough on Saturday, with warm, soft snow that seemed to grab skis and stop them dead with every stride. Our women were up to the task - they paced themselves well and kept their form together nicely on the big climbs. Ellie led the way in 44th, with Lily right behind in 47th - a solid showing, especially considering that this was the biggest EISA field I've ever seen, with 109 finishers in each race. Rachel also had a nice race, finishing 78th. Her last college race was 2 years ago on this exact course. This race she looked like a totally different skier - it was great to see how far she's come since then. The men's race turned into a bit of a slog - that second lap was just brutal, and the course got more and more chewed up with each skier. I was really happy with how our skiers looked - they held it together well on the tough climbs when most other skiers were absolutely falling apart - good pacing and good focus. I was a bit surprised to find that we hadn't been able to put anyone in the top 30 - they just looked so good out there! Oh well - just a reminder that there are lots of other people training hard and racing fast in this league. Jake was our top finisher in 34th, despite a couple falls and a twisted ankle, with a whole string of our other guys just a few seconds back. The first-years have been impressive all year, and on this day Christian (39) and Orion (42) looked like veterans. I'm eager to see what this group can do in the coming weeks!
RESULTS
UNH Carnival coming up - one of my favorite venues (Jackson) and one of my favorite race formats (15/20k mass start). Can't wait!
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