Paralympic Games - Silver!

Ok, I kind of ruined the suspense with the title of this post - couldn't help myself.  I couldn't make it out to Pyeongchang for the Games, but I followed Jake's races as closely as possible from the US, with Sue Conner and Sean (who were there in person) providing added details.  Here's a recap of the week:

Conditions were beautiful in Pyeongchang - sunny and warm but plenty of snow.  Monday's 20k skate got off to a good start, with Jake feeling strong and in medal contention, ably guided by Sawyer Kesselheim - unfortunately, Jake got tired and faded to 5th as the race went on.  Wednesday's classic sprint also looked like it was going to be a special day at first - he qualified in 3rd and tied for the win in his semifinal.  After a strong showing in the finals we thought he'd won bronze, only to find him relegated to fourth after a protest by the coach of the fourth place skier.  I don't know the exact details, but apparently it had something to do with a lane change while double poling uphill.  I support the current push to protect classic skiing and enforce technique rules, but man, this was tough - if enforcement at the NCAA Championships had been this strict, half the field would have been disqualified!  This particular case was a bit extra frustrating because it had no real effect on the outcome - the gap between Jake and the fourth place skier was pretty substantial.  But those are the rules - nothing to do but hope for the best in the next race.  I got a little worried when I heard that Jake had come down with a cold going into the 10k classic on Saturday - I knew it would be mentally tough to come back after two near misses, and adding a cold on top of this could have easily sunk Jake's chances.  Turns out I had nothing to worry about - Jake won silver!!!!  Such a hard-earned and well-deserved honor.  Here's a video of the medal ceremony, and here's a press release with some quotes from Jake and Sawyer.  The last event of the Games was a 4x2.5k mixed relay - a pretty cool event where skiers of all classifications competed in the same race, with different time adjustments depending on gender and classification.  The US team finished 7th overall, with Jake posting the fastest split for the anchor leg.  Overall, a great week.  It's been a long road for Jake - lots of hard work went into this achievement.  He's trained more hours than any skier in the history of Bowdoin Nordic - the past four years have been an experiment to find out how much training is possible for a Bowdoin skier.  He's improved a ton and has put up some strong performances, but it certainly hasn't been easy - he's had no shortage of setbacks along the way.  After four years of ups and downs, it's incredibly gratifying to see Jake's career end on such a high note.  We're all so proud - can't wait to get him back on campus to hear all about his adventures!

Here are some photos, courtesy of Sue and Sean:

NCAAs 2018

Back home after a successful NCAA Championships - what a week!  Turns out that Steamboat is really far away from Maine - getting out there was no easy task.  We originally planned to fly out Friday after classes, but the "bomb cyclone" that swept through the Northeast put a wrench in our plans - all flights cancelled, so we had to wait until Sunday afternoon.  Sad face emoji.  We made the best of our situation with a couple nice workouts at Quarry Road and a relaxing weekend on campus.  Still windy on Sunday, but we made it off the ground.  We got delayed again during our connection, and for a moment I had visions of being trapped in Baltimore breathing sea level air for a couple more days - fortunately, our flight finally took off and we made it to Denver late Sunday night.  Phew!  Next morning, we loaded up our beautiful red rental pickup (aka, Big Roj) and rolled out of Denver amid howling winds and blinding dust.  Denver to Steamboat is about 3 1/2 hours - just a quick trip by Western standards, but after all the delays it felt like it took forever.  Our spirits soared after a fine lunch at Jimmy John's - we weren't at all daunted by the creative and not at all accurate interpretations of our order, nor the disgruntled customer who stormed out of the building in a blaze of profanity.  Our first ski in Steamboat that afternoon went well - the course was in great shape, and we were just excited to finally get out there.

For the next few days, we kept it pretty low-key.  Some highlights:  wandering around Steamboat talking in bad Australian and British accents; seeing a couple moose ambling through the race venue; representing "Bow-doyne" College at the pep rally; taking a gondola ride to the top of Mt. Werner for the championship banquet; studying a lot (with varying levels of enthusiasm); and skiing just a bit each day.  The skiing stayed fantastic despite warm temps and blazing sun, but our breathing ability did not.  Testing wax got harder and harder, and after a couple days I was gasping for breath just lying in bed.  Going from 50 feet above sea level to 6700 feet is not super fun, folks.  Not much we could do, though - we just drank a ton of water and tried to rest as much as we could between workouts.

Thursday dawned nice and cold, but the sun was bright, and temps warmed quickly as race time approached.  As the women tested skis, we had some concern that our thin klister binder was dragging, but as things continued to warm and we continued to adjust, the skis started running well and the race was on.  Both of the women went out pretty hot - maybe not the best strategy for a race at 6700 feet, but it takes some time and experience to learn how to adjust your racing style at altitude, and we were short on both.  Even so, they hung in there and were able to post pretty competitive results - Gabby 28th, Renae 34th.  Elliot paced his race much more conservatively, but he just didn't have much pop - he'd had a slight cold all week, and this combined with the altitude really sapped his energy.  He hung in there to finish 39th, close behind a bunch of strong skiers.  It wasn't the day we were hoping for, and the skiers were a bit disappointed, but I still felt like it was a solid showing.  We were the second to last team to arrive, and it showed - we were clearly not acclimated.  The age gap was also pretty striking - our three skiers didn't really stand out in the EISA circuit, but out here it was very apparent that they were three of the youngest competitors at the championships.  So not an amazing day, but certainly nothing to hang our heads about!

Over the next couple days, we slowly started to acclimate.  Skiing on Friday, I got to the top of a big climb and felt almost not terrible - progress!  By the time Saturday rolled around, we were at least on the right side of the acclimation process.  The men's race went out super slow, and Elliot was able to hang out at the back of the train.  I could tell that he was still not feeling great, but he kept skiing smoothly even as the pace quickened and the pack splintered.  Entering the final lap, he was 38th with two skiers within sight.  It would have been easy to accept his fate and cruise it in, but instead he kept fighting and gradually reeled them in.  He dropped one and then narrowly lost a sprint finish with the other to finish 37th.  For the women, we tested wax up until the last minute and sent them sprinting off to the start with skis in hand (Colby coach Tracey Cote actually jumped in to help us apply fluoros to their skis - thanks Tracey!).  They'd obviously learned their lesson from Thursday, because they went out easy and hung around the back of the pack for the first few kilometers.  At the start of the second lap, they began steadily moving up, working together to leapfrog from one skier to another, and I knew it was going to be a good day.  Gabby had an unfortunate crash on a hidden icy patch at the end of the second lap, and she lost contact with Renae, but both of them kept fighting hard and passing people.  They kept it up until the end for a fast finish, with Renae in 28th and Gabby 33rd - easily the best skate races of the season for both of them.  I'm super proud of all three of these guys for coming back strong after not feeling great on Thursday.  They kept their heads up, paced their races well, and fought hard until the end - a fitting end to an amazing season.  It's hard to believe that these guys are only first-years - they're so far ahead of schedule!  Going into the season, if you'd told me that one of these guys would pop a single top-10 finish I would have been overjoyed.  To have all three of them qualifying for NCAAs is so far beyond my wildest hopes I can't even process it.  What's possible for the next three years?  I can't wait to find out!  When the excitement and euphoria died down, we packed up and enjoyed a nice post-race barbecue.  Then we drove out of town and cleared our heads with a nice walk up to a beautiful frozen waterfall just outside of town before hitting the road for Denver and closing the books on a fantastic week.

Thanks to Jackie Schneider for the beautiful race photos!

One last note about the championships:  It was fantastic to reconnect with some Bowdoin Nordic alumni this week!  Jackson Bloch '15 has been around the circuit all season as Colby's assistant coach - he's loving the job and doing great work with their team.  Alaska-Fairbanks head coach Nick Crawford '09 had a strong week - his program is thriving despite the threat of cuts just a couple years ago.  On our way back, we also stopped for a short visit with former Bowdoin Nordic skier Matt Klick '98 and his wife Lalida Crawford - it was great to catch up with these guys, and our kids got a nice dog/puppy fix.  Lastly, former Bowdoin Nordic assistant Adam St. Pierre was a huge help to us, lending us a ton of equipment that would have been incredibly inconvenient to lug through the airport.  Much thanks to all of these guys for their help, hospitality, and camaraderie all week!

Things are quiet now - coaches are back in Maine and the athletes are scattered for Spring Break.  Brunswick got a ton of snow last week and we're getting a full-on blizzard today - just in time for the season to be over.  There's one final chapter to write, though - Jake is competing at the Paralympics in Pyeongchang.  Can't wait to see how it goes!  I'll post an update soon.

Midd Carnival... and Beyond!

It's been a bit of a crazy week since the Middlebury Carnival - sorry for the slow update.  Here's a quick recap of what went down last weekend and what's next:

After three days of blazing hot weather, it was a minor miracle that the Midd Carnival races actually happened, but the crew at Rikert did a great job of chopping up ice and pushing around snow to cover the full 5k loop.  I seem to be saying stuff like this more and more often these days - I guess those are just the times we live in...  Anyway, excellent work by Rikert gave us very nice skiing for the whole weekend.  Friday's 5/10k classic was your basic klister day - we tested a whole range of things with much help from our volunteer wax tech Cirque and were able to get the skis pretty well dialed.  This was one of those days where the whole team passed the eyeball test - everyone looked really good!  Gabby had a clutch performance to finish 8th - she came into the day holding onto the last NCAA qualifying spot by the thinnest of margins, and this race gave her some much needed breathing room.  Renae was solid in 17th, Lily 26th, and Ellie just outside the top 30 in 33rd.  The Ellie/classic relationship has been a long and winding road - we've been chipping away at this for the last four years, and sometimes it seemed like classic was just never going to click for this kid.  But years of hard work resulted in a breakthrough last fall, and she's been crushing classic all year.  Coming into the season I would have been overjoyed to know that Ellie would have a 33rd place classic finish - it's a mark of how much she's overachieved that this is only tied for her 3rd best classic race of the year!  On the men's side, Sam has made similar progress in classic, and he showed that with a 36th place finish, just one off of his PR set last week at Williams.  The big showstopper of the day was Elliot, as has been the case so many times this year - 3rd place!  Best ever men's result for Bowdoin Nordic, and our first ever men's podium!  The crazy thing was that for the first half of the race he didn't look like he was moving that fast, and his first lap split wasn't anything special.  Then suddenly he started showing signs of life making time on the skiers around him, and I figured maybe it would be an OK race after all.  Even so, I didn't believe Cirque when he told me that Elliot was just a couple seconds out of 3rd at 7.5k!  Elliot didn't believe it either when he got the split, but he put his head down and gunned it anyway, and that final surge put him on the podium.  It was really a remarkable display of pacing, and a great reminder that relaxed smooth skiing is fast, even if it doesn't always look fast.  So much for the eyeball test.  That night, we celebrated with a delicious dinner organized by team parents and friends - a fantastic group effort by a bunch of people who have gone above and beyond for our team all season long.

The next morning was pure spring skiing for the 15/20k skate - loose granular snow that just got warmer and wetter as the day went on.  Cirque again earned his money, and we were able to test a wide range of things right up until the last minute.  The soft, slow conditions made the race a real grind, which was right up Christian's alley - he was strong and steady for the whole race to finish 15th.  The Rad Chilla has quietly had an outstanding season, with 6 races in the top 20 - super consistent and really impressive improvement for a guy who wasn't on anyone's radar 2 years ago.  Elliot was right behind in 16th, with Sean 28th, Sam 29th, and Jake 31st.  Jake skied the whole race just a few seconds behind the Sean/Sam pack - it was a bit tragic but also inspiring to see him fighting so hard the whole race to close that gap, skiing by himself the whole time - a really courageous effort.  For the women, Renae was steady as always, leading the team in 17th.  Ellie got taken out in a crash right from the start - by the time she got up she was about 3rd or 4th to last, and this could have been the end of her race.  But she never gave up - she started chasing people down and moving through the field steadily, putting in a final push to grab a couple more places and finish 24th - her second best finish ever and a fine way to end an excellent college career.  Speaking of people who never give up, Rachel gave a great effort, making up tons of ground in the second half of the race to pick off several skiers and finish 54th, just a couple places from a PR.  Rachel has put in a ton of hard work over the years, and right now I can't think of any Bowdoin Nordic skier who improved more between freshman and senior year.

So that's a wrap - the 2018 carnival season is complete.  It's been a fantastic year for Bowdoin Nordic - the best season we've ever had by any measure.  And we're not even done racing yet!  Elliot, Renae, and Gabby have all qualified for NCAAs!  We've only had five Bowdoin Nordic skiers qualify for NCAAs in our entire history, so three in one year is almost too much to take - and all of them are first-years!  Way ahead of schedule.  If we can ever get a flight out of the Northeast with all this crazy weather, we've got some exciting races to look forward to in Steamboat this coming week.  Also, Jake is already in South Korea to prep for the Paralympic Games.  We know from last spring and a couple races in December that he's competitive with the top visually impaired skiers.  This year he's been super steady, and his fitness is excellent - can't wait to see what happens.  First race on March 12th - I'll post more info when I find links to timing and maybe even a live feed if we're lucky.  Lastly, I'm happy to report that a few of our skiers are re-establishing a proud Bowdoin Nordic tradition and finishing the season at the Rangeley Loppet today!  Last time our team went to Rangeley (2014) Jackson Bloch '15 and Hannah Miller '17 swept the 50k.  Based on early reports our crew did pretty well today... I'll post more details when I have them.

One last note before we put the 2018 carnival season in the books:  All four of our seniors - Jake, Rachel, Ellie, and Sam - are going to be much missed.  They've done so much for the program - not just skiing fast, but helping build a culture of dedication and focus, and most importantly creating a fun and supportive environment on our team.  This year was fantastic not just from a competitive standpoint, but also from a team unity standpoint.  Our skiers really had fun together and supported each other beautifully - they really care about each other in a way that you always hope will happen but you can't ever take for granted.  Our seniors have played a huge role in making this happen, and it's made all the difference.  As Rachel often says, "Happy people ski faster!"  Thanks seniors, for making people happy and for being your amazing selves.  We will miss you so much!

Much thanks to Chris Shaheen and Orion for these great photos!