NCAAs 2020

NCAAs 2020 - a great trip with a sudden and disappointing end.  What a fun, heartbreaking, and generally strange week it was.  We flew out to Montana as soon as possible after classes ended for Spring Break.  Already there were worries about cancellations and travel restrictions due to coronavirus, so we were pretty jumpy, but our travel went smoothly - I flew in on Friday with Renae, Christian, Elliot, and Peter, and Leslie arrived the next day with Gabby.  We settled into a nice rental house in Bozeman and spent the next few days acclimating to altitude and checking out the area.  At first it was super warm and summery in Bozeman - a perfect intro to the West.  On our first full day we went down to West Yellowstone, where we had a nice ski and connected with Cirque and Ellie after they'd finished the Rendezvous 50k.  A few other highlights:  Granny's Donuts; shooting hoops; learning about Minnesota culture and accents by watching the highly accurate documentary Fargo; a trip to the Museum of the Rockies; a Colby/Bates/Bowdoin dinner hosted by David Coletta (parent of Colby's Marin Coletta); and good food at a few of Bozeman's many fine eateries.  On Tuesday we took a day off and went to the Boiling River in Yellowstone, with Orion joining us as our local guide.  After a nice hot/cold contrast bath and a walk to the Terraces, we drove to Orion's house outside of Livingston for a delicious lunch.  It was a treat to see Orion's home - a truly gorgeous spot tucked away in the hills.  We rushed home in time for the NCAA banquet, an elegant affair requiring highly formal dress.  Quite busy for a "rest day", but we all went to bed happy.

Soon enough it was Thursday - time to race!  The course was in great shape for a 5/10k skate, with a little new snow mixed into fast transformed stuff.  Unexpectedly, it started snowing just before the women's start, which slowed things down considerably and made for some last minute scrambling with wax.  Gabby got off to a solid start and cranked it up throughout the race, finishing with a final strong push to lock up 26th place - one of her best skate performances ever.  Renae started cautiously and never quite got going, finishing 37th.  At any championships there are always a few people who have tough races - this time one of them was ours.  We've been there before and we'll be there again - very disappointing, but not much to do besides learn from it and move on.  The snow stopped before the men's race - the powder got skied in and things sped up again.  Peter got us started - he tempered his usual hot start a bit due to altitude, and was able to catch a ride when the current race leader passed him around 3k.  He hung on for several kilometers and navigated the final turns well to finish 30th and score us a team point - not bad for the youngest skier in the championships!  Christian also took some time to ease into the race - I was pretty worried after his first lap, but he finally found a new gear and made up a ton of ground in the final kilometers, finishing just ahead of Peter in 28th.  Elliot was our last starter and followed his usual pattern - calm and smooth to start and steadily getting faster.  He ripped the turns on the last kilometer with his usual smoothness and ended in 17th, his best NCAA skate finish.  As expected, all of our skiers felt the altitude - it was clear that none of them had their best legs in this race, but they pushed through.  Here are results.  Overall, we felt pretty good about the races, but also hungry for more - all of our best performances this year have come in classic, and we knew we were ready to crush Saturday's race.  Sadly, it was not to be.  By the time we got back to the house that afternoon, the news was waiting for us - the remainder of the championships had been cancelled due to the spreading threat of COVID-19.  Absolutely devastating - I don't think I've ever been so crushed, at least not by anything ski-related.  It's extra tough because this meant an abrupt end to Christian's college career - after such an amazing season we all wanted so badly for him to have one more great day.  Knowing that the skiers were going home to online classes instead of a fun spring with teammates made it that much harder to take.  But what can you do?  COVID-19 is a global pandemic, and the world has worse problems right now than a canceled ski race.  We're lucky to have completed almost our entire season, unlike the poor spring sports teams - as heartbreaking as it was to lose out on the second half of the championships, we still have a season's worth of joy and accomplishment to hang our hats on.  Once things settle down a bit, we'll all look back on this season with pride.  Thanks to the many, many people who supported us and made the past few months so amazing.  I'll post more thoughts about the season later this spring - for now, it's time to adjust to this strange new reality and hope that everyone stays safe and healthy.