October 2024

 Hello Bowdoin Nordic friends!  We're rolling again - official practices started up just a few weeks ago - and things are off to a good start.  The Maine fall has been amazing - gorgeous colors and mild, dry weather that's been perfect for training.  Our leaders have done great work keeping the group organized and training productively, and our newcomers have proven to be a great bunch of hard-working and team-oriented folks.  The one blemish on an otherwise perfect start is that we've had an unusual amount of injuries and illnesses - that stuff is part of the deal for any team, but we've been hit extra hard these last couple months.  Even so, we've had a great fall so far and we're so excited to keep it rolling.  Here are a few of our highlights from October:

Fall Camp:  This year's camp was based in Conway, NH, thanks to the amazing hospitality of William's grandparents, Tom and Dorcas Deans.  The skiers enjoyed four days of trail running, hiking, rollerskiing, and biking through the White Mountains, with the showstoppers being the Carter-Moriah traverse and a long ski up the Kancamagus Highway.  Many thanks to Tom and Dorcas for making this camp possible!

Testing:  Fitness testing and tryouts were a bit limited this year with our various health challenges, but we still had plenty of great performances - every returning athlete who was able to complete testing improved their combined run/erg time!  Lars and Emma were our top finishers in the 3k run, and Jori and Michael led the way in the 2k erg.  Michael and Sawyer just missed the men's team record in the erg test, and Lars re-set his own team record in the run.

Family Weekend:  We had an incredible turnout for Family Weekend, with ski team family members coming from as far away as Washington, California, Oregon, and Alaska!  We showed off for our families with one of our signature workouts, beach skiing at Morse Mountain Preserve - a perfect day for a trip to a beautiful venue, and a lot of fun to show our people the kind of stuff we're doing all fall.  Afterward, the Belmont Street crew hosted a lovely backyard social - such a pleasure to have this opportunity to get to know the team families a bit better.

Time Trial:  We did a 9k skate TT at Runaround Pond last weekend.  This was the same course we used for a classic TT with Bates and Colby a couple years ago - gently rolling terrain punctuated with a couple big climbs.  No other teams this time - just us.  Emma scorched the course to take the women's win, and Sawyer took the men's race.  It was super fun to finally put on bibs and practice the process of racing for the first time this fall - one more step toward being ready for the real thing.

Pumpkin Contest:  After our time trial, Leslie hosted a nice get-together for a pumpkin carving contest.  We had some impressive entries demonstrating remarkable creativity and skill, but there could be only one winner - the polar bear pumpkin carved by Grace, Sawyer, Caleb, and Ollie took the victory.  Their prize was a gift card to Nomad, sponsored by John and Arabella Eldredge.

Good times and good vibes to start the fall.  Lots of reasons to be excited about the season right now - on to November!