Pre-Season and Bates Carnival

Over the last few weeks we've had all kinds of good racing going on - some individual pre-season racing and some team stuff.  Here's a quick rundown:

- Biathlon Junior Trials:  Mirra qualified for Junior Worlds!  The trials were a three-race series at Soldier Hollow - after a slow start on Day 1, she came back strong to finish as the second junior on Days 2 and 3.  Not bad for a full-time college student with no access to shooting training in the fall.  She'll be headed to Sweden in late February for the championships.

- Nordic Combined Junior Trials:  Caleb might have qualified for Junior Worlds!  He finished first and second in a pair of qualifying races at Lake Placid - whether he'll get the nod for Worlds is still up in the air (pun intended), but regardless this was a nice chance for him to keep in touch with combined and tune up for carnival season.

- Senior Nationals:  Natalie and Emma competed at Senior Nationals in Anchorage against a huge field of the top college and junior skiers along with the post-college SuperTour crowd.  Natalie got stronger race by race and capped off her week with a 50th place finish in the 20k classic.  Emma qualified for heats in both sprints and finished 16th in the 10k skate and 18th in the 20k classic.  Right now she's an alternate for U23 World Championships in Italy - we'll know soon if she'll get a spot.  Thanks to Natalie's parents for hosting them both all week, and also to APU (Natalie) and Mansfield Nordic (Emma) for providing waxing support!

- Jackson Camp:  Right after New Year's, most of our skiers met up in Jackson to for our first team practices of 2025.  There was some beautiful skiing up on the Prospect Farm trails, and a nice little snowmaking loop down in town, and we made good use of both of them.  We also had a great time trial with skiers from UNH, Colby, and Bates - perfect way to sharpen up for the races to come.  Thanks for Jackson XC for accommodating our time trial and doing a lot of hard work to make skiing possible with minimal snow!

- Bates Carnival:  Once again, the story of the weekend was low snow.  Black Mountain had just enough snow to pull off a short race loop, thanks to a ton of work by the legendary Chisholm Ski Club.  The opening skate sprint was pretty rough for our team, but we had a couple individual highlights - Natalie qualified 28th and ended the day in 29th, and Lars qualified 12th and finished 27th.  First ever top 30 finish for Lars!  That night, we regrouped with an amazing dinner hosted by the Shifrins, and we went to bed fired up for the 8.5k skate the next day.  This race also doubled as the Chummy Cup, so there was a little extra at stake.  The men got us started with a solid effort, led by Adam with a career-best 14th place finish, but we were still trailing Colby by a fair bit in the Chummy scoring heading into the women's race.  Fortunately, the women found their form just in time and had an amazing race!  Jori led the way in 7th, Gillian scored her first-ever top 30 in 17th, and Mirra set a new PR in 18th - good enough to sweep the Chummy podium and claim the cup for the first time since 2020!  The whole women's team skied incredibly well - it was so much fun to see them show off their depth with strong races for everyone.  We had several skiers claim All-State honors:  Adam 2nd, Will 7th, and Sawyer 9th for men, and Jori 1st (her third straight state championship), Gillian 2nd, Mirra 3rd, and Kira 10th for women.  It was a really special day, and a great confidence builder to start the season.

Quite a busy start to the year - all fun stuff and exactly what we train for.  Can't wait to see what this team can do next.  Next up is the St. Lawrence University Carnival in Lake Placid - 20k mass start tomorrow!

Semester Wrap Up

 Exams are finally over and our people have all scattered for break.  These last few weeks have been productive for our team despite how busy everyone's been with schoolwork.  Coming back from Thanksgiving Camp to dryland is always a bit of a letdown, but it wasn't too painful this year thanks to Quarry Road's early season snow making efforts.  During the week we did a mix of running and strength (as well as a hotly contested game of ultimate/football in the snow), and Friday through Sunday we drove up to Waterville to ski.  This has been a good model for us these last couple years, and hopefully it can be the new normal - it was pretty great to leave the rollerskis untouched post-Thanksgiving!  We made good use of our ski weekends, packing a lot of quality into each three-day block.  After a couple days of speed work and threshold, we did the Quarry Road Opener - it was a beautiful snowy Sunday morning, and a great mix of juniors, masters, and college athletes turned out, including Bates and Colby.  Our women nearly swept the podium, with Emma winning, Jori second, and Mirra in fourth, and Keira (8th) and Kira (10th) rounded out the top 10.  The men weren't quite as sharp, but Michael gave us a nice highlight with a 9th place finish that put him right in the mix with the top guys - arguably his best performance ever and a nice indicator that his hard work is paying off.  As always, we were primarily concerned with process, and this was a fun day and another step forward in our pre-season race prep.

After a few days of dryland that included our annual running tour of the Brunswick/Topsham holiday lights, we were back at Quarry Road for what I hope will be a new tradition, our second annual Fake Carnival - back to back time trial intended to prepare us for the demands of a carnival.  Quarry Road had survived a huge mid-week rainstorm with 50 degree temps, and we were able to put together a short loop for our time trials.  Day 1 was a classic sprint simulation - lots of double poling but also a couple times up a short, tough climb.  The women's race was pretty straightforward - Emma won the qualifier and was off the front in every heat, with Jori solidly in second.  The men's side was much more mixed up, with a bigger group and a couple Colby guys joining us.  Adam won the qualifier, but Colby's Ellis Slover took over in the heats and won the overall despite a strong test from Will and Sawyer in the final.  Next day was our traditional 20k - this used to be a basic threshold workout, but the athletes always ended up racing each other despite my instructions, so I just gave up and made it a time trial, which at 20k is basically a threshold workout anyway.  We had to do 24 laps to get the distance, but we did it!  It was pretty fun to see everyone doing their own thing, with packs forming and breaking up and everyone on different lap counts.  Will had a great battle with Andy DeFor from Colby - Andy pulled away late in the race, but still a great experience for Will to ski with the race leader.  Behind them, Sawyer, Eli, Michael and Caleb worked together for most of the race before Eli made a move that held up until the finish.  Emma went out hard and found herself between the men and women for most of the race, but she was actually able to catch a ride with Will and Andy when they passed her midway through the race.  She hung with them for 3 laps - an impressive show of fitness and determination.  Three other women - Kira, Mirra, and Jori - formed their own pack and stayed together for about half the race before Jori went off the front.  Women's college races often splinter pretty early in mass starts, so it was really nice to see this group get some practice skiing together - hopefully a sign of many Bowdoin trains to come.  Overall, a good solid grind that should diminish some of the nerves that we always see heading into our first long mass start race.  We closed out the weekend with a long easy ski and lots of technique work on a beautiful sunny Sunday to send us into exams with good vibes.  It's been an up and down semester - lots more injuries and illness than we'd like, but also plenty of great training and really positive team chemistry.  A nice (if short) break is going to be a great re-set for our skiers, and I'm positive that they'll come back strong and refreshed.  Can't wait to get started in 2025 - until then, happy holidays to everyone!

Thanksgiving Camp 2024

Thanksgiving Camp 2024 was a trip down memory lane.  The first-ever Bowdoin Nordic Thanksgiving Camp took place in 2008, a momentous time in our nation's history.  Barack Obama had just been elected president, finance bros had just crashed the world economy, and the Detroit Lions were stumbling toward an 0-16 season.  Against this backdrop, our team ventured up to Stoneham, Quebec, in search of early season snow at Foret Montmorency.  We found plenty, and Thanksgiving Camp instantly became a fall semester fixture.  Over the years, this camp has evolved - we moved from Stoneham to the Foret campus in 2013, missed camp altogether due to the pandemic in 2020, and switched to a mix of Lake Placid and Craftsbury in 2021.  This year, we went finally went back to our roots and based our camp out of Stoneham (the Foret campus no longer offers lodging to skiers).  This was a bit of a gamble - Foret no longer saves or makes snow, so we were relying entirely on the weather to come through with some well-timed storms.  At first, it looked like we were out of luck - there was almost nothing on the ground when we arrived on Saturday afternoon, and we settled for a hike/run up the Stoneham alpine trails.  Fortunately, we got a tip from Laval University coach Godefroy Bilodeau about a road up in Jacques Cartier National Park that might have just enough coverage to ski, and the next day we were off to explore Lac L'Epaule.  The classic skiing was surprisingly good, and a light snow came down throughout the day to freshen things up as we went.  Lac L'Epaule was our go-to place for the next couple days, with a little easy running to supplement our rock skiing.  On Monday afternoon, Leslie took a group of skiers into Quebec City for a sightseeing run around Old Quebec - a really nice change of pace and a great chance to explore a truly special city.  After three days of Lac L'Epaule (capped off by a lovely cruise out to Lac Nordet on sweet singletrack trails), we finally got a proper storm - once the snow started, it just didn't stop.  This plus the casual approach to plowing the access road to our lodging made the driving somewhat challenging, but we kept it cautious and enjoyed the snowfall.  By Wednesday morning, we were skiing on groomed trails at Foret - from there, the skiing just kept getting better and better, with occasional dustings keeping things fresh.  Thursday through Saturday were some of the best conditions any of us had skied in a while - certainly better than anything the East had to offer last year.  On Saturday we teamed up with several other college teams for a classic time trial - Laval, St. Mike's, Colby, and SLU were all represented.  Our crew gave a good account - as always, we were focused on process, but it was still fun to test our wings and go up against some other teams.  We headed home that same afternoon, tired but happy.  Many thanks for Godefroy for helpful training advice to get us through the first half of the week, and for excellent grooming to get us through the second!

No Bowdoin Nordic camp wrap up would be complete without a rundown of our meals.  By popular demand, we brought back the cooking competition, and the skiers rose to the occasion with several great dinners:  burritos, curry, peanut noodles, chili, and the fabled smash burgers.  Voting is ongoing as we speak - stay tuned for the announcement of the winning meal.  We also had an exceptional Thanksgiving dinner.  Every year I'm surprised and impressed by how well the skiers do with preparing this meal - it seems like every year they get a little better.  It's always pure chaos, and it always takes a long time to get everything on the table, but it was worth the wait - so, so good this year.  I couldn't begin to decide whether I liked the stuffing, mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, or homemade rolls best.  Outstanding.

Overall, this was a really successful camp.  We were prepared for the worst, and fortunately we got something much better than we'd expected.  Great skiing, great food, and quality team time - not much more we could have asked for.  Every year is a different story, but after this camp I have a feeling that the team won't let us go anywhere else next year.  For now, we're looking ahead to great skiing at Quarry Road and the Opener this weekend!

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!

Graduation 2024

What an amazing weekend we had for Graduation 2024!  Absolutely perfect spring weather, and even better company as a crowd of alumni, current skiers, and family members showed up to celebrate our graduates.  This year's group was extra big - 6 members of the Class of 2024 (Mia, Morgan, Aggie, Ingrid, Carson, and Silas), joined by super seniors Zach, James, and Ayden.  It's been a great run with this crew.  It seems like so long ago that the 2024 kids arrived at Bowdoin under the cloud of Covid-19.  That first semester, they lived alone in dorms, ate their meals to-go, and attended classes outside.  Led by the great Gabby Vandendries '21, our humble crew of first-years put in a great fall of training despite ever-changing restrictions - distancing, masking, no indoor training, no vehicles, etc.  We used every trick in our book to mix up the training and keep it interesting and productive, and the skiers did an amazing job of staying positive and making the most of the experience.  They made this very difficult period a lot of fun, and I'll always be grateful for that.  Meanwhile, the 2023 kids were huddled up in Bozeman, looking for new adventures as they figured out this confusing new world.  Together, our seniors have made these last few years very special - they helped our team get back to a good place in the post-pandemic era, and they oversaw a remarkably successful period on the race course.  The team is going to look a lot different without them next year, and they'll be dearly missed.  All of them are headed off to exciting new challenges, and we can't wait to see what they do next.  Congratulations and thank you, seniors!

 

Mirra at JNs

 One more race update before we close the book on the 2023-24 race season.  Thanks to her outstanding biathlon performances earlier this season, Mirra qualified to represent Team New England at Junior Nationals in Lake Placid over Spring Break.  Somehow, Mt. Van Hoevenberg still had decent snow coverage despite warm temps leading up the to event - although the weather was up and down and conditions were variable all week, they managed to pull off four good races featuring the top junior skiers in the US.  Mirra was feeling pretty cooked after carnival season plus a trip to Estonia for biathlon worlds, but she rallied for some of her best performances of the season.  The 7.5k skate was a good "wake up" race for her - she was 7th for U20s.  After qualifying 16th in the classic sprint, she skied a blistering quarterfinal to advance, and then narrowly missed out on a lucky loser spot in the semis, ending her day in 9th.  The 15k classic had tricky conditions and lots of crashes, but Mirra navigated the downhills brilliantly, paced her race well, and skied onto the podium with a 2nd place finish.  She capped off the week with a strong scramble leg for the winning U20 team in the 4x3k skate mixed relay.  Four races, four All-American performances - pretty nice way to wrap up the season!

NCAAs 2024

 NCAAs is always a treat, regardless of where it takes place or how many athletes we qualify.  This year was a bit extra special - partly because it's fun to go to a western venue, and partly because we had FIVE athletes qualifying.  With just one or two athletes at the championship, it's hard to capture the team magic that makes college skiing special, and so it was extra nice to share this adventure with such a big crew.  We hit the road shortly after the athletes were finished with classes for the week in order to give our skiers a chance to acclimate to the altitude.  Jori, Zach and I were able to fly to Denver on Thursday afternoon - we enjoyed a peaceful Friday that included a little hike around Red Rocks with Bowdoin Nordic alum Matt Klick '98.  Morgan, Carson, Emma, and Leslie joined us that night, and we drove to Steamboat the next morning.  The venue was in great shape, with tons of snow, and we spent the next few days skiing just enough to stay sharp and get a feel for the courses.  That left us with lots of time to stay on top of schoolwork while we built our red blood cells.  Happily, we had just enough time left over for some quality team time as well - here are a few highlights:

- Movie nights:  Everyone took turns picking the nightly movie.  We ended up with an eclectic mix:  Kindergarten Cop, Nightmare on Elm Street, Hustle, Holes, Stepbrothers, Isle of Dogs and The Meg.  Siskel and Ebert would have been proud of our choices.

- Opening ceremony:  The championship hosts organized a nice opening ceremony at the alpine area - our people got to march through the square with their flag on a gorgeous sunny afternoon.  They also got sweet gift bags, including the coveted NCAA water bottles.

- Bowling:  Our team's been talking about a bowling outing for years, and we finally got our chance at the Steamboat Springs Snow Bowl.  Although we're not the most amazing bowlers, we were actually pretty OK - everyone managed an occasional spare or strike, and Carson showed off the slick form honed in his Boulder HS phys ed class.  The Williams crew joined us for this outing - always fun to get to spend some time with folks from other teams.

- Snow removal:  Ok, this was mostly me and Leslie, but it certainly was a memorable part of the trip.  Starting on our first night in Steamboat, it snowed on and off for about three days.  Our very steep driveway remained unplowed, and getting out in the morning became more and more exciting until one day we just couldn't make it.  Nothing that an hour of shoveling couldn't fix!  Fortunately this didn't happen on a race morning.

- Cooking:  No ski team trip would be complete without some great team-made dinners:  frittatas, pesto pasta, pizzas, and coconut rice.  Carson's parents made us a lovely lasagna, and the whole parent crew got together to make us a gigantic feast on our last night.  Leslie also made the team nightly beet juice cocktails, because here at Bowdoin Nordic we leave no stone unturned when it comes to altitude acclimation.

- Fake banquet:  Ever since the championship banquet went away in the wake of the pandemic, we've done our own version of a banquet - just a simple night out at a semi-nice restaurant in our semi-nice clothes.  We had some fantastic tacos at a place called Salt and Lime, and enjoyed a great walk around downtown Steamboat in the snow with a dessert stop at a lovely candy shop.

 Eventually it was time to do what we came to do - Thursday brought a bright sunny morning for our 7.5k skate race.  The new snow had set up nicely and conditions were perfect.  The course was fairly stout - a series of steady climbs right off the bat, followed by a brief rolling section and a long fast descent back into the stadium.  With the altitude making everything more challenging, our skiers were determined to nail the pacing - not too hard, not too easy.  We were partly successful at this - some of our people seemed to get it just right, and others came out of the gate a bit too hot.  Our results were correspondingly mixed - some good, some less good.  Zach skied a nice steady race to finish 28th - probably his best skate race of the season.  Emma played it cautiously at the start and then latched on to a pair of skiers who passed her partway through - she was able to hang with them until the finish and then outsprint them to take a few seconds back and finish 17th.  It was super fun seeing her hold her own against a pair of veteran skiers (who both ended up getting All-American).  Morgan started beautifully and then blew up hard, finishing 35th.  Jori skied technically well but just didn't have her best stuff, and ended up 36th.  Carson started out maybe a bit too hard, had a really rough second lap, and then did a great job rallying to grab a place or two on the final lap to finish 38th.  Overall a respectable day on the big stage - not our best and not our worst.

After two warm sunny days, conditions were trending toward klister for the 20k classic, but a Friday night flurry dropped an inch or two of snow and complicated things.  Fortunately, we had a pair of legendary alumni show up to help us with waxing - Hannah Miller '17 and Elliot Ketchel '21.  Hannah and Elliot are two of the very best skiers to ever come through the program, and it was really reassuring to have them out there testing as conditions changed throughout the morning.  After dabbling with a whole bunch of waxes, we got the women's skis set and sent them on their way.  Emma and Jori settled into the middle of the pack and probably could have cruised comfortably for a good long time, but the race leaders had other ideas - they took the pace out hot and quickly strung out the field.  Emma was able to hang with a group in the teens for the entire race and ended up in 18th.  Jori was solid in the 20s for most of the race - she lost a few places in the final lap but still finished a solid 31st.  Morgan played it much more cautiously this time, starting well in the back of the field - she held her technique together well and was able to pick off a few places to finish 35th again.  Things were really heating up by the start of the men's race, and it was a real guessing game trying to predict what wax would still be working by the end of the race.  Zach got himself into a good group after the first series of climbs, but they pulled away on the downhill and he ended up skiing almost the entire race by himself - a tough way to go for a 20k at altitude!  Nonetheless he held it together well and held on to finish 26th - a really solid race to wrap up an outstanding season.  Carson hung in near the back of the pack and kept chasing hard for the whole race, ending up in 39th.  Like Thursday, this was a respectable day - not great, not terrible.  As a team, we finished 16th in the overall standings (13th among nordic teams), which is our best championship finish ever.  Of course we wanted to finish just a bit higher up after a season full of overachieving, but this was a solid performance against a super elite field.  It was a super fun trip to close out an amazing season, and I'm so, so proud of what our team has achieved these past few months.  Many thanks to Hannah and Elliot for wax help, MSU coach Adam St. Pierre for lending us tables and forms and saving us much trouble in the airport, and the whole crew of team parents for food and support at these championships.  Now that it's all over, I'm already getting stoked for next year, but right now we all need a little break - looking forward to enjoying a peaceful spring as we bring the 2023-24 edition of the Bowdoin Nordic team to a close!