What a week! The 2017 version of NCAAs was full of highs and lows, crazy weather, and great skiing. We left Bowdoin on a Tuesday afternoon and made it to Jackson in time for a short ski before the banquet. Jackson had surprisingly good snow despite the outrageous thaw that tore through New England over the last couple weeks - somehow, they still had the full 5k loop open with good coverage. I don't think very many places in the East could have pulled off this championships on a 5k loop - we're lucky this was happening in Jackson. The banquet was nice - great food at an imposing venue (the Mount Washington Hotel). It was also a nice chance to catch up with fellow skiers and coaches, most notably Nick Crawford '09 (finishing his 2nd year as head coach at Alaska-Fairbanks) and Jackson Bloch '15 (killing it all year long as Colby's assistant coach).
After spending Wednesday testing klisters on the fully transformed snow, we awoke for Thursday's classic race to find a dusting of fresh powder on the ground. Not a problem - we had a star test pilot (Kaitlynn) helping us, and we quickly found an assortment of klisters that worked in the fresh/transformed mix, and everything was going according to plan as homed in on the best option. Just as we were ready to make a call, the wind kicked up and a mini-blizzard blasted the course and coated everything with more powder. That threw us all back to the start - every team was scrambling around trying to adapt at the last minute. We tested several options as quickly as we could and found nothing that was perfect - klisters were too grabby and prone to clumping even with a cover, hard wax was too slick, and zeroes were pretty bad in both departments. With time running out, the four of us huddled up and agreed that our best shot was to go with hard wax and let Hannah try to make it work. This wasn't a disaster, but it wasn't the best call either - her skis stayed free, but they just didn't kick well enough - too much running, too much jumping in and out of the track, and too much forced double poling. She ended up 31st - a respectable finish, but we all knew that she was capable of more, so overall it was a disappointing day. There was some small comfort in knowing that no one came up with a perfect solution - all of us coaches talked about
the crazy waxing afterward, and I heard a lot of horror stories about slow skis and even skiers falling on their faces due to grabby klister. Still, the race was a hard pill to swallow - any athlete hates being limited by subpar skis, and any coach hates missing the wax. Fortunately, Hannah is pretty even-keeled - we walked away determined to nail it in Saturday's skate.
Over the next 48 hours, temps dropped steadily and the wind gradually picked up. By Saturday morning, it was super cold and super windy - single digit temps, with wind chill values way below zero. Fortunately, we were waxing inside a nice walled tent, and the folks at Jackson went above and beyond to provide a heater that kept it in the 20s. Since the women were racing at noon and the temps were forecast to remain stable all morning, we had plenty of time to get the skis dialed in. Normally we keep it simple and only test topcoats and structure on race day, but with so much time and only one athlete we had the luxury of testing everything, and we did - HF paraffins, powders, topcoats, and structure (we'd tested base layers the day before). Everything was running fast, but we teased out some differences and waxed up Hannah's skis with confidence. As the race got closer, a bunch of ski team members showed up, and suddenly there was a comfortable, familiar feel to everything. When the gun finally went off, the start was pretty clean, but a couple skiers got hung up in front of Hannah, and she was near the back in 35th as the pack went into the woods. She must have made some aggressive moves on the ensuing climbs, because when we saw her next at 2k, she was right in the thick of it in the low 20s. By the end of the first lap, she'd moved into 18th and was in the process of bridging the gap to the group ahead of her. It was clear that she was feeling it, and I started to get this irrational sense of optimism. As the race went on, every time we saw her she'd gained another place or two, and by the end of the second lap she was just outside the top 10 - All-American was in sight heading into the woods for the last time. We were all going crazy. I don't think I've ever been so excited watching a ski race, but I wasn't nervous at all - it just seemed inevitable that she was going to get into the top 10. I was right. She burst out of the woods in 10th place and held off the chasers in the final sprint around the field. 10th place - All-American! Such a great scene at the finish - one happy skier and a bunch of happy fans. The whole thing just felt so right and so well-deserved - Hannah has had more than her share of hurdles over the last couple years. Last year mid-season illness kept her from going to NCAAs and cashing in on an outstanding year of training. After another great round of summer training, this fall there was always an ill-timed cold or field trip or some such thing setting her back. Sometimes it felt like it just wasn't meant to be. None of that matters now. Hannah is an All-American - she owns the best NCAA performance in Bowdoin Nordic history. She was the top D3 finisher and the 3rd Easterner. I couldn't have imagined a more perfect way to end her college career.
Lots of people helped to make this happen. Ian must have waxed a hundred pairs of skis last week. Kaitlynn was indispensable in testing and helping Hannah stay grounded. And of course dozens of friends, teammates, alumni, and family members provided love and support, either in person or from a distance. In particular, many thanks to Deb Miller for the great photos accompanying this post! We're so lucky to have a great community of people surrounding our team - I've never felt that more strongly than I did last week.
And that's the end of the 2017 college season! There are still a few more races to go, of course. Jake is off at the Paralympic World Cup in PyeongChang - still one race to go (more about this coming soon). A few people may jump into March marathons or some other random event. I'll keep the updates coming as this fantastic season wraps up.
