Mid-Season Action

 The middle carnivals are done, just like that, along with some non-college races - lots going on these past couple weeks.  Here's a rundown:

St. Mike's Carnival:  Back at Sleepy Hollow for the first time in three years, and it didn't disappoint - nice fresh snow on rolling trails winding through a hardwood forest.  Classic Vermont skiing with an old-school feel - love it.  In the 10k classic Adam led the men in 12th, with Will 18th and Lars 35th.  Caleb also scored a personal best in 51st.  We put 5 women in the top 30 - Emma 2nd, Jori 11th, Gillian 22nd, Keira 25th (first top 30 finish for Keira!), and Mirra 30th.    Good solid start, but the real excitement was the 3x5k classic relay.  Will got our first team off to a strong start, 5th at the tag, and Adam went back and forth with some other teams and ended up tagging off still in 5th.  Lars was in a tight battle with some really strong skiers on the third leg and skied probably the best classic race I've seen from him so far, bringing the team to a very respectable 8th place finish, just seconds from 5th.  Our second team of Caleb, Catcher, and Michael finished 17th, with Michael showing off some really nice striding - a nice payoff for all the hard work he's been doing this winter.  Jori got the top women's team off to a fast start - she was at or near the front of the group pushing the pace for most of the first leg, and she tagged off in 4th.  Gillian showed some impressive poise skiing against a strong group of experienced skiers - she kept it close and tagged off in 5th, 10 seconds from the lead.  Emma made a pro move right away, putting in a strong surge to catch the lead group by the end of the first kilometer.  From there, she skied in a group with UVM and Dartmouth.  Late in the first lap she went to the front and tried to drop the others, but they stayed tight.  With less than 1k to go, Dartmouth pulled away, and although Emma couldn't quite match the pace, she outlasted UVM to bring our team into 2nd place - our best relay finish ever!  Meanwhile, our second women's team put together an outstanding race of their own.  Mirra kept the team in the mix despite the furious pace set by Jori and the leaders, and Kira and Keira showed off some beautiful striding to wrap up an 11th place finish - I'm pretty certain that this is our best second team finish ever.  It was a nice finish to a lovely day of skiing, and even more lovely to see our team on the podium.  As a team, we were fifth for the carnival, just three points out of fourth.  Many thanks to Gillian's parents, Stephanie and Josh, for hosting our team for dinner, and also to alumni wax testers Carson and Zach!

Quarry Road Eastern Cup:  That same weekend, a few of our skiers raced the Eastern Cup at Quarry Road.  Grace posted a 9th place finish in the 10k skate, with Sawyer leading the men in 26th.  The next day was sunny and very cold - perfect for a 10k mass start classic!  Grace crushed it again, finishing 5th, with Francie right behind in 13th.  Ollie was our top men's finisher in 24th, continuing his comeback from a combination of injury, illness, and fatigue over the last few months.

Dartmouth Carnival:  We got a big storm on Thursday that snarled up our travel plans a bit - the team ended up taking a bus to our hotel that night, and the coaches drove the vehicles over either before or after, with a big assist from Bowdoin AD Tim Ryan.  The nice relaxing bus ride left our skiers full of energy for the 7.5k classic, and thanks to some timely wax testing help from alumni Mia, Carson, and Ingrid, we managed to get decent skis for them on the fresh snow.  Emma took another 2nd place finish, showing off her much-improved striding technique, and Jori followed it up in 9th with Gillian 18th to help the women to a second place finish!  Will led the men in 19th, with Lars setting a PR in 25th and Adam 28th.  Catcher also scored a huge personal best, finishing 33rd.  After a lovely dinner hosted by the Miller family and prepared by our three wax testing alumni, we came out ready to crush the 20k skate.  Emma, Jori, and Gillian all skied in the lead pack for most of the race - such a thrill to see our crew up with the leaders!  Somewhere in the second half of the race Emma decided to break it up - she went to the front and pushed the pace, stringing out the group and gradually dropping all but four other skiers.  Try as she might, she wasn't able to open up a gap, and although she was right with the group up the last hill she couldn't outsprint them, finishing 5th - not as exciting as some of her recent races, but still an outstanding finish!  Jori (15th) and Gillian (16th) completed the scoring for us, with Keira (27th) also in the top 30.  Kira and Grace also had really special efforts - Kira was clearly exhausted two laps into the race, but she kept fighting and held on for a really solid 37th place finish, while Grace had an unfortunate fall on the first downhill that left her at the back of the pack but was able to ski her way back to 54th.  Our top men followed the same playbook, with Adam and Will in the lead pack until the last few kilometers.  Adam scored his first ever top 10 finish, outsprinting a Dartmouth skier to finish 8th, and Will hung in there for his third straight top 20 finish in 19th.  Lars put in a solid 36th place finish, helping the men to a 6th place finish on the day.  It's been exciting to see the men emerge from a slow start , and Lars has been a major part of that.  As a team, we finished 4th - our best carnival showing of the season!  Huge thanks to the many people who helped make this carnival possible - the Millers, Tim Ryan, and of course our many alumni who showed up to test wax, cook dinner, and cheer.  This was a really special community effort, and we appreciate all of our supporters so much.

Meanwhile, Francie and Ollie ventured up to Orono to compete in the Great Caribou Bog Race.  They both won the 10k event, and received an interesting railbed based trophy that I have yet to see.  It takes a little extra motivation to get out the door for a humble local race halfway across the state - great work by Ollie and Francie to make it happen.  Very glad to see smaller events like this thriving!

Next up for us is a double classic weekend at the Middlebury Carnival.  Should be another interesting travel situation with another big storm coming - we'll get there one way or another.  Looking forward to a great weekend!

 

SLU Carnival - History Made!

The St. Lawrence Carnival was worth the drive - what a special weekend for our team!  Luckily for us, this carnival took place during Winter Break, so we were able to leave earlier in the day and roll into Lake Placid at a reasonable hour.  The next morning, the venue was in perfect shape for a 20k mass start skate - plenty of snow and nice wide, well-groomed trails.  Our day got off to an exciting start with the women's race - Emma jumped in with the lead group, with Jori close behind.  The field strung out pretty quickly on the long climbs that Mt. Van Hoevenburg is famous for, but there was still a surprisingly large pack skiing together at the end of the first lap.  Somewhere on the second lap, Ava Thurston of Dartmouth broke away, with Emma in a small chase pack a few seconds back.  By the 15k mark, Emma had bridged the gap, and on the first long climb she took the lead.  For the rest of the race she stayed just barely ahead of Ava and a few other chasers - every time it looked like they were going to catch her she found a little more in the tank.  From my place high up on the course I could see two little specks coming down the final hill, but I had no idea what was going on (pretty standard, really).  I held my breath and watched as one ant-sized figure crossed the line ahead of another, and exhaled in relief when I heard the announcer make it official - Emma had won!  This was a huge moment for Bowdoin Nordic - our first individual win ever in an EISA carnival.  When I became head coach of this program in 2007, the idea that one of our skiers could win a carnival was a nice daydream, but most definitely only a dream.  In the years to come we earned a podium finish here and there, including a couple 2nd place finishes by Kait Miller '14 and Emma herself, but a win was always a bit too much to hope for.  Now it's finally happened - congratulations to Emma, and to everyone who's supported our team over the years!

During all of this excitement, lots of other great races unfolded.  Jori scrapped her way to 13th, and Gillian continued her amazing run with another 17th place finish.  Francie had an absolutely fantastic race, finishing with a personal best of 49th - not something we could have ever dreamed of just a year or two ago.  The men followed up with a solid race of their own, highlighted by Adam's career-best 11th place finish.  This was a great display of perseverance - Adam had a weird feed mishap that left him coughing and dazed going into the second lap, and for a while it looked like he was going to fade badly.  But he pulled it together and skied his way back into the mix on the third lap, and then put down the fifth-fastest final lap of the whole field, gaining eight places to finish just outside the top 10.  Will hung in there to finish 27th, and Michael scored for the team for his first time ever in 66th.

The next day's 7.5k classic was combined with an Eastern Cup - always a bit chaotic, but also fun to see all the club teams and junior racers.  Again, conditions stayed nice all day, and we got to use hard wax - not something we ever take for granted in the northeast, especially these days!  Emma again led the team in 8th, with Jori steady in 12th and Gillian 23rd (for EISA).  Keira scored a nice milestone in 30th - her first ever top 30 finish!  On the men's side, Will continued moving up with a 21st place finish, just ahead of Adam in 22nd.  Catcher (48th) and Caleb (63rd) scored the best finishes of their young careers.  As a team, we finished 5th for the nordic portion of the carnival - a good solid showing.

We're now almost two weeks into the new semester - quite a change of pace from Jan Camp.  We've had just enough snow to ski locally - piecing it together with loops around the athletic fields and golf course rambles, with a few trips to Quarry Road as well.  Last weekend was off, so we did a nice fast classic time trial to stay sharp.  Now we're on the verge of the St. Michael's Carnival at Sleepy Hollow, and a few of our skiers will be doing the Eastern Cup at Quarry Road this weekend.  Lots more great racing to come!

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!