NESCAC Championships

Late update on the XC team: the NESCAC Championships were held at Williams last Saturday. Both teams managed a solid 3rd place finish in one of the most competitive conferences in the country. John was 10th and Colman was 24th for men, with Courtney finishing 46th for women. New England D3 Championships coming up on Nov. 10th at Conn. College, with NCAA berths at stake.

New England Rollerski Championships

We brought a small group down to Cumberland for the New England Rollerski Championships last Sunday - Shem, Sarah, Forrest, Tom, Matt, and Ezra. It was a beautiful but unseasonably warm day, so it was fitting that the organizers, Coastal Nordic Ski Club, had designated this race as a "carbon-neutral" event. CNSC had purchased "cool tags" for each racer from a company called NativeEnergy - the money goes toward investments in renewable energy sources, which, in theory, will balance out the CO2 emissions generated by travel to the event. I know that the jury's still out on whether or not carbon offsets are effective at slowing climate change, but I think it's great that CNSC stepped up to try something creative and thought-provoking.

The race itself was a mixed bag for our team. Rollerski races are pretty unreliable measures of skiing ability, because ski speeds vary tremendously. Most people on our team ski on V2 910s or 920s, some of the slowest skis made. V2s are great for training, because, in my opinion, they provide similar speeds to snow skiing; however, they're not so much fun to race on. Consequently, our skiers were never really in the mix for this race - most of the competitors were on Marwes, which are pretty fast, and the lead group pulled away quickly. Forrest actually hung in with the chase pack for a few k, which was impressive, but he broke a pole tip and was immediately dropped. He skied without poles for a few k before getting a replacement pair, but it was too late to get back into the race by then. In general, the race was more of a chance for our team to get a good hard workout and to go through the process of racing - mentally preparing, warming up, figuring out pre-race details, feeling for the right pacing and exertion, etc. With a couple more efforts like this, we should have a much more relaxed and streamlined approach to race day when we get to the races that count.

After the race, we stopped by the Shepards' home in Yarmouth for a mid-morning brunch - good food and great company. Andy Shepard is a former coach of the Bowdoin Nordic team from way back - he's the keeper of some team history that I'm looking forward to unearthing in the future. All in all, a great way to cap off the morning.

State of Maine Championships

Good showing for Bowdoin XC at the State of Maine Championships at Pineland Farms last Saturday. Both teams won, beating an array of DIII Maine teams, including Bates, Colby, USM, and others. For men, John was 3rd and Colman was 10th, while Courtney was 5th for women, narrowly missing 4th after a strong kick in the last 200 meters. These guys are super fit right now - should be interesting to see what happens when we get them back into ski training.

Saturday was my first time checking out the trails at Pineland - outstanding. Great venue for an XC race, and an even better venue for ski training, from what I've heard. Can't wait to try them out for myself.

Uphill Climb Results

Results from the Sugarloaf Uphill Climb, finally.

Phil Soule Phlail

Bowdoin Nordic hosted the 2nd Annual Phil Soule 5k Phlail on Sunday. The race is a memorial event for the late Phil Soule, who coached several sports at Bowdoin for 39 years. Our team runs the event for the Athletic Department to raise funds for ski camp. A great crowd turned out this year, including countless members of the Soule family - we had 145 finishers and a good-sized group of spectators as well. Joey Luchini of Windham won the men's race in 16:49, while Bowdoin soccer player Dana Riker won the women's race in 20:21. In spite of some frantic moments, the race went well and everyone had a great time. The skiers did a nice job of pulling of this event, and we got a lot of positive feedback. There are a few things that we can do better next year, but I'm very happy with how it all went.

Sox vs. Cleveland, Game 1

Walt knows someone who knows someone, and somehow ended up with a free ticket to Game 1 of the Sox-Indians series - great seats, right along the 3rd base line. Things turned out pretty well last night - we're looking into the possibility of getting him a ticket for Game 2.

Long Falls Dam

The Long Falls Dam Rd. runs from North New Portland to (of course) the Long Falls Dam on Flagstaff Lake. It's several miles of smooth, little-traveled pavement over rolling terrain - perfect for a long classic rollerski. We did just this on Tuesday morning. The sun was back out, shining through the flaming trees and dappling the road with shade. Who wouldn't love a rollerski workout on day like this?