Broomhall Photos

Off to VT today for the UVM Carnival. Four inches of new snow at Trapps should set us up nicely for tomorrow's classic race. 10k mass start - fast and furious.

Some photos from the Broomhall Cup taken by Bowdoin student and ski team fan Lily Morse:

Matt

Nat

Nick

And a couple more from Steve Fuller (www.flyingpointroad.com):

Elissa

Forrest

Thanks Lily and Steve!

Chummy Broomhall Cup

Great day for our team yesterday at the Chummy Broomhall Cup. The Broomhall Cup is named for one of Maine's ski pioneers and serves as the Maine State Championship race for collegiate nordic skiing. Yesterday's race was a 10/15k skate, held in conjunction with a Junior National Qualifier - in other words, a huge field and a long day of racing. We saw some great individual efforts and a very encouraging overall team finish. As a team, we were third, same a last year, but we were in the mix. Our women are closing the gap on Bates and Colby - I'm looking forward to seeing how the team develops in the remaining carnivals. I'm kind of sad that this race wasn't a carnival - I think both teams would've scored really well.

Some of the highlights from a long day of racing: Courtney hammering the hills - best skiing I've seen from her all season. Sarah gaining 19 places on her second lap. Guys catching a ride from people who'd passed them, not letting go - Nick, Nat, Forrest. But the race of the day belonged to John B. Hall. He was ON FIRE yesterday - 17th place finish in a huge and deep field, ahead of Bates' 3rd skier, just seconds behind Walt. He was skiing so relaxed and smoothly that you might have thought he was just out for a cruise if you weren't paying attention to the splits - a pleasure to watch.

Hats off to Colby and coach Tracey Cote for their dominating win yesterday. Ten years ago, Bowdoin and Colby would fight it out for 8th or 9th place at carnivals. Now, they're challenging the best teams in the EISA every week. It's exciting to see a team make that kind of progress - for us, their success is part road map, part inspiration. I'm looking forward to the day when we beat Colby again - it'll take time, but I think that day's not so far off...

We do have Colby beaten in one important area, though - post-race tailgating. Our team parents put on another show yesterday - bagels, cakes, muffins, sloppy joes, soup, some ridiculously tasty cream puffy type things, and more. No other team can match the talent that our team parents bring to the table every weekend. Thanks to all of you!

Broomhall Cup results can be found here. Click the links to the left for overall results for both classic and skate.

Tour de Rumford Sprint

Classic sprint at Rumford yesterday. This was an Eastern Cup race and Jr. National Qualifier - no college points at stake - just a chance to do a fun race and get some experience. Deceptively tricky waxing today - the snow was cold but loose and sugary, and we had to wax quite a bit warmer than the temps indicated. Our skis weren't great - several people slipped on the course's one big climb. Some of our skiers probably could have been a few places higher with better kick. As it was, Colman and Elissa ended up qualifying for the demonstration heats - these were basically a consolation round for the top 4 of each age group who hadn't qualified for the official heats (top 30 overall). With better skis in the second round, they both had strong heats - Elissa beat a couple of UNH skiers to take 2nd in her heat, and Colman outstretched a Dartmouth and a Middlebury skier to win his. Not a bad way to end the day.

The real excitement came later that evening though - we went to a pizza place in Bethel, near the Sunday River ski resort. Shortly after sitting down at our table, a small card came flying out of nowhere and landed in front of Elissa. Turned out that it was a $20 gift card for the restaurant. Someone likes her. A while later, the restaurant owner raffled off several prizes, including a snowboard, won by Elissa. She ended up trading it to some guys who had won a Swix duffle bag with a pair of jackets. Quite a day for her. She was joking about going out and buying a lottery ticket - not a bad idea. Hopefully her good fortune carries over to all of us for today's 10/15k skate race.

Skiing on Campus

Finally, we have groomed trails on campus! It's been a long road getting our snowmobile up and running, but we're there. Ezra groomed a 2k loop around the athletic fields on Tuesday, and it's set up pretty nicely. It's flat as a pancake and the snow's a bit crunchy, but it's decent skiing practically out the front door, and that's pretty sweet. We're still doing almost all of our training at Pineland, but these trails are a great resource for us. People who can't make it to practice on any given day can still get in some quality training with just a short walk from the dorms, and there's enough lighting around the fields so that even people with late labs can ski after sunset. We've got the bases covered now - there are no more obstacles to good training. Now we just have to execute the plan and we should see some great results in February.

Back to Reality

Classes started yesterday - business as usual. With everyone's varied schedules, we're running two sessions a day to allow almost everyone to ski every day. I took a group out for the morning session today. The skiing was great in spite of a warm spell and some rain last week - good coverage, and fast but not icy. We were skating, but the snow looked dry enough for hard wax. Hard to believe. Pineland is amazing - we're lucky to be so close. Couldn't ask for a better training situation.

No carnival this weekend - instead, we'll be racing the Chummy Broomhall Cup at Black Mountain. Most of the skiers will stay on campus for the weekend and drive up on Sunday for the race, which will serve as the Maine State Championships. With minimal travel on the horizon, we're taking the opportunity to put in a slightly higher volume week with some threshold workouts. The goal is to rebuild the fitness base a bit after several weeks of hard training and racing - just enough to get through the rest of the season.

SLU Carnival

Belated SLU Carnival recap - no internet access at our hotel in Placid these past few days. I was like Courtney without coffee. Friday's skate race was a tough slog - a couple inches of snow fell the night before, slowing things down considerably. Fast V2 alternate sections turned into grinding V2, and the limited climbing left skiers with limited rest opportunities. Everyone was exhausted by the time it was over. Walt gave a great effort and had our best finish, 18th - that would've been cause for celebration a couple years ago, but our expectations are higher now. Courtney was our top woman in 58th - not as many hills as she would've liked, but a good race nonetheless. Elissa raced for the first time this year - she's struggled with various health issues for the last few months. Aside from the camp time trial, she hadn't done any high-intensity training since November, so this weekend was a big jump for her. She'll get faster every week.

Saturday's classic was 15/20k, which meant 4 laps for women and 6 for men. There was just enough of Friday's snow over the icy base for hard wax with a binder - no klister, much to the coaches' relief. No big finishes on this day, but several good individual results. Sarah led the women in 59th, with Courtney close behind. Colman, John, and Niko were solid as our 2-3-4 skiers, all finishing in the mid-50s. Not our best weekend, but not bad. With a bit of a break before our next carnival, we can put in a couple weeks of solid training - we should be in a position to have some great races in February.

Thanks to Tim and Muriel Hall for setting up a tailgate lunch for us on Saturday - this was amazing. Not only was it great food, it also allowed us to get on the road much quicker, which was huge - time is precious when you're facing a 6+ hour drive home.

Nick was on the ball again with photos - here are a couple from Saturday's classic:

Another milestone for Grace - first 15k ever.

I hate to resort to stereotypes, but Sarah's from Alaska, which may explain the lack of gloves on a rather chilly day.

Placid

We left Brunswick and 10 inches of fresh snow for the long drive to Lake Placid. It's nice and cold here, but they didn't get much snow from Monday's storm, so the skiing is a bit limited. Barring a major storm tonight (there are a couple inches forecast), we'll be racing on a 3.3k loop near the biathlon range. Coverage is thin, and the snow's a bit dirty, but it's actually pretty good skiing - nice and fast. The course isn't too hilly, but I have a feeling that the climbs will seem a bit bigger by the 5th and 6th laps of Saturday's classic race. There are 90+ skiers in both races - lots of people to fit on a 3.3k loop. Should be spectator friendly, though, and our skiers will have lots of people to ski with. As always, it'll be fun.