Anyways. It's Race Season, game on. today we had Skate Sprints at the nordic heritage center, home of Junior Nats this year. Nice place - soild course - quick start then huge downhill followed by a sharp hairpin, then a nasty climb to the stadium , a couple of whoopdee-do hills, then gradual climb to the finish strech. You get the picture. The field is prety stacked - alot of EISA teams, Craftsbury, MWSC, ski acedmies, a couple of aussies, some canadians and more.
Now the first race of the season isn't always supposed to go perfectly in terms of logistics, and we are hopeful that we got our issues out of the way today, which included slower than expected skis, a broken ski boot zipper that led to a frantic hunt for a boot before the heats, keeping your feet on the ground while racing, and just the fact that it is cold as hell out here. But anyways, it was a good day and it feels awesome to be racing again. Now what you've been waiting for:
-Cara led it off for Harvard in the qualifiers, skiing very strong and coming in 36th, just missing the heats. Well done for a pretty tough women's field.
-I went off and felt good until the hairpin, where I had more speed from the down hill then I thought and Sir Isac Newton made sure I paid the price- I couldn't get around the turn quick enough and went off the mashed up trail, I rebounded but it still wasn't good enough to qualify, and I was a couple seconds out for 49th. still a solid effort.
-Tony went off very strong and looked as though he had one of the best starts of anyone in the qualifiers. Coming to the top of the hill he skied smooth and came into the stadium ripping - good enough to make it into the qualifiers at 23rd.
The womens quarterfinals went, and as the sun slowly started to retreat (no joke it's dark here at 3:30) Tony began to prep for his heat - which was eagerly anticipated due to New Zealand Olympian Ben Koonz's appearance. Well, Tony had something to say about that, and when the gun went off he took the lead going down into the hill. Standing at the top of the hill, we saw Tony emerge in first skiing hard and brilliantly - the suprised look on Koonz's face was priceless. Going into the back hill 3rd place caught up and it was a duel, Tony hung on though and gave them a fight, and finished a close 3rd. His time didn't make the lucky loser qualifier, however his race was awesome.
Now it's time for some R&R, Food, and prepping the classic boards for tomorrow. It's on like Donkey Kong.
keep it real -ksprague.
under the bridge
scoping out the start
Duelin'
Cruising
Cara in the start
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