The sprint day brought about a fresh set of challenges. Levi, our first racer, started his qualifier at 9:20 in the morning, with the rest of the team following shortly after. This meant that we had another early morning in store, waking up at 6:00 to be at the race site at 7:00.
early morning
the inukshuk at the race site
gorgeous.
Wax testing started almost immediately, as we rushed to find a combination that would afford grip on both glazed tracks in the shade and wet, slushy snow in the sun. Levi had a strong race even after breaking a pole basket and grabbing another pole. He came in at 15th of over 80 boys, qualifying easily for the afternoon heats. Next up for our 1km sprint was Lisle and I. The wax testing the boys had done that morning and the previous morning paid off and we had excellent grip for our qualifier. I skied into 29th place qualifying for heats by .4 of a second. Lisle says of her sprint "best wax I've had in my entire life".
Around 10 Sean and Ben skied their 1.2km course. Ben doesn't consider himself to be a sprinter and was very happy with his racing. Sean was not satisfied with how his race went. After the boys, Anna was last to go as Maya unfortunately had a bad cold and had to stay back and rest. Anna looked very strong coming skiing through the stadium and is happy with how it went. Everyone agreed that Megan and Corey nailed the wax for that morning.
Following the qualifiers the wax techs began prepping skis for me and Levi. With the temperature rising quickly to 20 degrees the waxing was challenging. Megan and Corey found anticipating the afternoons conditions to be difficult as they didn't know how soft of snow to expect. Our team cheered very loudly and Levi and I fought hard in our heats but neither of us moved on to the semi finals.
Meanwhile Sean was working hard in the wax room holding up his end of his deal with Lisle and cleaning the klister off everyone's skis with the help of Ben. Ironically Lisle was sitting outside of the wax trailer on her phone the entire time.
mad thanks to Ben for the help.
high off the wax cleaner fumes...
lots of klister.
In the evening the entire group went out for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory where we were joined by the Boivins.
not entirely sure what's going on here.
the elusive wild corey, exhibiting behavioral traits outside the normal... eating salad!
Today's menu featured medium distance classic races. The entire team was faced with very difficult conditions. It was hot, sunny and hot. Our Junior girls got the ball rolling with a 10km. Anna was our first girl out the gate followed by Maya. Anna had a good race despite tough waxing conditions coming in at 83% of the winner's time. Maya, who's been feeling under the weather, thought it better to save herself for the classic sprints tomorrow and decided to pull out of the race around 3km.
Next up were the Juvenile girls. Corey and Megan were facing some extremely tough grip waxing conditions. The temperature was changing very quickly and the snow was rapidly turning to mush and slush. Elora and Lisle were putting up a good fight, but unfortunately lacked effective grip wax. Elora came in at 84% and Lisle at 83% of the winner's time. Before beginning her race, Elora noticed a fly had nestled in her klister, she thought it best to leave it in and race on it. Why bother messing with klister on race skis?
Quickly following the Juvenile girls were the Junior boys. Ben had a very good first and last lap, separated by a mediocre one. The race was poor (except for the first lap) as he puts it. Sean spent his first lap trying to find his groove, as he began his second lap, his grip left him and he needed to alter his race plan and muscle his way through the rest of the race.
For Levi, the temperature rose so quickly that his grip wax was rendered useless. He thought it better to save his arms and legs for the sprints tomorrow and dropped out at the 5km marker.
I had quite a bit of time between the juvenile boys and the junior men. I had a nice slow morning compared to the others who got up at 5:45. My race featured a slew of murderous hills which had been used during the 2010 Olympics. They're nowhere near as easy as they look on tv. My grip wax was effective in some spots and useless in others. It made for a challenging race as I never knew if I could climb the next hill. Needless to say that the entire team had a very challenging day. They all handled it with composure and grace.
Our "snow"...
Event sponsor shwag everywhere
The backdrop of our racing. Awesome if you ask me.
Early morning tomorrow, so I don't have too much time for an update. Today was spent testing wax for the tricky snow conditions in the morning, and generally chilling out and relaxing in the afternoon. I spent the day trying to get a handle on my mental state.
Some pictures from the day:
we are incredibly lucky to be here.
after the fury of wax testing
the view from the roof
looking down on the competition
yoga and naptime on the roof
"ok, seriously, give me the camera."
goofing around in the afternoon. (cabin fever...?)
An update on the bet: displaying a considerable amount of mental fortitude, Lisle lasted 24 hours without her phone. Despite my best efforts at playing the Tempter, I'm going to be de-klistering the team's twenty pairs of skis tomorrow.
Today, the racing began in earnest. The first full day of racing saw Alex and Corey leaving early for the race site to begin waxing. Alex raced at 10:00, followed by Ben and I at 11:22 and 11:24 respectively. Levi started soon after, while the girls arrived later for start times around noon.
some of Megan's motivational posters, plastered around the hotel room
the drive to W.O.P
The Junior Boys and Junior Men raced a 10 km interval start skate today, while the Levi and the girls raced a 5 km. The course was fairly challenging, with two very long uphill sections and some very technical downhills mixed in with five or six other smaller climbs and some flatter rolling sections. Team Manitoba was equal to the challenge however, with strong performances from the majority of the team.
fueling up...
I'm not sure who this is, actually...
(a disclaimer before I continue - this is only my observations on the racing for the most part. The athletes will probably tell you different.)
Maya and Anna had strong races, climbing very well and looking great technically, from what I saw. Both seemed relaxed and focused, and Anna had a giant smile on her face come the finish.
Lisle and Elora finished in the top half of the race, with Lisle breaking into the top twenty. Even on the last long climb, both were turning it over and pushing hard, picking off girls all the way to the finish.
Levi landed just outside the top twenty, placing twenty first. Says Levi, "It was pretty good. My legs kind of blew up on that last hill, but it was good."
Ben had a great race, as the course suited his strengths well. He climbed like a demon, ending up 45th, three minutes behind the leader.
Neither Alex or I skied as well as we'd like today. Alex had an absolutely blistering first lap, looking very strong on the climbs and on the false flats especially. Unfortunately, he ran into back problems just before the lap lane, which slowed him down for the second lap. On my part, I was suffering the after-effects of being sick and the team sprint the day before, feeling like I was recovering from anaerobic bursts twice as slow as normal. I finished 68th, four minutes thirty behind the winner.
just chillin'
After coming home and crashing for a while, a few of us set out to run some errands in the town. I needed some ear plugs, as Alex's snoring had risen to cacophonous crescendos (Alex protests, saying they reached mezzo piano at most...) the night before, and Levi and I wanted to find some decent green tea. Ben came along as well, hoping to find some nicer racing sunglasses.
After dinner, the whole team walked through the town to the bottom of the ski slopes, where we witnessed the "fire and ice" show, which consisted of some daring snowboarders and skiers tricking off a jump through a ring of fire, accompanied by fireworks.
Hark! A picture of Megan!
goofing around before the "fire and ice" thing
nice view...
fireworks, as seen from the roof of the ski lift building. (totally wasn't my idea...)
the aforementioned ring of fire
The team is looking forward to the rest day tomorrow, hoping for a bit of a sleep in and the chance to scope out the classic trails for the coming races. I'm hoping to hit the pillow minutes after this post goes up.
Today was the first day of racing for our two sprint teams: Maya and Lisle, Ben and Sean.
The 4 racers woke up earlier this morning and the rest of the team drove out on time to watch and cheer them on. Conditions started off cold as the sun rose on the other side of the mountain. The course was gorgeous, packed within an inch of its life and extremely scenic. But by the time Maya hit the start line, the course had been chewed up considerably by the university races. The 700 meter course was getting sloppy, especially the lone hill. After a messy start, the girls fought valiantly from the back. At times leaping over other racers, they rose as high as 4th on their way to a 6th place finish in a tough heat.
Maya leading a small group
In the hour between the girls race and ours, the sun crested the mountain, and the temperature rose 5 degrees in very short order. After dropping layer after layer through warm up, our race time came around, and Sean took to the line. Following the longest "set" command ever, Sean rocketed off the line, and after the first lap we were running 4th place. I proceeded to drop 3 spots, and some more places went missing in the madness of transition. At the end of a very fun race, we finished in 8th from 14 in our heat. Given it was my first team race, and Sean and I had practiced our transitions for 45 minutes the day before, we were quite pleased.
One of the six exchanges
Meanwhile, the non-racers that day had found a great spot to relax... joined here after the race by the rest of the team.
getting our suntan on...
The course for tomorrow is very exciting and quite hilly. The 5km loop exits the stadium, climbs, re-enters the stadium, climbs out again, and continues on like that. Most of it follows the Olympic course. Our pre-ski was fast, as all the trails are, but still quite warm. Highs here are reaching about 5 on the course. Tomorrow, however, is supposed to remain around one degree.
Other developments of the day: Hysterics at Alex's imitation of Elora, Levi's birthday celebrated in style and complete with cake, and a high stakes bet between Sean and Lisle as to whether or not she can last a day without her phone. If Lisle accesses her phone before 9 pm tomorrow, she will be scraping the inevitable klister off everybody's skis. If she does not, this formidable task will be Sean's. So patrol the social networks, folks, keep her honest.
Some photos:
nice rack...
a moment of quiet for corey
clearing snow off the roof of our wax trailer
"step right up, girls and boys, to the best seats in the house..."
Recovery is on the schedule for the rest of the evening, and I need to join in that effort. So from beautiful Whistler and the 2013 Ski Nationals, goodnight!
I've been ridiculously stoked since arriving in Vancouver this afternoon. Here's why:
As I write this, I'm sitting looking out on a gorgeous little town tucked into a mountain range (where you can essentially ski up to the hotel,) looking forward to racing on the exact course that has been graced by the feet of the best in the world.
Let's try this again, and maybe I'll tone it down a bit.
Day 1 started with the usual early morning grogginess in the airport. This time, however, we had to navigate the streams of vacationers heading off to the four corners of the globe for spring break. At 5:30 am, the terminal was as full as I've ever seen.
The flight was pretty uneventful, which is definitely a good thing. I mostly slept.
from the plane...
Arriving in Vancouver, I was struck right away by how gorgeous the city is. Even at this time of year, the grass and the trees are a vibrant green, although I've heard that this can be chalked up to the oceans of rain that fall on the city annually.
Stanley Park
The drive out to Whistler was even more breathtaking. The pictures don't really do the scenery justice, but I was glued to the van window for the entire ride. We were also interested in scoping out the road for Corey, as he is planning on racing another Iron Man here this summer. He did have some choice expletives to utter, as the hills just kept getting longer and steeper.
Whistler Olympic Park is flat out sweet. Turning off the main highway, you follow a windy road uphill for ten minutes, and suddenly on either side of the car, there are ten foot tall walls of snow, with barely a hint of a transition from bare grass. The first thing to be seen when nearing the clubhouses, (yes, plural - there's three of em) is the massive ski jumping set up.
NASA's looking into this method for launching satellites...
After mucking about unloading bags for a while, we suited up to check out the team sprint course for the next day. Which was just about when I got hit all of a sudden by the awesomeness of it all and affixed a permanent grin onto my face.
You can't see behind my hand, but I'm grinning like the friggin' cheshire cat. Maya is unimpressed with my interpretation of Lewis Carroll.
Alfalfa called, he wants his hairstyle back...
The team sprint course was much shorter then we were expecting, only 700 meters in length with one sole uphill. Ben and I spent about an hour analyzing the course, going through various different lines on the turns and fine tuning our exchange zone technique. We left with even bigger grins on our faces, looking forward to tomorrow's race.
The middle clubhouse, with a few wax trailers on the side
I'm going backwards into the exchange area. Why am I doing that?
SO. COOL.
Since we couldn't check into the hotel until 4:00, we headed to the grocery store, where we ran into what seemed like a good half of the rest of the cross country skiers at the competition. Alex and Jimmy Gunka had a good chat over the romaine lettuce.
As it still was too early to check in, we decided to explore the town.
Lisle and I were excited to check out this awesome play structure
struttin'
"are we gonna get in trouble...?" "who cares, let's climb on this thing!!"
we're thinking of trying out for Sochi...
Gondola just off the main walkway.
After that, we checked into the hotel, dealt with bags and generally settled in. More posts to come!
- SEAN
Edit: Lisle says to declare that she's awesome. Consider it declared.
