The athletes woke up to a fairly relaxed morning, as Anais, our first racer, didn't start until around 10:15. There was plenty of time for us to have a good breakfast and stretch out a bit before going to the venue.
The coaches, on the other hand, were having a far less relaxed time of things, as the conditions at the park made for some very difficult waxing. The trail was mostly hard packed, very transformed man-made snow, which is tricky enough to deal with. To top it off, though, the snow was extremely icy and the air was humid, which meant that the grip wax was icing up almost immediately. Various combinations were tried without much success, until finally they broke down and broke out the klister. Which wasn't working either. And might possibly have caused a few meltdowns.
Eventually, and somewhat miraculously, we found a hardwax combination that worked quite well, against all odds. Unfortunately for the fingers of Corey and Alan, this necessitated the removal of the klister from the race skis in order to apply the hardwax, and there was much cursing the damnable invention of klister. (which, at this point, is standard practice for all classic races.)
Despite the "fun" in the waxing tent, the skis ended up being blisteringly fast for most. There was consistent racing all across the board, with most (if not all) of the team quite satisfied with their performances.
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| Simon |
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| more Simon |
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| Cam, hot on his heels |
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| the cheering section |
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| Amelia blazing by |
After deconstructing our waxing setup and heading back to the hotel to relax for an hour and a half or so, we decided to head to REI, which is sort of the american equivalent of MEC. Alex and I made a beeline for the baselayers section, but we weren't able to find anything much. Corey, on the other hand, made good on his threat to purchase a hammock to hang in the wax room. Anais found a toque, Elora found a cliff bar (love at first sight,) and Cam found a campfire toaster oven thing for canoe trips.
We still had a bit of time before dinner, so we decided to jump across the street to the Sports Authority to search for baselayers. Instead, we found racks and racks full of very bright (and very short) neon shorts on sale for two bucks. We joked about buying matching team shorts, and very nearly did, until Alex in all his wisdom identified several physiological and anatomical reasons as to why putting on those shorts would be a bad idea. The girls still bought them, though.
For dinner, we headed to a very swanky bar and grill place that both Alan and I agreed had Jamie written all over it. There I discovered that "jerk chicken" is generally quite spicy, much to my dismay. I won't be making that mistake again…
Back at the hotel, we had the team meeting and discussed arrangements for the next day, and then went back to our rooms to relax. Alex and I decided to run hot/cold baths, in order to help our sore muscles to relax and recover more effectively.
They were painful, to say the least.
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| Alex is questioning the life choices that led him to this point... |
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| yup. painful. |
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| why...? |
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| "you know, I'm actually quite comfortable now," he says. |
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