Saturday
March 30, 2013
WOOOOOOOOO
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I
think this, or something very similar was heard coming from the
mouths of Corey and me as we celebrated the fact that today’s race
was a skate race. Yes, a skate race. No grip testing. No sticking
to the wax tubes. No klister. No crazy combos. No stress. (Do I
sound happy? I am quite forgetting myself as I still claim to prefer
classic skiing!)
Alex,
on the other hand, was NOT heard to voice similar sentiments , as he
had the 30 km skate race to contend with. This consisted of 4 laps
of a very tough 7.5 km course, that took in every climb possible. I
once again remind you that this was the Olympic course. All open
men and women raced in the morning before the course turned to mush.
Alex did a great job of completing his second ever 30 km race. The
jump he has made from junior boys to men this season is so very steep
. . .the saying I put on the wall for Alex leading up to this day
was: “strength doesn’t come from what you CAN do . .it comes from
OVERCOMING the things you once thought you couldn’t.” So to
summarize Alex’s race, two words, said in a Russian accent “strong
boy”.
The
remainder of the team enjoyed another relaxing morning of sleeping
in, stretching, eating and otherwise prepping for the afternoon
races. One of the main pre-race decisions of the day was how little
could be worn and still called decent. This especially applied to
the girls, who did not race until nearly 3:00 in the afternoon in the
hot sun. One of my pre-race jobs with the girls (after serving as
minimalist fashion consultant) was to call out at regular intervals
“get into the shade” and “are you drinking water?"
 |
| all set for a day at the beach |
All
Manitoba skiers raced well, with grit and determination in the slushy
and slow conditions. All races were mass start. Lisle fared the
worst in the pack skiing, being taken down by an elbow to the gut and
having the wind knocked out of her. She completed the race
regardless. Go Lisle. Elora put on a very impressive display of
guts on a few climbs especially on her first lap. She finished 39th
of 72 which was very close to top ½ of the pack. Elora is a gem!
Levi had a strong ski and finished 36th
of 73 which was also essentially the top ½ of the pack. Anna looked
strong and held her technique together well. Ben was decently
pleased with his race. Sean says his race was a “sufferfest”,
but he was pleased that he was able to focus on technique despite
lacking much energy. Maya finished the race which was extremely
gutsy given the 4 days she had just spent sick. Wow, it is hard to
train all year and end up sick at the most important event of the
season. Maya is a hero to me.
 |
| Lisle and Elora, looking fierce |
The
day ended with packing up the wax trailer and all gear as quickly as
possible, in order to get cleaned up for the evening banquet event in
Whistler. And WOW did we get cleaned up! Everyone cut rather a fine
figure in our “black and white” themed clothing – check out the
updated photo of us on the Olympic rings! We definitely caused a bit
of a stir as we had to walk through the town from our accommodation
to the conference center. “How was the wedding?” rang out more
than once. Sheesh. You would think those snowboarders in their
dreadlocks have never seen anyone dressed up before! Lisle and Elora
were the life of the evening, staying later than the rest of the team
to visit the free photo booth at least 17 times, and trying to catch
glimpses of National Team skiers.
 |
| I guess we look okay. Ya know, in a blisteringly sexy kind of way. |
(captions by Sean, in case you were wondering)
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