travels

Easterns day 4

Anna Kroeker

Aaaaand day two of racing is a success!

The races were staggered throughout the morning and afternoon, giving the majority of the group (save the younger skiers, who raced at four yesterday, but were up bright and early this morning to race starting at nine) time to sleep and have a nice breakfast before heading out to the course at appropriate times for their individual races. The clubhouse was even more packed today, and we didn't even manage to get a parking spot, Betsy having to swear up and down that she would come back out after delivering us athletes to the course.

In the morning before my race I was was hoping to be able to fix the problem of my baskets spinning due to lack of glue on the baskets and grips, and was lent a glue gun and helped immensely by the coach of another club when he found me trying to use a roll of duct tape as a last minute solution. It really gave me a nice warm fuzzy "I hope I destroy his racers on the course" feeling. (Honestly though, his generosity made my day, I hope karma gave his skiers an extra boost or that he found 20$ or a tube of HF powder on the ground.)

The second day marks the start of the distance races, something that more of our racers are comfortable with, compared to the medium distance not quite sprint, not quite distance race yesterday. The distances today were between 5 km and 10 km, two loops of 2.5 for midget girls and boys, one grueling 5 km loop for the junior and juvenile girls, two loops of a 3.75 for the junior and juvenile boys, and two loops of the five for Maya. The five kilometer loop features some killer hills, (imagine looking at a wall) and all of our skiers did incredibly well, and maintained good spirits before and after the race. The wax techs continue to work their magic, the skis carrying all of us down the hills at breakneck speed. The one hill very aptly named "Dirks Dive" a hill that gives you a feeling comparable to dropping off the edge of the earth or going down a roller coaster was a source of great success for Cam, who achieved his goal of getting air off the top. (The rest of us were just praying to stay on our feet and keep out stomachs inside our bodies.)

Levi discovered the invaluable information that the volunteers in the food tent don't mind of the hard working athletes take a larger portion of the food offered, and loaded up on cheese curds and brownies, much to the delight of everyone in his general vicinity.

Even longer races tomorrow, a classic mass start, which should bring great excitement with the large age categories.