travels: Day 2 of Westerns

Hello from Canmore everybody! Friday the 16th marks the first day of racing at the Canmore venue. The day began at around 6:45 for some of our older athletes, as their races began around 10 o'clock. Coach Andrew was at the venue at 6:15, despite a evening that included many a pulled pork sandwich. Most athletes took a short ten minute run in the morning to try and awaken themselves from their slumber, and then we enjoyed a lovely quinoa/hemp/brown rice/oatmeal blend, courtesy of Pauline. Pauline's personal belief was that this concoction, and this concoction alone, was why we had such a strong showing today. We then prepared our gear, loaded the vans and were of to the Nordic centre. As we spoke about potential methods of charming our way into a parking spot if there wasn't one, Pauline's wheels were self declared as "flat", despite her previous nationals record of utilising her wheeling techniques to reserve a parking spot. The tracks were hard and fast today, and became a little bit glazed as the sun came out, creating a fast and exciting race. The course was essentially a long, winding climb culminating on the infamous "Beckie Scott" climb, which was then followed by a long downhill with a few technical turns (including one which saw one skier falling off a cliff, only to finish the race in the top third). Then there was a final killer uphill and another long (ish) downhill into the finish. It was a tough course where pacing was crucial as you could easily burn yourself out the first time up the big hill. Cam and the Levi's were up first with their junior boys race. It was a very impressive show, with Cam coming in 40th, Levi W. coming in 35th and Levi Nadlersmith finding Manitoba's first podium of the 2015 western championships with a strong second place finish, just 3 seconds behind Canmore's Ty Godfrey. In the junior girls category we had Amelia Kovachik in 44th, Karly Lockhart in 43rd, Sarah Lynn Bergen in 40th, and Lisle Compton with a 9th place finish! In the juvenile boys category we had Liam Allan in 32nd, Lucas Smith in 24th, Simon Giasson in 21st and Conor McGovern with another podium finish with a second place finish just 14 seconds behind Black Jack's Remi Drolet. In the juvenile girls category we had Claire Hensrud in 44th place. All in all, it was a very impressive showing by the team. We then cleaned our classic skis, scraped our skate skis and had lunch (which for many of us included the bacon cheeseburger, at Coach Andrew's recommendation, of course) while we waited for the awards ceremony to start. After both Conor and Levi N. received their prize mugs (to thunderous Manitoba applause) we departed for the lodge. Once we'd returned to the lodge we mostly just chilled out, with activities including pool playing, leg drain selfies, leg waxing and listening to some quality trap music (a la Liam Allan). We then had another amazing dinner of Thai stir fry and you-guessed-it, quinoa. We're now in full preparation mode for the freestyle sprints tomorrow- making lunches, writing race plans and stretching/ rolling. Tomorrow our Juveniles (Liam, Lucas, Simon, Conor and Claire) will race 500m, the Junior Boys/ Girls (the Levis, Cam, Karly, Lisle, Sarah Lynn and Amelia) will race 1km and the Junior Women (Maya and Katie) will race 1.3km. As I sit here and watch the team make their in between race snacks for tomorrow, I realize how creative a wrap maker Lucas Smith is. His wraps included honey, hemp seeds, almonds, peanut butter, nutella, carrots, broccoli, cucumber and hummus. I think you can figure out in which ingredients were combined together. If nothing else, he will have the most creative lunch at the Nordic centre tomorrow. It is now that I must conclude my second post, I'd like to extend a special thanks to Conor McGovern for his contributions to this blog. So long for now!

-Liam Allan