Inspiration

After a week full of 6:30 AM practices, interval sessions, and general strength, Ethan brought a bunch of us to Lake Placid for something like the "nordic combined dry-land championship." Despite the dreary weather, the scene was pretty cool--live music, good food, and a surprisingly high number of spectators.

We got there around 12:00, which was just after the first round of ski jumping. With some time to kill before the next

round (and the rollerski race at 2:15), we had some time to kill. We took advantage of the comp tickets we had and took the chairlift up to the top of the hill. From the bottom, both the small, a mere 90 meters, and the long jump, a bit more lengthy at 12o meters, were pretty daunting. It was not different up close. We took an elevator to the top of the mammoth 120 jump tower and wonderer around the top for a while. With the second round beginning, we made our way down to a spectators platform near the takeoff where the competitors were taking off. After shaking hands with Andy Newell (who is apparently on a first name basis with Steve) we descended the hill to find a stop for watching the rollerski race.

The race was also very spectator friendly--being a 10k on a 2k loop, there were a lot of opportunities to see the skiers passing by. Though the course was pretty technical and hilly, the level of competition was pretty high which made for an interesting race. In the absence of Billy Demong, Todd Lodwick cleaned up, making the win look easy. Freezing, we headed back to the van and took off back to campus as the sun began to emerge from behind the clouds.