What looks like a super-intense coaches meeting in the trailer
Start line of the men's 15k mass start. It was a great day for Chumley who notched 14th place and skied a very smart race doing so. Sun and warmth made for an amazing spring-skiing day. I quickly rolled up the spandex and sleeves...just to get a base
Waxroom action featuring Jason and I. I am missing a mask because I was in and out so much between testing and applying topcoats that I never got around to protecting the respiratory system. Whoops...
For the first few days, lunch was quality deli meat on whole wheat sandwiches. By the end of the week, we would wax until we couldn't feel our fingers before Jason finally made the call to go to the food truck for some greasy delights...you can tell how famished we are by the fact that there's a ski on coach Swayze's bench that was halted mid-wax-job in order to gobble those fries
With the warm weather and sun at the end of the week came some flooding issues...here Jason re-routes the small lake around the athlete wax bench
Speaking of trailer issues, the final morning we drove up to find our wax room TP'd and the staircases moved onto the roof. The New England trailer was also victim to some similar vandalism, so clearly somebody has it in for the East Coast...
Parting shot from JN's, a grouping of team #SLUEngland (minus Chumley and plus Kate). There were lots of alumni, current and former racers, family and friends out for the final relay races..."there are a lot of SLU people out here!" was one comment Erin got. That's pretty cool!
It had been 6 years since my last trip to Junior Nationals (back when they were Junior Olympics!) in Anchorage, Alaska in 2008. There was a lot of nostalgia seeing all these events and excitement all over again, and I am incredibly grateful to Jason, Marge and all the other Mid-A coaches who allowed me to tag along and help out. I feel like I was given a lot of leeway in terms of race day testing and wax choices...I appreciate the trust that was given to my decisions and am glad for the opportunity to wake up every day and be a part of another ski team. As some are fond of saying, Mid-AAllDayEveryDay!
No comments:
Post a Comment