Hi everyone, Gabby here!
To cap off a truly unusual racing season, SLUSKI was
fortunate enough to send a full team (3 men and 3 women) to nationals at
Jackson, NH the week of March 8th. We stayed at the Eagle Mountain
Hotel which overlooks the stadium of the race course, which completely
eliminated drive time to the race venue! (In the two previous races at Jackson
this season, we had a 1.5-hour drive time from the hotel in St. Johnsbury, VT
to Jackson, NH).
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| Our home for the week, The Eagle Mountain House |
The “training” days leading up to the races followed a very 'lax schedule: get up early, eat our scheduled breakfast at 7:00 AM, sit in rocking chairs on the front porch, ski, eat lunch, hang out, eat our scheduled dinner at 5:50PM (M-W-F), hang out before bed, and then go to bed early. Compared to the constant bustle of life on campus, the quietness of the hotel life was really nice. We used some of the down time for all six skiers to get eyebrow notches and temporary tattoos. Jordan and I full sent it. We dyed some of our hair pink, for that full Kikkan Randall inspirational look! It was both a physical and mental break for us to get ready for the races.
Thursday’s classic race was quite possibly the hottest race
I’ve ever experienced. It was super fun to be in that head-down-and-grind, but the
combination of thawed snow and sun made for mushy conditions and sunburns. It
was really great to see some strong performances on our team! It cooled down by
Saturday for the skate races, which felt soooo much better. Again, we had some
great finishes on the team, and I am super proud of everyone who raced their
hearts out.
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| The melt out... PC: Coach Hatton |
To the readers who tuned into the races, I want to say thank
you for all of your support! I was able to talk with Peter Graves, the
announcer, after the races on Saturday and he said that was the most amount of
people that tuned in to watch the races both days. Also, thank you to our coaches, ETown and Dana for making
that week smooth sailing and for getting our skis ready to rip!
I am so proud of this team, both the ones that raced at NCAA’s
and the ones who finished their seasons earlier. They have worked through highs
and lows, and it has been so much fun training and ripping up races together! As
an official retired SLUSkier, I am confident when I say that this team will
continue to excel next season and for years to come. Watch out EISA!
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| L-R: Coach Hatton, Charlie, Gabby (Me!), Steph, and Jordan Missing from photo: Tim, Charlie, and Coach ETown PC: flyingpointrd.com; thanks Steve! |
Look for more blog posts in the coming days from the others who also experienced NCAA's alongside me!
Peace out,
Gabby W '21
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