Wild Weekend #1!

I hope everyone had a great holiday and will soon have a happy New Year! I've been reading, skiing, watching Netflix, and spending time with family... just generally doing anything that involves no thinking at all - so the blog is a little late.

GH on the big climb

Nathaniel looking strong

Anyway, right after finals, some of us headed over to Craftsbury for Eastern Cup #1! It was a wild weekend, in that everywhere had great snow. Then, it absolutely POURED. Craftsbury did a fantastic job, though, and other than changing the race to an interval start, everything was able to go on as scheduled. The other thing that made it kind of crazy, was that NENSA decided to start having its Eastern Cup weekends be all one technique (I will say this worked out in our favor because Jackie and I would not have been able to fit our classic skis in the car).

Matt M. hauling up Screaming Mimi

The sprint day was great, but long as usual. Junior heats are late! For the men, we had Matt Young, GH, Nathaniel, and Matt Manwaring (his time is off due to a missed start). For the women, we had Jackie, Steph, Jordi, and me. I qualified for open heats to be quickly knocked out in my quarterfinal. It was great to be able to cheer for everyone, though! It was also such a privilege to be in a heat with talented sprinters and try and learn from them - hint - you probably shouldn't lead the first downhill :) Steph and Jackie qualified as well for junior heats! They raced well, and both of them skied gutsy races with some big moves on the steep uphill in the woods. So inspiring to watch them leave it all out there. Jackie made the A-final!

Women's Qualifier
Men's Qualifier
Open Women's Heats
U18/U20 Women's Heats

The interval start was fun as well. Ben joined us, which was great. Some awesome results - Jackie absolutely crushed it in her signature race... the hilly 5k skate! However, some of us were definitely hoping for more. It is hard to remember, but that is a good place to be going into Christmas break.

Nathaniel in a good pack

Women's 5k
Men's 10k

Thank you as always to the Townsend's for hosting us. The food was fantastic! I always love the bread, but it was pretty great to see everyone else's reactions, as it was their first time at a Townsend dinner. Needless to say, they were impressed and happy. Thanks to Jackie for the pictures! We don't have photos of the women, because we raced first both days. Happy holidays!