January 9th, 2009
Fourth time is the charm?
After three unsuccessful attempts to hold the classic sprint we were finally able to get it in today! There were many (including me) who were skeptical that we would get it done today but the temps did just enough and the volunteers braved a blustery stadium for 6 plus hours to make sure it happened.
The race was scheduled to start at 2pm with Junior/U23 heats concluding at 6:15 under the stadium lights. I went out to do some final testing before putting kick on the race skis at 12:30pm and the temperature was holding steady at -23C which was the same temperature I had observed at 11:00am. When I came back in from charging around the sprint loop several times the temperature had jumped to almost -20C in only 20 minutes! Apparently the breeze that was starting to pick up was bringing some slightly warmer air into Kincaid Park. Moments later the organizers announced that the race was on at 2pm and coaches started scurrying around prepping skis.
Since the temps and snow conditions had really not changed appreciably for the last 6 days our classic skis still had virtually the same wax job they did for last Saturday’s first attempt at the sprint. I had peeled off the kick once or twice in the last six days but the glide combination that I settled on a week ago was still testing fast and the kick testing I had done over and over again was still giving similar results.
Jennie, Caitlin, and Alex all skied well in qualifying and advanced into the top 30. Jennie had a little trouble making her start this afternoon and her hands paid the price as she raced the course with no gloves with temps approaching -15F with the wind chill. Fortunately she had time between qualifying and the heats to warm her hands to the point where she could feel them.
Despite darkness falling and the wind picking up the temps hovered just above -20C till after 6pm and we were able to run all the heats on the schedule. Alex qualified 24th and drew a favorable heat with several skiers he has beaten in the past. He battled hard in his heat but did not advance to the semi-finals. Caitlin had a bit of bad luck in her quarter-final as the wind caused her to plant her pole on top of her ski in the starting straightaway. She got it stuck with enough force that she had to tug hard on it to get it out! This mis-step cost her a couple of ski lengths which she slowly clawed back by the time they crested the high point of the course. She battled hard all the way to the line managing to just out lunge World Junior Team member Becca Rorabough for fourth place in her heat.
Jennie had the race of the day for the Cats as she proved once again that she is one of the best classic sprinters in the country. In her Quarter-final heat she hung on to quick starters Nicole De Young and Parker Tyler before blowing them away in the final 200 meters and posting the fastest Quarter-final time. In her semi-final heat she drew US Sprint National Champion and World Cup winner Kikkan Randall. Kikkan skied out to an early lead but Jennie closed the gap throughout the course closing to within a half second at the line. Her time in the Semi-Finals was the third fastest time of the day for women behind only Kikkan’s prelim sprint and Semi-Final heat time. In the final Jennie skied to her second 5th place finish at US Nationals less then 2 seconds from the podium.
It was a great day for us and a good way to close out an abbreviated but successful week for the team. There are some photos on the Nationals website. It was too cold for my camera at the races this week but I have some shots from the training days that I’ll get up soon. Stay tuned for a report from the Crit in Jackson, NH on Saturday. Patrick and the rest of the team are training in Burlington this week where the snow is improving everyday. The conditions up at Trapp’s are awesome and the weather is holding steady below freezing and above 0F!
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