February 25th, 2009
My posting has been a little sparse the last couple of weeks, my apologies. Apparently my last post was waaaaaay too boring because even my Dad wrote to tell me how boring it was, my bad…
Franz and Juergen skiing away from Glenn at the finish on Friday at Middlebury Carnival…
So today in addition to some pictures from Martina Howe I’ve stolen some pictures from Lincoln Benedict. You can find more of his work at HB3.smugmug.com and eisaskiing.org He has done an amazing job covering the Carnivals this season so you should check it out if you haven’t already.
As my Dad pointed out in his e-mail there were more interesting stories from the weekend then the finishes I shared last week. On Friday the waxing was pretty straightforward as temps hovered in the upper 20’s and the snow was fresh. We made a decision early and got the guys on their skis so we could make adjustments before the mass start. Easy right? 5 minutes before the start Alex reaches for his bib only to find that it isn’t there. In the split second after I confirmed that his bib was in fact missing from the bin many thoughts crossed through my mind, most of them combined with some choice four letter words. “Could I have forgotten it? Could one of the Bowdoin guys be wearing it since there tent was nearby?” It seemed unlikely that one of our guys took it because that would mean their bib should still be sitting in the bin. All the other guys were already over at the mass start so I booked it over to the timer to see if I could get another bib. Fortunately Tom and several of the Midd crew helped me track down an extra bib, we got it to Alex and he got to the start just in time.
Men’s Start
Now the question is…what happened to the bib?
Weave, Fred, and I were positioned in several places around the first 2 kilometers with poles which lead to a pretty entertaining exchange for anyone who happened to be listening to channel 2.
400m Stone:”The guys look clean but Alex was trying to tell me something as he went by and I couldn’t understand him.”
800m Fred:”The guys look good but Alex says that Juergen has his bib.”
Stone:”What?”
Patrick:”Juergen is wearing Alex’s bib.”
Stone:”Juergen is wearing the yellow leader bib.”
Fred:”I don’t know but Alex said Juergen has his bib.”
1400m Patrick:”Juergen is wearing the leader bib but Alex said that Juergen is wearing his bib”
Hunh?
Where is bib 27? It’s not on Alex…
That is a somewhat abridged version of the exchange as it took Weave, Fred and I quite a while to get to that level of understanding. We tend to talk over each other and the crackling of our WWII era radios doesn’t help matters.
We told Alex to relax and just race but the missing bib kept nagging at me as the race wore on.
Pre solved the mystery as I chatted with him in the finish chute. None of us noticed it during the race but Pre was wearing Alex’s bib over the top of his own bib! The fact that the Breadloaf groomer had broken down before the race wasn’t enough of a curve ball so Pre thought he would test them by wearing two bibs.
It turn’s out that when you are watching someone race by “Kerrigan has my bib” sounds a lot like “Juergen has my bib”. Fortunately for us the timers and organizers got the times/athletes correct and didn’t DQ either of them.
Another picture for those that don’t like to read…
Senior Captain Mary Stewart ripping it up on her “home” course…
EISA Champs Preview….
Carnival Team- Juergen, Mary, Chris, Kat, Ryan, Jennie, Johanna, Alex, Franz, Ellery, Cole, and Caitlin
Dartmouth has been tough all season, Middlebury has looked strong the last couple weeks, and athletes from Williams, Colby, St. Lawrence, and Bates are battling it out with some Wildcats, Panthers, and CATAMOUNTS for NCAA spots.
Last weekend 47 points seperated Middlebury, Dartmouth, and us, this weekend everyone is going to be gunning for the top spot and I like our chances…
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