Better late than never

Lewiston, ME- Once again I am late in updating the blog. Even more disgraceful, I didn't even manage to write a post last Thursday. But, as the title of this post says, better late than never.

Last weekend we raced a 20k classic mass start at Dartmouth's carnival in Craftsbury. Unfortunately, I kind of missed the beginning of the mass start and started a bit late(sorry Becky). Fortunately, this gives me perfect material for a blog post! So instead of the usual boring summary, I'm going to try something new this week and give a detailed timeline of how I missed a mass start, titled "How I missed a mass start."

2 Weeks to race start: Max gives a brief lecture on how stupid you would have to be to miss a mass start.

18 hours to race start: Max previews the course, decides that the best strategy is an aggressive start.

13.5 hours to race start: Max promises Becky that he will be skiing in the top 20 out of the starting area.

11 hours to race start: Max visualizes his first few laps and psyches himself up to stick with the lead group.

1 hour to race start: Max puts on his ski clothes, goes over his warmup plan one more time and grabs his watch so he can stick to the plan.

41 minutes to race start: Max returns his race skis for the first of two re-waxings, continues warmup.

28 minutes to race start: Max practices some start speeds, knowing that it will be his best chance to make up some ground.

11 minutes to race start: Max's race skis are ready to go, he runs inside real quick to change his shirt and throw his bib on.

5 minutes to race start: Max leaves his watch in the lodge, runs to the bathroom, and grabs his skis.

4-1 minutes to race start: ???? somewhat unclear

1 minute to race start: Max compliments a girl's hair in the parking lot, and happily runs towards the start pen.

10 seconds to race start: Max realizes something is wrong when his spot is the only unfilled spot in the start area.

-5 seconds to race start: Max, still with jacket on and skis off, lets out a heartfelt inappropriate exclamation which draws the ire of a nearby elderly spectator.

aprox. -30 seconds to race start: Max succeeds at putting his skis and poles on, and starts off after the disappearing pack.

The rest of the race: At this point I think the coaches and women's team assumed I had fallen and broke a pole, so I was actually getting cheered at instead of receiving the disappointed glares I probably deserved. It took me another minute or so to really realize what I had done, and to reevaluate my goals. I just decided to start picking racers off and see how far up I could get. I believe that the lead group was actually moving pretty slow for the first two laps or so, which helped me to no end. I ended up racing the best mass start I've ever done and finishing 28th. I am disappointed in myself for screwing up such a simple task like getting myself to the start, and for letting the rest of the team down, but I was really happy with my effort and glad for the learning experience.

The rest of the crew also had some strong races, with Corky in 24th and Nate in 35th. The women fared a bit better, with Sadie skiing to a strong 13th, while seniors Britta and Grace finished 24th and 26th respectively. It was one of those days that was just difficult racing, with temperatures for the girls race only borderline legal (around -4 degrees F), and not much warmer for the men's race. Our skis were crazy fast though, so a big thanks to the coaches.

Other important news: Happy 21st to HENRY COLT!!!! I'm not sure if the Blue Goose is open on Mondays, but if it is, don't enjoy yourself too much.

Stay tuned for my penultimate blog post on Thursday previewing the Williams carnival, which will take place in Lake Placid, NY.