Lewiston, ME- It might be fitting that this is both my last and latest blog post. I'm boarding a plane that'll eventually drop me off in New Zealand here in about 11 hours, which leaves me just enough time to recap my last weekend of the season and make some wild predictions for the team's performance at the upcoming Midd Carnival.
The Williams carnival somewhat confusingly took place in Lake Placid, NY. I'd blame the awful winter we've been having, but I'm worried that doing so would anger Ullr even further than whatever we've already done to deserve a February with more rain than snow. So anyways, we went to Lake Placid and skied on the paved loop at the ski jumping arena. A paved loop means that a course can be groomed with very low amounts of snow, and so the 2.5k course was in great shape despite the general lack of snow. The course itself was partially designed by our own assistant coach James Upham (who recently celebrated his 29th birthday on February 20th), who was able to give us an in depth guide to each twist and turn. I'll summarize that guide into: the course went uphill for a while, then it twisted down for a while, then it lapped through a flat stadium.
The carnival itself was a 10k skate race, and then a 5k pursuit start classic. I haven't done a pursuit since high school, nor has anyone else to my knowledge, so it was an awesome change of pace. The skate took place on conditions best described as "thinly covered ice," and some of the turns were a little bit spicy. But we put up some awesome races anyway, with Laurel skiing to a career-best 12th place, Grace in 18th, and Britta in 22nd. On the men's side we had a tight pack of me, Corky, and Nate in 24th, 25th, and 27th, all separated by about 15 seconds total.
The next day was a battle for spots, where you started based on your time back the first day, and were scored based on your finish order, rather than time. Temps pushed into the high 40s, and waxing was interesting, to say the least. Nevertheless, Sadie James crushed it, posting the 11th fastest time and moving up 13 spots to 25th.
After the races, I stoically said goodbye to everyone but Halie (who disappeared without a word, thank you) and drove off back to Lewiston. Since then I've been treated to snap stories from the crew staying with Britta in Middlebury, sketchy ice fishing, and lots of time to speculate on how we'll do at Middlebury. The races have been moved back a day due to excessive rain, which if you ask me favors those teams from Maine because if nothing else we've gotten used to rain. We will also see Henry Colt's scoring debut at Middlebury, where the newly 21 years old loose canon could shock the circuit with some stellar results, as long as he keeps both skis on his feet.
I guess that this is where I'll leave this last blog post, I really don't anything more to say besides a huge thank you to the whole Bates Nordic Family for all the support and love. Every weekend I'm humbled by the incredible display of support that our parents put on for us.
So until next semester, thanks for putting up with my poor spelling, grammar, and humor.
Max
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