It’s
the day after Christmas, I’m at home and thoroughly enjoying the presence of my
biological family (but missing my ski family). My mom, brothers, and I just shoveled a few inches of fresh
powder off the driveway. The sky is a pale pink color and everything glitters
in the light of the setting sun. This break has been so much of what it should
be; with lots of time to relax (and play video games with my brothers which is relaxing
despite the loud bangs and explosions), fun with the family, good food, cooking,
baking, and just enough snow to ski on (something rare for this time of year
here in Massachusetts). Still, even in all of this splendor, I think many would
agree with me when I say that I’m ready to get racing!
Last
weekend’s race was such a tease, preceded by a note from Sylvan reminding us of
what it means to believe and followed by an inspiring post by Britta; it has
left me thinking about the passion we all feel for skiing, the way it brings us
all together, and the positive influence of a strong and dedicated team.
Those
of us here in the East had quite a day at Craftsbury. It was cold, wet, and
definitely fun (although the second race was cancelled due to the weather). Chewy and Lucas made our skis rocket ships and coached us
through a great day of racing where we ended up skiing the sprint course
upwards of five times. For a few of us it was our first time racing in the
heats, which meant that we needed some good advice on warm ups and tactics and
I at least, needed Lucas’ calming presence to remind me that qualifying isn’t
anything to loose your head about. Which brings me to some sports-psych stuff and
the topic of believing.
The
night before the race Lucas and Chewy asked who would make the heats the next
day, we all raised our hands although some of us more tentatively than others.
I don’t know about the others in the group, but I was mostly raising my hand
because I wanted to qualify and I knew that confidence is a key component of
racing fast. Deep down inside though, I couldn't honestly say that I was confident that I would qualify for the rounds. I tried, but I just couldn’t. I asked myself afterwards if
this mentality hampered my performance, it may have, but I don’t know if it did. I thought
about Sylvan’s words in an email to the team, “Anyone who has skied for more than a year
competitively has the ability to change their ability just by tweaking their
mentality (i.e. believing in yourself).” I turned these words over and over in
my head and finally, I realized that he said, “believing in yourself,” not, “believing in the result.” It occurred to me, that I honestly believed and felt
completely confident that I would go out race as fast as I could. I believed in
myself and I believed in my ability, even though I wasn’t sure what the result
of that would be, and this made all the difference.
Anyway, after that ramble I will give you some results. The menz at the Eastern Cup were
as follows; Connor (32), Nate (84), Emmet (89) in a field of just over 200. The
women at the Eastern Cup were; Hallie (8), Jane (12), Britta (22), Gracie (33),
Sadie (55) in a field of just over 150. At the Crested Butte Solstice Showdown
Wade Rosko was 17th. And congrats to Laurel, who won the
Tennenbaum 10km Classic and beat her mom for the first time in a ski race (by 9
seconds)! I don’t have any more results for you, the other bobcats did time
trials and intervals last weekend, so rest assured that we’re getting prepped and revving our engines for racing season!
Much love and happy
skiing,
Jane
And here are some photos:
Laurel and Filly
Eggs on the new fry pan!
The cookies I baked and painted
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