Janurary Recap

Lewiston, ME- It dawns on me that I've been remiss updating the blog, so this post will cover not only last weekend's UNH Carnival in Jackson, NH, but the SLU Carnival in Lake Placid, NY. So rewinding the clock ten days (I think), brings us to Friday's Classic Sprint.

The sprint took place on a course that, while supposedly FIS legal, can only be described as "track-like," in that it featured only two significant turns (both to the right) and a gradual profile that led to all the men and just about all the women double poling the entire thing. What this meant in practice terms was the the coaches didn't need to worry too much about waxing for kick, and could focus on putting us on fast skis. They were successful, and six bobcats qualified for the heats (top 30 in the qualifying round). All three senior women qualified, with Sadie James in 22nd,  Laurel Fiddler in 23rd, and Haile Lange in 24th. Squeezing into the top 30 was first-year Kaelyn Woods, in 29th. On the men's side Forrest Hamilton had a ripper of a qualifier and finished 8th, while Wade Rosko skied to 28th. The day continued with Forrest making it out of the quarterfinals and into the semis, where he skied to an incredible 8th place in his EISA debut! All in all, it was a good day to be a bobcat.

Day two of the SLU Carnival was a 5/10k skate interval start on the tough Olympic Women's loop. Conditions were warm with a side of humidity, and the snow was a grease/dirt mixture that I'm sure took years off the lives of my race skis. I don't know what we waxed with, but I'm sure it was both toxic and labeled in a mix of Norwegian and Russian. The women had another solid day, with a standout 14th place from Laurel. Rounding out our scoring crew was Sadie in 29th, and Kaelyn in 36th. Parker McDonald, Max Millslagle, and first-year Graham Houtsma all scored for the men, in 20th, 28th, and 51st places respectively.

The next week found us battling dwindling snow levels and training venue closures, and so we ended up doing intervals on some spin bikes we found. I have a newfound respect for those who frequent spin classes, because my legs hurt after that.

The highlight of spinning was when U of Michigan retweeted this photo

Fortunately, our trials were shortlived, because on Thursday we were off to Jackson for the UNH carnival, which consisted of a 5/10k classic interval start and a 15/20k skate mass start. The University of Utah brought several athletes to the carnival to preview it before NCAAs in March. Needless to say, they skied rather fast. Both days were warm, with the classic race consisting of klister waxed skis for a rather hilly course. Friday was a rather rough one for the guys, with our first finisher Parker in 35th for the collegiate results, followed by Forrest and Graham in 40th and 45th respectively. The women continued their trend of solid results, with Laurel skiing to 16th, Kaelyn to 26th, and Haile to 27th.

Day two of UNH had us racing longer distance mass starts, one of the more interesting collegiate race formats we do. There's nothing quite like being one of a hundred starters all gunning for the same space of course to get the blood pumping. Steve Fuller was in attendance, and so we have a bunch of pictures, more of which can be found at flyingpointroad.com

Parker and Graham at the start, Parker finished 18th and Graham 42nd

Graham leading a pack with fellow Bobcat Max (19th) in the back

Forrest charging at the front of a group of skiers

Connor Gray lapping through the stadium

Bobcat super-fan Maddy Ekey cheering/ giving feeds

Coach Upham juicing skis

Laurel Fiddler on her way to 11th. When asked about her recent success, she attributed it to eating her food ripped into tiny pieces.

Haile Lange skiing into 30th place

Kaelyn Woods showing off her bobtat en route to a 35th place

First-year Annie, fresh off a cruising classic day (54th), crushing the mass start

That's all from the last few weeks, this weekend we brave freezing temperatures to travel to Stowe, VT and race the UVM carnival!

First year Friday

It's Friday the 13th, and that seems as good a time as any to discuss our first years. Providing commentary in italics this weak is Women's team captain Halie Lange (AKA Team Mom) that's not accurate she says. Anyways, without further ado, let's get down to business. Through a careful combination of email surveys, mandatory physical testing, and imagination, the follow bios have been assembled. Starting alphabetically:

Forest Hamilton, 18
Hometown: Shelburne, VT
Spirit Animal: Raccoon
40 Yard Dash Time: 4.58 seconds
Classic or Skate? Double Pole
Favorite Song: Anything by Boys Like Girls
Major: Physics maybe
Favorite Ski Memory: That time I was place buddies with a super cute girl from the Midwest
Dream Date: Going mudding in my new truck. I'm Driving. That's hot.

Forest likes fireworks, fast cars, falafels, and skate sprints. Hailing from GMVS, he brings a level of steez that has to date been missing from the team.




Kaelyn Woods, 19

Hometown: New Gloucester, ME
Spirit Animal: Puma
40 Yard Dash Time: 4.57 Seconds
Classic or Skate? I prefer when it was the same thing.
Favorite Song: "What is Love" by Haddaway
Major: Biology maybe
Favorite Ski Memory: The first time I skied with the Bates Ski Team, in 2003. Are you sure it wasn't earlier?
Dream Date: "I'm not allowed to date yet."

Kaelyn is a third generation member of Bates Nordic, but I'm fairly confident she does't get any more flouros than the rest of us.


Leo Lukens, 18

Hometown: Bend, OR
Spirit Animal: Wolf
40 Yard Dash Time: 27 seconds I'm not impressed
Classic or Skate? Classic
Favorite Song: "Good Times, Bad Times" by Led Zeppelin
Major: Politics
Favorite Ski Memory: Drinking hot chocolate on the ski trails as an eight year old. Ah, that's so cute
Dream Date: Wade Rosko

Leo wanted to be a pairs figure skater in his youth, but a tragic injury resulting in a broken pelvis left his partner out for life, and Leo in need of a new sport. With minutes left until the common app deadline, he applied to Bates and was accepted as a member of the ski team.

Is that Parker in the background of this picture???

Pippin Evarts, 19

Hometown: Landgrove, VT
Spirit Animal: Corgi
40 Yard Dash Time: 4.24 Seconds, quote: "Take that Chris Johnson"
Classic or Skate? Classical
Favorite Song: "Ultralight Beam" by Kanye West
Major: Politics maybe
Favorite Ski Memory: Spring skiing in Switzerland after a long flight.
Dream Date: A nice picnic somewhere pretty. Oh, me too!

Pippin is famous across campus for her finsta, which apparently means "fake instagram" how did you not know that? In between posts, she finds time to stack wood with efficiency, and in her own words, to "rise above."

Graham Houtsma, 19

Hometown: Aspen, CO
Spirit Animal: Red Panda Definitely agree with this one, I had to stop calling him Panda
40 Yard Dash Time: 6.71 seconds
Classic or Skate? Skate
Favorite Song: "Springsteen" by Eric Church
Major: Political Science
Favorite Ski Memory: Skiing pow in the Andes with his brother
Dream Date: Watching the sun rise on the top of a mountain followed by a picnic breakfast

Known as "Young Gun," Graham lives life on the edge. When not traveling to Montreal for mysterious reasons, he can be found analyzing world cup technique on the ski room couch. Young Gun? I thought we called him Panda?

Grace Smith, 18
Hometown: Williamstown, MA
Spirit Animal: Wolf/Husky hybrid
40 Yard Dash Time: 6.31 seconds
Classic or Skate? Skate
Favorite Song: "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift
Major: Undecided, leaning towards art or psychology
Favorite Ski Memory: Freezing in the rain during Rangeley Camp reading Cosmo with the girls, and later the OD hike on the same camp. Cosmo is like, my favorite book.
Dream Date: Exploring a new place together, like a new city or trail.

Grace is a loose cannon, you never know what she's going to be up too, whether it's a new nail color, or alphabetizing her class notes, she's a true rebel without a cause. Wait, that's not true, she's just like nice, basically a living American Girl doll. 


Annie Blakslee, 18

Hometown: Edwards, CO
Spirit Animal: Black Lab
40 Yard Dash Time: 6.57 seconds
Classic or Skate? Classic
Favorite Song: "Love Story" by Taylor Swift, of course.
Major: Undecided
Favorite Ski Memory: 10k Skate race in SoHo when my team had phenomenal skis and a super successful day.
Dream Date: Any date featured on the Bachelor/Bachelorette. As long as her parents approve.

Annie has a lot of emotions. Mostly anger. My locker shares a wall with hers, and she is nearly always politely saying "Max, could you please maybe move these dirty socks,"and, "Max, did you maybe use my towel, I mean I could just get a new one." The nerve. Max that's just not true, it's Laurel's towel you've been using.



As you can see, we have a stacked lineup entering this next year, and are super excited to see what they can do. Already many of our first years have stood out on the race course, and it'll be fun to see where they can go from here. I bet they all beat Max, It'll be hilarious. Also this was my favorite picture of Kaelyn until Becky sent me the other one:


Up next: An in depth review of the absolutely true results of this weekend's upcoming races.

Back to Bates, back to blog

It's been many long months since this blog was last updated. The blame for this lack of communication could be attributed to any combination of laziness on the part of blogmaster Max, thesis writing, internet problems, and simple forgetfulness. But instead of dwelling on my mistakes, I'll try to give an idea of what the Bates Ski Team has been up to in the 125 days since the beginning of school.

September:
In September, the captains led a series of awesome practices which were well received not only by the team, but by anyone who happened to be lucky enough to watch us work out. Highlights include an absurd amount of laps around the rollerski loops near campus, and a failed attempt to organize a trip to New Hampshire to bag some peaks. In addition, we got to know our new first-years (there are seven of them last I checked).
October:
In October, the coaches took over and the season really began. Practice slipped into a fun routine, and we enjoyed our annual camp in Rangeley, ME, where I got to sleep in a bed larger than my room. Also, two of our teammates celebrated their 21st birthdays with seltzer water and rollerski intervals.
November:
In November, we got a real taste of a Maine fall, as in addition to rollerskiing in increasingly wet and cold conditions, we got to go to the Milliken's house on Mt. Desert Island. This trip was, as usual, awesome. The Milliken's spoiled us, we ate lobster on the beach, saunaed (is that a verb?), and got to hang out with Lucas. We also went up to Quebec for Thanksgiving camp, where the mens team rocked little black dresses so we could be cute and classy.

The boyz in Acadia (photo by Newt)

Focusing on lobster (also by Newt)

Seniors in black dresses. Sorry mom (can't remember who took this one)

December:
To be honest, the first half of December is a little bit of a blur highlighted by too much thesis. What sticks out is wet and cold intervals in between snow storms that never really dropped enough snow to ski on. In short, it was yet another experience of how New England makes you tough. The second half of December we all returned to our respective homes to celebrate the holidays with family.
Now:
In the last few weeks, a significant portion of the team came together in Colorado for a brief altitude training camp before going to Senior Nationals in Soldier Hollow, UT. Special thanks to the McDonalds and Blakslees for their hospitality and kindness.

In Utah, we raced a distance skate and sprint classic on back to back days. The distance race was a 15k for the men and 10k for the women, and took place on a rather difficult course. The men were led by Parker McDonald in 83rd place and first-year Graham Houtsma in 103rd place. Laurel Fiddler put up an awesome 53rd for the women, followed by Halie Lange in 102nd. The field was a little stacked.

The second day was a classic sprint in wet and sloppy conditions that had many of us using our zeroes on the course. No one made heats, which was a bummer, but I think that coach James Upham might have been glad not to have to find a kick wax that works for 37 degrees and a rain/hail/snow mix.

Halie crushing it (photo by Sandy Gray)

The last starter for the men (S. Gray)

P$ looking real athletic (S. Gray)

(for more photos go to Sandy Gray's Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/146561453@N07/page1)

After those races, we all headed back to Bates to begin a whole new semester and race season. We will be racing the Eastern Cup at Quarry Road this upcoming weekend, so keep an eye out for a blog post on that, as well as the first installment of first-year introductions.

Good, Better, Best

Our great blog has not been updated since the ever-accurate Max Millslagle told the world what the Nordic team is up to based on Facebook, Snapchat, and Google Images (I’m thinking “mountain in California,” Max). Lucky for us, Max is usually right so most of the things he wrote are true. We’ve been scattered around the country doing what we do in the summer, but were all hit hard with the news of Coach Flynn’s passing. Whether it was Coach’s pre-race speeches, him yelling some rendition of “get your ass in gear” during a race, or having a conversation with him while in Becky’s office, Coach has affected all of our experiences at Bates and will be remembered in a myriad of ways. More than anything, perhaps, the Good, Better, Best speech will be resonating with us for the rest of our lives.

In the end, this post isn’t about Bates or Coach really, as I don’t want to attempt to speak for all of us. This is about bettering yourself and never giving up. This is about the commitment to excellence that Coach embodied and that Bates Nordic works towards on a daily basis. Right now, for me, this is about a boy who weighs about 100 pounds and is going into his sophomore year in high school (which really is hell). This is about Lucas.

When I first heard that we were adopting new kids into the dryland program for Mammoth Nordic Racing Team, I was skeptical. It wasn’t just dreading once again teaching kids how to rollerski, but I was particularly worried about the liability of one kid. For the past two summers I have assistant coached this program. We have a great group of kids who have, over many summers, learned how to train for Nordic skiing. I didn’t want to lessen the challenge of our hikes for the new kids or break them into two separate groups for workouts. In the end, I had nothing to worry about. The two new kids are crushing in every way possible. And Lucas is not a liability.

Lucas made the transition from alpine to Nordic last winter and enjoyed it enough to join the competition program this summer. Lucas has more “problems” than any kid I know. He has an autoimmune disease causing him to have rheumatoid arthritis, tendinitis, Raynaud’s disease, and ulcerative colitis. He goes to San Francisco periodically to get treatment, often which makes him very sick. His mom assured us that the training had been good for his health, both mental and physical. I had to see it to believe it.

Lucas often shows up to practice shivering since he has trouble regulating his body temperature, but always with a huge smile on his face. On his first day rollerskiing, I had to let him borrow my new skis, which he proceeded to break within the first two minutes. I used a pair of skis that was probably made in the 80s for three weeks after that, but it was all worth it. Lucas has impressed me again and again. He is getting stronger in strength, more skilled on his rollerskis, and is making some major health improvements. With strength work his tendonitis is improving and he is going in for treatment less frequently. Last week we did running intervals on a tough forest loop. One of our older boys, who has been with the program for four years, gave up mentally as his times dropped. For all of his experience, he blew the workout. Lucas ran each of his repeats faster, beating the older boy in his last one, all with a huge smile across his face.

What does something like excellence mean if you are Lucas? I once thought that the exercise was simply good for his health, but now I see a drive that might be greater than every athlete I coach. No one on our team complains anymore because they know that if Lucas doesn’t complain, then they shouldn’t either.

If Lucas wasn’t proactive about his issues, he would be in a wheelchair. We did our last hike of the summer last weekend- a double peak challenge. As I neared the top of the second peak, I looked up and saw Lucas leading the charge to the top. And he wasn’t doing it for his health, but for something much greater.

So today, I am inspired by the kid whose best, against all odds, is pretty darn good. Lucas is, as Coach would say, “biting the wicked bullet.” This, in itself, is excellent.

Looking forward to having the Bates Nordic gang back together very very soon!

Snorel 

Most stoked kid I know (after Henry of course)!

¿Donde está todo el mundo?

Hola Amigos,

Long time no blog. Five minute ago I was sitting in the intensively modern University of Victoria Library killing time before my final New Zealand exam (Geography if you're interested), when I was struck by the realization that this blog has been sorely neglected in the past three months. So with no research beyond basic social media, here is my attempt at guessing what everyone is up to!

The Seniors Graduates: After goodbyes and tears, I assume most of our grads are either taking advantage of their newfound youth by living life to its fullest. Hopefully they can come back to Bates for Alumni weekend and relive their glory days. Miss you guys!

I recently saw a facebook post of Halie, Wade, Hadley, Samantha, and first-year Tucker Pierce at the beach (el playo), presumably relaxing after super intense rollerskiing or somesuch. If that beach is in Maine, than I'm betting Dylan is somewhere in the vicinity. It seems a safe bet.

Unsuprisingly, Henry looks ecstatic (Source: Halie Lange FB)

Speaking of our Firstyears, I can only wildly speculate on what they are doing, as none of them have seen fit to contact me. This is either because they have their stuff together and can find better people to get advice from than someone who was late to a mass start, OR (and this is vastly more likely), they are too intimidated to contact a writer of my indisputable calibre. Notice that posh spelling.

That reminds me, Nate is at Oxford (not the one in Maine, the one in England), studying the complexities of the English Language. People I've met here in NZ have assured me that Oxford is an institution that's "Bloody *****ng proper." I'll take their word for it.

I saw on an Instagram post that Parker was in Oregon, I can only hope that he visited my parents and told convincing lies about my good character.

I think Sadie is still in South Africa. If so that sounds pretty awesome.

Connor is somewhere in Montana, probably mountain biking or skiing or something. If all goes swimmingly, I met catch him in Dunedin as he begins his study abroad down here.

I have no idea what Bria is up to, a survey of FB yielded little of use, so I imagine she is spending her summer in LA, working the rings on Venice beach while surfing everyday.

Laurel I'm sure is in Mammoth, probably running up mountains and inventing stories about her cats. I noticed she provided food for nordic retiree Ben Pratt as he worked his way north up the PCT, so that was probably fun.

Mountain in California (Source: Google Images)

That brings us to my favorite subject: me. I'm still in New Zealand, and just about down with school. I spent the dead weeks before exams hitchhiking from Auckland around the Cormandel  Peninsula and down to Wellington, and I've been here for a few days taking my two exams. The next move is heading to the South Island, which I've been looking forward to for a long time. Hopefully the weather will cooperate, so far I have been astounded by the amount of water that comes out of the sky, usually accompanied by high winds.

The pinnacles view I was promised

The pinnacles view I got

Anyway, my studies have been going very well. I have run into some trouble writing essays, receiving such comments as "there is too much personal voice in this," "keep your opinions to yourself," "essays are not the place for jokes," and "great analysis!" I blame these comments on this blog, which was my sole academic pursuit in the past ski season and seems to have colored (or maybe stained) my writing style. (Don't worry Mom and Dad, voice and style usually only accounts for like 5% of an essay grade).

I've also been working out a respectable amount, anything from hiking around on the side of the road trying to look pathetic enough to catch a ride to actually running up mountains and unusually tall hostels.

I've also gotten to sleep in such places as: The ground outside a public library (2/5), a hammock across a drainage ditch (a surprising 3.5/5), the cheapest hostel in Wellington (1/5), and a double mattress on a strangers floor (5/5).

Proof my HR has gotten elevated at least once

NZ has a lot of stairs

Black Swans! 

So looking at the clock it's about time to go sit in a 200 person exam and get lectured by a bored proctor about the evils of non-transparent water bottles.

Adieu,

Max Millslagle

hour 0 to hour 30

I'm sitting here realizing that blogging is hard. Max, I'm with Halie: I'm giving you a lot of credit for keeping our blog updated. Feel free to continue from New Zealand (how are you doing, by the way? An update would be cool).

Becky and I made it to Colorado last night and nothing seemed to go wrong (knock on wood): we had no delays, our bags and wax boxes all made it through, and we even had a nice man carry everything out to our car for us when we arrived in Denver. We've been in Colorado for about 24 hours now and between that and our travel day, a lot has happened. Below, please enjoy the "Becky and Sadie travel day to NCAAs" play-by-play:

Hour 0.0: Becky realizes she almost forgot her phone in her office.

Hour 0.5: Halie sends us off in Portland and takes the Yuke back to school (thanks gf)

Hour 4.5: Arrive in Charlotte, NC.

Hour 4.75: Becky states she is experiencing culture shock as we walk to the next gate.

Hour 5.5: Board flight to Denver. Becky has something "old and brown" on her seat and the flight attendant essentially claims that Becky is fine (fine in Halie Lange terms). Sadie also tries to fasten her seat belt with Becky's. She fails. 

Hour 5.75: Becky equates us to teenagers because we're being those loud people on the plane that cannot control their laughter. Two minutes later, a flight attendant tells us to "settle down and stop texting."

Hour 9.0: Becky and Sadie do three deep, diaphragmatic breaths (a stress management technique that Sadie learned in Health Psychology) to control their stress levels when the plane starts shaking uncontrollably. The unfortunate man who was placed in the same row as us laughs.

Hour 10.0: Arrived in Denver. Becky leaves to get the rental car and Sadie collects two ski bags, two duffel bags, and two wax boxes. She proceeds to sit there for 30 minutes and is asked three times by the same man if she has somewhere to go.

Hour 12.0: Arrive at Vanda's, Becky's long-time friend and Nordic racer (they met at JNs), and are greeted by Inga, the cutest black lab ever. Becky finally sighs, acknowledging that the travel day is over.

Hour 14.0: Becky goes to sleep after 22 hours of being awake.

Hour 26.0: After driving to Summit County and saying different variations of "wow" probably 173 times, Sadie understands why everyone is so obsessed with Colorado.

Hour 27.0: Becky decides it's "time to check back in with the world."

Hour 29.0: Becky, Sadie, and Vanda go skiing at Frisco Nordic Center and ski for about an hour. In the words of Becky, "this doesn't suck." It was by far the best skiing we've had all year: blue sky, sunny, no ice, and more than 3k of groomed trails–imagine that! Max altitude was 9,315 ft. Lungs surprisingly feel good (channeled my girl KC during the ski, Snorey)

Hour 30.0: Becky orders Sadie to go stretch and roll, and then sit. Becky proceeds to go for a long walk with Vanda.

Tomorrow we're heading to Breckenridge to ski and having dinner in Vail with some Bates alumns. On Monday, we head down to Steamboat, pick up James, and get settled into our condo for the rest of our time out here. We'll get some more updates out, but here are some pictures for now!!

-Sadie

Beginning of the ski at Frisco

Skiing on REAL snow...something we've had little of on the East Coast!

End of skate ski at Frisco

Midd Recap

After being personally attacked by Max in the last blog I felt as though I had to take on the responsibility of writing the recap from the Midd carnival. So, Max I am sorry for not saying goodbye, and here is my effort at making up for that.
The crew gathered at Rikert on Friday afternoon (a day later than originally planned due to conditions) and previewed the course. We all stayed at Britta's house, where most of the boys and Britta had spent all of break week. Huge thank you to Tony and Sheri for hosting us! Friday evening we had all the skiers and our families together for dinner at Blueberry Hill Inn. Again, the food was amazing, and the company even better. We mingled as many athletes tried to keep a watchful eye on their parents, trying to reduce the number of embarrassing stories told. But inevitably the stories were shared despite some of our best efforts. Tony (Britta's father) gave a speech about the place of the nordic community in his life, and we all signed a lovely picture of Britta when she was younger. John (Corky's dad), Deb (Gracie's mom), and Hank (my dad) all made similar points about how special this time in our life is, and how the memories we make today will carry us for many years to come. A few team photos, dessert, and some last embarrassing exchanges capped a wonderful night.

Saturday (5k/10k Skate)
The boys started the day off with a 10k individual skate race. Considering the circumstances it was incredible what Rikert was able to put together. Everyone who made these races possible deserve a huge thank you, but with my limited power the best I can do is a shout-out on this blog!! The boys were met with fast conditions, and some icy downhills. The men were led by Corky in 27th, with Nate and Parker scoring for the team. Henry made his EISA debut, and put forward a valiant effort.

After a regrooming of the A climb, the ladies were off for their 5k skate. Sadie set the pace for the day finishing a career best 14th, followed by Snorel in 20th, and Britta (on her home course) in 25th. The course was fast and furious. We laughed the night before when Becky called it a 12 minute 5k... she wasn't wrong.

Sunday( 15k/20k Classic)
Again, the boys started off the day with a 20k classic mass start. The course broke down fast and left many K's to be skied through slush. Again, Corky led the way in 30th, followed by Nate in 36th, and for the first time Wade scored for the team in 51st.

The day only got warmer, and the course more broken down for the women's race. I heard many adjectives describing our race, many of them I cannot write on this blog, so I will just tell you it was brutal. However, Bobcats are tough and Sadie skied to 12th, qualifying herself for THE BIG SHOW (NCAA's)!!!! Gracie to 30th, and well Bobcats do like to travel in packs so Britta, Laurel, myself, and Helen finished 35, 36, 37, 38 respectively.

As I am still recovering from this weekend of racing, writing this has made me tired (Max- this is kind of hard, new found respect for what you did the past two months). Many pictures were taken, and posts written so I am going to let those do the talking. But one (or maybe two) last things: Thank you to all the parents who traveled around New England this winter for their cheering, food prep, and most of all their support. This wouldn't be possible without you.

Congratulations for an incredible four years to our four seniors: Corky, Britta, Gracie, and Helen. Enjoy retirement!

Corks

C.Gray

Colt

Ladies Start

S.James

Britta (is that almost a smile?)

Helen

Gracie

Snorel

H.Lange

The Boyz

As James says "You can take a nap in the snow when you are done." 

I am sure there will be more posts to recap the season, but until then it is on to NCAA's, and Marathon season!