First Eastern Cups: Craftsbury Dec 14-16 2012

by George, Sam, Noah (aka the College boys)

Saturday was the first Eastern Cup of the season, and for most of us a day of finding out just what hard efforts feel like on snow.  Our daring excursion to the Northeast Kingdom began Friday with a clever Terri's game played in the back of the van in order to squish all our gear into the Ford Sayre Van v 2.0.  We were joined by two alums on our trek northward, Chelsea Little and Lizzie Torkelson.  When we found that there was no auxiliary jack for us to play music we filled the time with games, talk of ligers, litigons, and healthcare.  When we arrived at Craftsbury there were two loops to ski each less than 2km.  While the alums and coaches conversed in hushed tones over waxing for the next day, us athletes got on our skate skis and visited with fellow racers while loping around the course.  We retired to our house, and quickly were in enveloped in the warmth of the fire, drifting away into our subconscious as we fell asleep.

When we awoke on Saturday the buzz of excitement was intangible as we stumbled out of our beds.  With the coffee maker broken our caffeine dependent crew struggled to make sense of the morning.  When we arrived at the venue skiers were checking out the course.  We slapped on some wax to test and went out to check how the course had set up overnight.  With Chelsea representing us as our only female racer, she tested the water for our later skiers and relayed critical information to our first boy racers describing the course.  After racing we discovered to our dismay that the world was ending on December 21st, also the results were corrupted and we would to have do another qualifying round in the afternoon.  This is of course an issue since Northern light quickly disappears after noon, so by the time the races were starting our finishes were accompanied by a lovely sunset; all the while the temperature was rapidly dropping.  

The Team woke up on the second day of Eastern Cup skiing and was greeted with some snow showers that turned to heavy snow by the afternoon.  The J2 boys got out on the course first to race 3 laps of the 1.75ish k skate loop.  Chris was not feeling well, so guest appearance Adam (Ford Sayre BKL) joined Colin to battle it out with 40 or so other J2 boys.  The college boys (plus Tucker) got a quick preview of the course before it was turned to cornmeal by all the J2 skiers, the women's field, and half of the men's field.  So as Chelsea raced through the mush for her 5 laps, the big boys lounged in the van, eating cookies and brownies.  Scottie and Dennis soon roused the big boys for their warmup.  Sam led, starting 5 minutes ahead of Noah, then George followed just 2 minutes behind Noah.  Tucker was racing his first distance longer than 5k, so had no points, and started about an hour after Sam.  Big Tuck did extremely well in his first J1 distance race, especially considering how little he had been on snow before this weekend. In fact, that goes for the entire FSJNT crew.  This is the first year they did not have any team intervals on snow before the Eastern Cup Opener, but they jumped onto race skis and hammered some very solid races.

Thanks to Peg and Lizzie for the iphone shots - we'll try to do better with pictures!

Colin

Chris

Sam

Chelsea

Tucker

Refueling

Colin

First Team Ski: Craftsbury 12.1.12

by Colin and Noah

Getting to Craftsbury, we found a very chilling morning and a steady snow fall that lasted through the car trip there. At our 9:00 AM arrival, the place was bustling with junior teams, French-speaking teams from Orford, and UVM skiers.  The thermometer read a chilly 18° on arriving, warming to 20° by the time we finished skiing.  We got to our Classic boots and skis first, putting 3-4 coatings of a Blue Extra that corked in well and went to the trails.  Most trails were open with fresh snow on them.  It was very excellent skiing with minimal or no sightings of grass.  We took the Men's Sprint Loop several times.  It was awkward being out there for the first time on skis, and I'm sure we all had at least one slip that we can admit to.  The Extra Blue kept a wax pocket notably, though it did get slippery after the first hour.  We then took off our poles to work on some classic technique on the tiny lower stadium loop.  It became clear after an hour or so of skiing that about half the New England ski community was bustling around the Craftsbury trails.  UVM was doing some pretty hard intervals, while some were shooting on the one new biathlon target in the lower stadium.  After no-poling we took an easy tour out into the field where the Craftsbury Green Team house is, and into the winter wonderland of trees below.  We hooked onto the 5k race course and some of us reminisced about the last Eastern Cup race there last year.  We then took an extended snack break and Tucker, Colin, and Chris skated for a half hour while Noah kept classic skiing.  Overall, the four boys felt great to finally put on our skis again.  Now all we need is some accumulation in the Upper Valley!

Nordic Uniforms

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Spring Running Races

May 12th: Road to the Pogue, Woodstock VT
Alum Dylan Grald won the 6.1 mile trail race, and current athletes, parents, and coaches made sure Ford Sayre was well-represented on the age-group podiums:

• Dylan Grald: race winner!  1st age group
• Sam Merrens: 9th overall, 2nd age group
• Dorcas Wonsavage: 1st age group
• Peg Merrens: 2nd age group
• Ed Merrens: 3rd age group
• Geof Little: 3rd age group
• Karl Furstenberg: 1st age group
• John Griesemer: 3rd age group

May 26th: NH High School States

• Noah ekes out a win in the 3200, coming from 30m behind with 100m to go!

May 27th: Burlington Marathon

• Alums Alice Nelson and Lizzie Anderson ran their first marathons!  Alice ran fast enough to qualify for Boston...

Green Acre Garden

Spencer and Caitlin are part of a group of Hanover High students who have started a vegetable farm in Norwich!  They'll be selling through Dan & Whit's, possibly a stand in Norwich, and via delivery.

Learn more about their endeavor on their website:

http://www.greenacregarden.net/about.php

pac choy starts

BKL Festival

by Caitlin (photos by Lars)



A few weeks ago, George and Caitlin spent the day helping out at the Bill Koch Festival's relay at Great Glen Trails (right by Mt. Washington).  They spent the day in the start area organizing relay teams and making sure things ran smoothly.  It was nice to see the other side of racing, coaching skiers and helping with all the other aspects of racing that athletes typically don't see.

They also experienced the full array of New England weather, starting with rain and sleet in the morning, cold and blustery snow by lunch and finishing with warm and sunny in the afternoon.

happy birthday Greg!

J2 Championships

by all of the J2s

Ford Sayre and Hanover skiers met bright and early at the Norwich public library on Friday to take the four hour drive north to the J2 championships at Rumford, ME.  At the Black Mountain ski spot we headed straight to our New Hampshire uniforms and then to the start of our first race of the weekend - the 5k skate.  There were teams from Vermont, Maine, the Rocky mountains, CXC, New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.  Despite the slushy snow and the dreaded "high  school hill" Tucker finished fifth and Elise finished at sixteenth place.  Everyone had a great race overall and were then welcomed to amazing pumpkin bread and grilled cheeses which were eaten on the hour long bus ride to the hotel.  After dinner, the team had a Yankee swap.  There were many interesting gifts including clown shoes, a mini zen garden, a pee guy and a coke bottle.  The team got to bed early for a 6 am rise the next day.

In the classic 5k, Tucker took 6th place for the guys and Sarah took 18th and first place for the New Hampshire team.  Alexi finished 4th for New Hampshire (37th overall) after being a seeded 18th on the team.  Colin got 5th for the team (29th overall) (he was REALLY jazzed).  After a cool down we headed in for lunch and stretched on the floor to get ready for the afternoon's 1.2K sprint.  The sprint course went out of the stadium, around a few turns, up a big hill, and back into the stadium.  Elise finished 9th and had an amazing performance.  We soon left the venue to have a quick turnaround at the hotel and back to the banquet with all the teams.  After dinner, we loaded everyone, stuffed with lasagna and salad, into the bus and we shipped off to the hotel.  We got to bed almost immediately except for the select few who naturally seem to stay up way too late.

Sunday was just like the last two days waking up.  We warmed up with the skaters heading out first and then the classic skiers using their race skis to test wax.  The klister had to be adjusted a bit, but in no time we were off and lined up.  Our last race and our first mass start, the start to the 2.2 K was nothing unusual.  It was on the first sharp turn that everything went chaotic.  In mere seconds the bend had turned into a huge pit of snow and flailing bodies, reportedly taking down several New Hampshire victims.  Colin and Chris were lucky and jumped through without major problems.  After that, we had a rather icy trail with minimal slush (very different from the rest of the weekend) and a lot of boxing in on uphills, aggressive opponent passing, and slick ice on the final climb before dropping to the stadium.  The tag zone was very stressful for some, but every girl/boy got the right tag in the end.  Others reported it stayed reasonably smooth Sunday with minimal melting.  Tucker came speeding into the stadium on his skate part in a well earned 5th place, and Alexi had a great race too.  Cool down was a mixture of classic skiers and skaters all together having fun in the last ski together.  Awards went off with no surprises and NH took 3rd place proudly.  VT came second and the CXC kids earned the 1st place title.  Everyone said good bye, packed up and out, and finally we headed back to good old Hanover/Norwich.

A Week of Contrasts

Just when we think we've seen it all, the Winter of 2012 offers up some more surprises!

Monday
   East of Lyme Center

Wednesday
   above the jump at Oak Hill

Thursday
   skiing the only remaining patch of snow at the top of Oak Hill

Saturday

   close to a foot in Lyme Center, and beautiful skiing in Vershire - thanks to Sam R for grooming!

George's CO Trip

by George


Over February break my family took a trip out to Colorado for a week to go skiing at Devil's Thumb Ranch, and Vail.  We spent the Monday through Friday at DTR and became acclimatized which made nordic skiing by far easier by the end of the week. The views were incredible and there was no lack of snow even though 3 feet seemed measly to many of the locals. We spent the weekend at Vail downhill skiing and enjoying the views as the sky was blue everyday and the Rockies really took your breath away.

Intervals at Waterville

by Spencer

With the brown winter continuing, the team took advantage of February break and made the trip to Waterville Valley.  It was one of the very few times this year where there was more terrain groomed than we could ski in a workout.  4x4 intervals went well for all, and then we took the chance to enjoy the classic tracks and nice snow.  The air was warm and the klister sticky - perfect spring skiing!  (click any picture to view a larger version)

powder!?!  in the winter of 2012??

top of Snow's (Retired) Mountain

Silver Fox Trot and Cheri Walsh Eastern Cup Weekend

by George, Helen, Emily, and Sam R.

the ENTIRE team!

speeds at twilight

This weekend we headed up to the Craftsbury Outdoor Center to partake in the final Eastern Cups of 2012.  After skiing the course, we drove back to the rented house: not such an easy task.

45 minutes, and what seemed like 45 detours later we arrived.  Eventually after some key troubles we finally ate and slept.  Thank God we did not have to get up until 8:00!

Earlier in the week we had christened our van “The Yeti” and decorated it with various upbeat knic-knacs.

The Weekend began with the Williams Carnival Saturday morning; the Silver Fox Trot was in the afternoon.  It was a classic race this year with distances ranging from 5k for J2 boys, J2 girls, and Women, to a 10K for the Men's field.  Paddy Caldwell, one of our alums, had an outstanding performance on Saturday and won the Eastern Cup, beating many accredited college skiers.  Three of our J2s raced their first Eastern Cup on Saturday, and all thoroughly enjoyed the jazzy experience.  Colin described his pre-race, race, and post race experiences as feeling “jazzed as a cat!!!!”.  Well done Colin.  Thanks to the coaches, who double as equally amazing wax techs, we had most likely the best kick and glide of all competetors.  As one of the timers for Sunday's race, Dennis had to stay for a meeting.  Three hours later after we had all eaten dinner and cleaned up we decided he must have lost the car keys, and went to go look for him, but just in the nick of time he pulled in the driveway.  It was a long meeting...

Sunday began at 6:00. The Cheri Walsh memorial race:5k for J2s, 10k for women, and a long 15k for men.  Despite the incredible conditions, and the firmness of the snow throughout the day, it took a lot of energy to get around the course 3 times.  We all managed to keep our poles intact, even with the mass start for all races and the assortment of baskets left on the race course.  The only causualty of the day was the squirrel that Helen hit while speeding down the last hill of the course.  It survived the collision, but the same cannot be said for Helen.  As the fog was burned off by the persistent sun, many people rocked our new trucker hats throughout the weeked and in the races.  The crew had some decent and quality races throughout the weekend, and were cheered on by our new, slightly unsettling team mascot: the Horse Head.

Many goals were met, and many more to work on.  Let's hope that the bobble hula dancer on the dash keeps the gas cap together until repair!  On our return trip we had our traditional annual stop at Dunkin' Donuts.  This tradition is thoroughly enjoyed by all.

the van is FULL when the whole team travels!

First Van-less OD!

by Noah


Today the JNT Team started our OD at a leisurely 10:00am at our favorite spot in Lyme.  It was our first OD without using the van (wow...)!!  The J1 boys and girls skied for around three hours, while the J2s skied for around two and a half hours.  We were graced with the presence of youth olympian Paddy Caldwell who skied for about an hour with the J1 boys.  He regaled us with stories of skiing in the Austrian Alps.  I, for one, was quite tired by the end.  Overall, a solid OD in a scenic place.

Paddy, Noah, George (Sam M photo)

most of the gang at the Smarts cabin (Dan photo)

Stowe Photos

Thanks to Greg for these great photos of current and alum JNT skiers!  (Click on any photo to see a larger version.)

Dylan

Phil

Paco

Sam R

Paco

George

Spencer

Noah

Stowe Eastern Cups

A great weekend!  Lots of skiing, not a lot of blogging or picture-taking, so here are some quotes and random photos from the weekend.

"I skied so hard I blew my contact out and it stuck to the lense of my glasses.  I couldn't figure out why everything was blurry!" - Emily, after Sunday's skate race


"I have two things to say: thank you for cheering for me on those hills... and I really didn't like you then." - George to Scottie, after Sunday's skate race

we seem to have the van loading thing down... except that part about keeping stuff off the door mechanism...
(aka, where's Isaiah when we need him?)

Coach Alice!  FS BKL & JNT alum, now coaching Mt Mansfield BKL and Masters

and thanks to Eric and Sam M for this video from Sunday's race: 2012-02-05 FS Stowe