Mansfield Nordic Club

Julia Thurston told me she makes a to-do list, and focuses on check things off in 15-minute increments before giving herself a break from work. I’m still recovering from an amazing weekend of lengthy travel, late nights of waxing and planning, and full days of the greatest Junior racing in the country, so I’m going to take that approach and make a list of what made this past weekend so great…

• Racing with the rest of New England! Team vans lining the lots, parents and skiers and coaches all buzzing about a stadium, an announcer playing music and calling the action…wow, it had been a long time.
• Our new trailer! Thanks to a generous donation from Luke Shullenberger and outfitted with some of the coolest waxing tools and supplies, this is a home base at the races that coaches and skiers can all get behind. And a comfortable warm spot to wax skis until the wee hours of the morning when the cold wind is howling outside.
• In-person pre-race team meetings, complete with sidetracked discussions and absolutely every question you could possibly imagine about how a sprint day works.
• The team showing up ready to make a statement. With each new race I have to acknowledge a reality and make sure the team recognizes and accepts it as well: we really are as fast as we think we are. Turns out being the hardest working team on the Eastern Cup pays off when the gun goes off!
• Everything about team van travel. From pushing the thing out of the snowy mud in the parking lot to hearing a bunch of teenagers attempt to karaoke Bob Marley at max volume 3 hours into the nighttime drive home.
• Experiencing standout objective results (like Ava winning the open women’s race on Sunday and her MNC teammates mixing up the college racers, or the U16 boys taking up 3 of the 6 spots in the A-Final in the sprint) alongside markers of growth like the first Eastern Cup or team travel race for much of the group.
• A huge team! Sara and I looked it up, and we had more U16 athletes racing in Waterville this year than we had ENTIRE MNC RACERS at the Waterville Eastern Cup in 2016. You can see all results here.
• This photo from Dave Priganc which really says all you need to know about what racing, MNC, and Nordic skiing is all about

  

The first one is in the books! Not just timetrials or intervals, but real racing with stiff competition and all of the familiar elements of a Nordic weekend took place at Craftsbury over the weekend.

Many of the MNC Juniors, along with some Masters and older BKL skiers, donned the race bibs for a skate sprint and classic distance race on fully manmade snow (some if it the remains of snow from last year, dutifully saved under sawdust by Craftsbury). Saturday was all about braving the rain, as soaking conditions meant everyone went through every pair of gloves they owned.

The “Royals Court” format meant skiers got to race three head-t0-head rounds against competition of similar speed…finishing top 2 in your heat moved you up in the brackets, finishing in spots 3 or 4 kept you in the same bracket, and finishing 5th or 6th dropped you to a different bracket. This meant each heat was tough as you were vying for position among very comparable opponents! The MNC crew got a lot of practice trying different tactics, like leading from the start, or holding back for a late push. While there may not have been a lot of warming-up or cooling-down (aside from sitting in a huddle around the heater in the trailer) in the midst of the racing everyone was only thinking of pushing hard and not the crazy weather.

On Sunday everyone was treated to calm skies and a warming sun for some klister classic skiing. This distance classic race brought even more competition, as skiers from EMXC (formerly CSU) and Ford Sayre joined the likes of MNC, GMVS, Craftsbury, NWVE, UVM, Gunstock, SMC, and more. It was quite a miniature Eastern Cup, you could say.

I am incredibly proud of how all the Juniors handled the day. From arriving and getting themselves situated, to testing wax and making race-time decisions, everything went very smoothly. This entire summer and fall has been a theme of young athletes taking the professionalism and quality of their everyday interactions with the sport to a higher level. Oh, and don’t forget all that training the crew did! Clearly that paid off with some stellar early-season results. Whether a skier had a great result, or a result they weren’t pyched on, they were coming to me with reflections, analysis, and plans rather than just a “yes!” or “shoot…” attitude.

Results via Bullitt Timing:

Skate Sprint

Classic Distance

Can’t wait for Waterville!