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MNC’s racing ladies Katie, Ellie and Karen

A big thanks and congrats to all the many MNC Masters racers competing in the NENSA Zak and Club Cup events this season.   With outstanding participation from our club and the help of our Masters Race leader Karen Alence,  MNC placed second (last correction by NENSA) in overall Club Cup Standings standings, missing second place by a mere 50 points and within striking distance to the top of the podium.

Katie attacking Chip Hill at the Relays

In the individual Zak Cup competition MNC racers also shined especially in the Women’s categories with Katie Hill #2 M4,  Ellie Bouffard #3 M5, and Joanne Hanowski #2 for M7.

In the Men’s competition Mike (aka Mic Drop) Miller captured the #1 place for the M1 age group.  Mike put in a ton of hard work this past year, but also had a lot of fun and helped a lot of other skiers progress.  Like so many other Masters in our club, Mike is a great example of how building community, friendship, giving back and just plain old love for skiing pays off  It’s also worth noting as of a couple years ago he never even skied! Boom!

Hope to see more you out there.  2nd place is just a few race entires away!

Thanks to Dave Johnston for sharing his Beitostolon, Norway World Masters Race experience.

We had mid winter conditions in Norway with several days of flurries and one day getting slammed with 14 inches making for an arduous 30k.

I was in awe over the double track trails with a fat ol’ skating lane down the middle, and the panoramic views of snow covered mountains and moon-like terrain  while touring a micro fraction of the 100’s of kilometers of trails around Beitostolen where the Nordic culture rules!

As far as racing, the MNC colors did well. In the first race,15k skate, I ended up with silver, one second out of gold and one second ahead of bronze. I had a decent lead of ~10 seconds until taking a spill around the last downhill turn, about a 1/2 k from the finish, where the Finn who won passed me while I was trying to regain momentum. The following day I won the gold in the 10k skate edging out a Norwegian by three seconds. Two days later our relay team came in fifth out of 11 teams; the Scandinavians and Europeans sure can classic!! In the 30k skate I came in fifth, 10 seconds out of first. In that same final half of kilometer, I was in fourth place readying for a final charge when I planted a pole on my ski and did a face plant. Duh! A Russian whipped by and that was that. It was really fun racing with all the different nationalities and also being supported and interacting with New England skiers from Northwest Vermont, Craftsbury, and Ford Sayer as well as skiers from other regions of the USA. Attached is a photo post 10k race.

Congrats to all the MNC Racers in Lake Placid.  Multiple report are filling in  filing in from MNC Racers this past weekend..

First, the ladies photo and write up courtesy of Ellie Bouffard.

Congrats to Gillian Stearns-Parr who  participated in her first individual race, a 8k classic. Also, congrats to  Karen, Joy Grossman and Ellie Bouffard who did the 25k classic race finishing in the top half of a large 50-59 age group (14 racers, the largest female age group of all the races that day). Tristin Adie also won her age group in the 25k skate race! Plus Sarah Katz was out there for the full 50k.    Great turn out and great results?

Second the gents, photo and write-up courtesy of Chase Rosenberg.

Post-meltdown Mt. Van Hovenberg was in rough shape this past weekend, following a rainy day in the 50’s.  The race organizers did an admirable job with what they had and modified the course to an 8 km loop that included one good climb (which was in good shape), and many a twist through the corrugated icy lowlands.  The suddenly very technical course kept everyone on their toes. Most dodged piles of fallen skiers at some point on a descent. MNC was well represented there, and one benefit of the short loop was the opportunity to cheer for fellow Green Mountain skiers as we passed.  Mike Bazylewicz, Scott Woodnorth , and I continued the revered MNC post New York race tradition and indulged in a Stewart’s egg nog (second only to Hood in taste), only to realize that we had all attempted the gallon milk challenge in our pasts (with varying degrees of success).  Overall, the event was well done, full of good folks, and definitely deserving of a future visit.