Nationals Recap by Rachel Watson
“Congratulations.” he said
We stared somewhat blankly at Earl, the high-energy, bubbly PR man, trying to comprehend. It was the first day of what would be a series of four races at the USCSA Collegiate Nationals. We had arrived only two days earlier to the national venue in Sugarloaf, ME. After two days of training and course inspection, we had just completed the preliminary rounds of the first race, a 1.5 km sprint. And, although our midpoint splits showed that we had qualified several athletes, final results had not yet been posted. The confusion must have shown on our faces as he went on to explain
“No really, I mean congratulations. I wanted to tell you even before the results were posted because you two have some of the best kids out there. They are enthusiastic and sportsman-like and it’s clear that you love them and they love you. It’s a special group.”
Pride swept through my body in a wave that I’m sure must have been evident on my face and I said, “Yes, it’s magic.”
Perhaps on that day so early in the week, we realized that our athletes were already champions and that no set of results could change that. However, as is so often true, champions are hard to keep hidden.
Every coach should be fortunate to start a week of competition with the dillemas that faced Christi and I this year. We had reserved 13 plane tickets and a condo with space to sleep 13 in beds. However, as the season unraveled it became increasingly clear that we would qualify and want to bring more than 10 athletes. In fact, we had 7 men and 7 women all who qualified in good standing and all who had the potential to place in the top 15. It was thus, with this happy problem that we had to purchase an additional 4 tickets and make the long flight to Boston in three groups. The coaches, Christi and I, assisted by Ashley left first at 6 am. We flew through Dallas and then into Boston. Riley and Justin left just slightly later and layed over in Philadelphia. Finally, the rest of the athletes left as a group and flew directly from DIA to Boston. Having to split everyone up was a bit nerve racking and we were utterly thankful for cell phones. During our layover in Dallas we were able to reach Ava who reported that the group had checked their bags and passed through security with only one minor mishap. Apparenly Hammer’s bag had tested positive for trace amounts of nitrates and a TSA staff man had jokingly threatened that she would have to stay in Denver for a couple of days. This was reasonably upsetting to Hammer and the twins who took a few minutes to catch the joke.
Amazingly enough our flights were on time and we arrived in Boston in time to make our way to Enterprise, rent three minivans, return to Central Parking and meet up with Riley and Justin at the baggage claim where the rest of the groups’ luggage would be arriving soon. Riley and Justin seemed to have had a successful flight and in fact felt that they had gotten the “full” Philadephia experience as they had stuffed a Phili cheesesteak into their faces while running to get back to the plane in time. The group arrived safe and sound and we hit the road for the four hour drive to Sugarloaf.
Those who have had the dubios privaledge of navigating Boston will understand Joe’s slight difficulty in getting us out of the city. After getting lost at least three times we stopped at one of the 1,832 Dunken Donuts in the greater Boston area to ask for directions. Unfortunately the employees had literally no idea where they were located and in broken English told us to go down the road to a gas station. Fortunately the gas station clerk, a heavy man with a thick Boston accent, was much more helpful and we finally made our way to 95 and out of the city.
Unfortunately about 2 hours out of Boston we were hit with the week’s first challenge. After landing in Boston I had been queesy. Things had gotten increasingly worse until finally I was dizzy, having tunnel vision, and what felt like a fever. It became obvious that I was no longer in any state to drive and Christi and the team lovingly packaged me into one of the back seats with migraine medication and a soda. The remainder of the trip and, in fact the next two days are largely unclear to me. The memories come in brief snapshot pictures, sounds and almost overwhelming worries. As I sat tucked into the back seat of one of the minivans, I remember only one thought that played through my mind: What if I die? I will not have the chance to tell Christi and the team how much I care about them, how much they have changed my life. I was worried that I would not be able to coach and even had Christi call John and look into the possibility of flying him out. My biggest worry though, and understandable to those of you who know my fetish, was that I would not be able to klister the skis for the classic race!
It was thus that I stood talking with Earl on the first day of races that my joy to be vertical only augmented my excitement. I had only missed the two training days and was almost exstatic to be standing in the Nordic Center playing an active role in the first day of racing. And soon after our conversation with Earl, the results were posted. We had qualified 4 women and three men for the final! In this harrowing event, all ten qualifiers line up head to head and complete the 1.5 km sprint course for a second time. With this many athletes on such a narrow course, the race, unfortunately, becomes somewhat a game of chance. The women’s race was first and as all ten of them lined up at the start, I felt the familiar twang of anxiety. They were off! The two St. Olaf girls immediately moved to the front of the pack. The twins settled in right behind them with the rest of the women’s field in tow. They rounded a sharp corner and disapeared into the trees. I had less than 3 minutes to wait and the first competitor emerged over the top of the hill. It was Lynn Dale, the Norwegian leader of St. Olaf’s team. She was followed by one of her teamates but then, in a heated battle for fourth place came Liz. She was putting the move on a girl from Clarkson and was able to just edge her out for fourth place. Shortly after came Kari leading a pack of girls. Our women managed 4th, 6th, 8th and 10th.
Within only minutes after the women’s race, the men lined up and took the stage. As the gun sounded I saw Riley and Justin move into the pack. Joe had a tough start in a race that would only get tougher. The third Cornell skier, knowing that he had to beat Joe to claim the team victory for the day would trip Joe three times. Joe would stagger in in 10th place behind his teamates Justin and Riley who placed 5th and 7th respectively.
After the race the athletes reported back to us one by one and interestingly a theme began to emerge:
“Coach, I puked!”
“Coacher, I hurled!”
“Wow Coach, I couldn’t keep my lunch down!”
At first I was a bit dismayed but I then realized that nasea is a common side affect of lactic acid accumulation. Our athletes had only competed in one other sprint race and it was at 10,000 ft. At this high elevation, they had been limited by their lungs and not the local metabolic changes in their peripheral tissues. In other words, they were building more lactic acid than their bodies had ever seen before!
So, as the races came to a close, both the Men and Women were in second place. However, we knew that the sprint could be decieving and looked for the men to take the lead in the next day’s 15 km classic race.
The rest of the day was filled with wax testing and more klister time than any one girl should deserve! The Nordic Center at Sugarloaf is quite possibly one of the best facilities in the world. In addition to a full lodge and restaurant, it also has a beautiful wax room complete with heat, benches and lots of outlets. In this wax hut that would become our home for the rest of the week, I repeatedly tried new klister combinations and sent Christi out to test each one. Each time she would come back and say, “Well, I’d race on it.” I would then say, “But was it magic?”. She would shake her head and I’d try again. Finally, we hit on at least two magic combinations. I felt releived and excited! We would have some sweet skis the next day. We then turned our attention to the glide wax and Ashley, Christi and I applied fluoros until we were exhausted and slap happy!
The next morning came and the women started the day bright and early at 9 am. It was an amazingly beautiful day that made us feel at home. The sun was shining and there was no rain. We could have been fooled into thinking we were in the West. We frantically got all the skis waxed with one of the magic combinations and ran as fast as we could to the first feed spot. We did a quick inventory: yes, we have Liz and Katie’s sipper cups, Hammer’s baby juice bottle and Kari’s Gatorade, everything seemed to be in order. Thankfully, Erika had driven all the way from New York to see us and help. We were at about 2.5 km into the race and before we knew it the women were rounding the corner and heading towards us. Not surprisingly Lynn Dale was in the lead but right behind her was Kari and the second St. Olaf girl. We scrambled to get her the feed bottle and sent her off with obnoxiously loud cheers. After the first three women had passed the rest of the pack came so quickly that it was all we could do to get a feed to each of our girls! It was a whirlwind of cheering, running and flying feed bottles. After all the girls had passed we ran to the start/finish area to cheer them through the loop. Again, Lynn Dale was the first through the lap with a blistering split of 22 minutes. Kari would follow with the second St. Olaf girl only 11 seconds later. We knew we didn’t have time to stay and watch for the rest of the girls, we had to madly run to the second feed spot. We just made it in time to feed Kari. However, it wasn’t long until the other girls arrived. By this point the field had begun to spread out and Aubree and Hammer had settled into 9th and 10th position. The twins were hot on their tails in 12th and 13th with Melissa and Ava in hot pursuit. As soon as all the girls had passed, I ran back to the wax hut and started waxing the men’s skis. One pair at a time, I applied base layers, Christi added top layers and Ashley handed us each ski and kept them organized. Soon we received word that Kari had edged out the second St. Olaf girl and her first medal earned would be silver! Aubree and Hammer finished much where they had been at the midpoint and would earn All American Honors. With all of this excitement, I willed myself to keep my mind focused on the job. We applied more wax layers and one-by-one finished the boys’ skis. We were just about to breath a sigh of relief when Ashley came in and said, “Adam’s skis disappeared.” He had, apparently, taken them off to the start with nothing but binder on them! A brief moment of panic ensued while we tried to figure out what to do. Ashley ran to the start and finally found Adam. He ran over to the wax hut, and with 2 minutes to the start, we applied base layers of klister, covered them and sent him off... not a moment to spare.
It’s hard to describe the feeling that hits when the last pair of skis has been waxed and the athletes are of and kicking (and by kicking, I mean their skis have rockin’ good wax). It’s a feeling that I’m fairly sure only other coaches understand. It’s a wave of such relief that it most often leaves me in tears and confused as to my surroundings. Sometimes it’s hard to predict the duration or severity of this feeling and in this particular case I felt fortunate to orient myself again so as to make my way to the first feed spot. As seems to be almost universally the case, whereas the women’s race will be led by one or two skiers that break away from the pack, the men’s race is almost always led by a huge pack. This race was no exception. The pack rounded the corner and was ten strong. I held my breath until I saw that all three of our top men were in the pack! Fortunately I stopped holding my breath long enough to get a feed to Joe! I had a momentarty panic that I had lost the feed until I remembered that I was keeping the bottle warm in my shirt (a cold feed is known to make athlete’s puke). Erika and Christi managed to get feeds to Riley and Justin. The large pack of ten was followed closely by the rest of the men’s field and one-by-one we got them their feeds. Quickly we ran back to see the action at the half-way point. I anxiously watched the time tick away: 21:00, 21:30, 21:45... and finally they came! I heard them before I saw them and as they rounded the corner, I saw the cowboy suite. Riley was leading the pack! The rest of the lead pack followed and Justin and Joe were still amongst them. Quickly we ran back to the feed spot. When the lead pack came through, I was relieved to see that Riley was no longer pulling the pack. In fact, our men were all skiing together in 7th, 8th and 9th. Work together, work together, I chanted it in my head and out loud! The rest of the men were in hot pursuit! In fact, Brian and Collin rounded the corner in 11th and 12th. I yelled at Brian to get the third Cornell guy. I’ve never seen such fire in Sebade’s eyes. He would later tell me that he let me down because he never caught the 10th place Cornell guy. What he didn’t realize was that he was more than 40 seconds down and by the finish he closed that gap to only 13 seconds. A more true champion I can’t imagine. After all of the men had passed, we headed to the finish and had only to wait. Someone said that they thought the Wyoming guys had made a move at the 12 km mark. We could only wait and hope. Our wait was soon over and I heard the sound of skis. Around the corner came Bjorn Bakken of University of Maine Presque Isle. Right behind him were two Clarkson skiers and then came Joe.... and Riley.... and, yes, Justin!!! They had worked together and caught both of the Cornell skiers that they needed to beat! As I ran along side them, my vision was blurred with tears because I knew that for the first time, the men had won the day. I kept running and running even after I saw that they had finished! Joe saw me coming and picke me up and swung me around.
I will confess to this being one of the most amazing moments in my life and I think Christi’s as well. We began coaching 8 years ago and in that time we have had individual men win National Titles but we’ve never earned a team title. And, although we will probably never know for sure, it’s most likely that it is the first time that a men’s team, coached entirely by two women has ever won the title. The way that the men had worked together was truly inspirational and it would be hard to be more proud.
That night, Justin’s parents were kind enough to treat us to dinner. We had a great meal and really, I think, it was a fantastic celebration. Christi told a story about the Cornell men’s team. She said that they had wondered by the window of the wax hut and jokingly said that they were going to spy on Wyoming to see what the wax was. Christi just looked out and said, “If you want to know the wax, all you have to do is ask us!” Laughs ensued all around the table and somebody piped up and said, “So what was the magic combination!” With a bit of a dramatic flare, I stood up and said, “Well... if you’d really like to know...on the bottom we had a Toko binder. We covered this with a thin layer of Toko Viola mixed with Rode Rossa 2 to 1 except under the foot where it was mixed 1 to 1. This was then covered with 4 layers of Rode Super Extra for snow with 40-90% humidity which was then covered with a layer of Black Magic.... and a kiss!”
Our off day was spent driving to Bar Harbor, playing on the beach, doing photo shoots and eating fantastic seafood! It was a dream come true for those of us from a land-locked state! The Easterners thought us crazy for driving so far for one day but for kids from Wyoming it seemed like a quick trip! The company was good and the conversation even better. As we were driving home, a storm set in and by morning there were 4 inches of the wettest snow I’ve ever seen.
We headed back to the Nordic Center for the 8.5 km interval start skate race. The trails were gorgeous and freshly groomed. The women started first again and we readied ourselves to give splits at about 3.5 km from the finish. Almost as soon as we had gotten to the course, the first woman arrived. The splits were close and it seemed likely that things would change by the finish. Kari was in fourth, Hammer was a few seconds out of fifth and Aubree was fighting for a top 10 finish. As predicted, this changed a bit by the end. Kari earned her second medal with a 3rd place finish. Erin was 7th and Aubree was 11th. Liz and Katie both made amazing runs in the last 3.5 km to finish 10th and 13th. But even with this success, the day was only bitter sweet for the women. Only a few minutes before the race, Ava realized that she had forgotten her skis. She was forced to ski on a pair of mine, which although fast, were not comfortable for her. At around the same time that she realized that she had forgotten her skis, I think she was also hit with the final realization that this was to be her last real race in college. Many tears were shed as it’s hard for any of us to imagine a team without Ava.
For the men’s race, we were able to find a better location for splits. Christi yelled the splits to me and I got as close as I could to each guy and informed him of his position. It was clear that Josh and Collin were both having amazing races. And as we would find later, it was the amazing races of these two men that allowed the men’s team to claim the team title for a second day! Shortly after Josh and Collin had passed, the top three men came through. Justin was haulin’ and was fighting for 3rd place. Riley and Joe were fighting for 5th position but Riley had been suffering from a cold for the hole week and it was clear that he was feeling the negative affects. After all the men had passed, we headed back to the finish and were quickly informed that the men placed 5th, 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th. Amazingly our fourth and fitth men had displaced Cornell’s third man!
By the end of the men’s race, it had begun to rain. The rain continued and after a night of constant drizzle, all of the new snow of the day before was gone. Christi, Ashley and I arrived at the Nordic Center before 6 am on Saturday morning to get ready for the relays. We started trying to test klister and realized that there was so little snow it was almost impossible to find a decent place to test. We tried to remain optimistic and continued testing. However, things were looking a bit bleak when Sue (the owner of the Nordic Center) came out to tell us that the races had been delayed until 11 am, that they would start at a remote location and that there would be three skate legs rather than one classic and two skates as originally planned. We quickly switched gears and sent Erika and John back to the condo to pick up skate skis for the athletes that were supposed to ski the classic leg. The start was about a five to ten minute ski from the Nordic Center at a small timing hut. The men’s scoring teams started first at 11, the women started 4 minutes later and all the nonscoring teams started a minute later. It was crazy. Riley led out for the Cowboys and he led his entire leg. However, when he tagged to Justin he only had a few seconds on the Cornell team. Justin maintained the lead but it was not lengthened substantially. We knew that the last Cornell skier was an incredibly strong skater and that unless Joe had a good lead, he might get caught. Joe gave it everything he had but Cornell was just stronger that day. Thus, the men allowed Cornell one day of glory but retained the overall title, winning by only 1 point. I think it was about this time that the true realization of the mullet set in. For the past three years I have had a standing bet with the men’s team that if they won Nationals they could cut my hair into a mullet. I took off my cowboy hat and as I watched the women ski to a strong second place finish, I let my hair blow in the wind one last time!
Training
