OUA 2012

          Believe it or not, the time for the OUA Nordic Ski Championships came around again.  This year they were held the weekend of February 24-26, and once again at Laurentian University.  This meant that it was scheduled during reading week, and that most people were at home enjoying some time  off with their families.  So when the time came to board the bus at the PAC on the Friday morning, just when we thought we had reached at ultimate low of team members on the bus, we scored even lower: two people.  Coach Derek and athlete Tim Hughes were the only to representing the team leaving Waterloo.  But not to worry, the majority of athletes were to meet in Sudbury via their own ways of transportation, with Ryan, Alison and Glenn hitching a ride with Carlton , Martha coming from Timmins with her parents and Katie getting picked up by the bus at home in Parry Sound.  The ride up was through a snow/slush storm, so what a relief it was to arrive in Sudbury to skiable, trails, cold weather and lots of snow. 
          Every year, the format for the OUA race weekend changes.  This year the format was middle distance classic  and relay race on Saturday and long distance skate on Sunday.  The classic race was  5km and 10km for the Women and Men respectively, and the skate 10km and 15km.  The relay was not a team sprint like last year, but a 3 by 3km. relay race.


          We awoke to a beautiful, sunny day Saturday to start off the weekend and the team put forth their best efforts for the morning's classic race. Results as follows:



Place	Name	1st 5km. Split Time	2nd 5km. Split Time	Total Time for 10km.	Time off of First Place
23	Glenn Hartman	14:29	15:17	29:46	+ 4:19.4
31	Tim Hughes	15:30	16:06	31:36.9	+6:09.8
34	Ryan McNamara	15:54	16:20	32:15	+6:47.9
39	Derek Hartman	16:17	16:32	32:50	+ 7:23.2









Place	Name	Total time for 5km.	Time off of First Place
40	Alison Stephenson	19:12	+4:.21.0
43	Katie Madden	20:18	+5.27.9
45	Martha Sutton	20:27	+5:36



          Now, after the classic race was done the focus was put into good quality recovery, as the relays were to follow that same afternoon.  This involved a proper race cool down as soon as possible after the race and some recovery food as soon as possible after that.   Also it must be noted that, despite being retired, Coach Derek decided to enter the classic race to be able to give the Men's team a full team.  The Women's relay was on first, the Warriors stepped to the line with a team of Alison Stephenson, Martha Sutton and Katie  Madden.



Place	Leg #	Name	Time	Total Time	Time off of First Place
10	1	Alison Stephenson	9:35.7	28:01.1	4:46.6
	2	Martha Sutton	9:46.5
	3	Katie Madden	8:38.8





Place	Leg #	Name	Time	Total Time	Time off of First Place
10	1	Tim Hughes	7:42.4	22:45.9	3:24.8
	2	Ryan McNamara	7:51.7
	3	Glenn Hartman	7:11.8



          The end of the relays wrapped up the first day of OUA racing.  The winners for both the Men and Women's individual races, as well as both relays were Lakehead team members and teams, giving them a lead in the overall team points.  Despite being an OUA category race, many of the top racers were athletes that are currently full time or are racing at the NorAM level, making both the Men's and Women's fields pretty deep.  After an especially exhausting day of racing, the Warriors went back to the hotel for some napping, feeding, race talking, and yet more sleep.  We arose yet again to a beautiful, crisp sunny day for the second day of OUA's.  Skate results are as follows:



Place	Name	1st 5km. Split Time	2nd 5km. Split Time	3rd 5km. Split Time	Total Time for 15km.	Time off of first Place
20	Glenn Hartman	14:24.1	14:56.5	14:43.6	44:04.3	+4:42.9
34	Tim Hughes	15:40.5	15:50.1	16:23.5	47:54.2	+8:32.8
37	Ryan McNamara	15:31.3	16:08.8	16:45.8	48:35.9	+ 9:14.5







Place	Name	1st 5km. Split Time	2nd 5km. Split Time	Total Time for 10km	Time off of First Place
28	Alison Stephenson	18:02.8	17:57.1	35:59.9	4:40.9
30	Katie Madden	18:12.5	17:53.8	36:06.3	4:47.3
40	Martha Sutton	20:15.2	20:34.7	40:50.0	9:31.0



          Alas, the Waterloo Warriors had posted some great results yet again.  Considering the depth of both field's each athletes rankings were commendable, overall rankings can be seen at www.zone4.ca.
The next and last race on the agenda will be the Ontario Cup #4, hosted by Highlands Nordic in Duntroon, Ont. Congratulations Warriors!

OUA Preview - and we all made it!

This weekend (January 25-26, 2012) Ontario university skiers are converging from around the province in Sudbury at Laurentien University for the OUA Nordic Championships. Most of the Waterloo team has spent the last week skiing on snow (a luxury in Waterloo) and resting and refuelling in the comforts of their parent's homes. This hopefully has prepared the Waterloo athletes well for successful races this weekend.

Friday morning the snow started falling across Ontario and UW Nordic skiers crawled out bed in Ottawa, Parry Sound, Timmins, Huntsville, and Waterloo. I grew up in Ottawa and spent the past week there visiting with my family and catching up on school work. I was lucky to be able to travel with the Carleton team to OUAs (as I have for the past 2 years). The bus was scheduled to be loaded at 6:00 am and leave at 6:20am. OK, that's not too early. I set an alarm for 5:40am (or so I thought so). I packed my bags the night before and left them at the back door ready to be loaded into the car first thing the next morning. Fast forward to this morning... My Dad got up and left the hallway light on so I knew it was about time to get up but I also knew he was planning on getting up before me. I am kinda awake but don't fell like getting out of bed and will just wait for my alarm to go off before I get up. I roll over to check my clock. 5:57am. Not the time I expected! I flew out of bed and got dressed in the clothes I left out and ran downstairs. The 6 o'clock news was starting on the radio. I rushed my Dad out the door to load the car and leave. 6:07, pulling out of the driveway. 6:10, arriving at Carleton. Well that was I close call I don't plan on repeating.

I made it and that's all that counts. Looking forward to the weekend races. Saturday will be two races: a short distance classic race in the morning and a skate team relay in the afternoon. Sunday will be a mass start distance skate race.

Let the races begin.

Warriors head East: Eastern Canadian Championships 2012

Alison during the 10km. skate

          After yet another two weeks of dry-land training the UW Nordic Ski Team decided to head on over to the east for the Eastern Canadian Championships 2012.  We left the PAC with the sparsest team to date-  Coach Colin and Coach Derek, and athletes Tim, Ryan and Katie.  Two more joined the team in Ottawa though, Glenn, who's there on co-op and Alison who had arrived the day prior.  The even took place over three days, but us Waterloo gang opted out for the first day of sprints to minimize missing school and because, well, let's just say it was a big field.

          The team arrived just in time to catch the end of semi-final and final sprint races, the finals for each being between some of the country's fastest skiers- which if not awesome to spectate got us in the mood for a race, and at the least got rid of the post-bus blues. Only one Waterloo athlete competed in the sprints:

Place	Name	Time for  1.4km Free
88	Glenn Hartman	3:34

          

Waxing in no joke to Coach Colin

          The race course for the the rest of the weekend was to be the same 5km loop that was used for the distance races in previous years, and laps of that would be done for each of the various distances.  The terrain itself was somewhat of a challenge though.  Off the start was a short loop of gradual ups and downs, which worked as a good section for the pack to thin out off the start, as a place to establish your pace and to work out those start line jitters.  Following was a streak through the stadium,  a gradual climb up power line, and a grueling climb up Montee McCarthy- arguably the hardest part of the course.  It was down Dirk's dive after this, up Chute Charon, down and back into the stadium for the final turn to the finish.  Saturday's freestyle race was 10km for the women and 15km for the men, so two and three laps of said course respectively.

The UW teams results are as follows:

Women:

Place	Name	1st 5km lap time	2nd 5km lap time	Total time for 10km
73	Katie Madden	17:26	17:26	34:52
76	Alison Stephenson	17:42	17:59	35:42

Men:

Place	Name	1st 5km lap time	2nd 5km lap time	3rd 5km lap time	Total time for 15km (skate)
76	Glenn Hartman	13:25	14:11	13:54	41:32
126	Tim Hughes	14:54	15:56	16:22	47:12
136	Ryan McNamara	15:44	16:39	16:15	48:38

          So the team finished up strong (always) and made their way back to the hotel.  It was still quite early in the day and so the opportunity was had to enjoy the beautiful winter weather and the start of Winterlude, delve into some much need studying or-the popular choice- nap time.   All was well with the usual UW hotel happenings, and lots of food, water  and sleep were to be had in preparation for the next day's long distance races.

          Sunday's races were 15 and 30km classic for the women and men, respectively.  The course remained the same as the day before which meant 3 laps for the women and an astonishing 6 for the men.  Unfortunately though we were one athlete short as Glenn was not well enough to race that day. Another look at UW's impressive results...

Women:

Place	Name	1st  5km lap time	2nd 5km lap time	3rd 5km lap time	Total time for 15km (classic)
72	Alison Stephenson	20:32	21:21	21:21	1:03:15
78	Katie Madden	22:34	22:52	23:52	1:09:20

Men:

Place	Name	1st 5km lap time	2nd 5km lap time	3rd 5km lap time	4th 5km lap time	5th 5km lap time	6th 5km lap time	Total time for 30km
111	Ryan McNamara	16:28	17:48	18:11	18:48	19:13	19:16	1:49:46
127	Tim Hughes	16:34	17:42	19:30	20:31	22:15	22:28	1:59:02

Ryan, although I think this is during the skate race...

          Everybody managed to keep it together enough maintain a consistent and strong race.  The most impressive result coming from the second day of racing though was Ryan's time of 1:49:46, in comparison to last year's time of 2:12:45, a whopping  23 min faster on the exact same course. Wow!

The bus was boarded quickly as we still had a 7ish hour drive ahead of us, making for one long day.  For myself, and I think I speak for many others, the return back to reality/school was dreaded.  It's that time of year when those awful things called midterms start happening to you  and so one must often face the choice of sleep/recovery vs. studying vs. training.  The team does have this coming weekend off from racing though, which will be a welcome break to catch up on this whole school thing, and possibly get some easier training in.  The next voyage for the Warriors will be to Sudbury, Feb. 24-26 for the OUA Nordic Skiing Championships.  In farewell, I unfortunately will not be saying 'happy skiing', or 'happy trails' because I have wholeheartedly given up on skiing in Waterloo. If you are fortunate to have snow wherever you are do enjoy it, but please, try not to make the rest of us too envious. 

Alison during the 15km classic

Snow? and Racing? North Bay OUA Invitational 2012

          Scheduled this weekend of January 21-23 was the North Bay Nordic/Nipissing Invitational Race.  Although there had been previous scheduled races this season and a couple of time trials, this was the first major race for the Waterloo Nordic Ski Team.  It was similar to last year's race in that format was the same- skate races on the Saturday and classic races on Sunday but it differed in that  both the Men and Women were to ski the same distances and the forecasted temperatures weren't an unbearable -30 degrees.
         From Waterloo left coaches Colin and Derek, and athletes Martha, Lucy, Tim, Ryan, Alison and Katie.  We were joined in North Bay by Glenn who travelled from Ottawa.  Friday met us with some chillier temperatures but the skate race course was skied by the team- two laps around the red trail for both men and women.  For those unfamiliar with North Bay Nordic trails the red course is essentially a long gradual uphill, a series of rolling ups and downs, a climb up the "wall", yet more gain in elevation, about 1km of downhill back to the stadium and, for this race, a lap around the stadium, a repeat  of previous said course and back down to the finish.   To finish off the first day of the weekend the coaches stuck around to do some wax testing in preparation for Saturday's race and the athletes returned to the hotel for a room-cooked meal and an early bedtime.
          Saturday's race had quite a later start than usual- the race didn't start until 12pm.  For most athletes it was a nice relief to have such a long time to wake up, prepare for the day, and then extra time at the race site to warm up and make it to the much-anticipated start line on time.  The men were scheduled to race first and the results are as follows:



Place	Name	1st 5km Lap Time	Second 5km Lap Time	Total Time for 10km
18	Glenn Hartman	16:06	16:57	33:04
33	Tim Hughes	17:50	19:00	36:51
38	Ryan McNamara	18:44	19:47	38:31



And for the Women:





Place	Name	1st 5km Lap Time	Second 5km Lap Time	Total Time for 10km
25	Alison Stephenson	20:12	20:54	41:06
27	Katie Madden	20:44	21:03	41:47
42	Lucy Yao	28:30	31:04	59:35

       
            It was somewhat challenging for us Southern Ontario-ers as we've had significantly less time on skis than some of the northern schools.  Regardless, everyone put forth their best effort and some decent results were found, with  Glenn having  the best placing within the team.  Saturday night was the usual post-race/pre-race happenings and all was prepared for the following day's race.
          The forecast for Sunday was supposed to be a step warmer than Saturday, but as we arrived to the race site we found that it felt significantly colder than Saturday.  The start was more of a usual 10am time- the men's race starting the clock and the women's starting 25 minutes after.   The race course was North Bay's blue extension trail instead of the red. This was beneficial for a classic race because there weren't nearly as many steep climbs to herringbone up, but rather more gradual hills which were easily stride-able.  The disadvantage to this course was that many athletes had not skied the course in the past and there was very little time and/or energy to ski the course after Saturday's race.  As a result a  number of athletes saw the course for the first time during their race.  Even so, most athletes were quite pleased with their results.


Men's:

Place	Name	Total Time for 10km
13	Glenn Hartman	28:57
21	Tim Hughes	32:25
33	Ryan McNamara	34:10



Women's:




Place	Name	Total Time for 10km
19	Alison Stephenson	38:25
29	Martha Sutton	42:24
31	Katie Madden	43:53
36	Lucy Yao	1:00.0




          Once again, Glenn was the best ranked on the team, with an excellent placing of 13th.   For most, Sundays results were welcomed with much more pleasure for the team.

            The race weekend finished up quite early and we were able to depart by about 12:30 to embark on the trek to the land-of-no-snow.  To our surprise there was snow on the ground upon arrival, even enough for skiing!   However, our hopes were once again crushed with a morning of rain.  Oh well, to Mono Nordic next weekend it is for the Mono Nordic Ski Race, as it is officially called on Zone4.  Until then, happy skiing, slush-skiing or whatever the heck it is we're supposed to be doing until then.

Glenn

Lucy

Alison