Hard pack, fast conditions and a nice day.
Saturday morning dawned bright and early, bright because of the cloudless sky, and early because the race start was set for 9 AM in order to get the Women’s Individual Start 5 km and the Men’s Individual Start 10 km underway before the afternoon relays. In preparation for the start, the Guelph men’s team played a rousing game of chess, followed by hide-and-seek. Ed. Note - If this blog was written by Guelph, we would now delve into a discussion of their race weekend, but because it’s the UW Nordic Blog, we’re going to stick to talking about Waterloo skiers. The conditions were hard and fast, and the rare one-loop 10 km course contained several large up hills before culminating in a long downhill with some fast corners, and a little art.
The UW women showed up with their skating hats on, and led once again by 2008 All-Star Nellie Dow, dominated the hilly course. Dow, who has been struggling all season long to find her skate form, continued the trend, finished in 12th spot. Kelly Skinner, wife of outstanding head coach Justin Faulkner and owner of several important pieces of paper, placed 23rd, followed by Martha Sutton in 28th, freshly activated off the injured reserve in order to give the Warriors the best possible shot at crushing the University of Toronto’s Varsity Blues women’s team for the 15th consecutive year. A lock for Female Rookie of the Year, Jessica Stevenson finished in 32nd continuing her climb back into racing form after a 3-year layoff. With a successful morning under their mostly one-piece racing suits, the women hit the change rooms and bagels quickly before getting out on the race course for the men’s 10 km skate.
Jess Stevenson cruising her way through 5km in blasting sunshine.
With much the same real estate to work with as the women, just with more up hills, more down hills, more flats and more suffering, the Warrior men gathered their marbles and bet everything on 13 black. Ed. Note – For those of you confused at this point, it’s a ridiculous way of saying they got ready to start. After struggling through the rare one-lap 10 km, Cam Moore was again the fastest UW skier, finishing in 13th. Andrew Jeffrey and Kieran Jones had slightly off days, crossing the line in 19th and 25th respectively. Yudai Nakagawa finished in 29th with Nolan Beanlands close behind in 31st, one second out of the Top 30. Beanlands was ecstatic after his race, stating “Best skate race ever! I don’t know how to classic ski, so I’m screwed tomorrow, but I’m living in the moment! Can’t talk now though, I need to go check the results”. Derek Hartman, despite having an injury plagued season managed to shake off his nagging groin injury and cross the line in an OUA Personal Best of 42nd. When asked about how his injury felt during the race Hartman said “It was fine for the first 5km or so, but a couple of killer up hills really hurt me. In hindsight, I could have made up a couple of places if I hadn’t stopped and talked about dropping out with Colin[Rhodes, assistant coach], but it was a tough day regardless”. With mixed feelings about the morning race, relay teams were selected, granola bars were eaten, naps were taken and smack was talked. Due to the enormous size these blogs are becoming, take this opportunity to relax, eat something and breathe while you eagerly await the relay update.
Andrew relaxing like you should be, Nolan breathing like you should be, just a little too enthusiastically.
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