Last 2011 Carnival!

The season always seems so long and daunting looking at the schedule in December, but it comes and goes so fast. We're officially done the carnival races. While we're sad to be done everybody's pretty relieved to have some extra free time.

This weekend was the Bates Carnival in Rumford, Maine. We left Friday in an absolute blizzard. Big Purple was looking a little sad and consisted of only four girls with Bear and Silke both left home with various illnesses. We stayed in the cutest bed and breakfast, but for whatever reason I never took any pictures of the room all four of us stayed in, which included about six beds and an electric fireplace. We were joined at the B&B by two sets of St. Lawrence parents as well.

Saturday was the 5k skate race. I was yet another Big Purple sickling and didn't race. I did some cheering and will happily take credit for helping the girls up High School Hill for some of their best races of the season. Lately our incentive for pretty much anything has been a Tootisie Pop promised to us by my dad. Saturday he had promised all of the girls that if they either caught the girl in front of them or beat someone in particular they were guaranteed a Tootsie Pop of their choice. On Saturday afternoon we all got Tootsie Pops - the other girls for their races and me mostly because they felt bad, but also because I cheered real loud. A highlight was definitely Gabby's 39th place finish and her pomegranate Tootsie.

Gabby well after she had earned her Tootsie Pop

Rizz almost at the top

Sunday was the 15k classic. I've really been looking forward to this race and, even though I've had to take a couple extra days off in the past week, was really hoping to put in my best race of the season. The course was three 5k loops. I've never been in such a good position after a mass start. I've also never had an asthma attack racing. Unfortunately, that hit at about 4k as I reached the top of High School Hill and my fantastic placement amongst every girl I've had in my sights was absolutely shot. After the first lap I went into the second dizzy and completely short of breath. After taking a feed from my dad with Katlyn just behind me I was able to pull myself together to finish the race. I've never dropped out of a race, but my dad told me later he was really surprised to see me come back around and had almost radioed Joe to let him know I was dropping out. All in all, I'm really disappointed that even though I was mentally ready to work hard with the group of girls I was with I never really got the chance. On the other hand, I'm pretty happy that I can still say I've never dropped out of a race. (Or "retired" from a race as the announcers so kindly put it for those that did opt out of finishing yesterday.)

Start of the men's 20k

Now that the carnival season's done we've still got the team vans until Spring Break. We're all doing various races and practicing as a team, but it's nice not to feel so committed to practice. I really like the idea that if I need to take a day to get work done I don't have to feel bad about not skiing that day. This Wednesday the girls are heading to Craftsbury for a 5k. We're pretty psyched to rock out a citizen's race.

Now, for the last post of the 2011 carnival season, I leave you with this picture. Because it's fantastic.

Death by Skating

So this past weekend was the Middlebury Carnival.

Reasons why this was the weekend of death:

1) I have always and forever had terrible races at Middlebury without fail
2) I kept that trend going
3) My skate technique is still on the fritz
4) Both races were skate races
5) I had two math exams on Friday. I missed them both.

This isn't to say that had completely written off the weekend. When I first heard about the lack of classic skiing we'd be doing I was anything but impressed, but figured I could pull myself together for the 10k on Friday.

False.

I had decided to ski the first 5k lap smooth and easy and for the first 4 or so k not only was I feeling good, but I was actually somewhat in the race. The second lap not so much. My legs just felt fried right from the get-go and heading up into the beginning of the loop for the second time they just didn't go. I felt like I was working really hard and not getting a lot out of my strides. So ended my hopes for a little bit of skating (middle of the pack) glory.

Finishing it up.

Bear in his 10k Friday

Friday was one of those mid-winter days where it was 50 degrees that gives non-Vermonters high hopes for the end of winter. If you are one of these people the past weekend should have proven that you shouldn't be fooled by VT's out of the ordinary days. Saturday was quite a different story. It was a good amount colder and the wind was out of control.

The format of Saturday was a three person relay. Each person would ski a 1k loop three times. I'm not a sprinter, but I always have fun with these races. While we were not exactly at the top of the podium I worked hard each lap and felt pretty good about them. I was incredibly disappointed to not see splits on the results.

Kat tags off to me. I may have tripped her a little.

Rizzle skis on a team with two Bowdoin girls

All in all Saturday was a fun day. Since Midd is only an hour (give a little) from SMC we had some friends come to watch, which I love.

Rizzle, Claire, Colin, Andrew, and Joshy

After the relays had ended we made our way over to where they were holding a sit-ski race. Since Colin has been broken all season (though he's a champ on his crutches) he hasn't been able to ski with us. He decided to give the sit-ski a try for only his second time and race. It's crazy how strong these people have to be. If I were down and out for a season I don't think you'd find me sit-skiing in my spare time.

A little windy.

Reasons why the weekend of death wasn't actually deathly:

1) My V1 was actually better (finally)

2) Lots of friends and people I love

3) SMC had Monday and Tuesday off for President's day. Wooo! No class!

4) The professors here are incredible and were very understanding about my exams. I made them up Thursday and last night.

5) We got to ski at Craftsbury yesterday, which is my favorite ski area.

6) We had pizza after Craftsbury and didn't have to pay for it. Mmmm. Thanks SMC!

So the weekend of death was not too bad overall. I'm glad to have it behind me. All we have left in the carnival season is the Bates Carnival consisting of a 5k skate and a 15k classic. I'm spending this week focused on the classic race and am hoping to have a good one on Sunday.

SMC crew:
Kat, Gab, Josh, JoeConn, me Rizzle, Claire
sit-skiers Colin and Professor Standen (Philosophy)

Carni Crushin'

To begin with I'm going to give a shout out to Andrea's radio show, Fresh Beats with AP, Sundays from 3-5, WWPV, which is where I'm writing this post from as we speak. Today is the All-Disney show. Pretty solid.

Andrea's Disney quote of the day: "I tear up when I leave Disney world. Think about it. It's dark out and you look back and see Cinderella's castle as you're leaving and you don't know when you're going to be back to the happiest place on earth."

It just warms your heart.

Taken as "Just Around the River Bend" played on air.
Lovely.

Now that we've gotten past that, I guess I'll talk about the other big event of the weekend, the Dartmouth Carnival.

Friday was the 5k skate. Really, by the time you do all of the downhill it's a 3k skate. It was so fast. I felt better about my technique, but the course was hard and fast, so it made it much easier. After the race we headed back to the magical Fireside Inn. Big Purple spent a fair amount of time playing in the pool before taking a team big man nap.

Beatz, Rizzle, my hair (sorry Gab), me, Silke in the pool

Saturday was the 15k classic. The course was fun because it was one big loop for the first 10k and a smaller different one for the last 5k. This is the first time this year that we've had a course over 5k that didn't loop at all. The mass start race started with a lot of excitement when I broke my pole at the 1k mark. (Shout out to UNH for conveniently standing at the 1.25k mark or so with extra poles. Thank you for the use of your pole for 14k or so.) I skied with a pack of girls for most of the race. Kat and I started with a Bowdoin girl for the first section of the race and then a group of two UMPI girls for the rest of the 10k. During the long downhill section the UMPI girls caught a skier from SLU, but all three got away as the downhills continued. From there I was left chasing them up the rest of the hill, but never caught them.

The rest of the day was fun watching the boys. The finish was super intense. There was a lot of hardcore double poling and collapsing at the finish.

The lead pack coming through for the
first lap.

Bear 12k in

Following the races were the annual Carni Crush valentines. We've been working on Big Purple's hit single "Poles Up" for a couple of weeks now and decided that this event would be the perfect premiere. We decided to dedicate our performance to St. Lawrence.

We're currently working on our next single, "Glide Like Woe" so start getting pumped. It's coming along real nice.

Big Purple
(pic by the lovely Nancy Sitzer)

New Snow Friends

Today was an easy and GORGEOUS ski at Sleepy Hollow, which is one of our regular ski spots during the week. It was what I definitely consider a perfect Vermont winter afternoon. A little chilly, but LOTS of sun.

Now that we've seen lots of wildlife (Herman the porcupine and the handful of deer) and have never gotten pics I've started keeping my camera in my pocket while I ski. I took advantage of the easy day and ended up with some sweet pics.

Kat and Rizzle do some no pole work into the sunset

Star Wars themed running/biking trails are a personal favorite

While adventuring Big Purple made a new snow friend, Marvin the Turtle.

Playing with Marv

We decided to take Marv for a little ski down to the lodge, which turned into a core workout for the three of us. We traded off and eventually made it all the way from the end of Zig Zag on Ridge Road, which, for those of you who don't know, is a REALLY long way to carry a heavy chunk of snowturtle.

Eventually we said goodbye to Marvin, left him with the giant snowman and continued our ski.

All in all it was a great ski at Sleepy. I'm off to shovel out my car and then continue doing far too much homework. We're Hanover-bound tomorrow for the Dartmouth carnival, which is always concluded with "Carni Crush" valentine exchanges. Definitely something you'll be hearing about here later on.

This Weekend in Pictures

I'm going to (attempt to) get around to writing about the UVM carnival at some point, but right now I'm in the process of ordering pizza and watching the super bowl, so for now I'll go with pictures. Quick overview:

• Friday, UVM carnival, 15/20k classic
• Saturday, UVM carnival/Eastern Cup, 5/10k skate, super ski fans come to cheer and bring happiness, my cousins have their very first races in the Bill Koch League race
• Sunday, Eastern Cup 10/15k classic, over distance ski and watching Evan in the EC, snowball fight after the Fresh Beats with AP radio show

The Tents

Bear during the 10k skate on Saturday

The girlies

Big Purple love

SMC super fans

My brother, Evan, in the Eastern Cup Saturday

Gabby and I with our SMC XC girls
Doogs, Erin, Gab, me, Andrea

More ski fans...
Claire, Andrea in the back, me in the way, Josh

Love

My cousins, Charlie and Anne Marie, warming up
for the Bill Koch race with my dad.

Charlie's first ski race!

Lizzie's first race!

Lots of snow after the storm Saturday night.

Evan in the Eastern Cup classic 15k today

Action shot of today's snowball fight

Sam and Andrea clearly ganging up on Erin

It's been a crazy busy weekend and I'm pretty exhausted after being at Trapps for three full days of racing. but I've made the executive decision to ignore homework for the night and just hang out. I'm 100% aware of the mass amounts of math I'll be doing for the next three days, but I'm way over it.