Here is Scott Lundquist's story from Lake Placid:
Here's my report from last weekend's races at LP. In brief, it's a great venue and tough course -- see the links at the bottom to learn more about the event for next year.
I understand that the CSU contingent that heads over to the Lake Placid Loppet gets thinner every year, but last weekend there were at least four Tuesday nighters there: me, Tom Clemow, Brett Rutledge, and Doug Jansen. In fact, I didn't meet Brett until we finished within 2 mins. of each other in the race, but that is getting ahead of the story...
Tom and I car-pooled out Friday afternoon, and for those like me who hadn't been to LP before, it presents some unique sights. Entering from the east on Rt. 73, you first come over a high pass closed in by the mountains, glimmering silver in moonlight for us, then past iced-in Chapel Pond backed by thousand-foot cliffs, before descending into the quiet hamlets of the Keene Valley; closer to LP, there are broad views to the west of the High Peaks, and then as you approach town, something incongruous, what first looked like the ugly apparatus of a cement factory, two slim concrete towers high enough to be topped by red airplane warning lights: the Olympic ski jumping runs! I've seen plenty of World Cup ski jumping on television, but you really can't appreciate the height those guys "fall" from until you're craning your neck upward to see it. (B.t.w., the Boston Globe recently published a stunning photo gallery on World Cup ski jumping, see http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/01/ski_jumping_world_cup.html ).
But we were there to race freestyle -- Tom back for his third marathon, and me opting for the one-lap, 25 km. Kortaloppet as I like that type of distance/duration, and truth be told, the two-lapper sounded daunting. Some of you may be familiar with the LP course's origins and reputation, but here is a good history lesson for those who are not (from Steve Thorne's blog at http://language.la.psu.edu/~thorne/placidloppet_2002.html -- Russian CSUers, please feel free to rise up in defense... ;- )
"We come to the base of a daunting set of inclines that were developed for the 1980 Winter Olympic games. This is a tough section that roller coasters up terrifically steep pitchs only to drop down and then reclimb higher up onto a ridge. According to 1980 Olympics lore, Lake Placid wanted to create a reputation for the fledgling North American nordic scene and so had made the 50k course super tough by creating the set of climbs I was now struggling through. When the European teams arrived they were indeed surprised at the extreme steepness of these ascents (according to race officials, the Placid Loppet is the most challenging of the American ski marathon series and is one of the toughest 50k courses on the international circuit). The Russians, however, were not merely impressed, they were pissed off. The course includes too much climbing, they argued, and they lodged both a formal protest with the Olympic committee as well as submitted a complaint to the local course planners. Their formal protest was noted but rejected. At the local level, the result was to mockingly name this portion of the course "Russian Hill", a designation that continues to be used today."
Suffice to say, I was a bit intimidated once I had seen Tom and the rest of the 50kers double pole off across the stadium field and disappear into the woods, and it was my turn to take on the unseen challenges of the course. It didn't help that I had really sweated my wax choice the day before, as Toko's recommendation to go HF Blue seemed wrong to me, given the forecast for temps rapidly rising from a low of 3F as a warm air mass would sweep in that morning, and their other recommendations for Northeastern races seemed to go with Red (I opted for more Moly because it appeared to have a wider temp range than red, then ironed in Jetstream; b.t.w., Rob B. has responded on this elsewhere). Indeed, as Tom and I changed up at the nordic center at 8am, we could feel a "warm" breeze in our faces atop the already 20 degree air, and we (not to mention the classic skiers) were disconcerted to see the center's thermometer dial move up literally by the minute. But despite all that, my skis felt reasonably fast during warm-up, I was pretty sure I'd dressed down enough, and feeling fueled-up and fresh-legged, I was ready to go.
In hindsight, the only thing I'd do differently over the entire race would be to line up in the first row instead of the third, and really work to get early position, because once we entered the trail after the first minute, I found only a few opportunities to pass anyone, and mainly felt limited to V1ing along up slightly rising ground that I could easily have V2'd faster and more efficiently if only there was room. (Hmm, haven't I learned anything from Weston starts?) It was frustrating to watch skiers a little further ahead slowly get away, but perhaps the forced conservatism was a good thing, as by the time the course steepened past the 5km. aid station and I got behind #467 (a local, Ed Lis) to stay, there was plenty of work to be had.
Suffice to say that, even when ranked in the company of Sugarloaf and Craftsbury (spring fling), this is the toughest course I've ever skied, just relentless hills -- never a long steady incline, but a succession of pitches, quick drops, turns, and more pitches, hardly ever 30 seconds of rest, and never a straight flat or sidehill like at Craftsbury (my usual benchmark for "hilly"). Sometimes I felt a bit held back by #467 as we labored in our V1s, but I was still reaching the top of each pitch pretty maxed out, at times swaying a bit like a prizefighter who'd just took a shot in the head. At least we were holding our places, and on the few occasions when we could see ahead more than 10 yards, I caught glimpses of the next group not that far ahead, a few blue-suited skiers and a collegiate woman racer (and likely Brett, although I never saw him). The first few downhills on rubbery legs didn’t go very well, but by the time we hit the “rollercoaster hills” coming up on 10 km., I forced myself into form, keeping those arms ahead, trying hard to step-step-step and carry some speed, athough there was so much snow-berming from the prior skiers that it was still touch-and-go on a lot of the turns. We came past the 10 km. aid station, where I grabbed another half cup of gatorade and kept chasing #467, and soon thereafter we were climbing again, up to a short height, a turn, then up some more, etc., more heart-hammering V1, trying to keep the skis underneath me and keep them moving, through the huge rollercoaster dip I’d read of, twice as big as that on Jackson's East Pasture loop but easy despite the speed; and more climbing, until a particularly steep section where my companion started “coach's skating” (poling on same side as the skate, like an extended herringbone), and I tried it too and it worked as well as anything else.
Somewhere on that wall, working intensely hard, I said out loud, “now I know what the Russians were complaining about,” and looked up to see the rise continue to sweep up far to the right, with a cluster of skiers approaching the height of land. I did not know then that this was indeed the infamous Russian Hill, and it was only much later that I realized it was already behind me, thankfully. Soon after that we started to descend back to the stadium, including a rip-roaring straight shot down where I was pretty sure I hit my maximum speed on XC skis ever, just hanging on and thankful I made it, esp. around a right-hand bend soon thereafter where I carried a lot of speed, past the watchful first aid guy in red, almost wiping out in the soft snow banked on the left, but somehow staying on my feet. Not elegant, but hey, still moving forward, good enough for me.
Once past the stadium field around 15 km. in, the course shoots through a road tunnel and enters the "biathlon side" for the last 10 km. of the loop -- not easy, but easier, more rolling and with places to actually use Weston-style skating (V2, Alt-V2). By then I'd tried to get past #467 a few times, but had found he was faster on the downhills and I had to be patient. Finally, with the finish line just 5 km. away I felt it was time to go, and from there on in I skated as hard as I could, consciously recalling the good hard workouts I'd done at Great Brook this year and letting them propel me to the line. There had been increasing numbers of two-lappers (with yellow bibs) to pass on the biathlon side, and just before a short pitch I encountered Tom skating well nearly halfway through his race, gave him some encouragement, and thought, thank god I'm not doing this a second time... I managed to catch one more skier in my race in the last km. (the second woman), promptly crashed going too fast on a final short left-turning downhill, bounced up immediately, and repassed, to end up 19th overall in 1:26:40. That was good enough for 2nd in the 45-49 age group (my first ski medal; yeah, it was out of a group of six, but still exciting), and that was how I met Brett while we were standing around looking at the results, as he won our age group, 16th overall in 1:24:55. It figures that we'd have to drive nearly five hours from Weston to actually meet!
I'm sure Brett has his separate story to tell, and also Tom, who sliced another 17 minutes off his previous best to finish the marathon in 3:39:22, 4th in the 55-59 group. I noticed that Doug had already posted his race story on his blog by Sunday morning, well worth a read ( http://hilljunkie.blogspot.com/ ); he was 18th in the marathon in 3:06:33. Overall, an impressive showing by the flatlanders, eh? I'd only add that the post-race lasagna dinner and awards ceremony was a nice chance to socialize and recoup those expended calories (incl. complimentary beer and wine), and judging from the raffle the event is well-supported by sponsors as well as the LP community.
Here are a few photos from today's Silver Fox Trot race in Hanover. Good conditions prevailed with lots of nice sunshine, good chili, and a relaxed atmosphere compared to Trapps. A number of CSUers and former CSUers partook the lactic acid producing pleasures of the Oak Hill course.
Once again the CSU Juniors had a fabulous ski camp up at Jackson. With a number of skiers in the ski house and a good many more staying with their families, on the Tuesday morning tour of the East Pasture Loop we had 30 people between juniors and parents and coaches! Five days of glorious sunshine and excellent grooming by the Jackson Ski Touring center made for fantastic skiing on all the trails and good weather for afternoon drills and interval workouts. To top it off, the same wax job (Toko Viola with Multiviola mixed in) worked for multiple workouts, reducing the time spent on waxing to a bare minimum. However, all good things come to an end and on the last morning with 8 inches of fresh, wet snow at 32F waxing finally became a challenge and we had skis with little to no kick to those sporting huge clumps of snow and our tour of the Ellis River trail was slow and short. Well, you 
can't have great klister conditions all the time!
nearly 
everywhere. NENSA put up an excellent photo by Kris Dobie that shows just what kind of a day it was during the J2 race at: http://www.nensa.net/news/news_more.php?id=3152
CSU Juniors had another great day at Sunday's Massachusetts Classic Qualifier. This race, combined with the times from the Skate Qualifier, determine who will represent Massachusetts at the J2 Festival and the Eastern High School Championships. On the boy's side CSU placed 9 on the team of 24 for EHS and on the girl's side 8 CSUers are on the team. For the J2 festival, 5 CSU boys are on the team of 20 and 7 on the girl's side. Congratulations to you all! 
