Climb to the Castle 2012
Women’s results: http://nysefxcski.blogspot.com/2012/09/c2c-2012-womens-results.html
On the drive over to the Climb to the Castle rollerski race
Sean was disappointed to see the sun glinting through the thinning clouds. He had hoped for epic battle through wind and
rain up the 5 miles of roadway that climbs 2500 feet to the summit of Whiteface
Mountain. Be careful what you wish
for. That was the last we saw of the sun
as the drizzle started back up and the wind was blowing with temps in the low
50s. We would have an epic race after
all.
Sean, Trevor, Rebecca S., Lewis, Max had driven with me and
John LaChance to Lake Placid on Friday night after a day with temps in mid
80s. It was hard to believe it would be
so cold and windy. Julia K. was already
in LP at the NEG training camp. She
spent Friday doing speed drills with the USST women, Green Team, and SMS Elite Team.
The women started at 8 AM sharp. The men were starting 10 minutes later. Just after the women headed off, Max and Lewis
came back from their warm-up battered and bleeding. They had gone too fast down the hill in the
warm-up area, missed the turn, and crashed hard. Sometimes life gives a chance to practice
resiliency beyond just making it through a hard race. There was no time to bandage Max’s bloody
elbow. Perhaps the crash gave them both
a good shot of adrenaline as both had excellent races. Max broke 50 minutes take over 10% off last
year’s time, take 3rd for J1s. Lewis was top J2 (prize age category
was J1 & J2 combined). Julia was a
little slower than last year thanks to a recent illness, but still took 3rd
in the J1/J2 age group. Sean had a very
solid race right in with the other J1s.
Rebecca couldn’t quite beat last year’s time thanks to excessive
studying for AP Bio. Trevor was doing
his first race outside of Weston and acquitted himself well given that this
event is 4 or 5 times longer and harder than a Weston race. I started the race with my speed reducers on
(what is wrong with me?) so I was in dead last after 100 meters. Once I released my speed reducers I was able
to catch a few skiers. Best of all was
catching USST women’s coach Matt Whitcomb with a mile to go. I mentioned to him that I’ll be a grandfather
next March. Just sayin’.
The field of finishers was the highest quality that you will see outside of a SuperTour or
Nationals. It was fun to hang out in the
toasty warm summit building waiting for the awards and rub elbows with World
Cup racers.
After the race we headed to The Breakfast Club for one of
the best tasting meals ever. We spent a
pleasant afternoon at the LP library overlooking Mirror Lake. Sunday morning we climbed Hurricane Mountain
to enjoy of the best views in the Northeast on a perfect fall day.
In just 3 months we’ll be racing on snow!
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