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Sunday, April 01, 2007

30km/50km

The race of the day definitely goes to Haley Johnson of the Maine Winter Sports Center.
Haley finished in 4th, which is a phenomenal result for her. But more importantly than that she fought harder then anyone else out there. Of course, that's just my armchair opinion, but it was very sweet to see her do so well. It came down to a sprint between her and Kate Whitcomb for 3rd place that Whitcomb won. As much as I like Whitcomb, I was rooting for Haley on that one.

Torin Koos gets the stellar race result for the men's since he was 4th today (and 5th Friday). I do like to see the "sprinters" kick butt in the distance races... especially a 50km marathon! And don't let me forget the Kuzzy got 3rd both today and Friday- Stellar!

After 30km it came down to a sprint where Taz Mannix held of Liz Stephen.

Morgan Arritola leading Evelyn Dong and Kate Whitcomb through the biathlon range.

I didn't take any photos of the men's 50km because I was offering them feeds. I didn't even do a good job of cheering because I was concentrating so hard on trying to get them what they wanted if they wanted something. Giving feeds requires a certain skill (and I don't claim to be a master of it). First, you have to choose your location. You want to be at the top of a non-technical downhill so the racers can drink without getting dropped. And then you want the next 1km or so after the feed to be pretty easy so they don't have to work really hard immediately after ingesting food. Then you have to be ready. Ready to hand off what the racer wants: water, gatorade, food, because they come up fast. Then the actual handoff. Handing off a feed in a ski race is a lot harder than in cycling or running. Running they're not going very fast so the hand off happens in slow-mo. Cycling, they're going fast but travel in a straight line with no up-down or side-to-side movement so that's relatively simple. But skate skiers are moving fast and moving side to side and up and down and are already holding poles in their hands, not to mention that they're usually ridiculously tired. Luckily I only botched one hand-off. That was to Gregg on his last lap but he managed to trap the bottle upright against his chest and still get a drink, so it worked out.

I'd still rather be the one receiving the feed than giving.

1 Comments:

Blogger Garrott said...

Valaas has the skills of a World Champion feeder. Those surprise feeds on the emptiest sections of the course always taste the best--and help the most! Thanks for being such a great teammate and inspiration!

Kuz

April 01, 2007 11:45 AM  

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