One last shot - Senior Seasons Ahead

Well, here it is. Three years after I first moved into my double in Ryan Hall, I am slowly settling into the townhouse life on the other end of campus. It's been an interesting three years, ever learning how to be both a student and an athlete at the same time, and a large part of that learning happens when there is no school.

Summer break is the time when many students go off and work so that they can afford to come back to school, others do summer research, while some try to think nothing of the coming school year until it's time to start. As an athlete, I was thrown into all three camps: working at a camp to make enough money to get by for a few months of unemployment while I train and compete this fall and winter, research myself to find out how to not overwork myself both mentally and physically, all while trying to not think about the fact that these will be my last seasons as a college athlete.

A large portion of my time this year has been spent sitting on a bike. There's just something about it that makes me feel more free than my ski or running training. From central NH, it's hard to run or ski somewhere that leaves you with both a great workout and a feeling of having taken an adventure. On the bike, I have been able to test my limits and see how fast, far, and how long I can go for, taking me on some pretty cool adventures.

It is on these where I am able to really absorb what is going on in life. Decisions that need some time, I have found, are best made on the bike. Thinking about what is going to happen this year was a big one, like determining what my senior project is going to look like, how to best avoid my injuries (didn't work, already injured), and how to try and lead both the Men's Cross Country and Nordic teams this year. 

Whatever the case, the work has been put in, most of the decisions have been made, and all I can do is keep up and hope for the best over the next few months.

On dropping out.

This weekend was a bit of an eye opener for me. I decided to jump into the L.L.Bean US Distance Nationals 50km Classic race at Craftsbury, just to bring this bizarre season to a close. I had done fairly well at longer races in the past, so I wanted to test my stuff against the big guns at a Championship race. My prep for this one was a little different than normal, I haven't done much (read: any) classic skiing since the season ended in February, and my training going into this race was almost non-existent.

When I arrived for the start, it felt like any other race. I was seeded with the guys from the EISA circuit whom I had been racing with all season, and we were having a great time talking about finally having some closure on the season. It was warm, an almost party-like atmosphere, and we were ready to give it our all.

And then the gun went off.

Immediately we knew that this wasn't going to be an easy race. It had warmed up to around 40 degrees at the start of the race, and only got warmer throughout the 15 lap 50km. We were taking feeds at least once per lap, either from our coaches and teammates or the neutral water feed, sometimes both on the same lap. The course conditions were messy, and everything just felt slow.

I was on my own for most of the race, and each time I went through the stadium I saw new faces of people standing on the side of the course after dropping out, my friends included. My goal changed from doing well to finishing, then just to surviving. By lap 7, I had slowed from a 10:29 first 3.4km lap to almost 15 minutes, and by lap 11 I was over 20 minutes per lap. It was as I finished lap 12 (40k, ~3hrs) that I decided to call it quits, to join the other 15 people who had left before me on the sidelines. I had been lapped by the leaders four times by that point, and had bonked harder than I had ever bonked before.

I stopped in the feed zone where Bowdoin and Lynx Racing had set up and snagged an extra Gu from them, just to get some nutrients into my body. Walking back to the lodge, nobody gave anyone grief about dropping out, aside from some ribbing between competitors who expected to see more of each other on course.


It was my second career DNF, the first coming my freshman year during the 20k Classic at the Dartmouth Carnival, also at Craftsbury. That one was a bit different though, as I had been battling illness for the week leading into that race, and my body just wasn't responding well to the effort I wanted. This race was just tough, and not just for us in the back of the pack or on the sidelines. In a sport where even distance races are contested in large packs and come down to seconds between competitors, the podium spread was over three-and-a-half minutes, and twentieth was over twenty minutes back.


It was a learning experience like none other. I have seen exhaustion after races before, but nothing on this level. It takes a special breed to be able to push oneself for so long, even if the end result is failure. And that is why we do it. Endurance sport isn't all about being the first across the line, it's about making it to the line and finding your limits, and this weekend, many of us found that our limits came well before that finish line.

Long Drives for a short Carnival - Bates and Colby @ Quarry Road

Well, the carnival season is upon us, and things got off to a very interesting start. Our first weekend, the Bates College Carnival, is usually supposed to be at the historic Black Mountain of Maine. But unfortunately, due to a few days of warm and rain, the race was moved a few hours away to Quarry Road, home of the Colby College Nordic Team, and, you know,  my first ever collegiate race.

After leaving training camp at Sleepy at 8:30, we arrived at the venue at 3:30 for our course preview. The course in question was a 1.4km loop to be used for both the sprint and 10km races this weekend. Oh boy.




Many laps were skied, and the course looked the same each time. One big uphill out the start, followed by a descent through a field, then back up to the stadium.

Day one went about as expected, with classic sprinting not quite my forte. At the end of the qualifier, I sat in 79th. Oh well, I was more focused on the 10k the following day.

No Classic Sprint Photos at the request of myself.

For the '10'k, we skied six laps of the short course, so it ended up being much closer to 8.5km. There was also snow. A lot of it. That, coupled with much traffic, resulted in the course quickly devolving to sugar, so it was a battle as to who could better balance light feet up the climbs and power through the field. In the end, I could do neither, and ended up 45th. I also couldn't see.

T'was a bit snowy...

We returned home eventually, and then came back the next weekend for the Colby Carnival!!!

This time around, we had a fun 15k Classic Mass Start, followed by Freestyle Team Sprints! New things!

The classic race actually went pretty well considering I had been sick for three weeks leading into it (oh yeah, that was a thing). I tried to keep a fairly even pacing for it, and ended up finishing the three lap race (full race course!!) in 51st overall (45th collegiate). I hung with a good group the whole time, and nobody passed us!

Then, it was time for the most serious race of the weekend. The race to determine no NCAA points, but still saw teams out testing fleets of skis. That's right, the Team Sprint. Two people, three laps each, 18 minutes of madness.

Liam and I partnered up to lead St. Mikes to a 26th place finish, which we'll take considering neither of us are sprinters.

 The course was the Colby Sprint Loop, different than the previous week's course in the addition of another climb and descent. Three times.

 It was a fun race in the end. Not very often do we get races that stray from our usual routine, so it was nice to be able to not take one as serious.

We're in an off week this week, back next weekend at UVM/Trapp Family Lodge!