Finals season results here.

March 2, 2004 (Unofficial Race)

As I drove to the Weston Ski Track on this 64 degree day, the clouds, which had somewhat suddenly erased the blue sky, also decided to dump a substantial amount of rain. So I wondered almost out loud how many nitwits might ski in conditions like this. I underestimated the Weston faithful ski crowd completely. We had 22 people show up to race! And surprisingly, the conditions weren't bad... a little rutted and crunchy, but not bad at all. Thanks to Larry for the quick passes with the Pisten Bully.

I set the race up as a handicap and it seemed to work pretty well. We ended up with almost everyone duking it out on the last straightaway. One thing being near the actual lead in a race will do and that's bring out the best efforts at the end. Aims was in the finish chute and doing everything he could not to lose lunch-- it earned him 3rd place, though you'd have to ask him if it was worth it.

Apologies to anyone who got a little short changed in the handicapping. Also, I didn't get Dave Currie's finish, but will correct if someone lets me know.

February 24, 2004

We had a big crowd tonight which undoubtedly contributed to frightening the clock into half-speed again. At least I can still multiply by two to get the times corrected.

We ended up with a tie for the season overall men's title between Andy Milne and Rob Bradlee. They may decide during the next week whether to have a run-off during next week's handicap race. I personally have never had a problem with first place ties, but let's let those two decide what they'd like to do. At issue is that we didn't get a clean start and it got compounded a little later, so Rob and Andy didn't have a head to head battle. In any case, those two were far out of reach of anyone else and both deserve to be winners. I think all will agree that they bring an enormous amount of goodwill, camaraderie, and support to the nordic skiing community.

Thanks to all who contributed to the potluck. We had a fine feast to go along with the awards. A couple of corrections (and sincere apologies for forgetting the women's age class medals until Rob reminded me-- I *am* in the 50-59 age class and can't be expected to remember everything) to the awards. Dorothee Kern was 2nd overall and Anna McLoon 3rd. Charlie Kellogg was 2nd 60-69 male and Bob Falciola was 3rd.

Remember that the 3 first place winners are eligible for a detailed video session in the coming weeks. All other medal winners and certificate winners get a shorter video session. I will create a DVD or VHS tape and distribute to these winners. I'll forward information in the next few days so that we can schedule this.

Race 7

February 17, 2004

First thing I want to do is thank Rob Bradlee and Andy Milne for volunteering and doing a post-race coaching session with some of our race group. It's quite a lucky thing to get the chance for a free session with skiers of this caliber. Which brings to the fore that those two boys are exactly tied for the series after 6 races. Andy has 3 wins, a second, and a third. Rob has 2 wins and 3 seconds. (Andy has raced 6 races, but has to drop one in the podium spot competition). So next week will be the decider!

I enjoyed seeing some new faces out there tonight and hope you all had a good race. Thanks for coming!

Don't forget the potluck and awards after the race next Tuesday. I have semi-arbitrarily decided that we will have age-graded placings as long as there are at least two people in the age class. This means we will have first, second, and third for men and women overall and age-graded placing for men 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, and 60-69 and for women 30-39 and 40-49.

Race 6

Season Standings (week 6)

February 10, 2004

Okay, back to traditional Weston conditions-- rock hard, lightning fast, brutal lung burn! Oh how we have missed these conditions so far this year.

We owe Mark Jacobson a big thanks for scratching the surface with the snowmobile groomer. It made the course much safer. I still saw somebody auger in like an out of control torpedo when he hit a body divot on the back side downhill. Where are the night vision goggles when you need them.

Somehow I managed to make the clock run exactly half speed. I don't know how. I corrected times and I'm pretty confident that they are accurate. However, I'm not holding my breath on my application to be chief timer for this year's Boston Marathon.

As I was getting times after the race, I asked Cam Kerry, "Hey Cam, what was your time?" Some wag, Larry Elswit, I think, piped up with, "Kerry's time is 2004!" Clever.

Remember that the first 3 places in the season long standings  will be decided by the best five races. All the remaining places will be decided by total points regardless of number of races. So you folks duking it out for a podium spot, take notice.

Race 5

Season Standings (week 5)

February 3, 2004

Wow, for me just getting to set up for the race without the clock being blown over and no down parka was worth the admittance.

The race loop is still superb and made for another good race tonight. The Craftsbury 50km participants didn't seem the least fazed by their weekend efforts and took all the top spots.

All the mechanics of the race seemed to work okay this time and the results are tabulated below.

Race 4

Season Standings (week 4)

January 20, 2004

Okay so it was a little long at 7.5k, but you have to admit that the race loop that Weston Ski Track set up was excellent. I would have liked to get a warm-up lap in with the group so that everyone knew the course for sure, but it's difficult to get the race underway if we do that on these cold nights. It can take 10 minutes or more to get everyone back ready to go and once you've stripped down to race you really just want to get going.

Anyway, thanks for your patience and I hope we'll have some warmer, calmer nights in the weeks to come. Let me know if you see errors in the results... I'll fix them.

Just a reminder, next week is an official race, not part of the points series. I'm not sure of the format since it's being run by true professionals and not me. Check the Weston Ski Track web site for specifics.

Race course map here.

Race 3

Season Standings (week 3)

January 13, 2004

This week returned the format to a mass start. And it was a mass start with 34 skiers at the line. The start seemed fairly controlled and I didn't see any broken poles or anything. I messed up the clock start, but I've got it figured out for next week. (I found how I made my mistake when I accidentally turned the clock off at 19:01). The times afterward are best estimates, but times aren't important for finishes since it's points based, they're just so you can see how you're doing week to week. Also the times are net times after subtracting 20 seconds that the clock ran before we started.

Thanks to Andy and Wes for coaching after the race-- particularly when it really started to blow and get cold. I need two post race coaches for next week.

Results are posted below along with the season long standings. Just a reminder that all races count except for the three medal positions (in the season long totals) where 2 races can be dropped during the season.

Also, for you geeks (like me), here's an aerial view of Weston with the GPS trace from last night's 5 lap race.

Race 2

Season Standings (week 2)

January 6, 2004

Oh boy, that hurt... 5 laps, red-lined with no warm-up, ouch. Hope everyone enjoyed the first race of the season! I don't know about you, but the conditions surprised me-- better than I would have thought. The snow squall helped for sure. I thought Mark had turned a snow gun on me when, with no warning, we went to white-out conditions. I couldn't see the clock 6 feet away. Thankfully the snow stopped and the moon came out by race start.

Because of the narrow course, we did interval starts and that worked pretty well. Larry Berman should be heartily thanked for getting everyone off to a timely start. Also thanks to Mark Jacobson for course setting. Congratulations to Andy, last year's points leader, for maintaining his standard again this year and handily winning our first race.

Results are posted below along with the season long standings, which are the same as the first race results (no surprise there). A number of you who raced did not sign up on the series sign up sheet. You'll need to do that to be considered in the overall and age graded rankings that will determine prizes at season's end.

Race 1

Season Standings (week 1)