March 7, 2006             Points Totals for the Season Week by Week

Race 8 (5.1 km)    

Women

Men

February 28, 2006             

Race 7 (5.1 km)

Women

Men

February 21, 2006           

Race 6 (5.1 km)

Women

Men

February 14, 2006             

Winter returned last Saturday and provided a Valentine's Day gift of the full night course. We ran two waves to keep the start congestion down a little. Results are combined so your finish is based upon your corrected elapsed time regardless of wave.

Results are posted below.

Race 5 (7.33 km)

Women

Men

February 7, 2006

No Race

January 31, 2006             

We couldn't dodge the bullet forever and at the time we made the call to cancel the race, the loop wasn't connected. Andy organized a diehards race and it turned out that there was enough new snow that the 700 meter loop was skiable, albeit not en masse.

Points totals are thus unchanged, no doubt to the chagrin of our intrepid crew below, but remember that they will be that much faster for having put in the extra week of hard training.

January 24, 2006           

Natural snow the day before plus a fantastic grooming effort by the Ski Track staff made possible a nice race. Although we couldn't ski down by the river because there wasn't enough snow to groom over the pipes, we did get to ski out on the flats for a change.

We again ran back to back races attempting to reduce the numbers of skiers on the loop at any given time. It seems to work okay although the calm nights have been a fortunate thing, making the wait for the second wave somewhat bearable. Every comment I received by email last week was in favor of the two race format. If we get the full loop, we will go back to a single race but we'll run two waves separated by a minute.

Points were based upon finish position which, in turn, was based on time for the 4 laps. Same as last week, it doesn't matter in which group you raced. Your time dictated your finish spot and points.

Results are posted below.

Race 4 (5.56 km)

Women

Men

January 17, 2006           

I'm not sure what's going on with the high turnouts for these races. We owe an enormous debt to the Weston Ski Track folks who made the loop not just intact, but very good skiing with a machine powder surface despite the unfriendly, non-winter conditions we've had. Still, I'm not sure if we're doing something right or if everyone got new skis for Christmas or it's just that the Patriots lost.

We made a last minute change to the format and ran back to back races attempting to reduce the numbers of skiers on the loop at any given time. We tried to split the pack in half by speeds so that we could minimize the passing and lapping. The feedback so far seems favorable. We'd like to hear your opinions-- we'll try to give more notice prior to the next race if we do the 2 race format.

Points were based upon finish position which, in turn, was based on time for the 7 laps. It doesn't matter in which group you raced. Your time dictated your finish spot and points.

Also, again I want to thank Andy Milne and Walter Page for doing the legwork to set up the timer, finish chute, and signout desk.

Results are posted below (corrected 1-18-06).

Race 3 (4.9 km)

Women

Men

January 10, 2006           

Holy cow! I simply can't believe the turnout tonight-- 71 racers. This is certainly an all time record and the fact that we were able to race fairly without too much in the way of forced passing means that people did an excellent job in using good judgment and reasonable caution throughout the race. Thank you all. While we did have a couple of entanglements, crowding this many people on so small a loop makes that type of problem nearly unavoidable.

The new clock seemed to work well. Notice that it has a count down feature which we are using to show time to the race start. Check the clock in the last 20 minutes or so before the race start to get a feel for how much warm up time you have left. A couple of mix ups on the numbers-- I need to know who #88 is and also our second #186 raced again and I'd like to attach names to these folks. I apologize for using the number scheme (I hate to think that we're all just numbers-- feels very bureaucratic to me, but it does help us clear the chute more quickly. Speaking of which, with the high speeds at the finish and the sheer numbers of skiers we will move the finish line further up from the chute to give more room between the finish line and the line of skiers checking out. Also, once through the chute, remember to respect those skiers still out on the course and leave a wide open track for them.

If anyone has corrections, let me know and I'll fix the results.

Results are posted below.

Race 2 (4.9 km)

Women

Men

January 3, 2006           

Hope everyone enjoyed the first official Tuesday race of the season! We had a remarkable turnout. I still don't understand how Weston can always feel so cold regardless of the actual temperature.

Thanks to Mark Jacobson for last minute grooming. Despite the single loop, it wasn't too crowded since the wide skate lanes from the weekend were still intact.

I also want to thank Andy Milne and Walter Page. Andy set up the finish chute and directed the race. Walter rebuilt the clock and set up the finish results platform. Also thanks to Chris City who, along with Andy, did a 19 minute post-race ski clinic (beginning at 7:35... sheesh, too much precision I feel).

If anyone has corrections, let me know and I'll fix the results.

Results are posted below.

Race 1 (4.9 km)

Women

Men