Saturday morning, 6:30am I stumbled my way down to the lobby of the Old Town Inn in Crested Butte, Colorado. Finally, race morning. The moment I’ve been waiting 9 months for has arrived. I convince myself it’s ok to eat a cheese danish and drink lots of coffee. I’m going to need all the energy I can get over the next 8 hrs.
6:57am: The team is out the door for our morning run. I think to myself “Everyone else must be excited about racing as they are all early! Very cool!” as I rush out the door to catch up. Well, “very cool” sure was the right thought. I was shocked at the -12 temp as I started to jog down the street. Yep. It sure is winter!
7:30am: Driving to the Nordic center, even though it’s only about a half mile from the hotel proves to be a hefty challenge. The car is so cold it’s hard to start. Good thing Maggie is a good co-pilot, the frost on the window is almost too thick to see through. Ahhh. Seat heaters. So nice.
7:32am: Arrive at the CB Nordic center. Shoot! We’re not the first team there. Vail has already arrived and is waxing skis. Epic fail.
7:45am: All the benches are set up, skis unpacked, irons plugged in. Jeanne is picking up the bibs and Maggie is waxing her skis with start green. Time to go test what we put down for wax yesterday. The course is squeaky cold and almost Alaska slow. This morning it’s not so much about testing what wax is fast, rather testing what wax isn’t horribly slow. Answer: LF4.
8:15am: Coffee break. Currently the fastest wax we have is already down on all the older kids skis.
8:20am: Re-warmed by the coffee; Brent, Maggie, and I start to brush and check over all the older kids skis. A few of the older boys start to wander into the waxing area.
9:45am: The boys (and some girls) are all busy doing speeds to warm up. All the skis have been brushed and are ready to race. Brent and Maggie are heading out to the course to give splits, Jeanne’s on her way to the start/finish stadium, and I’m hanging by the wax bench to check over the younger kids skis as they arrive.
10:00am: Race time! I hear over the radio that the first skier is on course, officially starting the RMN JNQ season. Awesome!
10:01am-12:30pm: The day fly’s by. I get tons of splits over the radio from Brent and Maggie. DNSC athletes are skiing strong and all the fields seem to be tight. Racers are heading up to their start as others are coming down from the finish. Just as soon as it all started, the races are over.
1pm: Pack up the waxing area and head back to the hotel for lunch. We get the wax tables set up at the hotel so the athletes can put down the wax layers for Sunday’s classic race. What a day! I love my job.
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