Mad Season

Seniors Natalie, Hannah, Anna, and Michaela

This winter was truly a Mad Season, and not only because Toom spent the majority of it listening to Layne Staley (and Selena Gomez).  The season was madness from the very start, way back in early November.  And the madness continued, right through to the final day, when everything was suddenly and abruptly cancelled mid-way through NCAA week.  

Espen

For me, the winter started when I joined the alpine team for their pre-season training camp in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory in early November.  We were to leave Anchorage on Friday morning super early, and I made one last work-related trip on Monday/Tuesday to Kodiak Island, which would give me an office day midweek and plenty of time to track down and prepare my alpine gear prior to our Friday morning departure.  Problem was, a storm rolled into Kodiak on Tuesday just when I was planning to fly back to Anchorage, and my flight was cancelled. The next two days' worth of flights were cancelled, too. And soon Sparky and I were considering alternate ways for me to join the team in Whitehorse whenever I finally escaped the grip of the Kodiak's bad weather.  But at the last minute, the weather cleared and I got out at around midnight on Thursday night. It was like being on the last helicopter to leave Saigon.  I was home in bed by 2:30am and up by 4:30 for the drive to Whitehorse... and so it began.  

Anna

After a productive week of alpine training in Whitehorse, we went out to the Whitehorse airport to fly back to Anchorage. But a snowstorm blew in while we were in the departure lounge, our Air Canada jet didn't land, and we were in for a long night.  Another midnight departure to Vancouver out of Whitehorse, a missed connection in Vancouver, the team split up to get two hours' sleep at Vancouver hotels, and reservations on separate return flights to Anchorage from Seattle meant that various members of the team drifted back into Anchorage over the next 24 hours.  And just like that, the season had officially begun. 

Sigurd

But that wasn't the last time I got stuck on Kodiak Island this winter. It happened again mid-winter, with a three-day blizzard grounding me and threatening to keep me from joining the nordic team for our Aspen / Utah RMISA trip. But again, I escaped Kodiak at the last moment and made the UAA Ski Team flight in the nick of time. 

Natalie

The air travel wasn't the only thing that was crazy this winter.  The road trips were also a little crazy. In February, a 3.5 hour road trip to Aspen turned into a 12-hour epic slog through a snowstorm, at least for the two of us who were in the van carrying all the skis. 

Hannah

And team personnel changed over the course of the season, too. Sigurd had decided after last season's success to stay in Norway this year and try to qualify for Norway's U23 World Championship team. But somewhere along the way, he decided last fall to rejoin the Seawolves. I heard about it sometime around mid-December. And suddenly, at the beginning of the racing season, we had Sigurd on board, adding his considerable firepower to our men's team. 

Sigurd

Somewhere in the middle of the season - I can't quite remember how or when, JC flew to Germany and scored World Cup points in a sprint race. Has any American junior cross-country skier ever scored World Cup points before?  I'm too lazy and too busy to take the time to figure out the answer to that question. So until someone tells me otherwise, I'm going to say it's never happened before. And unless I'm mistaken, JC will officially be named to the US Ski Team this spring.

JC

And somewhere along the line, Toomas Kollo became our assistant coach.  It might have happened in September. Or it might have been in late December. Or early January.  Or it might have been an inevitable, incremental realization that Toom was gradually becoming the assistant coach.  I really don't know exactly when or how it happened.  But by January, Toom had firmly taken the reins as assistant coach.  I can say this: I've never seen anyone work harder, sacrifice more, or commit more fully to the assistant coaching job than what I witnessed this winter.  Toom was, in my opinion, the solid center of our group. He stabilized our team throughout the winter, always in the thick of it, keeping us on an even keel and enabling us to have the success that we had. I was thoroughly and completely impressed!

All of the coaches, alpine and nordic.

By and by, through the madness, we came to Bozeman for the RMISA Championships and the NCAA Championships in the beginning of March. Holed up at two houses in the mountains, accessible via long, treacherous, steep ice-covered drives. Locking the keys to one of the team trucks inside and rendering it unusable for a couple days was just par for the winter. But we had some success at RMISA regionals. And by "success" I mean we didn't do very well.  Because, as Toom noted near the end of the season, "...The guys will tend to have a good race, but then they get overconfident, and then they get a beatdown in the next race, and then they get angry and morose, and then they're back in the right state of mind - like angry hornets, and in their next race they win and get their revenge, but then they get overconfident and the cycle starts again."  So, coming out of the RMISA Championships, seven of us hunkered down in West Yellowstone for a week of team bonding and focused training in a big house that allowed everyone plenty of personal space to relax and prepare for the NCAA Championships. We were three senior women, a freshman and a sophomore on the men's team, and Toom and me. 

Marine and Toom. In Seattle.

We had a good thing going in West Yellowstone.  Toom was leading the mens' interval sessions from the front, and everyone was focused and happy. On our last day in West, Toom entered the Yellowstone Rendezvous marathon (and I did the kids' race). The athletes came out and supported us with feeds (the women) and cheering (the men). Toom managed to win a bunch of money for being third in the marathon (and winning the halfway sprint prime), and I finished second in the kids' race. 

Here's Toom winning his award for third place in the Yellowstone Rendezvous

And me in the kids' race. Or maybe it was the old man's race?

Sigurd, Espen and Toom just before the last interval of a training session at West Yellowstone.

Dinner time at West Yellowstone training camp for the seven of us.

Four seniors in Bozeman: Michaela, Natalie, Hannah and Anna

And one freshman: Tuva

It was pretty clear to me that our team was physically, mentally and emotionally prepared for good performances at NCAA's.  The men, in particular, seemed really eager for the 20km mass-start classic race. They'd been excellent in classic races all year, they were improving as the season progressed, and they were confident they could win at NCAA's. Sigurd wanted revenge for not winning the RMISA Championship (though he was the RMISA MVP - best skier in the West Region), and he also wanted revenge for not winning the NCAA's last year (he was runner-up).  He was confident he could get the job done this year.

Toom, JC and Sigurd

The role Marine assigned to me this winter was centered around kick waxing for classic races.  So when the team left West Yellowstone to return to Bozeman for the NCAA Championships (where the first race was a skate race), I drifted off to Jackson Hole for a few days of alpine skiing.

Marine let me play with the heat gun this winter.

We were off to a good start in the skate race at NCAAs.  Four of our six skiers were All-Americans. All three of our men were in the top ten, Anna was tenth, Natalie was twelfth. Our men were the second-best team, behind Vermont, and our women were fourth. It was a good start to the week, and we were confident we'd be better in classic, where we'd been better all season. I returned from Jackson Hole to Bozeman on Thursday evening after the skate race, ready to test kick waxes on Friday morning in preparation for Saturday's big mass-start classic race.  I checked into a hotel and checked my messages. I got a WhatsApp message from Toom: "We did pretty good today. But NCAA's is cancelled due to Coronavirus. So we're flying home tonight. See you in Anchorage!"

A lot of green on the podium on Thursday; two Vermont and two UAA. For future reference, always bring at least two Seawolf flags to NCAAs

And suddenly, just like that, it was over.  

I'll always have warm memories when I think back on this winter. It was a really special group, and a really special racing season. I'll never forget it.

note:  all the good, fun, well-lit photos of our team in this edition of the blog were taken by Joan Darnell.  All the mediocre, moody, blurry, melancholy, dark, and poor ones were taken by me. Most of the ones in this post, as you can imagine, were taken by Joan.  Thank you, Joan!