As our season nears the end...

...we've got lots of fun still to be had!!

We had a great day for our exciting mass start race at Sleepy Hollow this morning. While we didn't up our average skier attendance at this race (so sad! But, hey, more valentine's day chocolate for me since we had soooo much left over!), we had some great skiing and good team spirit. For all of our skiers who have not been racing with us, please know your presence is greatly desired - while on our cool down ski today, one of our racers said "Man, we really need to get more of our teammates to race with us!" I agree that it is very lonely out there for the few skiers that are attending races.

The race course was well tracked thanks to wonderful grooming by Eli and Dave Enman and the BKL race happened before the regular Ichabod's race so our skiers got FRESH tracks! As mentioned above there was a mass start with all BKL skiers but different grades cut off on different trails to complete their course. We had one skier who did the 5/6th grade course (Liberty Meadow to Lower Saddle) and then 4 who did the 7/8th grade course (Liberty Meadow, Lower Saddle, Sap Run, Eli's Escape to Upper Saddle) and although there were some challenges (as there always are, sometimes big, sometimes small) I think we had a successful day. The Valentine's chocolate that we all shared at the end probably helped the cause!

THE NEXT TWO WEEKS: So looking ahead our season is really nearing the end. It has gone by so quickly! We have our last scheduled race on Saturday at the Ethan Allen Firing Range in Jericho. This is a classic race at an excellent facility and everyone is expected to participate in this race as this finale is mandatory for our race program. Practice this week will consist of skating on Tuesday and classic on Friday in preparation for our race. We will race on Saturday and then the next week (our last week) we will allow for a choice of classic or skating both on Tuesday and Friday. Please let me know if your skier will be absent so I know what numbers to expect for practices - I know it is school break.

OTHER RACES: The BKL festival is in Maine that last weekend in February, but I have not heard of any interest for our group so we did not register. If there is a desire to do the Stowe Derby short course at a discounted rate, I need to know by tomorrow so that we can get info to the CVU coach in time (she is who will be able to register you at the discounted rate).

TEAM DINNER: If anyone would be interested in hosting a celebration team dinner, I am willing to arrange a date and time when we can use the inn and do a good old spaghetti dinner or some sort of pot luck to conclude our season as a group and to share a meal together. I would need probably two parent organizers to help with this so please let me know if you would like to volunteer.