was warm our first day there but skiing was good!
You can see 'Southwest Nordic' really well on the sleeve of the new jersey here :)
This was part of the 10k race loop used for both the 10k skate and for the marathon.
crazy New Mexicans.
also part of the course, but we actually went down this rather than up. I think this is the second downhill on the 8th km of the 10k course.
ahh, all this got really destroyed with two inches of rain the next day. Can you read the 'Los Alamos, New Mexico' on the sleeve? :)
yup, this part was all dirt with snow trail through during the races thanks to snow moving and crazy grooming efforts to recover from 2 inches of rain!
Rain brought lots of wind too so the wooded trails were super super dirty.
this is them working in the parking lot snow.
yup, DIRTY!
staying there is like camp for adults. Small rooms, great food (all included!) and nothing to do but fun outdoor things all day long! Pretty awesome setup.
random huge lesson group of senior citizens even on a rainy day! Everyone skis!
and they are off
morning of the 10k skate race day. This is right behind our building (out of our window)
outside our door. Nordic center is behind the building (another lodge) that you see
you have to walk everywhere. This is Mila coming back to our lodge after breakfast.
see? EVERYONE skis! :)
sunny right before the 10k skate. Clay and Denny
Dina, Denny
this is a few minutes later. Denny is lined up to start. Its much less sunny!
Clay waving from the start.
Somehow, that little bit of sun turned into a super snowstorm. Clay and Denny finished before it hit. But for me it went from light flakes at 9k to a blind finish. Here is a view of the finish from our window rigth when I got back.
snowed hard!
ahh, bowls!
Clay got one too!
XC skiers ARE crazy. These racers were down the hall from us. They said they are Yaks. Nothing strange about that, I guess :) Mila kept mooing loudly when she'd see them around :)
Friday night Dash for Cash sprints. The course was the short lap around the nordic center building pictured here.
first everyone went for time and then top 8 had finals for cash. Master who didnt make it into top 8 then raced in their age groups (top 4 in each).
It was REALLY cold!
I did the sprints since it wasnt exactly going to impact my marathon performance anyway ;) I'm wearing two hats, 3 tops and 3 bottoms and a vest here. It was sooooo cold!
So glad I made it around the whole loop without faceplanting from excitement.
Marathon day. I did the 25k and ran to get Mila hoping we can see Clay finish if I rush... we didnt need to rush. Clay had a bad wax day...
Clay finishing
Clay was a very good sport after having suffered 50k with absolutely no kick. He was also freezing cold from bonking from all the extra effort no kick requires and....
...AND it was sooo cold! It warmed 'up' to -2 in the sun by noon. Seriously. We didnt wait to see Denny finish. It was just too cold. And turned out Denny didnt have kick either. Such a bummer for those guys. I on the other hand had spectacular skis - fast as I kept catching people on the long downhills like crazy and good enough kick if I kept my form reasonable. That may have been one of my all time fav classic races!
all frozen clothes!
skiing on the lake trails the next day was amazing. Luckily Clay took loads of photos!
boathouse!!
Holy flat. After a while it got strangely boring. No off-camber, no hills, no turns... Lots of V2, maybe too much :)
yup, remnants of rain disaster from our first day there.
this looked like THE summertime fun house - filled to the brims with wind surf boards, floaties and a slide on top!
Mila 'skiing' with Clay
