Opening races in Craftsbury

On Saturday, we hosted our first race of the season in Craftsbury. We were lucky to have enough snow and a sunny day. The Opener actually drew a pretty big field, including the GMVS and Colby teams. Matt was psyched to reunite with his fellow Mules.

I am still trying to recover 100% from a cold that kept me from racing the last SuperTour in Bozeman, so I didn’t race. Instead, I had the opportunity to lead the “lollipoppers” (J6 and under, or any skiers 7 year old or younger) around their 200 meter race course. The kids were awesome – two 7-year-olds and two 4-year-olds. About halfway around the “racecourse” the kid who was in the lead told me, “this is really long!” They all got tootsie pops at the end as prizes.

The winning lollipop racer.

After the lollipop race, the “big” BKL kids got their chance to do a mass-start, 2 kilometer skate race. Two boys from Mount Mansfield basically blew the field out of the water. The top Craftsbury finisher was Jacob Morse (J4), followed by Lauren Gillott (J3). I always like to see a girl beat up on the boys, so go Lauren. All the kids did really well though, especially considering that for some of them, like Ani and Xav, it was their first time on snow! It was fun to see them all out there racing after working with them all summer.

Kestrel leading a group of racers. Don't look at us, Kestrel, just ski!

Benjamin going for it at the finish. He beat the boy behind him.

Melanie sharing a moment with her father after the race. Hers was my favorite race suit of the day!