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We’ve been in Fort Kent since arriving on Saturday.  Finally got hooked up to the internet and are getting settled back into college, I mean, ski life.  The crew is gearing up for the 50km skate tomorrow morning.  It has been beautiful since we arrived with hard-packed trails and fast conditions.  The biathlon National Championships were this weekend on the same trails we’re on.  The stadiums at all the Maine Winter Sports Center venues are top-notch.  Fort Kent is no exception:

The usual suspects have all arrived from various venues around the world.  Brian Gregg has some of the best stories from his World Cup race experiences in Scandinavia.

Didn’t know cross country skiing is a contact sport?  Check this out:

Ouch.  Brian arrived this morning and, believe it or not, says that didn’t even hurt.

sim, chambo, and brandon attentively watching the biathlon race

The beautiful weather that’s been sitting over Maine since Junior Nationals 3 weeks ago has finally moved out.  We arrived at the trails this morning just in time to see the first snowflakes falling on the trail.  Now, we’ve gotten about 3 inches in the past 3 hours and the forecasts predict that it will continue through the races tomorrow. . .

Heavy snowfall outside where just yesterday we were throwing the football in shorts and t-shirts.  We’re staying in the dorms at the University of Maine at Fort Kent.  Yep.

Karl, living the dorm life.

There’s nothing like a good road trip to kick off spring.

No tickets to book, nor schedule to keep.

Just pull off the road when you’re ready to sleep.

The sun shines bright and the pavement is dry,

there’s so much to see when you opt not to fly.

Go find some good friends to help split the drive,

and keep your eye out for a cheap motel dive.

When your waitress says, “Maine?  Where’s that?!”

Make sure she knows the world: it’s not flat.

The Great Lakes truly are a spectacular sight,

Until you reach half-way, in the town of North Bay.

From there it’s all French and Fleur-de-lis,

The abbreviation s.v.p: I learned it means please.

Our Motto: “Hell Bent for Fort Kent,” the drive is now past,

I’m psyched that we made it to Maine wicked fast.

Sault Ste Marie

Not since my freshman year at CXC have I ski raced in the East.  Yeah, it’s been that long.  I can’t wait to get back.  We’re leaving tomorrow morning for the long drive from Wisconsin to Maine–27 hours according to mapquest.  We’ll be competing in the 50km National Championship and the SuperTour Finals.  Here are the details:

March 24: Marathon 30/50km mass-start skate

March 26: 5/10km mass-start classic

March 27: Classic Sprint

March 28: 5/10km skate uphill pursuit

To get me ready for the trip back East, Chris and Judy, my bosses at New Moon, had me over to tap some maples and enjoy some venison on the grill.  With the unseasonably warm March we’ve had, the sap is flowing fast.  Chris has already made several gallons of fresh Wisconsin maple syrup from the 20 or so maples in his yard.

My favorite energy drink, and one you can only find in the spring, is maple sap straight from the tree.  It basically tastes like fresh water with a hint of sweet maple syrup.  No other drink is more refreshing.  It seems that Chris enjoys the sap as well. . .

Chris and Judy sent me home with a jar of fresh syrup that tasted great on my pancakes this morning.

Of course, Egan couldn’t wait to show off his new boards too.  Chuck, we’ve gotta find Grant a pair of these!

what are you lookin' at?

Hopefully this is the only deer we come across on our road trip East.  Next post will be from Fort Kent, the Northern Most Town in Maine.  On a map it may look like the Northern Most Point in the US, but other places we’ve traveled this year are actually much further North, including Spokane, Washington, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan, and, of course, Fairbanks, Alaska.

Eating breakfast this morning, I looked outside to see this pileated woodpecker on the bird feeder.  I’ve been paying closer attention to how I take photographs, and this is a great example of how, in my opinion, they’ve gotten better.

I first snapped a couple of shots from inside the house, through the window, in case the bird flew away.  However, there was glare in the window, the bird was back lit, and it was quartering away from me.  Hardly a good shot.  I then snuck outside through the back door and crept around the house to get to the side where the morning sun shined bright on the bird.  This shot was better, except Brian’s old car was in the background.  Not too appealing.  Finally, I was able to make it around far enough to get the white house behind the black bird, wait for it’s red mohawk to come out of the dark feeder.  Snap.

Once the bird flew, I was able to capture another shot.  Wish I could’ve set the shutter speed a little faster to get a sharper image, but I’ll get to that another day. . .

Time to reset the watch–and maybe even the calendar.  Somehow, we totally skipped spring and went from winter straight into summer today.  Yesterday I was skiing on the Birkie trail on icy, hard pack conditions and today I had my mountain bike out and was riding on the roads in shorts and jersey–and it was comfortable!  Amazing what a little sunshine can do.  However, I don’t think winter is quite over yet. . .

I’m continuing to train for the upcoming US 50km National Championship in Maine next week, trying to take advantage of the snow we’ve still got.  Put in a solid 3.5 hour distance ski with some of the local masters skiers yesterday morning.  Of course, it wouldn’t be a spring adventure ski without a little bushwhacking.  Here, everyone is regrouping after taking what turned out to be a “long” cut back to the same trail we started on.

Tom, John, and Jeff

Over the course of the morning, the crew kept getting smaller and smaller as work, family, and other obligations whittled down our group.  Needless to say, I was a bit toasted after skiing in the increasingly soft snow by the end of the morning.  Of course, it sure beats roller skiing (but that’s not hard!).

There was great turnout at the Ideal Market in Cable for my slideshow last night.  A big thanks to Mick & Beth for hosting the event and to everyone who could make it!  We definitely had a full house.

The slideshow was a great opportunity for me to share some of my photos and stories from life on the road and the Olympics with the community that’s been so supportive of me over the past four years.  It was cool to see such a diverse audience, from youth and high school skiers, to master skiers, and even people who don’t cross country ski.  Thanks to everyone last night, and over the past 3 weeks, who ordered a “Kuzzy” pizza.  Your orders raised $240 for my Olympic Fund, helping to pay for training and travel expenses, $1 at a time.  That’s a lot of pizza!

There is a lot of racing going on right now.  Usually, racing happens on the weekend, but this isn’t just any week, it’s the One Week in March when all the racing happens: NCAA’s, Junior Nationals, Holmenkollen, and even the Track & Field Indoor Championships.

Check it.

Newell - bib 11 - brings it home. photo: worldcupdrammen.no

First of all, a huge Congratulations to Newell who climbed onto the podium taking third in Drammen, Norway yesterday.  That’s a great day for Andy, but his performance doesn’t surprise me at all.  Stay tuned for the next sprint this Sunday at the Holmenkollen.

Northug, Jonsson, Newell - photo: worldcupdrammen.no

The Holmenkollen is the King of Nordic ski races–a 50km World Cup.  This will be the first year that it’s run as a Mass Start of the Skate variety (it’s typically an individual start 50km!) and I’d say that suits my teammate Brian Gregg very well.  Hammer Brian!

Yesterday, NCAA’s kicked off for the Nordic skiers in Steamboat.  Though Midd’s got a pretty small crew, they’re still getting after it and skiing strong.  Stay tuned for the 15/20km Mass Start Skate that wraps up the Championship tomorrow.

Out in Maine, the Junior National Championships have been going on all week.  It’s been exciting to follow the Midwest skiers that I’ve gotten to know at training camps and on the trail over the years.  I can’t wait to get out to Maine for the US 50km Championship and Spring Series in a couple weeks.

Finally, the most exciting news of the day. . .

Garrett Heath and Will Leer, two of my good friends from high school, are racing for the US today in the 1500m at the World Indoor Track & Field Championships in Doha, Qatar.  In today’s qualifier, Heath, from Winona, Minnesota, ran the 1500m in 3:39, fast enough to make it into tomorrow’s final.  Leer, from Minneapolis, ran a 3:42 and just missed tomorrow’s final.  Congrats to both of them and Good Luck Garrett in tomorrow’s final!

Will Leer - AP Photo/Michel Euler

Garrett Heath relaxing in 5th during Heats at Worlds - photo: iaaf.org

Join Garrott Kuzzy, 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympian, for a slideshow at the Ideal Market and Rivers Eatery in downtown Cable, Wisconsin this Saturday, March 13 at 6:30pm.

You have been following www.garrottkuzzy.com, this is your chance to hear about the adventure from Garrott himself while he’s in town between competitions.  Kuzzy will share photos and stories from his training, travels, and racing leading up to the Olympics and experiences during the Games.

The slideshow is free and open to all.  Stop in early to order your pizza (possibly even the now famous “Kuzzy” pizza) to enjoy during the show!

I’m back home in Hayward for the first time in over 4 months.  How long is that?  Well, when I walked into my room, my roller ski vest was still hanging on the door to dry after my last roller ski in the rain on October 28, 2009.  The house looks great though.  My roommate and teammate, Brian Gregg, took off after the Birkie last week for Europe and left the house clean and the refrigerator semi-stocked.  Between November 1 and March 1, I actually spent more time in Canada than the United States.  Needless to say, it feels good to be home again.

I almost didn’t make it though. . .

The starter is the latest thing in my truck to go and it took over an hour to finally get it started before I could leave the driveway in Minneapolis.  My first stop back in Hayward was to visit my mechanic.  He agreed that the starter had burned out and was able to install a new starter so that I could make it back home to Cresthill.

That said, I’m in the market for a new vehicle.  I’m looking for a reliable, used wagon (ideally VW Passat or Jetta (tdi would be sweet!), but Volvo, Subaru, Mazda, etc would work) in descent shape with around 100,000 miles.  If you know of a ride for sale that matches this description, feel free to let me know.

The drive back to Hayward was refreshing.  I got to see a couple of bald eagles in the St Croix River Valley. . .

. . .and had the country music cranked with the windows rolled down.

Of course, it felt good to be back where you can buy fireworks year-round.

I’m finally relaxing a little bit at home, listening to pow-wow music on WOJB, the local public radio station from the LCO Ojibwe reservation, while I digest an excellent venison dinner.

I had the opportunity to talk with the Hopkins High School “Captains Council” this morning.  Every month, the Athletic Department hosts a meeting for all Captains and they bring in a speaker.  It was really cool to catch up with former coaches like Rob Fuhr and Mike Harris, as well as to talk with the Hopkins student-athletes, over 50 in all, getting ready embark on their post-high school endeavors.  There was an especially good showing from the skiers, who are just coming off of a solid ski season.

They all had some good questions.  Some questions you can prepare for, others a are a little more unexpected:

Q: “How many years did you have to live out of your truck?”  (from Jack Hinkens, who I’m pretty sure wants to be a pro mountain biker and live out of his truck).

A: “You can’t be a ski racer and live out of a truck–you’d get too cold. . .though I did spend a couple months living in a van down by the river.”

Q: “Did you get Lindsey Vonn’s number at the Olympics?”

A: “What happens in the Village, stays in the Village. . .”

Start the rumor mill.  Matt Liebsch and I were spotted at the MN Biathlon race in Elk River this morning.  What started as a dare during a ski last Thursday ended with a battle on the trail in Elk River.  Basically, Matt & I needed to get out for an interval set this weekend and we decided that shooting guns during our rest sounded like a lot more fun than shooting the breeze.

Matt Liebsch and Evan Pengelly

We recruited Evan Pengelly to be our chauffeur to the battle as neither of our vehicles are working right at the moment.  Mr. Minnesota Biathlon, Piotr Bednarski, had rifles for us to use and we even got to compete in the advanced race.  We both shot on the larger standing targets for prone and standing shooting.  2010 Minnesota State Ski Champion, Raleigh Goessling, skied strong and stuck right with Matt and I going into the first shooting.  Matt shot clean, while Raleigh and I each missed one and had a bit of a deficit to make up.  The same thing happened on the second shooting and Matt’s gap increased.

Piotr Bednarski instructs the Novice Biathletes

For the third and fourth stages, Raleigh shot clean and took the lead from Matt, while Matt missed all 10 standing (ouch!) and I shot two of my ten targets.  This brought Matt and me back together after getting dizzy skiing around the penalty loop.  In the end, Matt and I worked together to make up some solid ground on Raleigh, but not enough to get him before the line.  In the end, Raleigh held off Matt and I to take the win by a couple seconds, while I held off Matt to take second.  It was a solid battle with several different styles at play, but in the end, the true biathlete took the win.

There was an impressive turnout for the Novice race–110 competitors!  So many skiers showed up that they had to cap the field at 110 because there weren’t enough rifles for everyone.  Despite forecasts for rain, the sun came out and made for a beautiful day to be outside.  While I don’t think I have any future in biathlon, it was a fun way to get in a hard workout and work on my marksmanship.  Several Lakeville High School skiers, along with many other teams (including Hopkins!) came out to give it a shot as well.  Fun morning all the way around.

Lakeville High School skiers

“In the zone.”

photo credit: John Sanborn

Maybe I should take it a little more seriously next time?  Nah. . .