Team Eastern Mountain Sports
presented by Eastern Mountain Sports

For years now the ski areas in the northeast have been hurting. No significant snow has kept the airlines carrying skiers back and forth across the friendly skies to Colorado, but what a winter this has been! We have record snow all over the northeast and a friend just had to cancel his biathlon race because they had TOO MUCH snow. The skies just would not stop dumping the white stuff long enough to get the trails groomed! It's great for winter fun, but it means that we have had to get creative up here with our training in the north country. Two weeks ago, Team Eastern Mountain Sports wiped the cobwebs off our bikes, jammed them into boxes and flew down to Florida for the Swamp Stomp. While you southerners frolicked around, we cooked. Dave Lamb, Joe Brautigam and our new boy wonder, Dave Romilly, joined me, Jen Shultis, to round out the co-ed open team, while Jeff Woods and Dawn Nicholas from the 2007 USARA Masters Champions team, joined us for some "Spring training." Oh, we suffered. But WeCeFar puts on such a great race that it's hard to complain (for those of you that missed my pre-Swamp Stomp interview about adventure racing on NPR's "Here and Now" you can listen to it here, the sixth story from the top, http://www.here-now.org/shows/2008/02/20080206.asp) Thanks again Jessica, Kip and crew for another great race. For those who haven't checked out this race, put it on the list. It's a super creative course and so much better than putting the Jimmy Buffet on repeat for beating those seasonal depression blues.

Last weekend, we saddled up again. Well, kind of. No bikes were involved as Joe Brautigam, Chad Denning and I headed to Bolton Valley for the GMARA's Frigid Infliction. Now here is a race that we kept trying to get to and finally this was the year. I had never back country skied, but how hard could it be, right? I have never felt like a bigger clutz in my life. Hats off to Daniel and Martin from Endurance Aventure (http://www.enduranceaventure.com/) in Quebec who blew by me like they were born on skis. Daniel puts on a great race series up there in Canada and we might have to get up there ourselves to give one a try. In the end, navigation saved the day as Joe Brautigam led an unbelievable charge through the fresh snow from check point to checkpoint on the post-hole section to the tyrolean traverse and then the last snowshoe leg.
Leaving a clear path all the way around the course, I have no idea how we stayed in front. Chad was a machine breaking snow much of the time despite having destroyed his snowshoes. By destroyed, I mean that there was nothing left of one except the cleat and the strap holding that to his foot. OK, those crazy Canadians helped a lot, too. Thanks, guys. Somehow we were able to pull away from Berlin Bikes, the 2007 winners, who had led us through the ski. The folks at GMARA put on a great race and the post-race meal was a real treat. Thanks so much to them for their hard work and dedication to putting on a quality event. Please check out their races at http://www.gmara.org/about_gmara.html

So, we've gone from the fire to the freezer and what is up next for weather? Who knows. I mean, it IS Georgia after all. Yup. The CheckPointZero race is this weekend, ready or not (NOT!). From what I understand, Yak and Tony have 90 teams signed up to be at the start line on Saturday morning at 8am. And just look at that line up! Returning champs and local favorites Enduraventure will be there, of course. ABC Bikes, Black Dome, Citgo, IndyRootStock, Wedali (Hi guys!) and those dirty rats, Snickers Marathon, who beat us in Florida. Just kidding; they ran a great race and deserved to win. We still haven't been on the bikes, but what tricks do we have up out sleeves???? While I try to think up a good answer, I will just say that it's great to be back racing in a new year and Team Eastern Mountain Sports look forward to seeing all our friends from around the country again. Thanks to my sister, Hilary, for coming out to take her first turn as support crew and thank you to Mohawk Canoes of Chattanooga, TN (http://www.mohawkcanoes.com/home.htm) for their help in getting a boat for us to use at the race this coming weekend. See you guys out there! Oh, and let me know if you find my lost shaker of salt. I know it is around here somewhere....