Mansfield Nordic Club

It has been a jam-packed week, with action all over the place from running to skiing to biathlon. The humidity has been brutally challenging, but as sports author Steve Magness writes, “heat and humidity are the poor man’s altitude” so we are getting a bit of an early acclimation in preparation for our camp in Park City, UT next week.

We’ve tried to take all sorts of good measures to remain functional in the heat. Lots of hydration (especially Capri Sun aka “suns” at practice) as well as the occasional towel soaked in ice water around the neck.

Rolling through the heat at the Range

While the flooding isn’t exactly ideal, we are thankful to have a lot of water sources near almost every spot we train at. The Winooski was a little muddy the other day, but that didn’t stop us from braving the big jump off the Long Trail footbridge into the cool(ish) waters below.

By the time you climbed back up the banks and steps to the bridge after one jump, you were already sweaty enough to make the next splash right away.

Niko, Lorenzo, Kate, Eli and Adam make the leap

That river jumping excursion took place right after the Bolton uphill run test, a great marker of our summer. We had a collection of first-time runners of this test (Acadia, Annalise, Mia) and some sweet PR efforts, notably Lorenzo with a 47 second personal best!

At the top we enjoyed some watermelon and savored the hazy view from the summit tower, and then took our leisurely time on the descent, as is our style.

Catching up at the finish line

Taylor hitting targets and skiing fast (Team SoHo photo)

Earlier in the week was the double pole test, with some equally impressive and solid performances. Astrid and Gillian were both just a hair off the course record, while general improvement across the board in technique and times was great to see.

But wait, there were more races happening too! Instead of having the ultimate fun of running up a mountain on Saturday, the EABC athletes were competing in the Summer Biathlon Nationals at the Range on Sat/Sun. Taylor was on the podium Saturday, and MNC skiers were all across the event as Taylor, Pat, Seven, and Liam raced it out.

Lots of MNC faces were also helping the event run smoothly, from Coach Liz (timing) to Coach Rosemary (volunteer coordinator) and more, it was a good display of our Jericho-area ski community.

Seven with some good dynamic skiing

Next up is a bit of a more “typical” week before we start thinking about fall sports, Rocky Mountain Camp, and the changing of the seasons.

MNC’s Greta Kilburn was recently recognized with the Gallagher Award from NENSA. Greta received this award as the top points scorer on the Eastern Cup this season!

You can read a press release from NENSA at this link.

From the release:

Adam Terko provided the following thoughts on Greta’s achievements this past season, and how her story in skiing acts as a testament to what is possible with patience, perseverance, and an embrace of the pure joy of competing in nordic skiing:

Greta is an overall phenomenal athlete. She skied and ran for Burlington High School in addition to being one of the top cyclists at her age in the entire country. However, the 2023-24 season was the first campaign in which she brought her extensive endurance pedigree to the Eastern Cup. We were lucky to have her training and racing with Mansfield while she navigated being a Freshman at the University of Vermont (where Kilburn will be joining the ski team later this Fall).

Greta arrived at the first Eastern Cup almost directly from biking competitions in the southern part of America, and with each new competition her skiing grew more confident. She had never raced a true sprint format event until the Lake Placid Eastern Cup, and had to learn some key steps about race days throughout the season by being thrown right into the deep end. 

At Junior Nationals she was able to put all of that to good use with an amazing week of racing to cap off her season. She’ll begin her sophomore year as a newly-minted official member of the UVM ski team, but will still have to take a few weekends in the Fall off in order to also continue her mountain bike career.

In a culture increasingly affected by stress surrounding college skiing, early specialization, athletic career trajectories, and pressure to perform, I think Greta’s story is truly important. Greta did not race Eastern Cups until after high school, and she entered many championship races oblivious to the backgrounds of many competitors. Therefore Greta remained unfazed by pressure or preconception on race day. The more important factors in Greta’s season were learning new things and pushing herself as hard as she could. 

Congrats Greta!