Steve Crafts gives his take on the awesome Climb to the Castle race!
MASTERS BATTLE THE EYE OF SAURON!
There’s a joke among Masters that all through the Summer the “Eye of Sauron” (aka Whiteface Mountain) keeps a watchful eye on our progress.
The one and only Whiteface Toll Rd
The peak juts out from the Adirondack mountain range, peers across Lake Champlain and wrathfully observes our training. Even on the loveliest of summer days seeing the diamond peak can elicit a palpable sense of dread. I know I’ve seen it’s formidable form and thought to myself “we’re actually going to ski up that?” But like brave Hobbits that’s just what our Masters did this past weekend.
Each one of us dug deep and conquered our fears knowing that we’d prepared.
All Summer a dedicated crew has been putting in the training and it showed. Multiple treks up Bolton, hill workouts, long distance skis and even “better than nothing” days where we managed to scrap together a little time paid off. There were tons of PR’s, impressive times and moments of pure grit.
On the Women’s side Rosemary showed the mountain who was boss. No small feat in pain management. I remember her getting to the top of Bolton once and exclaiming that the climb was harder than child birth. I wouldn’t know, but luckily she must have “hill climb amnesia” because she’s no stranger to elevation gain and on Sunday she cranked up Whiteface in about one hour. Fast!
On the Mens side 4 of the top 10 Masters were Mansfield with 3 in the top 5! This made me wish there was team scoring!
“Rookie” Master Adam Terko lead the way nabbing a 2nd place Masters podium. I believe this was Adam’s first podium and race as a Master. Welcome to the club Adam! A complimentary tube of Bio-Freeze and a foam roller await you!
Not all that far behind were Michael Gaughan and Mike Millar. Like many of our Masters these guys are inspirational examples of new comers who’ve grown tremendously while having fun.
Last year was their first C2C and together we spent a lot of time training and thinking about the race.
Like anyone tackling this for the first time fear of the unknown was a factor. The idea of skiing up that big seemed impossible but with each hour of skiing that passed their skill and ability grew. This year they powered up Whiteface and demolished their previous times by minutes. They even V2ed long expanses–a concept that seems impossible to my V1 loving brain! Seeing them power into the finish was pretty amazing. They looked like college kids (and even managed to beat some).
The mountain climbers Mike and Michael!
On the seasoned racer side Rick Constanza also had a great day. Rick is one of my personal ski heroes and whenever he blows past me in a race I think to myself “well he’s just had more years to practice” and I feel better about myself.
After almost two decades on the same pair of ancient Marwes, Rick finally broke down and bought a “gently used” pair of roller skis with substantially less miles. 57 minutes was all it took for him to slay the mountain.
And slaying the mountain and our fears is just what we did.
For me this race was a turning stone. Going in I was lacking confidence despite putting in the prep time. When I finished I realized I was actually prepared and ready. Go figure. It reminded me that sometimes the hardest part about a big challenge is believing in yourself and stepping outside of your comfort zone.
Driving to the race we were talking about strategy and Michael Gaughan said something that struck me…”The race will find you”.
When it comes to racing that’s so true. It’s a personal journey and struggle but if you put in the time and effort and just make it to the start the race sort itself out.
The Eye of Sauron certainly found us this weekend and it wasn’t as scary as we thought.
