Tag Archives | craftsbury marathon

Craftsbury Marathon Re-cap

By Rosemary Shea-Cobb on 5 February, 2024 in Masters Blog, Uncategorized

Women lined up for the start of the Classic Craftsbury Marathon Women’s wave.

Fifty-nine women and one hundred and fourteen men lined up for the Craftsbury Marathon Classic 25 or 50k on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024. Among them were five MNC masters women and and six MNC masters men. The course would be a 13.5 km loop: two times round for the 25k and three times round for a shortened 50k. With the MNC wax trailer parked in the lot and coaches Rosemary, Adam and Kristen testing wax and dialing in the structure, we quickly klistered up everyone’s skis for good kick. Coach Rosemary then set up a bench trailside with the klister roller ready to give anyone who needed it a little more kick during the race! A little “wax security” goes a long way for a worry free race! Congratulations to Chase Rosenberg, Pascal Cheng, Michael Dillon, Craig Peppin, Jim Adkisson, Andres Torrizo (age class winner), Sara Katz, Karen Alence, Jen Adkisson, Ellie Bouffard and Liz Hollenbach (age class winner) for kick and gliding the distance and having a great time doing it! In addition, we had two Devo skiers ski the 25k with Coaches Adam and Kristen. Congrats to Liam Vile and Oakley Crawford!

This is a Marathon weekend, and that meant a skate 30 km on Sunday. MNC had twelve men and four women compete in Sunday’s skate race. Congrats to Michael Gaughan, Sam Seely, Mike Millar, Owen Lenz, Brian Sprague, Chris Howell, Duncan Dubief (Jr), Chris Flannery, Gretta Kilburn (age class winner), Sheila Weaver and Coach Rosemary (age class winner).

Extra kudos go out to Sara Katz, Michael Dillon and Pascal Cheng who all raced BOTH days, completing the “Brodhead Challenge”, skiing essentially almost 80 km over the course of the two days and proving that they are incredibly fit and tough! Hats off to all three of you!

Women head up the teaching hill.

The BKL Division start.

The MNC Trailside Klister Station!

Craftsbury Marathon Wax Rec

By Adam Terko on 30 January, 2019 in Masters Blog, Uncategorized

If this wax recommendation looks similar to the Bogburn earlier this year…that’s because conditions will be very similar! Temps will be cold overnight (below zero), and combined with new snow this week that means harder glidewax and green and blue kickwaxes.

Glide Wax

It is important, in cold snow, to have “hardened” bases. Putting a few layers of green or blue glide wax in your skis (as opposed to just one) will make the base noticeably more shiny and harder, which keeps it faster when the snow crystals are new and sharp.

-Begin by “hardening” your glide zones with 2 layers of CH4, CH5, Toko NF Blue, or your favorite colder glide wax. Scrape and brush between layers.

-Final layer is a blue glide wax of your choice: Toko NF/LF/HF Blue, Swix CH/LF/HF 5 or 6, Holmenkol Racing Mix Cold, etc

-Scrape off and brush VERY thoroughly! If you have a nylon or horsehair brush, polish back and forth until the bases have a nice shine

Kick Wax

A binder will be important for this race. To watch a video on how to best apply a hardwax binder, see the embedded clips on the bottom of this page.

One of the best and easiest binders to use is Toko Base Green. Toko Base Green is unavailable in the US this year, so if you are looking for other options you can try other green kickwaxes such as Swix V30. At Skirack you will also find a Start brand hardwax binder for sale!

-Begin by roughening up your (cleaned) kick zone, and ironing in a THIN base binder

-Feel free to check-in with MNC coaches on race day, but to start with kick a good bet is three or four thin layers of Toko Blue, Swix VR40, or other blue hardwax, covered with one or two layers of Toko X-Cold, Swix V30, or other green hardwax.

Toko Wax Clinic: Craftsbury Marathon Prep!

By Adam Terko on 18 January, 2018 in

Join Toko representatives Dave Boucher and Adam Terko at Skirack for a wax clinic geared toward the Craftsbury Marathon!

Get tips on the wax based on the projected forecast, and watch some demonstrations of application techniques for kick and glide.

Visit Skirack from 6-7pm on Wednesday, January 24th for all the action!

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Craftsbury Marathon wax tips

By Adam Terko on 27 January, 2017 in Masters Blog

The Craftsbury Marathon is coming right up! Conditions are looking great with plenty of snow, some more snow expected, and a great course.

For the official Toko wax tip, see Dave Boucher’s notes HERE.

Here are a few other suggestions:

For glide, a mid-range wax should cover bases well. Swix CH/LF/HF7 is a safe bet, and even a little CH/LF/HF8 on the tails of the skis could help glide late in the race.
For grip wax, it is looking like a violet/red range kick wax is ideal. Looking at the forecast, some waxes I’d test (in addition to Dave’s Toko notes) are listed below in order of colder->warmer

-Rode National Team -1/-7

-Rode Super Blue

-Swix VR45

-Rode T-Line VPS

-Rode Violet

-Rode Multigrade

-Guru Red

-Rode T-Line VXPS or Viola Extra

Great cover waxes would be Swix VR40, Rode T-Line VO, or Guru Blue

A binder is key, so don’t forget to iron in a green basewax like Toko Base or Swix VG35!
Structure could come into play if it doesn’t snow too much and the tracks get skied-in. Adam’s suggestion is a fine linear structure like the Toko Blue Structurite tool.
The MNC tent will be on-site, and Coach Rick and Coach Liam will be set-up in the indoor wax room as well (look for the MNC banner!)

Have a great race everyone! CBM