As of last night the race was still in limbo and many athletes and coaches were on edge waiting for the third potential day of racing to be canceled. This morning there was no more or less optimism, as the 1:00pm start loomed in the distance and the temperatures crept up and down near the cutoff mark of -4 F. At 12:00 it was official: the race was on. 
Driving into Kincaid there was more activity on the trails and in the stadium than we had seen in earlier days, and everyone seemed calmer and happier, despite the usual race day nerves. Corinne and Janey both looked solid while climbing the first major hill of the 5k course, especially considering the creaky slow snow on the largely sunless hill. Today was not an easy day of racing by any means; the radio was crackling through out the woman's race about athletes finishing with frostbitten ears, toes, fingers, noses... pretty much everything, on top of the slowwww conditions and burning lungs. And that was the warmest part of the day. Both Janey and Corinne have been working on quick snappy V1 for conditions like this, and coincidentally both looked extremely strong. Corinne ended up in a very solid 82nd place today, and Janey skied into a respectable 120th. In other exciting news in the woman's field, Burke Alum Liz Stephen came in 3rd overall, just 8.3 seconds off the leading time!! As the men set off on the 10 kilometer course the sun began drifting behind the hills south of the stadium. Spectators and athletes alike began feeling the temperature drop almost immediately. 
After seeing the painful aftermath of the much warmer womans race, we lubed up Lucas and Sam with some extra dermatone on their faces and sent them out to warm up. Sam got out of the gate first and took advantage of the late afternoon sun still hitting parts of the course to stay warm-ish, while lucas took advantage of his late start by missing it... oops! It was only by 20 seconds, and its one of those things that you instantly learn from and never do again, so an early season race before College is probably the best time to learn that lesson. Despite his rather frantic race to the start line, there were still some very bright moments to his race. Sam ended up in 70th place today- a little back from where he would like to be, but still a very solid performance. Thank you to all the voulenteers and officials for putting on an excellent race at Kincaid today, and for the past few days even when the races weren't run! For a complete listing of today's results, click here
Janey finishes into the sun
Sam near the top of the big hill
Janey at the top of Elliot's Climb
Lucas rounds the turn into the stadium
Corinne watches the boys!
Lucas in the only sunny spot on the course
Happy to be done... but still a bit cold
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