We have been going down to the Sounder for about four years now. We started going to this race because of the kid focus. Last year the Ontario Masters Championship was held at Georgian Nordic and they had a good turn out. This year participation was down due to the Ontario Cup Races occurring at the same time. Conditions were a bit chancy. The weather was mild and they were still depending on a base that had been built up in December. Their groomers did a fantastic job on the course. No water on the course anywhere. Georgian Nordic puts on a great event.

In previous years gold medals for kids were awarded to the top third of the field, silver to the middle third and bronze to the last third. The format has changed a bit in the last two years. They now give out gold, silver and bronze to the top finishers but give out participation medals to all finishers. One of the club members then engraves the name event and finishing time of the skier on the medal.

The 22km classic went out first then a number of kids started. The Classic tracks could have been more firmly set but this was not my worry since I was skating. I waxed Adriaan's ski with Red Klister for his 3km race (He was not happy with the klister -- too much stick and not enough glide. I waxed everyone else with Swix LF6 and a slight admixture of silicone. Probably would have benefited from some fluorocarbon as the snow was fairly dirty near the end and quite wet.

On the whole I was not unhappy with my skis, a bit slower than my nearest competitors on the downhills and they felt slower as the race progressed.

I tried to find Adriaan out on the course so I could cheer him along but made a wrong turn on the trail and consequently only found him at the finish. This meant that I was back for the start of my race with about a minute and a half to spare and about a four km warmup. Probably the best I've had for warmup and timing to race start.

I started at the back of the pack. Probably 15 skiers at the start. Pass several with some vigorous double poling and settled in to see how thing would unfold about twenty and twenty-five minutes in I passed two more skiers. The course has no significant climbers but is rolling terrain with twists and turns. There was only one place on the 11 km loop where there was a rock in the main part of the trail, visible and easily avoided.

I began noticing that one of my poles was not planting properly and bouncing off the snow. This had happened before but I attributed it to the icy crust at NBNordic. It was getting annoying so I stopped at the end of the first loop and found it was not the basket but the pole was twisting on the grip. I typically don't check that stuff. Lesson learned.

I lost about a minute to this and a quick drink and had three skiers pass me. Time to make up some time.I was able to catch one of them but could not get the others. I could see that I was gaining on one on the long flat sections but not enough to recoup the lost time.

Finish time: 1:06:15 2nd Place
Best time: Rob Velland 53 minutes?

Adriaan: 3km Classic 28:23 7th Place
Molly: 5km Skate 28:30 5th Place
Nel: 11km Skate 37;11 1st Place

Check it out next year!