At the time of this interview (December 13, 2006), Marshall Greene, originally a native of Spokane, Washington, was sitting fourth on the Supertour Overall Points list. A 2004 Graduate of Middlebury College, Greene moved to Bend, OR after college to join the XC Oregon program. He answered questions for fasterskier.com / middleburyskiing.org.
 and Zach (Violett) who can push me every day. I’m in charge of the team site and blog: www.xcoregon.org/blog so if you’re interested in the team whether joining or just seeing what we’re up to, it’s worth a look. </p>
<p>XC Oregon members receive significant financial support also, thanks to a number of team sponsors in particular Therapeutic Associates (a physical therapy group that also provides free therapy and use of their weight room for the team) and The Center for Orthopedic and Neurosurgical Care. Without them, I couldn’t afford my race calendar.</p>
<p>Finally, Bend is a great place to live. Great training, very long ski seasons (mid Nov. until mid-June), and plenty of athletes. It’s easy to motivate to train here when you’re friends are all skiers, cyclists, pro triathletes, and Beckie Scott lives a couple of blocks away.</p>
<p><b>What are your goals for the rest of the season? Where do you go next?</b> </p>
<p>First off, I’d like to have a couple of top 10’s at Nationals. From there I’ll ski the Midwest Super Tours and hopefully make a little money.</p>
<p>My real focus after Nationals is actually a Europa cup trip in March that Zach, Brayton, and I are planning. It will be my first Europe racing experience and hopefully I can surprise a few people across the pond. </p>
<p><b>How do you feel about gracing the back cover of every Masterskier newspaper that has come out this year? </b></p>
<p>Yeah, that one is pretty funny. XC Oregon is sponsored by Sporthill and since they are based only a couple hours away in Eugene, we have done some photo-shoots for them. For some reason, I always end up with some dumb grin on my face in big ads.</p>
<p>Actually the funny part about the jump I’m doing is that there is no kicker at all. The photographer was the most stereotypical model photographer ever. It was 20 degrees out and he’s wearing this trench coat and chain smoking and obviously had never been skiing. Basically he told me to ski through 2-inch thick crust and then jump when I got near him. Apparently it worked.</p>
<p><b>What are must haves in your travels? What don’t you leave home without? </b></p>
<p>I used to have an old laptop leftover from college that I always carried with me to races…and then it died. Over the summer I bought a desktop which I now realize was a big mistake. Now I really wish I could justify buying a MacBook.</p>
<p><b>Advice for college skiers thinking of continuing past college? </b></p>
<p>When you are deciding where you want to move to ski, realize that you will NOT be training twenty four hours a day and that where place you live is pretty important to your general well-being. Even as a “pro†skier, there is more to life than just training, eating, and sleeping and if you move somewhere where that is all you have, most likely you are going to be unhappy. And if you are unhappy, you won’t ski fast.</p>
<p><b>What’s your favorite venue to ski?</b> </p>
<p>Craftsbury (VT) on a nice day is pretty hard to beat.</p>
<p>This interview is concluded at middleburyskiing.org. </p>
<p>Andrew Gardner is head coach of the Middlebury Ski Team.</p>
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